tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-63171770491823593342024-03-19T16:40:14.569+08:00Mambang DiawanHow my life is,
what I think
what I did and
what I will do!Martin Leehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18194281718414566973noreply@blogger.comBlogger156125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6317177049182359334.post-35324365718026635542012-07-08T11:41:00.001+08:002012-07-08T11:41:23.697+08:00Confusing units of measurement and standardsWhen we were young and under the influence of British colonial rule, we were taught to use all feet, inches, pounds, Fahrenheit degrees and miles etc as our units of measurement. Upon the time when SI units were introduced into our science textbooks for our "O Level Cambridge Examination", we were told to discard all those imperial units and get on with cm, Kg, Centigrade and kilometers etc. Initially I really had a hard time to interpret them when I used to tell my friends that I am 5 feet 6 inches and weigh 150 lbs and now I have to say them differently as 168cm and 68Kg. The Americans are still using the old imperial units and sometimes I could not figure out how cold or how hot is the weather forecast in Fahrenheit while we are so used to the Malaysian tropical mid day temperature of 32 degrees Centigrade and the freezing coldness of minus 4 degrees Centigrade in Qingdao of Shandong China as our frame of references in our mind.<br />
<br />
Here comes again another complication about the sizes of the factories that I used to work for. The current plant that I am working is with an area of 8.3 hectares and base on 1 hectare equals to 2.47 acres, and the total land area is roughly about 20.5 acres. 1 acre is 43,560 square feet and therefore to answer a Singaporean who asked me on how many square feet, the Lion Plate Mills factory area is roughly 900,000 square feet. So by the same calculation, the Silverstone tires plant in China is double the size of this, it means to say the land size is now 40 acres or 1.8 million square feet.<br /><br />We used to have an exchange rate of 1 USD = 2.5-3.0 Malaysian Ringgit or RM and therefore it is customary for us to quote our sales revenue in millions of RM per month. When you are transferred overseas, one has to mention them in US dollars, for example, the Silverstone China plant with a headcount of 580 people was roughly USD 8 millions per month, that of Mexico plant with 800 employees was in the region of USD3-4 millions per month whereas Lion Plate Mills sales turnover with just 180 workers is almost the same as that of the Mexican plant. Steel plate is a bulky item and that accounts for the high sales revenue though with lower number of headcount.<br /><br />Very often someone will ask me what kind of steel plates that we are producing? We are producing plates complying to the various standards of BS4360 50B or EN10025-2 S355JR, BS436043A or EN10025-2 S275JR, JIS G3101 SS400 and ASTM A36 . This sounds confusing enough? They are just different standards used by the British, Europeans, Japanese and the Americans. We normally omit the BS, EN, JIS and ASTM portions and simply quote the standards as 50B, 43A, S355JR, S275JR, SS400 and A36! Once we have different countries setting their own standards, the confusion starts to creep in!<br /><br />Our finished products are considered as low carbon steel plates with carbon content ranging from 0.12-0.17. Basically these plates are with Carbon Equivalent or CE between 0.24-0.34. The CE comes into play because some of the other minerals such as Manganese tend to have certain effect on the steel mechanical properties. The CE is defined simply as C + Mn/6. Since we are producing these steel plates mainly as structural steels and therefore the weldability of the steels is important. Generally speaking, the weldability of steel plates with CE of 0.35 and below is good while anything exceeding 0.5 would be poor.<br /><br />I do not intend to write this as something too technical, just to quote here a few examples of how our minds are confused with all these conversion of units and standards!<br /><br /><br />Martin Leehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18194281718414566973noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6317177049182359334.post-88910714913161867682012-03-03T11:59:00.000+08:002012-03-03T11:59:16.496+08:00Duration of a flight - battery or fuelMany new beginners have the notion that by using nitro or petrol engine, filling a bigger tank of fuel could fly the RC plane for HOURS, and this is not true! Most of the fliers actually fly their planes in the air for half an hour accumulatively and that would be good enough for the fun. Seldom any plane could last more than 10 minutes up the sky per sortie whether it is a nitro fuel or electric powered plane.<br />
<br />
I remember those days I bought some Nikko RC cars or trucks for my son and the batteries could only last a few minutes and one had to charge the whole day in order to play again. The technology of batteries nowadays is good enough to send the planes up there for 5 - 10 minutes without much problem. It all depends on how aggressive you fly those planes and also whether it is a glider that could soar with the wind or thermal column at half or even one quarter of the throttle. And the fast charging time with a balanced charger on a LIPO battery will take only 30-45 minutes. Some of the fliers just plug in the charger to the battery of their cars parked near the flying field. In this way, the electric powered planes become a fast and easy toy of great fun without the hassle of the need to charge the batteries for long hours and also to clean the oil from the fuselage of a nitro plane.<br />
<br />
Just a word of precaution though, all LIPO batteries are highly inflammable. Never ever leave a charging battery unattended or put LIPO batteries in your car and park under hot sun for a long time. They could simply explode and burn your house or vehicle away!<br />
<br />
Most of the batteries are rated by MAH, the bigger the value it is, the longer the battery could last, and it also means the batteries are bigger and heavier in weight. One has to consider the space of the plane and also how such heavier batteries could affect the CG and also the lift of the planes. The number of cells of each battery is denoted by 2S, 3S, 4S etc. Each cell is 3.7 V and when connected in series, 2S means 7.4V and 3S is 11.1V, so on and so forth. Small and light planes are normally using 2S, while mid size planes are usually using 3S and above. 4S, 6S or even higher S are commonly used for those ducted fans fighter plane models.<br />
<br />
I have the tendency to fly electric powered planes more nowadays because it is clean and neat, just charge a few batteries at home, and you are ready for the flight!Martin Leehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18194281718414566973noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6317177049182359334.post-21050819161943567052012-03-01T15:59:00.000+08:002012-03-01T15:59:32.696+08:00Common mistakes when flying a RC planeSetting up a plane to fly is a meticulous task. I had always under-estimated a lot of little things which I thought were just trivial. When the elevator or the ailerons control surfaces were not fully level or flush, I thought that would be alright and I could perhaps trim them while in the air. Many a times, the planes never get to leave the ground high enough before they crash! <br />
<br />
Try to bring along a few planes so that you do not end yourself in a frustrating situation with one faulty plane after driving a long distance to the flying site. Under such circumstances, you have no other choice but try to fly it despite all those small things not in order, which you know the plane is not good enough to be up in the air. If you could not fix it there and then, choose another plane to fly instead.<br />
<br />
Other common mistakes include the reverse of the control in one particular channel which could cause a plane which is supposed to go up but plunge downwards; instead of turning to the right, going to the left etc. Do remember this simple concept, when a particular control surface when moved upwards towards the sky by the servo, it means to say more air is passing through and thus reducing the lift that makes the plane staying afloat, therefore it will make that part of the plane sinks as a result of it. So when the elevator at the tail is pointing upwards towards the sky, the tail will sink down while the head of the plane will be lifted upwards during the take off. Since the controls of the ailerons of left and right are moving in opposite direction, the banking of the plane to the right starts to occur, when the servo moves the right hand side aileron upwards, while the left hand side aileron points downwards towards the ground. In the same manner, the movement of the left hand side aileron upwards will activate the plane to bank to the left side to get ready for a left turn. (<b>For more information on how to turn a RC plane to the right and left, kindly read my earlier written article on the topic</b>). By checking the movement and positions of the control surfaces on the ground when moving your control stick, then you will know the setting of the controls is correct, if not just use the program in the radio transmitter to reverse and rectify it.<br />
<br />
We have the tendency to forget the rudder most of the time, though we normally use it to navigate the plane right and left just to keep it on track to the intended landing spot. We could not use the ailerons to turn anymore in the landing mode because one has to keep the ailerons flush with the wings on both sides once the plane is flying level without tilting to either side when approaching the landing path. Now try to visualize that when the plane is banking 90 degrees on a "knife edge" style of flying, the rudder now acts as an ELEVATOR and the elevator becomes a rudder. Thinking along that line, turning with the aileron together with the rudder at the same time in the SAME direction of the normal sense, thinking we could get a double turning effect from two control surfaces combined would possibly land us into trouble. This could plunge and tip stall the plane. Use the simulator to figure out the effect when using multiple control surfaces at the same time!<br />
<br />
One very important part that we must always do, that is checking the CG or center of gravity of the plane. Normally the CG is roughly about one third from the leading edge of the wing, or just under the wing spar. It is better to have a slightly head heavy for a plane to fly properly, it is almost impossible to fly a plane tail heavy. However to fly a RC kite, a slightly tail heavy would be easier to get it manouvred. Always check the CG when you change a battery of different size or weight.Martin Leehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18194281718414566973noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6317177049182359334.post-57125729845636894622012-02-22T16:08:00.000+08:002012-02-22T16:08:25.429+08:00RC components - PropellerI wanted to write a little bit about some of the interesting components of the RC hobby. A lot of the people are actually not so technical as to understand the actual functioning mechanism of those components. I will try to explain them in a simple way and also quote some examples or analogies so as to make our mind to think it in a simple manner that we could relate, visualize and understand it better, though it might not be technically correct to be so.<br />
<br />
We always have a broken propeller resulting from RC plane crashing nose down. Even for a light crash, normally the propeller would break into pieces or bend the shaft of the motor. Therefore it is advisable to have a "prop saver", which is actually a device that one attaches it near to the tip of the propeller shaft and ties the propeller onto it with a rubber band. The propeller shaft is cut and shortened, protruding less to the front so that the impact of the fall would not be transmitted in full force to bend the shaft, instead the propeller will break loose when the rubber band gives way. It is simple as that!<br />
<br />
We are always confused with the various sizes of propellers, and their sizes are denoted by two numbers. E.g. 7x3.5, 8x4.3 etc. The first digit signifies that diameter of the propeller while the second number is the pitch, in imperial unit of inches. Now comes the interesting analogy, imagine that the propeller is a screw, while the air is now the piece of wood. The bigger the diameter of the propeller then you will drill a bigger hole into the air to make way for the plane to pass through. The plane will fly more stable in a bigger tunnel, and more volume of air has to be cut out in order to make that hole bigger. Because of the bigger hole in the sky then the plane will fly at higher speed IF the torque of the motor could handle and displace the bigger volume of air. Please note the "IF" here because we are talking about a more than enough powerful motor and a bigger diameter propeller will fly a plane faster than a smaller propeller of the SAME pitch.<br />
<br />
Look at it in a similar way that if a screw has a fine thread, then the effort to screw it into the wood would be less compared to one with a bigger or wider thread. The pitch is defined as distance traveled per revolution which is quite similar to the "thread pitch" of the screw. A bigger pitch of thread will require a higher torque from the motor or a screw driver to turn it against the piece of wood because each turn of it will require it to go comparatively deeper into the wood. In the case of RC plane now the air is giving the resistance to the propeller to move forward! What I am trying to drive at here is that when you break a propeller and could not find the exact size to replace it, as a rule of thumb, you could find one which is one size bigger in diameter but one size smaller in pitch. In a similar manner if you choose a smaller diameter, you could opt to have a one size bigger pitch propeller. In this way, the motor is not strained as per the original design intended. If we choose our replacing propeller this way, the volume of air cut out roughly remains the same. As the rated output power of a particular motor is a constant, you could not get high speed and high torque at the same time by attempting to play with the selection of various sizes of propellers . So if you want high torque then you have to sacrifice the speed as far as the motor is concerned, and vice versa. Remember the formula of the power of a motor is equal to Torque x RPM!<br />
<br />
Generally speaking when the plane takes off, higher torque is more desirable to climb the plane upwards against the gravity; once it is up the sky, less torque is required and higher speed of horizontal flying could be achieved. Most of the time the combo set we purchase will come with a cheap brushless motor and you will not get both high speed and torque at the same time. If you want both speed and torque, you probably have to upgrade and change to a higher power output motor, this is similar to how we change to bigger cc engines to our cars! We might have to imagine that the MAXIMUM power of a motor is equivalent to the capability of cutting out certain volume of air to allow a plane to fly through the hole, at maximum power output (full throttle), then a smaller diameter propeller should cut a deeper distance into the air and therefore travel faster. Please note it here that the variables to consider are: power of the motor, the diameter and the pitch. To understand them, one has to keep one or two of the variables constant in order to visualize the effect of varying the sizes of the others otherwise we could get very confused over what had been written here.<br />
<br />
There is always a maximum size of the propeller that a plane could physically take on. This is because if the propeller is too big, it could hit the ground during take off or landing. While for some pusher prop planes, the propeller is mounted facing the back of the plane, the fuselage, the wing or the space will limit the size that could be mounted. In this case, a higher speed or KVA motor has to be used. For example, with a front mounted propeller RC kite, a 1000 KVA motor with bigger propeller would do the job, while a glider with a back mounted propeller, it needs 2200 KVA together with a 5 x 5 small size propeller.<br />
<br />
Please note that KVA rating of a motor denotes the rpm per volt of battery applied to it. If you use a 2S Lipo battery, the voltage is 7.4V while using a 3S Lipo battery the voltage will become 11.1V. You will get a higher rpm for the same motor if a 3S battery is being used instead of a 2S. However one has to bear in mind that with the increase of voltage, we must ensure that the ESC and the motor ampere ratings could take on the extra loading without causing a burn in the electric components or over heating problem. The 3S battery is heavier and bigger size than that of 2S, and for many practical reasons where the weight and CG of a RC plane are to be taken into consideration, therefore an attempt to make such an upgrade of a bigger motor or higher voltage application becomes not possible.Martin Leehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18194281718414566973noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6317177049182359334.post-37076411150357303162012-02-19T12:36:00.000+08:002012-02-19T12:36:38.325+08:00Some clues on flying RC aircraft for beginnersIt was almost a year or more since I started to try my hands on flying RC planes. What I am trying to say is, really flying one without causing a disaster or just up the sky for one circle and the next moment ended up nose down to somewhere in the swamp or tree tops. I had my fair share of plane crashes!<br />
<br />
For beginners, we have the tendency to buy smaller and cheaper planes so that when we crash them, we have the thinking that this will not cause a financial pinch and pain even if we were to write-off and rubbish the planes completely. Actually the smaller the plane, the harder it is for us to handle it outdoor; this is because a slight breeze will severely affect its stability, not to mention about strong gust of wind, which is fairly common when flying by the seaside or near mountains. To compromise, I suggest a mid-size, lower speed high wing or curved wing plane with higher angle of dihedral would be a better choice for beginners. An electric plane of mid-size I would consider that as one which has a wing span of less than or equal to 1.4 meter. Some examples of slow electric planes which I flew before are Slow Stick, Soarstar, Phoenix 2000 and Cloud Fly etc. Some of these planes are actually a hybrid of glider and normal high wing plane, which are good for a start in acquiring the basic RC flying skill.<br />
<br />
The tricks that nobody could actually teach us are primarily on the control of the plane movement. Theory itself will not help much without actually trying to fly and have a feel on the planes by ourselves. Some of the clues worth mentioning and sharing here could be useful if you intend to start this hobby:<br />
<br />
1. The choice of the transmitters, could be either in mode 1 or mode 2 orientation. Most of us are taught to be right hander since we were young. For this obvious reason, most of us, the dexterity of our fingers are more suited for mode 2, where the left hand of the control is used to activate the engine throttle and the rudder, while your right hand on the stick is used to control the pitch and the roll of the plane, i.e. the elevator and the ailerons. The difference of mode 1 as against mode 2 control is just those 2 sticks are located in opposite direction on the transmitter.<br />
<br />
Why I say this mode 2 is generally better, it is because once the plane is fully throttled up the sky to the desired height, you will turn back down the throttle at a fixed position of the stick using your left fingers just to maintain and keep the flying height, thereafter you hardly have to meddle with the throttle anymore, probably once a while just to throttle up a bit against the wind or to manourve the plane for landing. For beginners, the rudder is not frequently utilized other than for sharp and tight turn, or navigate the direction of the plane for landing or taxiing on the ground. Playing frequently with the ailerons and elevators using our more versatile right fingers on the right hand side stick is good enough to fly the plane in the air most of the time.<br />
<br />
I was first introduced to this hobby using mode 1 and now I had changed mine to mode 2. The choice of having mode 2 is not an absolute thing, it is up to you to choose whichever mode you think you could be more at ease with.<br />
<br />
2. The trick of turning the plane actually is not just using ailerons or rudder ALONE, which is a common misunderstanding or wrong concept for most beginners. It should be a combination of, ailerons which bank the plane and nose it down a tad bit, and up the elevator at the same time to execute a smooth and nice turn, either to the left or right! This is an important trick that took me many months to grasp the concept and I finally got to perfect this skill by practicing it on a simulator.<br />
<br />
When you start to circle the plane around, choose to execute and pracise it well, either a Left Hand Side LHS or a Right Hand Side RHS turning ONLY for the start. Once you master it say, the LHS turning, then you will know how to turn the plane back towards you if the plane wanders too far away that could lose the control signals. When you sense the plane is in trouble, at least you have the LHS turning skill that you could comfortably fall back to. You just keep on circling the plane the familiar LHS way, so as to give yourself more time to stabilize the plane or summon the help from a more experienced flyer. It is always good to have some experienced flyer to guide you and help you by your side at the beginning. I owe this very much to Mr. Winston Chu, who had helped to coach me with great patience on the skill of beginner flying!<br />
<br />
3. Most of the planes once fine tuned properly using the trims on the transmitter, will fly horizontally in a stable manner (Under no strong wind condition). If you take them high up enough, and experience a dive or tip stall etc, just let go of your hand on the particular stick which controls the ailerons and elevator, the stick will automatically spring back to its original neutral central position. Under this condition, most if NOT ALL the planes by nature will align by itself and gain its horizontal position once again within split seconds. Please note that do not try this on the plane if it is already too near to the ground, it will not have enough altitude and time to react, it will just crash!<br />
<br />
4. Fly the plane in simple turning pattern, then go home and practise with either a Phoenix SIM or Realflight simulator on a computer. You could slowly acquire your new skill of turning to the RHS in additonal to your already skillful LHS turning, After that, go on with a combination of LHS and RHS turnings so called a " figure of eight" flying etc. The advice here is, fly the actual plane, practise with the simulator, then improve on flying the actual plane again , repeat the cycles until you are good at it.<br />
<br />
After going through all these, I could now fly the Soarstar right across the small park near to the housing estate that I am staying. It is sheer joy and fun that I could finally able to fly a RC plane.Martin Leehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18194281718414566973noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6317177049182359334.post-83936723812661647302011-12-14T13:31:00.000+08:002011-12-14T13:31:09.547+08:00My aquatic plant aquariumI am developing interest on things that fly in the sky and those swim in the sea. Had my fair share of the RC planes for the past one year and now I decided to go for aquatic plant aquarium.<br />
<br />
There are many things and much knowledge to be learnt in order to have those aquatic plants grown well in an aquarium. My usual way to find out those information are actually from internet, forums, friends and also asking my brother-in-law who had planted a few tanks inside his home.<br />
<br />
My list of equipment set-up is as follows:<br />
<br />
1. I have 2ft and 3 ft tanks reserved for that purpose. My intention is to have an initial hand-on on the 2ft to gain experience and then move on to grow those plants in the bigger 3 ft tank subsequently.<br />
<br />
2. Bought a CO2 cylinder with regulator valve and also glass diffuser to inject the gas into the aquarium. An automatic solenoid regulator instead of a manual one would be better because one could use a timer to on and off the CO2 to be delivered. The glass diffuser is a transparent device that one could observe and count the drops of CO2 per minute or second to get the right amount for the proper growth of flora. There is a drop checker that changes its color to indicate the acidity or alkalinity of the water when there is too much CO2 dissolved or too little.<br />
<br />
3. Eheim 2217 and Eheim 2215 canister filters. Eheim is a well-known brand though it is a bit expensive. These filters are important for the good biological bacteria to grow inside the media and to absorb and get rid of all those wastes, nitrates etc. The flow rate is preferably 8 - 10 times the volume of the water. For example, if the tank holds100 liters of water then the flow rate of the filters should be in the region of about 1000 liters per hour.<br />
<br />
4. An Aquazonic T5 lighting set with 4 x 39 W 10,000K tubes plus 1x 20W 6,000K ADA lamp. The rough guide is 2 - 3 Watt per gallon of water depending on the type of plants that you want to grow. The spectrum of light must imitate closely the natural light source, the color rendering parameter is therefore important for the plants to grow well.<br />
<br />
5. A fan that blusters at the surface of the water level to cool the temperature of another 2 C down from the ambient room temperature of 30C to about 27-28 C. The more suitable range for some plant to grow well is probably 25 - 27 C. Some of the more advanced planters choose to use a chiller instead to get the water at a consistently cold temperature.<br />
<br />
6. To set up a proper substrate or soil for the plants to take root and absorb all the nutrients required for their growth. This could be an expensive portion of the set-up cost. Based on the more popular aquatic soil brand ADA, one has to put in a layer of power sand, then traces of special elements, the coarse substrate Amazonic sand then the finer powder Amazonic sand. This will set you back for a couple of hundred dollars.<br />
<br />
7. There is also a need for periodic dosing of liquid fertilizer to enhance the growth and replenish the nutrients consumed by the plants. The common ones are: N, P, K, Fe (Nitrates, Phosphorus, Potassium, Iron) etc. The available commercial brands in the market include ADA, Seachem, JBL , Sera etc.<br />
<br />
Weekly water change is also performed so as to adulterate the fertilizer to avoid growth of algae and also give a suitable water condition for the fauna and flora to live in. The more professional planters might even test the water hardness, PH value, chemical content etc. to get every parameter right for better and healthier growth.<br />
<br />
8. One could choose different kinds of fauna or fishes for the aquarium. The most common ones are Tetras and they are beautiful fishes for planted aquariums. Algae eaters such as Siamese flying fox, Amano shrimps etc are also introduced into the tanks to clean up left over food, algae on leaves or glass, drift wood etc.<br />
<br />
It is interesting to note some of the very scientific names of the various kinds of flora or aquatic plants. The names are simply bizarre. Just to give examples: Hygrophila Polysperma, Rotala Rotundifolia, Hygrophila Difformis, Rotalla Macranda. Bacopa Australis, Cabomba Furcata, Mayaca Fluviatlis etc. I kept a number of these plants in my aquarium. You probably could identify some of them in the photos below.<br />
<br />
There are also some mosses that one could tie them on the rocks and drift woods that form a splendid view of the aqua-scaping foreground or background. The common ones are Java Moss and Christmas Moss. When the right amount of CO2 and light is shone on the plants, they will start to pearl with little bubbles of air releasing and rising up to the surface of the water. It is relaxing to look at them and enjoying the splendid view of a well-planted aquarium<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiazywkBTzJDDhZj2ZeBsX0ayG8GUNDaFMtcHFT5laCI2fHc8MD77aNwdPvIbkJ6NDoc7WyBrW8A_Vt-SsldAGuTA8uAXa5zXT7pj7mB360pbc6JrEjwDOtrCpx9VhJ7MWfpI7RBiRo-xQV/s1600/DSCN7547.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiazywkBTzJDDhZj2ZeBsX0ayG8GUNDaFMtcHFT5laCI2fHc8MD77aNwdPvIbkJ6NDoc7WyBrW8A_Vt-SsldAGuTA8uAXa5zXT7pj7mB360pbc6JrEjwDOtrCpx9VhJ7MWfpI7RBiRo-xQV/s320/DSCN7547.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPonnw6h0BzUyPkyTqJRW_aA2sLL_3CGejfibFh056V0pjVm-xtk1H1_Zj7eA7naJpEMmtVy3WzwaORGGJ4zx8j1nieirQwV2Qola0HWhTYkUxdc9J3ZmFKjxqDyaYljLmZfS2-NFZiEmY/s1600/DSCN7524.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPonnw6h0BzUyPkyTqJRW_aA2sLL_3CGejfibFh056V0pjVm-xtk1H1_Zj7eA7naJpEMmtVy3WzwaORGGJ4zx8j1nieirQwV2Qola0HWhTYkUxdc9J3ZmFKjxqDyaYljLmZfS2-NFZiEmY/s320/DSCN7524.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCZh3_K3yagp6H3pSH9i1bQ0goU8TAkGg8-dFmWBit5lHD3pdtUzicVB-ELSBgl9NmE_K4Z5z-aljrsidnqMOM6tLuB-b4tXKwAIa38NlAqSqda2ts4OswcHEyXjyy8AqKJ1dKRnKxmryQ/s1600/DSCN7448.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCZh3_K3yagp6H3pSH9i1bQ0goU8TAkGg8-dFmWBit5lHD3pdtUzicVB-ELSBgl9NmE_K4Z5z-aljrsidnqMOM6tLuB-b4tXKwAIa38NlAqSqda2ts4OswcHEyXjyy8AqKJ1dKRnKxmryQ/s320/DSCN7448.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZ3ufQ_uayv-r-04IktMaj3i6HwNb7MPNPSzEQVBvgjY0CB09h5ofc7Z7O60A-Ahf_9U-JL-PskZY0goxqbdvxfST7m4R2G-2nvc2INKrD74VV-sK-sliD5SpcxXE-lB0zhH-9xH_jR5zy/s1600/DSCN7549.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZ3ufQ_uayv-r-04IktMaj3i6HwNb7MPNPSzEQVBvgjY0CB09h5ofc7Z7O60A-Ahf_9U-JL-PskZY0goxqbdvxfST7m4R2G-2nvc2INKrD74VV-sK-sliD5SpcxXE-lB0zhH-9xH_jR5zy/s320/DSCN7549.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>Martin Leehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18194281718414566973noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6317177049182359334.post-6635716165644168682011-08-06T10:47:00.000+08:002011-08-06T10:47:38.145+08:00Beware of such unscrupulous private education institutions!How could a private institution that promise a degree course of a reputable UK university to be discontinued when they initially offered its diploma program that is supposed to pave way for the admission to its second year degree program after completion? A BIG question indeed!<br />
<br />
A lot of these private institutions charge high fees by providing nice and cozy environment just to attract students. And most naive students are easily influenced by the deceptive front facade instead of the real stuff that an education institution could offer, that is, the quality of education itself. They are mainly commercialized institutions all out to maximize profit, cut corners at having enough qualified lecturers for possible subjects students could opt to take on from semester to semester etc. Despite all these, the worst thing one could ever experience would be, to be told that the degree program is now discontinued after completion of your diploma. And you are then advised to carry on the degree program with other alternative universities of different ranking and standard! <br />
<br />
I think it is ethically wrong to advertise on educational courses offered from established overseas universities to lure students in and subsequently default the intended path of the aspiring students! It is either they are not having enough students to form the class economically or having some fallout deals with the UK universities in question. We are not interested to know the actual reason why!<br />
<br />
I had told my son to quickly seek out available courses of other more reliable private institutions at the slightest clue of such unscrupulous practices taking place. Imagine a college could accept your registration fees, promise the entrance to start course in September and subsequently want to persuade you to change university? He had wasted 3 months at home waiting for the second semester to start, he was told that ALL of the existing 1st semester common subjects could be exempted by virtue of the earlier diploma program undertaken by him. But in actual fact they are just using the excuse to buy time for recruiting more students. After that period of time, they probably failed to get adequate new student recruitment and they turned around and told you a such a shocking news. When you complain and threaten to take back the deposit, they have the cheek to mention that now the application is being sent to the overseas university and waiting for the letter of offer instead. No one could wait for such nonsense if the entrance criterion for admission is clearly set at a CGPA score of 2.5 or above!<br />
<br />
My son got the offer from another Australian university applied with his result scripts and I told him to go ahead and forget about that RM500 deposit and whatever fees paid!Martin Leehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18194281718414566973noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6317177049182359334.post-28084196402930354302011-07-26T12:19:00.000+08:002011-07-26T12:19:00.411+08:00Let us meet more oftenBasing on my own thoughts and feeling, I came to the conclusion that some of my classmates might want to consider to meet more frequently after all these years. It had proven me wrong most of the time as only a few are actually enthusiastic while the majority of them remain lukewarm about the idea.<br />
<br />
It is always wrong for me to perceive of others on even simple thing like this, presuming that they would perceive and think the same way as I am. Of course there are also many like-minded people who share the same cause of wanting something done, but there are many more that do not think alike. What I am trying to say is, do not be too sure of what you have in mind unless it is tested and rigorously verified!<br />
<br />
I had also tried to create a facebook group on a secondary Chinese school which I used to attend. The one that I did for the University that I attended was not so successful as far as the response is concerned. It could be that some of our friends are not so IT or internet oriented as I am, or for whatever some other reasons. It ended up most of the time I am doing the postings, hoping that one fine day these classmates of mine would be fascinated by the photos and writing put up there.<br />
<br />
People could not afford to meet physically everyday due to commitment and distance apart. However with the advent of internet and all these communication tools made available, I could link up many of my colleagues and friends who worked together with me in Taiwan, Mexico, China and other previous companies.<br />
<br />
I hope one day they could realize, time is running short in life and it is a good time now to meet old friends and acquaintances as often as they could. From my experience, I had preoccupied too much of my time in working and neglected spending time with my loved ones, which I now regretted very much. I missed my grandparents, my in-laws, my mom whenever I think of them. And I promise myself that I will schedule to meet my dad and uncle more often from now onward! May God always bless them with health and longevity of life so that we could spend more precious moments together. Amen!Martin Leehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18194281718414566973noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6317177049182359334.post-64186054380878140142011-07-12T18:08:00.000+08:002011-07-12T18:08:51.059+08:00The story of my grand parentsI had a brief and casual conversation with my uncle on how life was like after my grandparents had come all the way from China. I want to record down here for future reference. My grandpa was from a more educated background whose ancestry ran a Taoist funeral rites business for many generations in China. One must be literate and possess a good language command skill to read and also write with good Chinese calligraphy for the many paperwork that needs to be professionally carried out in a funeral proper. That was the business passed down and earned a reasonably good living even in Malaysia at a later stage for my dad. When grandpa first arrived here in Malaysia, he stayed near an area, the present Eastern Garden of Kampar. He cut firewood from the nearby jungles for a living together with my grandma. My grandma was brought over to Malaya by her brother at a later stage to join my grandpa. I was told my grandma's brother was well-to-do and he used to run a coal or iron ore mine somewhere in Kuala Lumpur. He left peninsula Malaya and returned to China, never settled down as a citizen in this country; we lost contact thereafter though I tried hard to trace back the root of my grandma in China but to no avail.<br />
<br />
My uncle recollected bits and pieces of how he used to help in carrying and placing those firewood into the kitchens of customers. Firewood was cut and chopped into pieces and lined up for sales in the market place waiting for customers. Life was very tough then especially for my grandpa who had never done such manual hard labor work before.<br />
<br />
During the period when Japanese occupied peninsula Malaya, they started recruiting people to build the infamous railways of death in Thailand. My grandpa actually had taken up the offer and received the advanced salary from the Japanese and got ready for the journey to Thailand. My grandma was strongly against the idea and she insisted that through thick and thin of life, all family members must always stay closely together. My grandpa eventually was convinced and declined the offer; and the money was subsequently returned to the Japanese recruitment agency. They stayed on in the same township in its surrounding areas for many more years though life was never easy for them as migrants to a strange land. I was touched by this story told by my uncle many years later and I greatly respect and thank this wise decision made by my grandma. If not for her wisdom, I would not even have a chance to see the face of my grandpa after I was born. He was such a loving person that I still miss him very much since his death while I was in primary 3. I only managed to spend approximately 9 memorable good years with him. How I wish I could spend a much longer period of time with him more before he left us.<br />
<br />
One of my grandpa's brother followed him to Malaya and I was told one version of the story that he drank unboiled water that resulted in him contracting a certain illness that caused his death. Another version was that during Japanese occupation, food was scarce and he developed some bad wounds perhaps due to malnutrition and also lack of medical supplies that had taken a toll on him. Till the day of his death he was single and it was a sad story of him to die in this manner. I heard he was a likable person that he used to bring my dad and uncle to barber shops for their hair cut. I had never got a chance to meet him personally other than visiting his tomb. I was told that one of my nephews looks like him, that is all the impression or imagination that I could have about him.<br />
<br />
Life was very much improved after my dad and aunt had learnt the newly introduced skill of rubber tapping. At that time to acquire the skill of tapping rubber was really a big thing and few people actually had that skill. (Rubber tapping was at a later part became such a common skill that no longer could command that kind of income) Both of them earned a fairly lucrative combined income by the standard of that time. My dad bought a brand new bicycle with the hand switching gear version equivalent to that of today mountain bike. That was the bicycle he used to court my mom who worked in a sundry shop under the name "Chop Kong Beng Kee" , the owner's wife happened to be my mom's cousin sister.<br />
<br />
My grandpa continued to work in a French owned tin mine company half way between Mambang Diawan and Kampar, an area called "SEK". On his way home after work, he rode his bicycle to Kampar town and bought me gold fishes and angel fishes. I developed the interest of aquarium fish keeping through him and his loving kindness until today. And he always brought me and my siblings on his big bicycle for breakfast in the market place.<br />
<br />
At the later stage of his working life in the mine, his health deteriorated as he aged over the years. He dozed off one day on duty while taking charge of the tin mine "palong" (For those who do not know what a palong is, please refer to this: <a href="http://www.ipohworld.org/blog/?p=874">http://www.ipohworld.org/blog/?p=874</a>) and the tin ore overflew from its proper storage area. I suppose he was apprehended and then was transferred to another division as a form of demotion!<br />
<br />
I used to see him dozing off at the corner of the house easily and that symptom lasted for some years. And during his last few years with us, he had a chronic stomach pain which could be quelled only through some dosage of opium. He was subsequently admitted to Tapah hospital. We visited him once with my 3rd brother coming along. This was the first time that my 3rd brother started to call him "Grandpa" after some years he thought he was born dumb (Actually he was just a slow learner, relatively speaking amongst my siblings as far as speaking is concerned). He was exhilarated to hear from my 3rd brother and he appeared to be very well at that time. But suddenly the next day his health took a sharp turn and he was pronounced beyond any medical cure possible. They took off his oxygen and he died in a truck on the slope of the little path just about reaching home. The night of his funeral was filled with the howling of the owls that marked one of the saddest day of my life!<br />
<br />
If I ever have a chance to speak to him again, I would like to say " Grandpa I love you very much!"Martin Leehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18194281718414566973noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6317177049182359334.post-73446053178101694162011-04-05T10:52:00.000+08:002011-04-05T10:52:04.408+08:00How to make staying alone to be pleasant and interestingIt comes into my mind on how to overcome a situation where you are staying all alone at a place or foreign land that you are not used to; without friends and even the food tastes different . Human beings are simply habitual animals and if they ever have a choice they prefer not to have change of their routine. But life would not allow you to have such freedom of choice all the time, your livelihood might have got you a job transfer or you have to go and stay in a new town, because that is the place your children are working etc.<br />
<br />
I had been staying overseas for 10 years and also working 4 hours drive from home and only get a chance to come home with my family once fortnightly for almost the past 2 years. The experience had taught me these, just to share them with you :<br />
<br />
1. If you have the option, choose a place of stay where the surrounding environment you should feel comfortable with. Perhaps near to a park with a lot of open space, close to the sites or areas where you could pursue your hobbies or sport conveniently would be your priority. You do not want to stay too far away that the sheer distance of driving itself will put you off, and kill your interests or initiatives of attempting something new.<br />
<br />
2. You have to learn to love the people there. In a foreign country, you will have to learn to love their language, culture, songs and tradition. Interact with them through joining certain activities, such as picking up a sport, going to churches, trekking, cycling or even jogging. I know a lot of friends through some of these outdoor activities and also through joining the local remote controlled RC club etc. In Mexico, I went out with the locals to the pubs and listened to their folk songs etc and at the same time practised my Spanish with them. I enjoyed my life in Mexico even though many people and media mentioned negatively about the violence and crimes there projecting it is an extremely unsafe place to stay and work. My friend from Taiwan even sent me a newspaper cutting on kidnapping of foreigners to fore-warn me not to take up the Mexican offer. I am telling you, I have no regret whatesoever and this was one of the most enjoyable overseas working trip and stay that I ever experienced.<br />
<br />
3. One has to cultivate multiple interests and anticipate the time you could participate and also provide yourself with alternatives or contingency options. For example, if you are experiencing pain in your ankle after some long distance jogging, you could have a bicycle for cycling, the effort of which normally does not exert the kind of stress on your ankle, compared to when you have to land your feet on hard ground with your jogging shoes on. <br />
<br />
If you have to stay in house because of the rainy season, aquariums are available at home for you to look at those fishes. And I kept a few tanks of wild fighting fishes for my in-house entertainment. By the way, TV is not my favorite!<br />
<br />
I even make alternatives for flying my RC toys, for example if the wind is too strong for flying helicopter or other planes, I have a glider that rides on wind. Recently I am thinking of even owning a RC buggy or truggy, which provides me another option to play these RC vehicles on land instead of up in the unpredictable sky.<br />
<br />
4. Photography might not be my main interest even though I had purchased DSLR, which is being used by my son most of the time. But I always keep an old digital 8 MP digital camera handy with me. Wherever I go and see something interesting, I will snap some shots. I will then upload those photos into my computer and also pick on some to upload them onto Facebook. This has occupied quite a fair bit of my time for being active on Facebook. When I feel bored after all these, I started to write a piece or two in my blog!<br />
<br />
5. Always have something to look forward to. Looking forward to seeing your family during the weekends, waiting for public holidays, such as Hari Raya, Christmas and New Year days, school holidays etc and planning your activities. Even wait for your month-end salary so that you could spend a bit more on the favorite items on your wish list. All of these would always drive you on day by day and make your passing time more interesting.<br />
<br />
5. Reading some books on popular themes and then exchange ideas and thoughts with friends. For example, "My side of the story" by Chin Peng and then find out physically where were those places he referred to, as of present day, where he built his jungle headquarter or had hidden himself and escaped from the police etc.<br />
<br />
Folks, that is how I spend my time most of the days. As I spend my time each day eventfully, ironically I do sometimes feel time is passing too fast, I ask myself whether am I just wasting the remaining "youthful" time of my life pretending to be very busy?Martin Leehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18194281718414566973noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6317177049182359334.post-92055521856295716742011-01-02T15:59:00.000+08:002011-01-02T15:59:01.296+08:00Taking inventory of year 2010!So fast another year has passed us by and this marks the dawning of another brand new decade to come. Think of the moment in time long ago when we tried to picture how old our son and daughter shall be once we reached a certain threshold age of your life. Your son will probably be graduating and your daughter is finishing her high school etc. We are gradually and almost caught unpreparedly in approaching that age, used to be just far ahead imagination but it is for real now! Life is as though you are spending time each day just for that day to come true! I still remember during my secondary school days, a teacher by the name of Madam Tang told us in the class that all you do for the most part of your life, you are doing it for the sake of your children! We were a bit puzzled over what she meaned then but now we begin to realize how true is her statement!<br />
<br />
Writing on a blog like this has its ups and downs. Some months you could be productive, inspired to write a bit more by so many events or happenings around you; while other months you just feel like lying dormant and doing nothing. Taking a hindsight, I had written 92 articles for year 2010, which was not so bad afterall! English is never a language that I had intended to use for writing a blog like this. The language itself was a big handicap for me because I came from a Chinese primary and secondary school background. Chinese would be my preferred language because I have a better command and proficiency acquired through my years of education and novels reading. However over the many later working years, the job nature and the environment requirement had left me little choice but compelled to express myself more in English.<br />
<br />
Life is always beyond your expectation and full of surprises! I remember during my 4 years stay in Taiwan I used to wake up and confused on what dialect I should use for the day, whether Cantonese or Mandarin. Today I am in the state of Trengganu, being the only Chinese in the Production Administration office, I speak and use the Malay language for daily conversation and meetings most of my time! I am still wondering, what region or country I shall be in for the next phase of my career? Vietnam, Brazil or China again?<br />
<br />
Taking inventory on what I had done for year 2010, I would say I had acquired the knowledge of the steel industry by spending almost 2 years here in this hot-rolling steel mills. The place by the seaside that I had chosen to reside, give me ample opportunity and space to take on cycling and jogging. Such training had contributed to good physical fitness that enables me to take on a half marathon run without much of a problem. Over that period I had gathered a collection of my favorite wild fighting fishes and also kept a few aquariums of other tropical fishes. I did this to make up the good old days that I missed so much to compensate for the years I spent abroad when such activities were not so viable. The recent learning on new hobby and joining the group on remote controlled aircraft flying is another fun and pleasurable time for me too.<br />
<br />
All in all, 2010 was a fruitful year to me, with a lot of time to ponder upon life, good exercise routine and early bed time plus fairly active on facebook. Hope to go on with this life-style for another year or two and then start thinking of, perhaps doing something else, hopefully less mundane and more meaningful.<br />
<br />
To all my friends, a happy and blessed new year of 2011!Martin Leehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18194281718414566973noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6317177049182359334.post-23062277602776301982010-12-16T11:32:00.000+08:002010-12-16T11:32:11.534+08:00RC Planes hobbyI am in the midst of developing a new hobby on remote controlled (RC) airplanes. This RC hobby is something that I wanted to do long time ago. The lack of knowledge and also the cost of embarking on this was rather high which therefore had delayed me for years. I chanced upon Encik Jaafar who is a veteran RC flyer and he had taught me patiently the very basics of air modeling and I am intrigued by the technicalities and also the skill that required to be developed in order to learn up this hobby.<br />
<br />
There are some of the basic terms that I picked up over the course of the learning process. The key control components of the plane include its rudder, ailerons and elevator. Each of these control surfaces is linked by a rod which is pulled or pushed by a servo. The servo is a device that rotates, and the rotating motion is translated into a linear motion that pushes and pulls the rod that ties to the control surfaces into their various desired positions for flight control. Normally if they are 3 control surfaces, then 3 separate servos are required to do the job. In additional to that, there is another servo requires to control the throttle of the engine. There is a electronic receiver gadget, as the name implies, it receives the signals from a transmitter hand held by the flyer, with the control sticks on it that navigate the direction and movement of the plane. Each of these wireless signals generated by the control stick movement is then fed into the receiver installed inside the plane high up in the sky. The receiver then relays those signals to the individual servos that moves the respective control surfaces into positions. In this case, the receiver is said to be making use of 4 channels; one channel to control the rudder and front wheel at the same time (Left and Right), one that moves the ailerons on the wings (Tilting the wings Left and Right), one on the throttle (Speed control) and the last one is the elevator at the tail (Up and Down). My Futaba 6EX transmitter could control 6 channels, there are 2 more channels left after using 4, which at later part could be utilized to control more features of advanced planes or helicopters.<br />
<br />
I had to purchase a Thunder Tiger 2 strokes engine of 0.46 cubic inch on nitro fuel to power the plane. The engine needed to be run-in so that it could function smoothly over a range of speed and RPM. This is in some way similar to buying a new car that needs a run-in period for its new moving parts of the engine. There are a lot of aerodynamic theories involved in flying RC planes. It is hard for non-technical people to understand how a propeller that spins clockwise viewed from the pilot seat, could generate a torque that tends to push the aircraft to the left. Instead of mounting the engine at exactly 90 degrees to the wings, one therefore needs to mount it at a slightly inclined right thrust angle of about 2 degrees so as to compensate this sideway movement. This will ensure the plane to fly straight instead of towards the left all the time! Similary there is a down thrust angle such that whenever one throttles up, the plane will fly upwards, otherwise it will start to descend. The transmitter also provides some fine trimming controls to correct this as well! All these seem complicated to be described in words but it is a lot of fun when you really hand-on and get a grasp on what I had mentioned here. It is better to fly one yourself in order to get a better feel on how one could actually navigate the flight! Yes it is indeed great excitement to see those toys up in the sky flying like birds.<br />
<br />
I had bought one RCM 40 trainer plane which has high wing (mounted on top side of the plane body) of 63" wing span. This is a slow speed plane that could float and glide well in the air for beginner. And I also purchased another small electric powered Cessna 182 EPO plane just to train on the dexterity of my fingers over the control sticks of the transmitter. One has to finger on multiple controls simultaneously, for example, when a plane turns its direction with the use of the rudder or ailerons, it tends to descend, one has to pull up the elevator a little bit so that the plane will climb back to its horizontal flying position.<br />
<br />
Setting the sensitivity of the throws of the controlling stick on the transmitter using dual rate and exponential is another fascinating topic. Simply put, during certain delicate control situation such as landing, one needs to make the moving of the stick less sensitive corresponding to the servo movement especially the elevator, so that the plane could do a soft landing in a gradual gliding down and graceful manner.<br />
<br />
It is not a easy hobby as I first thought, and I damaged one of the wings of the trainer nitro-plane and also crushed the front portion of the electric Cessna 182. But I hope to master the hobby within the next 2-3 months when the monsoon season is over and the weather is getting better for more viable flying practice sessions.<br />
<br />
I have a phobia for height since I was kid but I yearn to be high up in the sky. Look like this dream of flying high could only be fulfilled via this hobby. One day I hope to fly the low wing aerobatic plane and the more complicated helicopter. It would be my next project to mount a camera on one of the planes to capture some scenic aerial views from above the sky.Martin Leehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18194281718414566973noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6317177049182359334.post-24457456211784509592010-11-01T11:22:00.000+08:002010-11-01T11:22:17.047+08:00Brand NamesSome of the brand names in this country grow with us since our childhood days. The Milo trucks from Nestle used to show up in every of our sport day event giving out free ice cold milk chocolate drinks to all the participating school children. Milo became a household name for many of us, to others it is probably just another chocolate drink! One could observe how a good and innovative company that has the long term vision of investing in a brand for years, and then enjoy reaping the harvest and success of their effort! In Malaysia, Milo now is synonymous with chocolate drinks. This is good marketing strategy!<br />
<br />
<br />
Bata shoes is another marque which we Malaysians are familiar and associated with for a long long time. Remember those day where we had the cheaper version of Fung Keong and other China made "warrior" ( 回力) shoes? But then the more popular Bata "Badminton Master" sold for RM3.90 was considered a premium pair of school-going cum sport shoes in those days. It is about 40 years ago compared to now that any of the Bata shoes on sale in the shops, which is retailed in the region of RM60 per pair. The price is roughly about an increase of 15 times. Did our basic income increase by 15 times after all these years?<br />
<br />
Coming to the "warrior" brand, it was then the most popular basket ball shoes because it was cheap, with good design and comfortable. This Chinese company based in Shanghai had subqsequently diverted itself into the tire business. They had a joint-venture with Michelin tire during those early years of economic boom in the newly reformed China, and they are now one of the biggest and dominant tire players in China market.<br />
<br />
Our children nowadays are brand conscious, and they would prefer Nike, Adidas, Reebok, New Balance etc. Bata is definitely not their choice. Many times Bata became my choice because my rationale is simple; I would not pay 300% more for a pair of imported brand, probably the quality or durability of it is 10% better than a pair of Bata. Thinking that the bulk of the cost comes from advertising and also into the pockets of some super athletic stars somehow hinder my decision to purchase!<br />
<br />
I remember years back when I bought some souvenir electrical items commemorating the Commonwealth Game held in Malaysia from our local brand Pensonic, they just stopped functioning after just a few times of usage. That left me a very bad impression of the brand name, they might have improved a lot now over the years but they had lost me as a customer that decided to stick with Panasonic instead. See how this little things count when poor quality products are put up in the market!<br />
<br />
When we were having the EDMAT (Engineering Development Motivation Awareness Training) in University Malaya in the 80s, one of the talks given to us was by SKF bearings. A handbook was given out to all the participants. Because of this simple act, whenever there is a requirement of bearings, SKF will automatically come into my mind though there are many other reputable bearing brand names in the market.<br />
<br />
I always like to remember the good gesture of my brother CM Lee who had bought me Adidas shoes in the region of RM30 per pair from Singapore many years ago. Later part, I did buy another pair from Germany while I was having an industrial training there in Stuttgart. The poster outside the store read something like "DM30 Abs"! I got to learn about this German word "Abs" that signifiies "Upwards" when I asked the lady store owner why the shoes prices inside the store were much higher!<br />
<br />
Having said all these about my non-preference for branded shoes, however during my 3 years stay in Ciudad Juarez, in and out of El Paso, Texas, I had bought numerous pairs of Reebok and Nike shoes for myself and my family. I had bought another pair of Adidas for myself in the Factory Outlet store in San Francisco too. I bought them for the simple reason that they are sold much cheaper in the US than in Malaysia.Martin Leehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18194281718414566973noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6317177049182359334.post-37023213873578448922010-10-26T14:31:00.000+08:002010-10-26T14:31:21.969+08:00Climbing of Gunung NuangIn my younger days, I had never done any mountain climbing. The nearest, part of the mountain range that I came across was the hill adjacent to the far end of Pei Yuan secondary school in Kampar. During recess time, we used to gather and hop around on those big rocks near the foot of the hill but never dare to venture further beyond that where the Kampar hill proper is within reach just a few hundred meters away.<br />
<br />
A mountain always looks forbidding to me because one never gets a chance to see through what lies in between the foot of the hill and its tip. The undergrowth and trees that intermingled within, shrouded any barely visible jungle path and the bright sunshine. The thick leaves on the tree tops cover the sky and present a shadowy, and gloomy surrounding which seems to be filled with too many hidden unknown elements. Strange noises from insect, birds, monkeys and other wild animals, the gentle breeze on fallen leaves and the rubbing of branches add further mystery that deter any stranger from venturing into such an unfamiliar territory. At that time I just could not imagine someone who would like to trek for days to Gunung Tahan and Taman Negara park. It would be a dangerous attempt that could land yourself to the menace of blood sucking leeches, stepping on poisonous snakes, accidentally bumping into bears or even man-eating tigers! Mountains did not fascinate me in those years and I'd rather take a cool nice dip in ponds or lakes where one could just float close to the water surface, feeling more cozy that way, even with the unfathomed depth lying below!<br />
<br />
I changed my attitude towards mountains lately, perhaps very much influenced by the companionship, comradeship and also enjoyed the togetherness of conquering mountains with a few of my friends and buddies. Another probable reason being, it is much easier to strike a lottery than to spot a tiger in the wild nowadays. After the first ever Gunung Bunga Buah climb near Genting Highland, the momentum had driven me to set foot on Gunung Nuang near Ulu Langat. Its close proximity to the city makes it easily accessible from Kuala Lumpur.<br />
<br />
I recounted the climb and wanted to relate and share my experience here with some photos:<br />
<br />
On the holiday of 1Malaysia day, CC Wong and myself set off at about 7.00 am and parked our car at the entrance of the park. Registered ourselves with the park authority before starting the climb. It started with a stretch of road and CC termed it aptly "The never ending road". The road led us through some "Orang Asli" or aborigine houses and bamboo forest, on the way there were some huts built for the resting of the trekkers. The distance was roughly about 5Km and we took about half an hour to complete the journey, it was a pleasant walk under the morning sun, take a look at those photos below and you will understand what I mean.<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzFOv1pXRV8wH4xR0Adup-MdDfAb5mVZwvZDad_zZ1mY97GPyD6etdwVV06pK5DLpHCgwJWanausR6gURrSAMhPQejMSjQvzh-ppwIDKaXJP8T-AVQetCuPSZcngndQBrbhPB-0phXkyyL/s1600/Gunung+Nuang+001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="239" nx="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzFOv1pXRV8wH4xR0Adup-MdDfAb5mVZwvZDad_zZ1mY97GPyD6etdwVV06pK5DLpHCgwJWanausR6gURrSAMhPQejMSjQvzh-ppwIDKaXJP8T-AVQetCuPSZcngndQBrbhPB-0phXkyyL/s320/Gunung+Nuang+001.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMdl52XAfhLweTYFx7mWXUbGDJAx378t5C-yRspQnVqNrYV-EzsUmL4RsFJOMYwt8u6QjiudnMh-sRXT70xnNhQg63olC2XIsLkSXHSCn9iFZyKj3OBfoGJcKoMvT7wrfUX-igSeofOLtI/s1600/Gunung+Nuang+004.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="239" nx="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMdl52XAfhLweTYFx7mWXUbGDJAx378t5C-yRspQnVqNrYV-EzsUmL4RsFJOMYwt8u6QjiudnMh-sRXT70xnNhQg63olC2XIsLkSXHSCn9iFZyKj3OBfoGJcKoMvT7wrfUX-igSeofOLtI/s320/Gunung+Nuang+004.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdiLk4dwvoCWcfufH85zeaflwWZ9zPRagHxVs9VwJBJm0LiRxe0thyphenhyphenyQWLBFm8ZpLeqJzdPEldlikisWmw1jpk86Ikiaza_Rs1OnvWVTTz2l4YA4Nt30PfhXFGpiSYTVLFEsE4MVGLF7yB/s1600/Gunung+Nuang+005.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="239" nx="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdiLk4dwvoCWcfufH85zeaflwWZ9zPRagHxVs9VwJBJm0LiRxe0thyphenhyphenyQWLBFm8ZpLeqJzdPEldlikisWmw1jpk86Ikiaza_Rs1OnvWVTTz2l4YA4Nt30PfhXFGpiSYTVLFEsE4MVGLF7yB/s320/Gunung+Nuang+005.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<br />
Before long, we reached a few streams that we had to cross after arriving at a water catchment area. I took off my shoes to avoid wetting them, othewise it would be uncomfortable for the long journey up and down the hill. I roughly counted we had crossed six streams in between some rocky paths!<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhsd7lMoqU4Tp6u30GkDi8z4SVc5CmXVM8R_c9FUkHaRh1Prv2jYDQ8b2GchzxR5rPr0Wk5FlIiDbSe9dGMVfGREPgqoIVWdqaf4yvW3LrI4akUTrMcM-DEV8ec49kpkT1g8ccBm_kuR5l/s1600/Gunung+Nuang+008.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="239" nx="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhsd7lMoqU4Tp6u30GkDi8z4SVc5CmXVM8R_c9FUkHaRh1Prv2jYDQ8b2GchzxR5rPr0Wk5FlIiDbSe9dGMVfGREPgqoIVWdqaf4yvW3LrI4akUTrMcM-DEV8ec49kpkT1g8ccBm_kuR5l/s320/Gunung+Nuang+008.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEix7uy2aX7-nFFE36A0RNIkgipn5XflVb5cReOPME42iiXhNeYOfHBSyxaWTDq4jYl64wljySbvrBtdj3G3LdoeLNDoHhIfnRZuU_mRMbsHwyWDMNV7dNZ_qFz5LzOgIAoxoKDL5FEaUMKq/s1600/Gunung+Nuang+009.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="239" nx="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEix7uy2aX7-nFFE36A0RNIkgipn5XflVb5cReOPME42iiXhNeYOfHBSyxaWTDq4jYl64wljySbvrBtdj3G3LdoeLNDoHhIfnRZuU_mRMbsHwyWDMNV7dNZ_qFz5LzOgIAoxoKDL5FEaUMKq/s320/Gunung+Nuang+009.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<br />
CC is a veteran trekker and he had climbed even to the mount Everest base camp. This was his sixth times climbing Nuang and yet we lost our way for almost half an hour near the first stream though somehow we managed to trace the path backwards and followed the big water-piping that eventually led us to camp Lolo. We climbed all the way further up the next destination, Camp Pacat. As the name implied, there must be leeches. Surprisingly so far I encountered only one leech near the crossing of one of the streams and I was just in time to get rid of it before it started to bite. Comparing to the Gunung Bunga Buah trek , I would say leeches here are actually rare!<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4hJxMvSvMGXfbt9-EmYM9QTKt9_GfTRvZQqIwuW9I5zD2plwS5EJIXhgLOU8j0E88rrNAn94L6KxhIomJgy1fJOmKXZaLZ08yH_j6C1sdrVtFOm27QyPnxjo2M04xlVsknvw8DH5GC0Q_/s1600/Gunung+Nuang+012.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="239" nx="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4hJxMvSvMGXfbt9-EmYM9QTKt9_GfTRvZQqIwuW9I5zD2plwS5EJIXhgLOU8j0E88rrNAn94L6KxhIomJgy1fJOmKXZaLZ08yH_j6C1sdrVtFOm27QyPnxjo2M04xlVsknvw8DH5GC0Q_/s320/Gunung+Nuang+012.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0RuIiHqFxhh0kiu4WAdsYIGufeLYmUABbhnSf8dbNTF0d66UeNc-e_-zNF8C7ij2UxDVwZRzIb9EambFTcATfNAG8E2B9ZcvyFPwwUjJhtu069yGVD_3LvKQdfJGgUmsDmZCz2kqYTiS3/s1600/Gunung+Nuang+015.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="239" nx="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0RuIiHqFxhh0kiu4WAdsYIGufeLYmUABbhnSf8dbNTF0d66UeNc-e_-zNF8C7ij2UxDVwZRzIb9EambFTcATfNAG8E2B9ZcvyFPwwUjJhtu069yGVD_3LvKQdfJGgUmsDmZCz2kqYTiS3/s320/Gunung+Nuang+015.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div align="left" class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: left;">From Camp Pacat onwards, the climb was steep and upon reaching Puncak Pengasih, that was one of the peaks. To reach the other peak which is of the same altitude, we had to go downhill through a wet and muddy path and climb another 45 minutes to reach the Nuang peak.</div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioZl1fvvcsylBpFWvR7eTbvEz5U5HAjm5eiCop6p9bkoHMRikCcNaNAvPMrdrFRDvVUrqwVnlIqPGUgGHYSDCj2DMKc_7wqqHUcnjHEcIgnJ-GCsHL-sPxZSXovo9LGKZKnLLNyiZLaSl2/s1600/Gunung+Nuang+018.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="239" nx="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioZl1fvvcsylBpFWvR7eTbvEz5U5HAjm5eiCop6p9bkoHMRikCcNaNAvPMrdrFRDvVUrqwVnlIqPGUgGHYSDCj2DMKc_7wqqHUcnjHEcIgnJ-GCsHL-sPxZSXovo9LGKZKnLLNyiZLaSl2/s320/Gunung+Nuang+018.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnQH4aGT-65kjRS9S5VVVqVwr0r5Tra2bToa1gvPJ2IASItqMkx_I67RZjeKOsl6AghbeXWVyIM_iXSxnHyNrCSVpfGuM36Wv11e7_S_kIrNHtHKTUiXiyXwvfTXtFDNzX8AZhQClVnmSA/s1600/Gunung+Nuang+019.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="239" nx="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnQH4aGT-65kjRS9S5VVVqVwr0r5Tra2bToa1gvPJ2IASItqMkx_I67RZjeKOsl6AghbeXWVyIM_iXSxnHyNrCSVpfGuM36Wv11e7_S_kIrNHtHKTUiXiyXwvfTXtFDNzX8AZhQClVnmSA/s320/Gunung+Nuang+019.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div>We finally reached there, snapped a photo of me for the record. One could enjoy a good idyllic view of the Ulu Langat dam from above the mountain.<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-cm5RHf-EBs-_KROzMkbmCbxPiUhO6LFY6CY3w2vXnjQ0YZccEtSFu8_lvj6d7s7iajnHkIAcdLuktPPzETLBDyxCQ1JUT3oaZf-Z_JoT7O_nFvV8HPmAbQIX1-gk3i8m-CXaG8HlWvuv/s1600/Gunung+Nuang+025.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" nx="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-cm5RHf-EBs-_KROzMkbmCbxPiUhO6LFY6CY3w2vXnjQ0YZccEtSFu8_lvj6d7s7iajnHkIAcdLuktPPzETLBDyxCQ1JUT3oaZf-Z_JoT7O_nFvV8HPmAbQIX1-gk3i8m-CXaG8HlWvuv/s320/Gunung+Nuang+025.jpg" width="239" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSuiINMkFKfoReJVO0jXXAJaeeatO3fIlnfPKWJM3_DpESxv-09M443QyRLDNmaQWmu5W-Slx89vWI8YRmAO0l9O-X4PaTMImUFo3ayHSZ7Mi4xjagBXnoC384VXcN4z3p-o5rMeV8GolO/s1600/Gunung+Nuang+038.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="239" nx="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSuiINMkFKfoReJVO0jXXAJaeeatO3fIlnfPKWJM3_DpESxv-09M443QyRLDNmaQWmu5W-Slx89vWI8YRmAO0l9O-X4PaTMImUFo3ayHSZ7Mi4xjagBXnoC384VXcN4z3p-o5rMeV8GolO/s320/Gunung+Nuang+038.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<br />
We completed the entire trip roughly in the region of 8.5 hours. They are saying that if one could climb this mountain, you could practically climb all mountains in Malaysia. I took the challenge and now I have more confidence and am looking forward to climb more Malaysian mountains in the near future.Martin Leehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18194281718414566973noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6317177049182359334.post-35203964120447254492010-10-19T14:15:00.000+08:002010-10-19T14:15:44.381+08:00A complete and non-stop playlist for my favorite songsWe already have software program that downloads movies overnight and watch them for free! How about all those programming wizards out there to come out with another one that a user just names the favorite song and its preferred original singer in a list then you could have them ready on our PC to be heard the next day? I am not talking about the kind of iTune package that one has to pay USD0.99 per song but I am more into the kind of software capability which could retrieve and select the best quality WMA or MP3 files from the various multiple sources available for downloading a particular song. The program will evaluate the noise and recording quality after taking into consideration of interferences over the internet transmission and its environment etc.; after that it would make the best choice on our behalf to download them all into our computers while we sleep through the night. When you wake up the next morning, you have your Don Mclean's "American pie" and "Vincent", the Three Dogs' night's "Never been to Spain", CCR's "Proud Mary", Little Anthony' s "Tears on my pillow", Gene Chandler's "Duke of Earl"... the playlist goes on and on, presenting a repertoire of non-stop songs and music readily available near your bed side, inside your car and perhaps even in the office. How about that?<br />
<br />
I used to prepare an Excel file with the content of which I fill in the titles of the favorite songs during my free time. I wanted to come out with a complete favorite playlist. You know it would take a long time to remember and state all the songs you wanted to listen. It is very much dependent on your memory, your mode there and then of the day which you suddenly have that pining for just a particular songs to be played along! Right now, "The house of rising sun", "Yellow river", "Those were the days", "Alone again naturally" come suddenly into my mind! Do you see what I mean?<br />
<br />
I came from a family which could be considered as quite musically inclined. My brother CM Lee told me one day, it would be very nice to be a musician that could earn money and enjoy the work that you are doing at the same time, even though one might not become rich for being a musician! He and I own a complete set of drum, electric and hollow guitars, keyboard and pianos back home! It would be very nice if and when all the family members are ever home for the festive seasons, then everyone of us each pick our own most skilled instrument to play a gig session. We are no professionals but we are music enthusiasts that used to play with the worship team in our respective churches as guitarists.<br />
<br />
Music is an integral part of our life. And sometimes I just marvel at how humans with the invention and aid of such instruments could produce such beautiful-to-the ears sound waves which sooth and touch our hearts and souls! I imagine one day when a host of angelic musicans of the heavenly orchestra, treating us to an occasion where we all immerse ourselves in enjoying a party of splended and most awesome display of the greatest sounds in this universe. All of us regardless of skin colors and ethnic origin gather before the throne of the most high God and start to worship and sing the song of praise " Oh God, how great thou art!"Martin Leehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18194281718414566973noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6317177049182359334.post-73313022595804499202010-10-17T12:29:00.000+08:002010-10-17T12:29:57.337+08:00A day in the village with sticky seeds on pants!I remember those days my dad came home with his pants full with sticky seeds of the weeds all over. My mom would pick them out one by one patiently before washing. It was a tedious and unpleasant job of getting rid of them. My dad must have adventured into some wilderness with his friends. Did not remember exactly for what purpose he made the trip but I believe he must have gone on a fishing trip that required him to walk along the sand dunes of the ex-mining land, waded through some streams and also trekked some areas with lallang and tall undergrowth. He and his friend had gone to that fascinating and mysterious region of wilderness located just opposite my grandpa's home. A meandering river and the mining activities kept the landscape there ever changing. My memory could only register a vague image of the scenery of that place which was fast changing too many times over the years! I did remember seeing the row of long tender bamboo fishing rods that were laid on the side of the house, perhaps it was for the sun to dry up the equipment before they were kept in-house for future trips.<br />
<br />
The strip of land over there was a "happening place" for the village folks. It was rumored that those big deep ponds further inland were once infested with crocrodiles, someone claimed they saw but no one actually caught or killed any one of the beasts. It was also a favorite spot for the villagers to do fish farming and a kid in the neighborhood was drowned in one of those fish ponds. It was a young boy by the nick name of "Little monkey" and that was a sad episode of life in the village where the youngs were often left alone while the parents were at work and the whereabout of their children was hard to be monitored!<br />
<br />
I used to follow my mum and those women in the village nervoulsy to the side of those big ponds (with crocrodiles?) for the "dulang washing", which is an ingenious method using the centrifugal force of the swirling water to get rid of those mud, sand and stones, but retain the heavier tin ore at the center of the washing bowl called "Dulang"! This old fashioned way of dulang washing profession had fed many of the families in the village though now it had become obsolete that perhaps one could only see this dulang bowl item for display in the muzium!<br />
<br />
There was a stretch of vast sweet potatoes land located right before crossing over the river where the happening place was. The sweet potatoes fields were planted for its leaves to feed the pigs, which were kept and reared at the backyard of practically every home in the village in those days. The sweet potatoes field there also served as the natural playground for us where we used to fly kites, catch dragonflies, crickets, butterflies and ambush birds!<br />
<br />
We used to see helicopters hovering over that piece of the land in the evening from far away! One day I was told a helicopter crashed in that area but I had not got a chance to see the crash site for myself despite my curiosity!<br />
<br />
There came a time with further discovery of rich tin ore deposit in the land by an Australian mining company! The 24 hours rumbling of the giant size bull dozers, "big stomach" scrapers, excavators and dump trucks cleared the land, transformed the entire landscape again beyond recognition. The whole western side of the village was supposed to be relocated for the mining operation to take place but fortunately it did not happen.<br />
<br />
These little pricky sticky seeds on my pants brought me back to memory lane once more! By the way, I asked the name of this grass with the sticky seeds on facebook, my "learned friends" said it is called the "love grass"!Martin Leehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18194281718414566973noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6317177049182359334.post-54865268641927744592010-10-10T12:06:00.000+08:002010-10-10T12:06:51.016+08:00Busy for the month of SeptemberI was not busy with work but rather busy with some schedule to prepare for the upcoming event in the early part of October. To put it simple, I registered for the inter-companies run in Pasir Gudang in Johore on 3rd October 2010. I could not understand why I have to take this 5 km run so seriously afterall it is just something routine that is being carried out every year by the group for its employees, no big prices and nothing special about a privately held cross country race run on a tarmac road either.<br />
<br />
To give some background on this, I had moved in since a year ago to stay in a place very near to the beach where I could do some cycling and jogging whenever I feel like it. Most of the time I do it in early the morning 6:30am or about 7pm in the evening. My daily schedule would be doing a evening ride on mountain bike for 20 km and jogging for 3 km in the morning before going to work. The initial going was a bit tough for me because I had stopped exercising for the past 5-6 years when I worked overseas where the weather was simply too nasty to do such a thing compared to what it is in a tropical country. I take up this challenge partly to boost my own ego and also try to catch up with my brother-in-law, who is a few years older than me but is a good veteran runner in the marathon race. He is probably ranked top 10 in the country veteran category.<br />
<br />
I had climbed 2 mountains, namely Gunung Bunga Buah and also Bukit Nuang, and did also a trekking to the Pelangi waterfall in Sungai Lembing within a period of 2 months before the race as part of a cross training program for strength and stamina! Even during the week long Hari Raya holidays, I jogged 5 km with my brother-in-law just to keep fit and at the same time to get some advice and training tips from him on running long distance races.<br />
<br />
There was supposed to be a session for my remote controlled nitro-plane, which had been fully assembled ready for the virgin flight in Dungun arranged by my friend cum coach Jaafar . I postponed the date just to give myself more time to be trained and ready for that particular event. In my mind, if I could not even win a race in a closed event organized by the company, how could I ever win one in the open race? This perhaps explained why I have to take that race so seriously! In fact I had been coughing for about a week since coming back from the camping trip of Pelangi waterfall. I was a bit worrying that coughing might interfere my breathing during the race. Fortunately it did not and I ran the race well though not perfect!<br />
<br />
I eventually finished off in the 6th position in the veteran category. From the race, now I know where the standard of my opponents is, so that I could do the catching up. I vowed to come back next year to improve my position to top 3 in the run. I probably need to prepare myself and participate in the half marathon training in order to cope with those guys who had beaten me in the race. That is my target set for year 2011!Martin Leehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18194281718414566973noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6317177049182359334.post-79654620132320731212010-10-05T15:32:00.000+08:002010-10-05T15:32:45.285+08:00Life as it is!A strange feeling and unfamiliar setting make me wonder whether this is the same world which we used to live many years ago. When we look around us, things suddenly appear to be different as though it all happened just in the blinks of your eyes. We once used to wonder how your future spouse and children are going to look like, will they ever be pretty and charming, or your off-springs would behave and inherit some traces of similarities of yours? Abruptly the time came that we had the added family of in-laws and life started to center around our own family of spouse and young kids! They are the ones with these distinct real faces appear right before you to accompany us for the rest of your life. Changes did not stop here, very soon they outgrew their shoes, shirts and toys, and they reached the age of adolescence with their own friends and making own decision and choices despite you telling them otherwise. We woke up in one of the mornings and found ourselves well qualified for the partial withdrawal of our EPF fund, which marks the great number of years that we had been through!<br />
<br />
We looked forward to attend birthday and wedding parties that always filled with joy and happiness. The time had come that we had to visit the bed-ridden beloved ones in hospitals, and bidden them final goodbye in funeral services. Long lost friends, classmates and contemporaries occasionally called to meet up and you took note and captured glimpses of their aged bodies, wrinkled faces, and traces of grey hairs. That prompted you to take a quick look at your own face in the mirror on how those years of toil had eroded your youthful look!<br />
<br />
We felt the sadness and loss in years when the elderly of our family and those from the side of the in-laws disappeared one after another, you are slowly moving up the rank of seniority. The only consolation could be you finally get to enjoy the golden age discounted travel tickets on buses, railways or airplanes! You over joy every time upon the renewal of your employment contract which proves not just your earning capability but also you are still wanted!<br />
<br />
We became sentimental of the past and nostalgic of the good old days where things were done differently. An old song would always make you remember the exact moment and time of what you were doing then. We become interested and yearn to involve in those hobbies or interests which we could not fulfill for whatever reasons during those younger days.<br />
<br />
Suddenly you feel the strong urge to defy this age gaining process and wanted to prove that you are as fit as before. Climbing all the high mountains, visiting places and taking part in activities and races that demand physical strength and superiority.<br />
<br />
The recent passing away of the eldest aunty of my wife and also the Singapore minister mentor Mr. Lee Kuan Yew's beloved wife Kwa Geok Choo seems to be just another ordinary day-to-day incident. But somehow it has reminded me time is so short and life is so good, we must always appreciate the time we spend with our love ones while the sun still shines on us everyday!Martin Leehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18194281718414566973noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6317177049182359334.post-49980859737080603792010-08-26T10:19:00.000+08:002010-08-26T10:19:32.047+08:00Managing your peopleManaging people is a daunting task and most of the time the job itself is not really that tough but people management is what the company pays a top manager for!<br />
<br />
Most of the smaller companies will judge you by the results that you deliver, regardless of your ways of getting things done. But for reputable multinational companies, to function as a manager per se in there, you are also judged by how well you perform in the area of employees' satisfaction. This aspect is evaluated hand in hand with the actual result achievable in the work assigned to you. It is easy to rule with an iron fist and get quick and short term results but before long the organization will suffer the loss of employees and subordinates. I had learnt this concept of "preferred employer"management from HP, which I worked there 2 years and it was an eye opener that took me to a different level, and also gained substantial people management experience which is beneficial for my working career later on. <br />
<br />
HP employs a lot of graduates from top universities both local and overseas with first class honors of academic excellence. The bulk of the executives are highly qualified professionals, and therefore require a more comprehensive and employee-centered kind of management approach to handle them. It was difficult for managers recruited from other companies of different culture to grasp the concept; very often when you thought you had done a good job but the boss told you that you miss out the human aspect and the subordinates did not like your style of doing things. They ranked your management skill by giving a lousy score in their satisfacion survey carried out every year. HP expects you to optimize employees' satisfaction and work performance, and that is really not easy and it is almost an art! After working in the corporate world for many years, if one could ever manage to juggle the magic of managing 70% of the people favor you as their superior while there are still 30% do not like you for no obvious reasons, this is already acceptable.<br />
<br />
When I come to manage the present factory, a totally different and extreme situation exists here! Most of the executives wanted to become nice guys, recommending good grades for year end performance evaluation practically for everyone of their subordinates despite they are always being late for work, sloppy workmanship, inefficient or even insubordination at times, and you name it. It is probably a "nice guys" culture here, in which things only get done at their own pace. They are not exposed so much to the kind of goals driven and mean operations in the very competitive electronic industry environment which I used to come from!<br />
<br />
An organization has to distribute its allocated incentives such as bonuses, raise in grades etc based on merits in the form of a normal distribution curve. With everyone falling onto the top end of the curve, how could a fair distribution of incentives or performance evaluation could be carried out? It is an easy operation with simple expectation here, therefore an executive needs not work extra hard to pass the grade. Even with this low expectation an executive needs not choose to be a mediocre. One has to realize the fact that inefficient subordinates will reflect on you and actually hamper your career growth in the eyes of the management if you choose to be good guys that are slack in managing your staff, which implies a typical characteristic of weak leadership that could not be entrusted with more important and urgent task!<br />
<br />
A company is not a charitable organization that pays every month and also to give automatic increment in salary after every year of service. Employees need to do the basic task that they are expected to do for the company and the basic task expectation will change every year after you get your raise in salary. As superiors of your staff, we have to make clear to them our expectation and company objectives. Other than that, one has the added responsibility to ensure the subordinates under you are well trained to carry out the task assigned. It is also our social responsibility for these young employees to be eventually well equipped with the knowledge, know-how and experience so that they could survive in any other organization when one day they step out of the door of the company. Their performance within or without the company is reflective of how good you are as their boss. I would be extremely proud if any one of my subordinates quits the job because he or she is well trained and competent enough to become a GM of another organization.<br />
<br />
Manage your people well because they are the greatest asset of the company and if you have good employees working for you then your job and life as manager will be made much easier for sure!Martin Leehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18194281718414566973noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6317177049182359334.post-15023236351683201022010-08-23T09:59:00.000+08:002010-08-23T09:59:50.815+08:00Bikes and bicyclesSometimes we run out of idea on what to write especially if suddenly you feel that you have not been writing for the past a week or so. A casual talk started on the topic of riding motorbike, Harley Davidson came into the conversation and gave me the theme for the day. Talking about Harley, it is a pricey machine and very exclusive in this part of the world, mainly due to the high import duty. Other than just from performance and the aesthetic points of view, the fans of Harley are also fascinated by the thundering sound of the machine when it roars past us. That reminded me of the British Norton marque bike long time ago when its heavy engine sound ripped through the morning silence of a village, as though the piston was pounding so hard that it shook the ground underneath its wheels. Some other bikers have modified their exhaust pipes just to emulate and get that heavy pounding sound, somehow our discerning ears would be able to tell the difference. I suppose that could be due to the characteristics of the engine design, its air flow pattern, in combination with the bends and turns of the exhaust pipe that give rise to the distinctive and yet unique sound associated with a particular brand of these machines.<br />
<br />
Owning a Harley in the East Coast of Malaysia could be a pain. Ramli, a restaurant boss and previous Harley owner had related to me that one has to send the bike all the way to Kuala Lumpur even for the change of lubricating oil. And that sounds ridiculous but it is true!<br />
<br />
We Malaysians are more used to smaller capacity bikes of 50-250 cc, and the fact that when we got our driving licence, we are permitted to ride bikes only up to the 250cc and that always limits our range of purchase. Exceeding this range of capacity, one has to take a separate driving test in order to be qualified for riding those big bikes. Big bikes are heavy and it would be difficult to lift them back into upright position once they fall. That reminded me of an incident that happened to me many years ago, that a smaller version of a bicycle fall had given me the imagination on what is it going to be like when one is pinned under a heavy big cc machines such as a Harley or Honda Goldwing:<br />
<br />
During certain school holidays my dad would send me all the way to my grandmother working place in a tin mines at the remote outskirt of Kampar town. The landscape of those tin mines areas is mainly of white sands, shrubs and some creepers vegetation that form the favorite food and also a natural habitat for the crickets. It is almost identical and looks like a desert as in White Sand of New Mexico. There was a Chinese medicine herb with unknown name, the branches of which after fully grown would dry up and turn full black with tiny and distinct white round shaped seeds still clinging onto the branches; we named them as "Little Balls Herb". I used to cycle around and collect them in bundles and when my dad came to pick me with his car, we would load them onto the trunk and then sell to the Chinese medicine shops for a couple of dollars. A day of the same routine for me to collect those plants in the white sandy land, suddenlty dark cloud shrouded the sky and the rain was imminent. I propeled my bicycle to full speed with all my might, an attempt to beat the rain before it started to pour on me. At a path where there was a gentle curve with loose sand, a gentle swerve of the bicycle handle caused me to fall flat and sent me pinned right down under the machine. I stayed motionless, short of breath for a couple of minutes, struggled but could not get myself up. When the rain started to pour, there came my savior, a kind Sikh old man who was looking after the cattles that free ranging those mining lands nearby came to my rescue. When he lifted the bicycle, I was instantly revived and hurried my way home.<br />
<br />
In my mind, I am wondering where is this old man once helped me? Could not remember his face, could he be an angel sent down by God just to help me at that moment of time? Even after so many years, I want to thank him for that!Martin Leehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18194281718414566973noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6317177049182359334.post-51967606665009390872010-08-10T17:01:00.000+08:002019-07-31T23:28:57.218+08:00Mating of my wild Betta ImbellisWith the only wild fighting fish Betta Imbellis left in my keeping, I handle this pet with special care, ensure there is a constant change interval of water and also feed it with more nutritious food. Occasionally I throw in some deserts made up of mosquitos that tried to bite me but failed miserably, flattened under my claps and ended up in the belly of this beloved fish of mine. Surprising, over a few months, it has grown much bigger than its normal natural size found in the wild. Somehow I believe, the confined space without any external threat or predator, easy prey of rich diet readily available and also the lack of "exercise" contributed to its current state of physique!<br />
<br />
With the pools of bubbles that appear occasionally on top of the container that it lives in, it was a sign that the fish had grown to its puberty age. I was in a situation of lacking the stock of wild females for its mating. It happened that the local aquarium shops sold me some Siamese female fighting fishes of various breeds and colors. I had chosen a few and reared them at home for a couple of weeks to pick on the right fish for the breeding project. After much observation I decided to pick on the white and long fin female. Well it was almost like matching an Asian to a white woman! My only worry was that this wild male might not recognize a white bigger size female as its own kind because it has never seen one before in its life time! Initially when the male was first introduced into the bigger tank of the female, it behaved a little bit timid, perhaps the size of a strange looking female might seem formidable and difficult for it to handle. I guess my worry was unncessary, its lust for a female after being suppressed within a confined wall for that few months upon reaching its adolescent stage eventually reared its ugly head! The female was no match for its fiery courting bites and it finally succumbed and gave way to her little wild beast!<br />
<br />
One day after I returned from work to home, the pool of bubbles was thick and whitish and I knew the mating had taken place and eggs were laid and kept floating above the water level by the bubbles. The male fish kept on chasing away the female after their mating ritual was over. It was as though the love affair between them was finally over. In actual fact, it is a natural behavior for the male to take care of the eggs until they are fully hatched. Female fighting fishes tend to eat the small fries if without the protection from the male fish, and that is the reason why the female was constantly being chased away!<br />
<br />
Looking at the haggard and sluggish moving female fish and constantly being attacked by the male, I scooped it away to another container. Now the male was given the full time nursery responsibility to care for the youngs. Eggs turned greyish after 2 days and the tiny young fishes finally appeared on the third day under the tender care of the male fish. The young tiny fries dotted the surface of the aquarium and they live on micro-organisms that are plenty in the aquarium. The aquarium is filled with water weeds, plants and wood to resemble the natural habitat environment though the lighting is still a bit bright to be considered as natural. I temporarily switched off the water pump to avoid the young fishes from been sucked in during the filtration process.<br />
<br />
I am curiously anxious to see how the offsprings of this mixed mating will eventually grow and look like. I guess they would bear the best features of their parents. Perhaps, decorated with fluorescent, glow in the dark iridescent bluish green color over a white based body, long and red spotted tails and fins etc. Bigger in size and more hardy species could be the possible end product! I mean, if you look at how those mixed children from parents of different races look like, then you could possibly relate and figure out why I have this imagination!Martin Leehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18194281718414566973noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6317177049182359334.post-27791384149799717652010-08-02T10:20:00.000+08:002010-08-02T10:20:45.560+08:00Political AnalysisOn the night of meeting my old primary school classmates, I chanced upon having an interesting conversation with one of a renowned political analyst guest. We discussed on the right way of writing article on the political scenario and constructive criticism so that the public in general or readers of newspapers and magazines could be given an impartial view and update on the actual situation of the country.<br />
<br />
He mentioned that the media is very much controlled or monopolized by pro-government businessmen or proxies of some political parties.The publishing licence is granted for short term renewal and is constantly being scrutinized under the watchful eyes of the authority, the issuance of which could be revoked any time at the whim and fancy of the power-that-be. Writers are given certain space in the media to write and in return they are rewarded for their service. Since political parties have vested interest in the media, any one sided criticism would not benefit the power-that-be behind the media and also the livelihood of writers. The writers are in a difficult dilemma. Therefore the thriving political analysts must be able to master the skill of administering the rightful amount of criticism; even at certain times they must have the gut to sling mud onto the face of the political party affiliated to their pay-check employer, just to add in a dosage of impartiality! A successful writer must be able to juggle this well, optimize all considerations and apportion the right amount of criticism and at crucial moment, even has to abstain from any heavy bombarding to give them a breather. This is a technique employed to attract the interest and draw the attention of the readers, and take into consideration the very fact that by so doing their privilege of being able to keep their space and getting paid for their article regularly in the media are not at stake.<br />
<br />
I disputed this kind of compromising writing style with monetary gain as their hidden primary objective. Under this situation, the tendency to become non-independent is questionable despite all that skillful camouflage. With the advent of internet, there are many intelligent readers out there that scan every piece of available information and compare notes. They would be able to evaluate and distinguish the genuine political wrtiers and their ulterior motives.<br />
<br />
In view of our differing opinions, I counter proposed to him that a good political analyst writer should read the review of other fellow writers as well and determine what are the areas of weaknesses of their written article to be further improved or beefed up for future writings. View the topic from different perspectives and see how the flow and the logics of argument to lead the readers, and drive home the points the writer wanted to convey. At the same time also recommend an alternative or more innovative, above the pack kind of proposal to better tackle the particular controversial topic or situation. In the end, a respectable political analyst writer, in the name of independency and impartiality, should prepare even to lose his/her job and write for free in the internet!<br />
<br />
The topic then changed to who should we cast our votes to. I said we should vote for those performers in the interest of the "Rakyat". To me, it really does not matter which party rules the country as long as there is a denial of two third majority which acts as a check and balance for the good of all Malaysians. I am equally happy if BN or PKR could win the election, it is a collective decision by the "Rakyat", which should be based on how the candidates collectively had contributed and performed for their constituencies and country, instead of just by emotion or the demagogue of just wanting a change situation.Martin Leehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18194281718414566973noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6317177049182359334.post-4457685672239786572010-07-28T16:14:00.000+08:002010-07-28T16:14:55.703+08:00Things that come latelyWe should have owned our 1st BMW at the age of 30 instead of 15 years later! I should have my present level of command for my English language when I took my MCE "O" level so as to secure a better grade. I should have married younger and by now all my children would have graduated. Things always seem to come lately.<br />
<br />
It is true that there is nothing to shout about if we achieve certain things when other people had way passed you at a much earlier stage or younger age. We just have to accept that some people are simply smarter, more talented and richer than you!<br />
<br />
When we were young, we have all the energy, the time but did not have the money to do things that we like to do. While we were at the middle age, we had the money and the energy but we were so busy with our career and families that we could not spare the extra time. At older age, we might have all of these, except the physical strength to carry out things that we wanted to do during our younger days! Life sucks and we seem to be always in a situation of "out of sync with what we wanted so much right at that point of time"!<br />
<br />
When we compare ourselves to the best, we think all those things really come too lately for us. But we are glad that we did not fall into the trap of drugs that caused many wasted years as what many drug addicts had gone through. It took many of them in the region of 10-20 years to get rid of the habit before they started a new life, and many more could not make it and remain drug addicted for the rest of their lives. We did not commit any serious crime that could have ended up in a dungeon and wasted our years on our career building and earning capability. We are also so blessed that we did not suffer any long illness that deprives us the best time of our lives! Thank God for all these!<br />
<br />
Life is not perfect and let us be contended with what we already have. We hope and pray to continue to live a healthy life and enjoy every moment of what we can do. It is always better late than never!Martin Leehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18194281718414566973noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6317177049182359334.post-28990255089310107312010-07-21T11:05:00.000+08:002010-07-21T11:05:25.038+08:00A mountain trekking trip<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHqyxpKxD7uICcL5Q8S0ddkJG2Iy81aiBBl4JHBQd17P1qNd3BrLuhMzxZL_hSO68YNIvwkALrvgyzm-67EyyeR_DoN_RuyW42JTS-CImwxFmDfMUp1OhyodMv94dI-yqQtumyrDkWQQYw/s1600/DSCN5209.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" hw="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHqyxpKxD7uICcL5Q8S0ddkJG2Iy81aiBBl4JHBQd17P1qNd3BrLuhMzxZL_hSO68YNIvwkALrvgyzm-67EyyeR_DoN_RuyW42JTS-CImwxFmDfMUp1OhyodMv94dI-yqQtumyrDkWQQYw/s320/DSCN5209.JPG" /></a></div>Had never tried a serious mountain trekking before and with the warm invitation from friends, joined them for the fun and also to have a feel on what mountain trekking is all about. I have been on regular exercise by filling my daily schedule with cycling in the evening and also morning jogging. My intention is to prepare myself for physically more demanding activities. It would be a good idea to test out how I fare physically after all this period of hard training and also is good to know the level of fitness which my other learned friends had already attained. Using their standard as a reference, then I will strive to train and excercise harder in order to cope up with them for the future more challenging expedition of high places.<br />
<br />
The mountain selected this time was Gunung Bunga Buah half way near to Genting Highland resort. Since we had to start off at the home of our buddy in Jalan Bunga Anggerik of Ukay Heights of Ampang at 7 am and therefore we put up a night there instead of travelling across the KL city from west to east just to avoid the usual morning traffic woes. Started the journey in Gotong Raya after our expensive breakfast which was RM9 for a plate of "wantan mee". I suppose this place is meant for the tourists and not the local trekkers like us!<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5WCf3LwvnNrazYgeCUC0-f7XIhyphenhyphenMXSHMJYByRl4EdDU8qqLmFe1j4RE4WsgV3B0vAkVECvCnFaCq2X9ezTmD_MBKsap9rqqM5kK54ukbXXe-KhD9pyzjOK1BNDFjke6thlWvL47xkf5Bu/s1600/DSCN5215.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" hw="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5WCf3LwvnNrazYgeCUC0-f7XIhyphenhyphenMXSHMJYByRl4EdDU8qqLmFe1j4RE4WsgV3B0vAkVECvCnFaCq2X9ezTmD_MBKsap9rqqM5kK54ukbXXe-KhD9pyzjOK1BNDFjke6thlWvL47xkf5Bu/s320/DSCN5215.JPG" /></a></div>The initial climb was a very steep slope right after a local vegetable farm before reaching an abandoned tar road winding through some jungle path with tree ferns and wild orchids along the way. After a while the road was gently sloping downwards and on its side and at some high point of the edge, one could take a view of the peak of Gunong Bunga Buah. We finally reached the end of the road and waited for the arrival of all the climbers before we get ready to take another ascend. The path at the waiting spot there was covered with many dried leaves, after the rain of previous night, leeches were active and they were ever ready to stick onto any of our shoes or legs. We brought along repellent spray, on seeing all the approaching leeches and we decided this was the place where we should spray a protective coat over our shoes, socks , shirts and the exposed parts of our limbs.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjntReBAnrruVRyfaUOBqKWXQSMGrwEI5dNyTIEaP_Gu_PlqoMpB85ddidTXtZvplMKqU_qQOiCx0He-GAEwfyz_Kzg-y0Vz-NE02yHbDsldUyPfDl61TDygcGMVnp2ZoUWa2zeQ4_G4FmL/s1600/DSCN5206.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" hw="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjntReBAnrruVRyfaUOBqKWXQSMGrwEI5dNyTIEaP_Gu_PlqoMpB85ddidTXtZvplMKqU_qQOiCx0He-GAEwfyz_Kzg-y0Vz-NE02yHbDsldUyPfDl61TDygcGMVnp2ZoUWa2zeQ4_G4FmL/s320/DSCN5206.JPG" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDtpRAuSxwbUPcJVezxP1qlNY0DpVpYDULKNFN_rYgMhyphenhyphen79Tw-wSSkG97OK8oJCxNvkts-hm5cy4YBWbbafhpjXlRHL7D3tYN2TVGwgf6Bk3uMnGxAHQVtIdUEecj9UyFoMeHSN-e0xf4p/s1600/DSCN5205.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" hw="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDtpRAuSxwbUPcJVezxP1qlNY0DpVpYDULKNFN_rYgMhyphenhyphen79Tw-wSSkG97OK8oJCxNvkts-hm5cy4YBWbbafhpjXlRHL7D3tYN2TVGwgf6Bk3uMnGxAHQVtIdUEecj9UyFoMeHSN-e0xf4p/s320/DSCN5205.JPG" /></a><br />
<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">The climb and the descend of this second hill was smooth after our warming up stretch just before this. But the muddy trek, fallen tree trunks and the roots were obstacles that we had to overcome in order to push our journey further up. The roots of the trees and some of the paths were slippery and therefore the kind of climbing shoes worn that gave the maximum grip would be important for this type of terrain. We stopped occasionally for a drink to keep our body hydrated and sometimes leeches dropped themselves from the leaves when they sensed the movement and noise. It was a leech infested forest but I was lucky to be spared of not even a single bite. Most of us had managed to discover and get rid of them just before they about to take on a sumptous suck!<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNCJKIFdOubGXCCnwB3ocqdNTYkbQCrP8cr5ZVpXzyuZJNvHe3UIRswCPTszbHGibyfcL-7UR_D3LPjR_Ehqj0hZG73bboJWJHCUrYx7iuuhWSg2kHM_62lkewEBzjdDVjUuY7FSSiHUHo/s1600/DSCN5202.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" hw="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNCJKIFdOubGXCCnwB3ocqdNTYkbQCrP8cr5ZVpXzyuZJNvHe3UIRswCPTszbHGibyfcL-7UR_D3LPjR_Ehqj0hZG73bboJWJHCUrYx7iuuhWSg2kHM_62lkewEBzjdDVjUuY7FSSiHUHo/s320/DSCN5202.JPG" /></a></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">We continued the climb and passed through a small rock garden as we about to reach the peak and took a view of the surrounding mountainous range which was simply scenic! We scaled the mountain for another 40 minutes before reaching the top. It was misty at the peak and the view was partially shrouded by the fog. We had our lunch here with the provisions that we brought along. We finished off most of the water and left some for the returning path and our load and thus the weight was very much reduced for the descending journey.</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOlMHSoOgd0Zg6l5f__bCrEqC3bvq9DrMH6dzhlQJCRXyoSv4eJV1gVavpFmEoPvoNRArusKyJHd0hh3HqMlgSuGlwpFOObNE012v3nmF9jXnRm82lLtn6rZ0C6O6bkYeICfJUquZ_Bglz/s1600/DSCN5203.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" hw="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOlMHSoOgd0Zg6l5f__bCrEqC3bvq9DrMH6dzhlQJCRXyoSv4eJV1gVavpFmEoPvoNRArusKyJHd0hh3HqMlgSuGlwpFOObNE012v3nmF9jXnRm82lLtn6rZ0C6O6bkYeICfJUquZ_Bglz/s320/DSCN5203.JPG" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDTec8yYbzhIU5Uu5ZvBKHQTt6ngiAqsdZ2QIpEG0ynnbBin89N7eNuz3ETcIETD-QoGH8_frfPk9PpBaw1CB3SeAOboZmYAkY7VV4HeoaO20Zda_F-K0lfOG_hZbm1efZSpVbvQ2irh5F/s1600/DSCN5214.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" hw="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDTec8yYbzhIU5Uu5ZvBKHQTt6ngiAqsdZ2QIpEG0ynnbBin89N7eNuz3ETcIETD-QoGH8_frfPk9PpBaw1CB3SeAOboZmYAkY7VV4HeoaO20Zda_F-K0lfOG_hZbm1efZSpVbvQ2irh5F/s320/DSCN5214.JPG" /></a></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">The descending along the same path which we climbed up was pleasant and the toughest was now the stretch of ascending back and up the second hill. We were in good spirit and wanted to complete the descend in 2 hours compared with the more strenuous climbing up of about 2 hours and 45 minutes. The actual descending time took us probably in the region of 2 hours and 15 minutes.</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">There was an unforeseeable incident happened on the way down hill, a couple was lost in direction and one of my buddies trekked backward and went to look for them. Together with another guy from another, they finally found them and the delay was 2 hours from the original finishing schedule of 3 pm. From this event, I would be able to judge the fitness level of this buddy, he could back trek for another 2 hours without any problem after a total non-stop uphill and downhill of 5 hours! I really need to train harder in order to be in par with him on stamina and strength!</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">It was also an important lesson to learn that no matter how simple and straight forward a trekking trail appears to you, one should never underestimate and rule out the possibility of getting lost in direction. Therefore it is a good habit to mark the trail with papers along the way and also carry along a GPS system and an extra set of mobile phone battery as spare.</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">This was my first trekking trip and the next day the muscle of both of my thighs was pulling and painful while walking down the steps of staircase. It is hard to say that I really enjoyed the process of climbing such a tough and muddy mountain filled with leeches, but the feeling when the climb was over and that you had conquered a mountain, the joy of satisfaction and the sense of accomplishment of how your body could withstand and overcome the challenge is just beyond the description of words!</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">My next target would be Gunong Nuang in Hulu Langat!</div>Martin Leehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18194281718414566973noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6317177049182359334.post-84897668310657349042010-07-13T17:06:00.000+08:002010-07-13T17:06:47.458+08:00Who is having the absolute truth?Over the internet and many forums, there are many people arguing on whose religion is of the right choice and insisted that they are embracing the absolute truth. Whenever you are a believer belonging to any particular faith, the preachers or priests would normally tell you that this is the absolute truth and there will always be having something reserved about the others. Not a direct comment but inevitably implying something which is implicit enough and yet could get the message across to the listeners. The different protestant churches will express variably over what is the right way that one should be baptized; by immersion in water or sprinkled with water while others will emphasize the ultimate baptizm by holy spirit and the speaking of tongues etc. The Catholics will have different interpretation about the biblical teachings from the Protestants and vice versa. One just could not imagine the possible confusion caused to the general public at large by the many denominations and interpretation of one particular religion of Christianity. The Christians are not alone while our Muslim brothers also have their own fair share of differences with their Sunni and Shiite sects and others.<br />
<br />
I do not normally participate in such internet discussion mainly because when we said we are right and that will probably imply or get the message across to the other party that they are in the wrong. Religion is a sensitive issue and sometimes you might win an argument but could end up offending the other party and lose a friend. Such unintentional mutual fault finding and argument on religious topics will take us nowhere. I therefore always opt to talk about the common things that we all share and agreeable such as we are the worshippers of one Abrahamic God! The interpretation of religions is very much an individual thing and they have to experience for themselves and also to witness how a religion change and impact a person's life. Eventually they will have to combine them, base on their critical thinking skill to evaluate on the teachings and also their own experience over time, and then make their own final choice. Thou shalt love thy neighbors and respect them even if they opt to take on a faith different from yours!<br />
<br />
I am no expert in the field of Chrisitianity but I would be most honored to answer questions that I know and explain them from my very own perspectives.<br />
<br />
May God always give us the wisdom! AmenMartin Leehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18194281718414566973noreply@blogger.com0