Facebook closing down??? Nah it's just a Hoax

Facebook the social networking site that triumph over others such as Friendster and Myspace. Facebook has more than 500 million users world wide and it's increasing by the hour. The know the story and how it came to be just watch the movie "The Social Network". People use it to connect with family and friends around the world, some play games, some use it to make new friends, some even use it for bad intentions. I don't think I need to stress how widely use, many who uses the internet do own an account.

Few days ago a website states that Facebook is closing down, Here is the link to the story :Facebook shuts down. The link was widely spread on Facebook itself.

Of course this is just a hoax, who in their right mind who earns billions would decide to shut this down to have his old life back. Even if he did want his old life back, he would have sold the company away. If facebook closes down, it affects all the game makers of the social network. Many of their incomes are generated from it, example EA acquire Playfish games and expanding into social networking games. Story of acquisition. What's funny about this is the comments that were started in the thread. The picture I've captured below shows the latest comments where some people have already realised it's a hoax. When the thread was just started may thought that it will be gone and most of them are really sad.

Facebook being shut down has it's good and bad. The good it reduces crime where people were stalked using Facebook, people announcing their suicidal attempt, and also increases productivity because many employees spend lots of time on it. The bad it connects people around the world, friends and families separated by the sea which will cause many to lose methods of communication.

I like Facebook because it's one way I reconnect with my old friends and keeps me updated about their lives. Occasionally I enjoy playing the flash games that are available. If Facebook is gone it wouldn't make too much of a difference in my life unless I do business with it.

Starbucks 2011 Schedule Diary

As the title says I'm writing about this year's diary that Starbucks Msia has offered. To obtain this you'll need to drink 12 grande size drinks, 1 of it has to be Toffee Nut beverage, another would be Peppermint Mocha. The rest could be any drink that you like. If you don't want to drink so much coffee or tea, just pay RM 55 for the book.

Here are some pictures:

 This is how the diary comes, with a small bag.

Front view of the diary

 Inside - 1st page, coupons on the left side

Starts with all the months  in this format

The design for each month

Places to write notes for each month

The last page of the book, with a small space on the right to put papers.

Overall I feel last year's one is much better with sectioned areas for each day of the month. This year it's just pages and pages of lines and I would usually draw lines to separate them myself just like year 2009's diary. Oh well just a bit more work for me to do to organize things nicely. At least I get to enjoy their xmas season drinks and get a diary out of it. I know Kinokuniya have nicer ones, or even Moleskin have some nice ones but its all too costly. If I can utilize it very well maybe next year I'll purchase one instead of getting the Starbucks one.

It's a new year!!! 2011

New year, new beginnings that's what everyones says. Though many things will have new beginnings, some things are just the same so I'm gonna improve on it and make it better. One of the things that I will try to do is to post once a week about anything or everything about my life, other people's life (just joking), mostly random stuff. I have a few things planned for this year, to keep me busy.

Plans:

• Read 1 book in a fortnight and review it.
• Travel to Singapore and visit Universal studios (hopefully I will dare to sit on the roller coasters)
•  Finished my Nintendo DS games that was released since 2009
• Continue learning Japanese myself ( pick up from where I left off last year)
• Share my learning experience on blog as often as I can
• Gain weight ( a big challenge for me)
• Stay fit (eat well, drink less cold drinks/ soft drinks)
• Take more photos and learn photography

These are just some of the plans I have for myself, I hope I can really put some hard work into it and show some results.

This year could be another dull year but I hope not, there are some things that I'm looking forward to. I will be spending Chinese New Year in Singapore (grandparents can't travel back to KL), my family, my aunt and son will fly down on CNY eve and we'll spend 5 days, 4 nights. It's gonna be fun because we're spending 5 days together under one roof. Normally each year I will spend my CNY eve and the first day at my grandparents' and then travel to Segamat, Johore to visit my mum's side of the family. Unfortunately, this year we will not be visitng them but they'll come to visit on one of the weekends. I will take lots of pictures for sure, it's close just one months time to go.

The only movie that I'm looking forward to watch this year is Transformers 3 and there isn't anything that excites me so far. I saw the "Thor" trailer but it didn't interest me that much, let's hope more trailers are out and we have more action movies coming. During mid year I plan to visit Universal Studios Singapore and I will challenge my fear of heights on the coaster rides =P. Let's hope I won't puke, it will be shameful because my cousin who is 8 years old is even more daring than I. 

Well sometimes things come unplanned too and I will be ready to take on those challenges and improve in person, grow more in life (adding 1 year of age doesn't count). I better not make too much plans and goals, and then fail at them. Let's try our best this year and stay happy all the time =D.

Last Day of the year

31 December 2010, last day of the year, some people party, some people ponder, some people don't bother, I would be flipping through  my schedule diary. I like to look at what activities I've done for the year, ponder on my achievements, maybe set some goals, plans and resolution for the coming year.

My 2010 was quite ordinary, many common things happened such as friends getting engaged, getting married, and many of my friends went to Taiwan. It's funny that I have seen more than 10 friends having pictures of their Taiwan trip, it must be the trend now. I myself only traveled to Singapore twice this year to visit my grandparents, my uncle & family, at the same time do some shopping there. I found a good place for cheap stuff, if I'm low on clothes I'll definitely go there again. 

I have also evaluated myself and here is a list of achievements:

• Traveled oversea (just crossing a bridge from Msia to SG)
• Finished Professor Layton game without FAQ/Walkthroughs ( I love testing my sense of logic thinking)
• Finished reading 15 books
• Finished some DS games 
• Learnt makeup online and learnt to take better care of my skin
• Avoided conflicts (talking about pissing ppl off or get pissed at ppl)

I know these achievements are lousy but to me it meant something.

Things that I failed to achieve:

• Still haven't completed Zelda , 365/2 days game
• Still haven't gain any weight
• Failed to learn all the katakana and hiragana words
• Failed to learn simple japanese
• Still have tons of self help books sitting in my cupboard

Overall I think it was a not bad year, it wasn't great but I'm satisfied although there could be more that I should have done, so I'll leave it to next year. So long 2010 and welcome 2011 where I hope that I will do great things and achieve what I didn't this year.

PS: Went to Singapore at 15th December, will update on that once I sort the pictures.

Mid Valley Parking System is crap

The purpose of this post to increase awareness on this horrendous parking system. Firstly the management decided to increase the parking rate yet again, it has become the worst type, the money sucking type as it has no maximum charge at all.It used to be max RM 7 for weekdays and RM 9 for weekends and public holidays. With this new rate if you work there from 9-6 you'll be paying RM 9. We should see changes in maintenance of the parking but it did not improve.It is always so packed and people always park illegally. Below is the picture for the new rate:

I was okay with this parking rate until I was charge unreasonably. It was last Friday when I went for a midnight movie, I arrived at 11:30 ish and left after because the Harry Potter movie was quite long.The receipt is below:

As you can see the timing of in and out is clearly printed. I always know how much to pay for carpark because I do keep track of time, I prepared RM 3 because it was 4 hrs, so RM 2 for 1st 3 hrs and RM 1 for the subsequent hr. I was shocked when the machine asked to pay RM 5 and I could not make any complain as there wasn't anyone personnel working at that hour. I payed and collected my receipt and I found the mistake that made it charge me more. The machine calculated that I was there for 6hrs and 1 minute which was absolutely wrong. If you do the equation it would be

                                                        26:48 (02:48 adding 24hrs system)

                                                      - 23:33

                                                      = 3:16

So I was there for 3 hrs and 16 minutes and rounding the charge would be 4hrs. Last time when I went for midnight movies like this I only pay RM 2 for having been there for 4 hrs and now an extra RM 3. I believe that after they changed the system the programmers screwed up the algorithm in calculation. Another thing that got me angry was tonight when I went there for dinner the machine still make the same mistake in calculation.

If you look at the bottom it calculated 4 hrs but actually it's only 3hrs and 1 min. Even passing 1 minute they charge an extra ringgit. Stupid parking system is just like a blood sucker which can't even fit in a proper algorithm. Can't they not charge people who just exceed 1-5 minutes, since they give people 20 minute grace period to leave. you should also not charge the person extra for exceeding a mere minute. What's so hard to code it?? Just add an extra IF logic to check whether the exceeding minute is > 5 or not then BAM! you got it. I have come across a parking system which is Bangsar Village, once I exceeded by a minute but there was no next hr charged.

Tomorrow I will write an e-mail to their management and make my complaint formally. I hope they will provide me a proper explanation. I hope my friends and readers who visit there take note of the charges, let's not feed these systems blindly as RM 1 a person is a lot in a day for them.

Out of date....

I haven't been blogging for two months, eek so lazy of me. I have been reading but quite slowly, like a book in 2 months time. There are some books that I've completed but I didn't find any time to do it, soon I guess. If you ask me what have I been up to these time? Nothing exciting, just read when I can, play Sims 3 Ambitions (taken a lot of my time) and the thing that I do everyday is watching all those dramas and TV series from USA. Everything just started again since end of September, I have at least one series to catch a day. 

Another thing that I've been obsessing was my skin, I haven't been taking care of it consistently and lately I notice that the laziness is showing. Spend most weekends out with my sister looking at skin care brands. I have yet to find anything that shows me results that I'm satisfied with.  At this century many women depend on make up and I've seen many China girls who look almost like men and with loads of make up they are transformed into someone pretty. I know make up can hide flaws but I feel that I would invest in skin care to retain natural beauty, that way I don't need make up at all.

One month till the last month of the year and I bet many people are planning their holidays, Christmas parties and new year's party, time really flies. As for me I don't have anything planned, but before xmas I'll be visiting Singapore as my grandparents are there. Let's hope it will be a fun trip because my cousins are on holiday we get to do plan some activities then. 

Overwhelmed....

Sometimes I have so much in my head that I don't know how to tell someone, to share and get comforted. In this world that I kinda lost some hope on it, I just choose to keep quiet and ignore. But it's just too overwhelming that at some point I feel like giving up on mankind, on humanity. I guess writing it out like this is considered sharing with the world instead of talking to a person face to face which I sometimes are not that brave to do.

A few weeks ago I was at a point where I felt that this world needed an apocalypse, a major disaster to wake everyone up. Something to shake the world up and let them have a feeling that they themselves are not the world, they are not everything and I hoped that those arrogant people will feel useless and helpless instead of strutting around acting like King. People these days are very selfish and all they think about are themselves, benefits for them and more power. Some even use other people as excuses for doing what they're doing.

That day when I felt that way, a few things happened. I was on my way driving to a place and I needed to pass by a shopping mall area. There was 5 lanes and the furthest 2 right lanes are for other drivers to head to a different location. As usual at a place like this there were minor traffic jams and these are caused by people who drive at the right lanes and cut into the left lanes. I am an ethical driver and I know where I am headed so I always queue from the start before the lanes diverged. There are many who cut in on purpose because they don't want to queue at the long line, if however a person really took the wrong lane in the first place have the courtesy to put a signal light and say thank you or sorry at the driver you squeeze in, but no, nobody did that. That pissed me off because when I cut in because I had no choice I will apologise I don't drive like a ruffian and just squeeze people. This act is just so selfish, what have the world become of. I know I sound naive but since they are doing this kind of act I am sure they have done worse, it just shows what kind of a person you are even though it's just driving.

Another thing that happened on that weekend was my family and I went to dinner at a food court. For a weekend it was packed like hell and so we took quite some time to find a table. After finding a table we had to find a worker to clean the table, and so I courteously ask a person who was pushing a cart, " Please can you  help clean this table". That person just continued to push his cart and nearly hit me with it. What kind of an attitude to portray when you are in this service line, I was mad and I wanted to complain to the manager for his attitude. I wasn't even demanding rudely to have him clean my table. This made me feel that sometimes some people don't deserve gratitude because they don't even serve you with gratitude. I have always say thank you to waiters who serve food, to people who just doing a bit because it's gratitude that I want to give from the bottom of  my heart. I don't say it for the sake of saying it because I meant every word.

I get so piss and tired thinking about this world, figuring people out on their intentions. I agree some people have good intentions but this just seems to be getting less and less. Everyday I see this and I feel overwhelmed because there's nothing I can do about it, people don't act on inspiration or influence anymore, they all act based on selfishness.  If only someone could prove me wrong but we all know this is so what's happening in this world. One day when all hell breaks loose, people will be "Every man for himself" and it's just not I want to see in the future.

Twenties Girl

We are now living in the twentieth century therefore us girls can be called the twenties girl, another person who could be called that way would be someone who was living in the 1920s. That person would be old now with the age of 90 and above. Girls living in the 1920s adore dresses and for this century we adore jeans, shirts, short dresses, short skirts and many more.

Lara Lington quit her job to be a headhunter just like her best friend but she was caught in a bad position as her friend decided to quit and spend her time with another person in a foreign land. Lara herself have no experience in head hunting and was struggling to meet the demands of her clients. Other than that she just broken up with Josh who she can't get over with and thinks that there is still a chance with him. 

There was a funeral for her great aunt Sadie and her family attended along with her uncle and family. Her uncle Bill Lington is a celebrity for he made millions starting with two cents. Bill owns a big chain of coffee shops and made a name for himself. He also published a book on his path to success and gave seminars to teach people that they can do the same as him. Bill and family live a lavish life and his daughter is a spoiled brat. All of them did not give much thought to the funeral and just wanted to get it over with. 

During the funeral, Lara keeps hearing a person talking and it was asking where her necklace could be. Lara was annoyed and answer loudly but there was no one else in the funeral but her family. This girl who was dressed in the 1920s keep yelling at Lara to stop the funeral and find her necklace. Lara couldn't stand it and stopped the funeral by saying she suspected that her great aunt Sadie was murdered. Lara had to go to the police station to report her statement and why she suspected the murder. She was scared that she will be caught in an offense for making a false report but that was the only way to stall the body being buried. The girl ghost who kept haunting Lara was actually Sadie and she wanted her dragonfly necklace buried with her. It was a special gift that was given from Sadie's parents for her 21st birthday.

Day and night Sadie would pester Lara to find her necklace and on the way they met a wonderful chap called Ed. Sadie really liked his type of looks and so she forced Lara to ask him out on a date and soon they became friends. It was odd but somehow Sadie could convince people to do things by yelling at their ears continuously until they give in. Sadie's lost necklace leads to a mystery and a lie being discovered. The past of Sadie was also unraveled eventually.

This book is full of laughs and I dare say it's now my favourite work from Sophie Kinsella. I have never read so much humour in a book that seems like a ghost story but turns out to be funny. The funny parts are what Sadie manage to convince other people to do and also Lara herself. It was also interesting to read on more about how the Lara try to find a necklace that she have not seen before. The relationship between Lara and Ed was odd at first and it turned out to be something good. But the main thing of this story is the relationship that was built between Lara and her ghostly great aunt Sadie, how they found out where the necklace went to.   I really enjoyed this book but I wished the ending could somehow different on how things ended for Sadie an Lara. I recommend to those who wants a good laugh from a chic lit genre.