Here's My Story

I've been trying to see whether I could sell my old Alienware 14 since I got my current ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14, while continually looking out avenue to donate it for recyling. I did offer it to my sister for her children to use but she declined (after discussing it with husband).  Later, I read news of CeX setting up in Malaysia and the nearest outlet (there were only two) was at MyTown KL. Ban and I are reluctant to go to KL and so I didn't make an effort to go there to sell my laptop until we came across a few recycling bins at Megah Rise Mall, including one for laptops. So before I donated it, I wanted to give CeX a shot first. To make it a more worthwhile trip, we went there before lunch time. We took a wrong turn going there and that almost doubled our journey time from 35 minutes to 63 minutes @@ CeX didn't accept my laptop, apparently because of the degradation of the rubber legs and also that one spoiled key. Do they instead want used laptop in pristine condition? A...

Here are the results compared to 4 months ago :                                 Sep 2023              Ref             Jan 2024            Ref Total cholesterol           5.1               < 5.2                  5.6               <5.2 HDL ("good")               2.1           ...

(Emphasis is mine, to show the mistakes) 1. Malaymail article "Malaysia further reduces dependency on Petronas dividends in 2024 to grow non-petroleum based revenue". Sentence "This substantial dip in petroleum-related income can be attributed to several factors, including dwindling foreign investments and a less substantial annual dividend from the staet oil and gas giant Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas)." 2. Free Malaysia today article "Rafizi clarifies remarks on ‘unprecedented’ quarterly economic growth". Sentence "However, the data Rafizi shared showed that Malaysia’s economy had recorded increasingly higher growth rates from Q3 2016 to Q1 2017 (1.1%, 1.4%, 1.7%) and from Q4 2018 to Q1 2019 (0.5%, 1.5%, 2.6%) ."  Q4 2018 to Q1 2019 = only two quarters! 3. Free Malaysia today article "Somalia rules out mediation unless Ethiopia retracts Somaliland deal". Sentence "Tensions in the Horn of Africa have escalated since Addis Abab...

I wanted to try flying SIA on the way back from Australia . It's actually more expensive that way compared to taking MAS because we had to take another flight back to KL. It was worth it though: the experience was clearly better than I had with MAS the year before, in terms of service, food and entertainment unit. A caveat though: the aircraft was A380, which I'm not sure whether it played a part or not. However, I had one small complaint: That was what I got when I tried checking in via its app. I panicked a little. Did the visa requirement changed for Malaysians? No, not according to official websites. Then why? FYI this was about 2 days before the flight itself. My best guess was that due to our seats situated at the emergency exits. We purchased those seats for the extra leg room. Previously, I had problem getting my boarding pass from MAS via its app. Ban's boarding pass was issued but as for me, I was told to get it from airport check-in counter. Happened twice alread...

I passed by this shops a few times during those rare trips to One Utama. I remember being attracted by an aroma and surmised that it came from their drinks with lemon, which I'm not a fan of. Hence, I entirely forgot about it until one day Ban's brother ordered one for Ban to try (via Grab, most likely). Ban generally likes sweet sourish drink. To my surprise, I loved that drink too. It was either Osmanthus Honey Lemon or Honey Lemon Oolong Tea. Can't remember as it was months ago. The next time we were at One U, I decided to try this: It was delicious and I would like to have it again. I might even try other drinks there. However, it's quite expensive and so it's not something I'll have often though. Well, I rarely go to One U and so that helps.

There was an episode in The Good Doctor where this question came up: what do you want to do if you know you have only 6 months to live? I thought about it and I'm pleasantly surprised that the answer is that I will still do the same thing i.e. spend as much time as possible with my husband, my mum, my sisters and their respective families. I probably will travel more to spend even more time with them. In a sense, I'm fortunate that I don't have a bucket list that includes, say, visit certain countries, achieve certain academic/sports milestones etc. I'm happy and blessed :)

Spotted this at Melbourne Airport: 😄

In my second playthrough, I played as Paladin/Warlock, known as Lockadin by some players and Pallock by me. It took me about 171 hours to complete, including the extra long-ish epilogue scene and, as usual, excluding reload time. It's significantly faster than the 230-hour playthrough as Bard , mainly because I was already familiar with many things by then and also I took shorter routes as well e.g. killing Gotash early , whch unexpectedly triggered the completion of the quest of rescuing Duke of Ravengard (a failure) and the Avenging the Ironhands quest (a success). The idea behind this multiclass is to benefit from the stacking of extra attack from the Paladin class and the Pact of the Blade Warlock subclass i.e. 3 attacks altogether in a single turn. focusing only on Charisma as the ability to do weapon attack and spell attack, thanks to the feature of the pact. So the first thing to do was to rush to Warlock level 3 as soon as possible to unlock Pact of the Blade so as to use C...

As with many condos, there are residents who are delinquents in paying the monthly maintenance fees and some of the debt can be staggering. At a particular condo, the management committee struck a deal with a tenant that allowed the tenant to pay lower maintenance fee until their financial situation improved but when it did improve, they refused to pay more. I heard that this case when before the tribunal and the committee lost. Go figures. Why? I don't know. I am not privy to the agreement but it sounds dubious to me. What's stopping the committee from making similar deal with, say, their loves ones and lower the fee to, say, RM 1 per month?

I started using Spotify in 2023 to listen to songs. This became especially useful when exercising on treadmill, which is whenever I can't swim (usually due to rainy weather). Later, I discovered podcasts and I've been listening to a few of them ever since. Here are the books that I read and podcasts I listened to in 2023: Books: The Tetris Effect - Dan Ackerman Wolfrider: Dreamtime The Accidental Malay - Karina Robles Bahrin Best Bear/Year Ever! - Liz Climo Wolfrider: Searcher and The Sword Crazy Rich Asians - Kevin Kwan Simon vs The Homo Sapiens Agenda - Becky Albertalli The Colour of Inequality: Ethinicity, Class, Income and Weath in Malaysia - Muhammed Abdul Khalid My Unique Child: A Practical Guide to Raising a Child with Autism - Jasmine Goh Cradle: Unsouled - Will Wight Cradle: Soulsmith - Will Wight Cradle: Blackflame - Will Wight Podcasts: The British History - Jamie Jeffers Next Year in Moscow - The Economist Drum Tower - The Economist Putin - BBC Radio 4 Romance of th...