Mid-Season EPL Review

With an average of 20 games played, the EPL is officially into Q2 of the season. A couple of months ago, I always answered any question of Liverpool winning the EPL with the response, "wait till Christmas"... well, it has come and gone, and Benitez is winning from the terrace! Steven Gerard's potential jail term aside - and who are we kidding? It ain't gonna happen - Liverpool looked like the genuine article against Newcastle over the weekend.

So, are they favorites now? Perhaps not... but just perhaps. With Big Phil Scholari looking like exploding on the byelines - blaming everyone from his keeper to his housekeeper, I speculate that all is not well teamwise in Stamford Bridge. Manchester United on the other hand are winning while playing poorly with 2 games in hand and 7 points off the pace for the moment. It is Sir Alex who will probably hold the key to Rafa Benitez's season, and it will begin with the United-Chelsea game next week. A draw will see Liverpool move 5 points clear - if they win their own match.

With Stevie G, Alonso and Mascherano anchoring the midfield, Liverpool will not be easy to dislodge, unless they start slipping up soon.

Conclusion... I think for the first time in a long while, Liverpool are genuine contenders and may just be 2 weeks away from being tagged as favorites.

For the best of the rest, I am impressed with Aston Villa, but the size and quality of the squad may see them fall short by Easter. I think Everton have done well - I predicted that David Moyes' men would top Spurs and I think that assessment remains. If they manage to get a good striker inn the transfer season, they may just up with playing UEFA soccer again.

Hull is wonderful placed to stay in the Premier League, but treating their players like school boys that they are not will end up biting the club in the buttocks in terms of final places.

Leading candidates to demote... let me name 3. WBA, Stoke and Newcastle.

Not the Flu...

Sterimar,the taller nasal spray is actually salt water and used together with Nasonex are my companions when my nose acts up. It was 2 years ago that I underwent surgery for to remove polyps and to clear my sinus, and every now and then, this area flares up impersonating a very bad flu...

Christmas Greetings

Christmas day came and already it's Boxing day. I can't help but be aware of the absence of great festivity in the air. For whatever reason, let's not forget the reason for this season... put a cheerful smile on your face and hope you're infectious :)

Blessed Christmas and to all, Hope for the coming year!

Stained Glasses

Sometimes, people tend to look at the world through dirty lens, and that's a great shame really. RPK penned in his blog that Chinese like to complain and unfortunately sometimes we do bitch about everything we see... often unknowingly wearing dirty glasses. But we are not always wrong RPK, and of course, it doesn't help if rhetorical debates are the order of the day. In my book however that is called littering.

Then there's those who see their own reflection in those same stained glasses. Those who hold themselves to the highest measure but never fail to consider the tarnish in the glasses as their own. The nobler of us who often fail self-scrutiny. The very ones whom we should uphold and support. *yes, you*

Trouble with politics and life... we never know what type of glasses we are looking out or in through...

Congratulations to the Fritzs!

The herald announcing the arrival of Baby Maximilian a.k.a. Max woke me up at 5am this morning! Rather than my usual cussing... I greeted this news with joy.

Hey C! Look, blogged about your son... and probably the first person to do so unless you have a blog that I am unaware of ;)

Don't Give Up on Yourself

It's been a tough time for many people of late. For many, the economic uncertainty have had a toll on their Christmas spirit. For others, the sheer weight of expectation whether at work or at home is proving unbearable.

As I pondered on a conversation I had last night, my mind somehow settled on an image of tire tracks in the muddy ground, not unlike the image above. A good life my dear friend is not about the absence of adversity. Adversity or tough times is sometimes needed as traction to prevent us from slipping backwards and moving forward with purpose. It is the leverage by which we challenge ourselves to be what we never expected ourselves to be.

You are more than a conqueror when your conquest is yourself. Keep it up, I know you can do it.

Genji Japanese Restaurant - PJ Hilton

Admittedly I must be the worst food blogger in town on the account of the photo below... lame as it may sound, the thought of snapping a shot only occurred to me at tail end of the meal :)



Genji is not new in town, but this was the first time we ordered totally off the menu, seeing as it was our 10th minus 1 anniversary. It was worth every penny I lost and every ounce I put on. To be honest, I cannot even name the dishes... was concentrating on the fresh Sashimi, so if you are looking for a really good review, I am only as good as my next fragrant burp... er... BURP!

Alternative Energy

As I study up on renewable and alternative energy, the realization slowly creeps up that what we can do may not be enough. The earth as a systematic equilibrium is spinning out of balance and what we can and still must do, may just prolong the inevitable. Change as they say is inevitable and part of our lives but I dread to think what future we are creating for our offspring.


the ozone hole

In Malaysia, not only are we dependent on carbon fuels, the fact is, we do not have a serious strategy to diversify our power. To us, the haze is Indonesia's fault and alternative energy is an Energizer battery...

Global Warming Back on the Table

Read this article if you have the time, and catch the reader comments. This may give you an idea of how complicated the issue really is.

Get The Issues Correct

The Perak State Government's decision to buy Toyota Camry's for its excos has come under flak by the opposition (read ex-state government) as wasteful etc. etc. Firstly, Dato' Nizar should seriously consider the possibility of scaling down to a 2.0E at least since a car is only a car... paying top dollar for a 2.4 litre engine car is slightly excessive if you ask me.

As for the "opposition", I would like to see more accountability for their past decisions and a focus on the current reality. 2009 may well be worse than 2008 and I am not referring to the political tsunami. As economic conditions worsen, I would like to see more bipartisan efforts rather than political nitpicking that is prevalent now.

BN has had its time in these 5 states, and now is an opportunity not only for the opposition, but also BN itself to show it can work for the good of the rakyat as they ought have to in the first place. Talking about canceled tennis competitions and taking arms over car models is petty and continues to demonstrate why the rakyat in these 5 states were correct in the first place.

Shoe Stinks; Obama Beware

In the part of the world that George W. Bush described as suffering a "deep deficit in freedom" it is ironic that an Iraqi reporter was able to liberate a shoe, launched in the direction of the outgoing President but missed by some distance.

The fact that President Bush displayed such agility of reflexes at his age was overshadowed by the significance of the insult. I won't even contemplate discussing this trivial news except to question why security was so lax in the first place.

With a black American coming into the White House, an obvious target of hate groups, one wonders if Tom Clancy's fictional end to Jack Ryan's successor, assassinated by the Klu Klux Klan, will become a reality. In a troubled world, it can only get worse... and that is scary indeed.

Blessed Christmas and Goodbye 2008

Ama won't be celebrating Christmas with us this year, at least not in person. For some, it has been a year to forget, for others the year went by too fast for recollection. Whatever 2008 held or still has for us, it is now the season to be thankful for God's love to us and remember the purpose of it all...

For this, I recommend Rick Warren's (author of A Purpose Driven Life) latest penned offering, The Purpose of Christmas. It's a warm reminder that all is not so bad and not to forget that the author, creator of life has set his heart on us.

Power Watch: Alternates

It's really about time, and while some say it's never to late, I wonder if it is already so. The beginning of the end of the world as we see it anyway.

I am going to add alternative energy as a key theme in my blog going into 2009/10 and hope to uncover some ideas to move from bio-fuels...

Stupid Me, I guess

I simply cannot begin to comprehend the new Finance Minister's take of the economy. Guess I really must be intellectually challenged...

Afterall, spending RM 2.3 billion on helicopters and RM 5 billion of our private savings in buying cheap stocks should make sense - so I am told. But stupid me keeps harping on the fact that treating the inflationary factors make more sense. Somehow I keep dwelling on the higher costs of living as if it has anything to do with the economy. And I guess I should screw public confidence because it's really the few thousand or so delegates that carry the country on their able shoulders.

Malaysia, it is said, is shielded from the effects of the US credit issues and will be able to deal with the global slowdown with minimal damaged. Somehow my negative mind tells me that Malaysia is part of a global trading hub of nations... stupid me. You see - I am told that at the end of the day, we are so self-reliant that our people are able to absorb the reduced international demands for air-conditioners, microchips and processed food with ease.

Gosh! I feel so inadequate, it is embarrassing to even blog about it...

Extracted from Mike Huckabee's address at RNC

On the first day of school in 2005, Martha Cothren, a teacher at the Joe T. Robinson High School in Little Rock, was determined that her students would not take their education or their privileges as American for granted. And with the principal of her school's permission, she removed all the desks from her classroom on that first day of school, 2005.

Now, the students walked into an empty classroom and they said, "Ms. Cothren, where's our desk?" She said, "You get a desk in my classroom when you tell me how you earn it."

Well, some of them said, "Making good grades." She said, "Well, you ought to make good grades in my class, but that won't earn you a desk." Another student said, "I guess we get a desk when we behave." Martha said, "You will behave in my classroom."

But that won't get you a desk either. No one in first period guessed right. Same for second period. By lunch, the buzz was all over the campus. Ms. Cothren had flipped out, wouldn't let her students had a desk.

Kids started using their cell phones. They called their parents. And by early afternoon, all four of the local network TV affiliates had camera crews out at the school to report on this teacher who wouldn't let her students have a desk unless they could tell her how to earn it.

By the final period, no one had guessed correctly, so the students filed in. Martha said, "Well, I didn't think you would figure it out, so I'm going to tell you."

And with that, she went to the door of her classroom and motioned, and in walked over 20 veterans, some of them still wearing the uniforms from days gone by, every one of them carrying a school desk. And as they carefully and quietly arranged those desks in neat rows, Martha said, "You don't have to earn your desk, because these guys, they already did."

These -- these brave veterans had gone halfway around the world, giving up their education, interrupting their careers and families so that we could have the freedom that we have. Martha told them, "No one charged you for your desk, but it wasn't really free. These guys bought it for you. And I hope you never, ever forget it."

BN Leadersip Tips #320 - Reasons Don't Have to Make Sense

Based on an explanation inspired presumably by turtle soup, the Terengganu state government has defended the purchase of 14 Mercedes E200 Kompressor cars at RM3.43mil for the use of its state executive councillors and senior officials.

Extracted here, the explanation goes:

Please understand that the Proton Perdanas go through continuous long-distance journeys. It’s costing us a lot of money due to high cost of maintenance.

“We are not saying that the national car is not good but in reality we are coughing up more money for maintaining the Proton Perdanas, particularly the gear boxes,” he said.

Ahmad cited the example of the Proton Perdana of state Commerce, Industry and Environment committee chairman Toh Chin Yaw, which has twice undergone expensive repairs costing RM50,000 within 36 months.

As an onwer and user of 2 proton cars in the past, I have some questions on my mind which I have no other choice but to put in bold:

#1 - Where on earth has Toh Chin Yaw been to carry out his duties?? Will giving him a vehicle that cost RM 245,000 solve the issue? Is his bill the highest? Where does he take the car for servicing? Surely it has to be EON... And if the problem lies in the make, then is Terengganu giving the national car a massive thumbs down?
#2 - The Toyota Camry, Honda Accord, Hyundai Sonata cost approx. RM 150,000 for the 2 litre variant. What is the justification of spending RM 1.4 million extra since all these cars are recognized for reliability?
#3 - What is the cost of maintenance by breakdown? And what are the items most regularly changed? Also, since these are state reps and councillors, exactly how far does the MB refer to when he says "continuous long distance journeys"? Maybe there's a case in there for road upgrades too...
#4 - When quoted "The funds to procure the cars were from our own coffers and has nothing to do with the oil royalties” - exactly whose coffers? The officials or the state "rakyat" money? Either way, there's questions to be asked...
#5 - Exactly how dumb does the state government think Terengganu people are?

In Remembrance of Dr Foo Ong Pin

My babies lost a paediatrician, I suspect, humanity lost a good man. May he rest in peace.

Here are the words of someone who knew him better.

Oil Crisis - Is OPEC a villian or well... something else

Speculators, not OPEC, 'causing oil price spike'

Posted Tue Jun 10, 2008 11:23am AEST
Updated Tue Jun 10, 2008 11:28am AEST
Oil drums from British Petrolelum

Speculation-fuelled: Rising oil prices have the world economy in turmoil (AFP: Paul J Richards)

A former Iraqi oil minister says record high oil prices are more to do with speculators, including central banks, than supply and demand.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is pressuring G8 leaders to push for OPEC to increase oil supply.

Isam Chalabi was Iraq's oil minister before the first Gulf War and has more than 40 years experience in the industry.

He says Mr Rudd's strategy will not work.

"The question of prices today is not related to supply and demand fundamentals - everybody knows that," he told AM.

"Everybody has said so and hence it is not a matter of increasing supplies because whoever is in need of oil has been able to get it, so there is no need of problem of getting the oil."

Brian Wilson, former British energy minister under Tony Blair, agrees.

"What takes it from $US100 to $US130 is that there is a huge speculative element and the actual connection between the paper trading price of oil and anything that is happening in the physical world is now extremely remote," he told the BBC.

Mr Chalabi says only regulation of oil trading will stop the price spike.

"The world consumes 85 million barrels a day, you have trading going on over a billion - some people estimate up to two billion - barrels a day, so if something really happens to put a hold on that, I believe that the price spike will not continue and maybe it will start to decrease," he said.

Oil Crisis - American Point of View

Asia is in political crisis.

Airlines globally are concerned about high costs.

Mass strikes by truckers in Spain and Portugal.

Protests in India amid rising unrest about high fuel costs.

Here is what's happening according to a Seattle publication:

-----------------------------------------------------------------

It will take governmental guts to cure America's gas pains

MARTIN SCHRAM

When Washington is in crisis mode, its officials move into high-speed action mode. Which is to say, they start talking faster.

And America's gas pains -- economic and political -- are a major crisis that is hurting worst those who can afford it least. So Washington officials are a blur of action, racing in front of the cameras to promote their pet solutions.

Here's where we are today: Gasoline prices are shooting up faster than the gas station guys can scurry up the ladders to change the big numbers on the big signs. Indeed, the only thing shooting up as fast are the profits of Exxon and the other big oil companies -- huge profits, record profits. Exxon's profits for the first quarter of 2008 were a whopping 17 percent higher than its huge profits from the previous quarter.

Big Oil's profits far exceed those of the other industries that you used to think needed to be reined in -- Big Pharm, Big Farm, the old Ma Bell. Big Oil's response is short and crude: The world price of crude oil is at record highs. That's why you must pay record prices at the pumps.

The notion that the burden should be shared by all -- with you paying less at the pump and oil companies taking lesser profits that, even so, are still higher than those in other industries -- is something big oil considers to be insultingly crude (only this time they pronounce it without the "e"). Here is what Official Washington is saying today:

Democrats say we must fix what is wrong by clamping a new tax on the windfall profits of the big oil companies. That will cause the big oil companies to act more responsibly.

Republicans are saying windfall, shmindfall. Big profits are the mother lode of capitalism. The Grand Old Party's top answer for your gas pains today has been an idea that may well make it less likely that you will remain doubled over with gas pains a decade from now: Start drilling for oil beneath good old American land -- in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

To which environmentalists say, drilling there could endanger Arctic wildlife. To which economic survivalists could say the Arctic wildlife is already endangered by the pigs of the lower 48 and the rest of the world -- because their energy emissions are already endangering life in the Arctic.

Here is what Washington's left and right are also saying: We must promote alternative fuels -- solar, wind, ethanol, natural gas, diesel (the new engines are far cleaner than they used to be), shale, hydrogen fuel cell cars of the future, and the hybrid cars of today. To which many will stop you at the mention of "ethanol" to utter the in-crowd's new reflexive response: A gallon of ethanol costs more to produce than a gallon of gas -- and corn for ethanol is driving up prices of all things that use corn. To which one can respond: But at least we won't be picking that corn in the sands of Saudi Arabia.

Also, Washington needs to fix its hybrid tax-credit bungle. Buyers of "full hybrid" cars which achieve maximum mileage and produce near zero emissions -- Toyota's Prius and Honda's Civic (with miles per gallon in the upper 40s) and Toyota's mid-size Camry (35 MPG) -- deserve federal tax credits that must be made permanent. Buyers of silly "mild hybrid" cars such as the Chevrolet Malibu which scores just 2 MPG better than non-hybrid models should get no federal tax credits.

Here is what nobody seems to have the political fortitude (see also: governmental guts) to say: Washington's left, right and squishy-soft center need to end their battles of the buzz words, deep-six their pet political agendas and recognize that America's energy crisis requires an urgent, all-out approach.

Today it is an economic security crisis. Those suffering most are those who can least afford to pay $4 -- going on $5 -- a gallon. Those soaring gas prices are being matched by soaring prices for all goods and services that at some point involve the use of petroleum, which is to say: Everything).

Tomorrow it is a national security crisis: America still imports 60 percent of its oil, much of it from the volatile Middle East. We can no longer wait for politically perfect solutions. Drill in ANWAR and safeguard the wildlife in every way possible. Today we face a rare test of political will. To which the correct answer must be: All of the above.
Martin Schram writes political analysis for Scripps Howard News Service; martin.schram@gmail.com

A Policy that Evades Common Sense

I don't understand where this is going.

Take away the subsidies meant for the rakyat, then compensate by ploughing the money back to the rakyat through several poorly conceived programmes...

Why not retain but fix the subsidy at current levels, then work out something that really works?

As as for Govt savings, that's a 2-edged sword. Unnecessary spending should be curbed - afterall, why does a minister even have to have 1% of his/her entertainment budget when directly or othrwise, each has enough access to wealth? And how about relooking the contracts of the IPPs and other petrol users who make up the non-vehicle component of the subsidy?

This said, government spending will spur economic growth and should be done carefully, and properly. Public transport for one. Education another. A better healthcare system. Need I say more?

What we do NOT need: government bailouts of useless projects, overseas training centres, useless loopsided tourism campaigns, lawatan sambil belajar...

Lastly, BP has said that there is 42 years more of fuel, what does Petronas say? In fact, shouldn't it be time for Petronas to come under the purview of the government and not one man?

I continue to be confuse. Why form another committee when the basic startegy is flawed? We do not need a committee on inflation, we need a leadership that understands the components that make up an economy and to focus on the multipliers that matter...

Mahathir, the Blog Millionaire

chedet.com has apparently surpassed the 1 million hit mark, which is an interesting milestone of achievement for our ex-PM. This proofs the theory that he is still a relevant voice in our irreverent times.

While I do not agree with all his policies, it is the nature of communications today that even such views find their audiences one way or another... 1 million hits, I have a feeling this is just the tip of the ice berg...

The Truth and Nothing But

The political tsunami hit with hardly a warning. The repercussions reverberated across 5 states. The people have spoken... so how much more obvious can we say... it's all about the arrogance stupid!

Reading senior members of the government spewing reasons why BN performed the way they did is like watching an object lesson in denial. It's the bloggers they say, and promptly some churn make shift blogsites to ride the popular wave. It's the SMSes that made the difference and suddenly aspirants find their names associated with naughty SMS rumor-mongers...

Just when will the powers that be realise that the important element was the message, not the messenger or even mode of delivery. The message found a way to get out. And the message mirrored what a lot of us felt. It was the message that we had enough.

Now Singapore shudders at the significance of this. In some ways they have less to worry about... at least KJ is only Malaysian.