29 September 2007

Kickstart

My new career as a Herbalife Independent Distributor is kicking off very well. It has been 4 days since I've gone full time, and in that period I have spoken to a good number of people with regards to the products as well as the business opportunity.

Yesterday while at the office with some of the amazing people I work with, I learn to make calls to people who have surfed our website and left a note indicating that they're interested in the business opportunity. One call I made to a bubbly young Malay lady was as bad as it could get, simply because the conversation started off with her asking me if I spoke Malay and I gullibly said yes.

It's not that I don't speak Malay, but the thing is that I'm very much more used to speaking about our business in English, no doubt. Translating the content into Malay off-hand made me very nervous and I kept fumbling with my words. My task was to make some light conversation and give some brief business facts to find out if she's serious. If she was serious, I was to invite her to meet me and then I'll give her a broader view of what we do to see if she would like to get started with Herbalife.

As I said, no one could have fumbled that introduction worse than me. At the end of the conversation, she asked me how come I kept stuttering. I froze as I thought my shortcoming had been put on the table to be criticised. I simply admitted to the fact that my Malay isn't as good as it should be, and politely apologised. This sweet young thing laughed it off and told me, in Malay of course - "don't worry la, just talk as though we're friends, can right?!"

What a great attitude! Just the type of person I'm seeking to work with in Herbalife. As Bjorn so wisely once put it - "Sometimes you just can't give the wrong presentation to the right person. And you also can't give the right presentation to the wrong person."

She's the right person alright! Today she showed up early at our predetermined appointment with her husband, a nice chap who speaks fluent English with a hint of Malay accent. I could tell he was quite business-minded as well, but this business opportunity was more for her to occupy herself while he works on his own stint as a government contractor.

And so we went on with what I thought would only be a 30 minute discussion, but it dragged on to close to 3 hours even though the husband was already late for another appointment. The couple was just so excited about what Bjorn and I were sharing with them that they had so many questions and they were so eager to throw possibilities onto the table for discussion.

In the end, they walked away still very much excited after he purchased some products to try on himself; and she walked off happily as a newly signed up Herbalife Distributor in Mervyn's team.

As for me, meeting this delightful couple has really given me a boost in confidence that this new found career is definitely what I want to be doing.

Cheers to that, and hooray for them! My mission now is see her succeed alongside Joanne & I in this wonderful business we call Herbalife.

26 September 2007

Farewell

And so it ends... my career in the plastics trading industry has been put to rest. Yesterday, 25th of September 2007 was my last day at the office. It was a busy day indeed.

I spent quite a bit of time clearing out my desk and drawers. Some of the things of which had been collecting since I first joined in April 2005. As with all my other clean-ups, I just threw everything which had no immediate value. Straight forward enough. LOL!

My manager Desmond packed nasi lemak for all of us, while I supplied the chendol from the not-too-far bicycle stall in Taman Tun. There was also KFC served a bit later because there wasn't enough nasi lemak to go around.


Shortly after lunch, I was pleasantly surprised with my farewell present - a brand new Swatch watch. Looks pretty neat. Casual. I like it.


Almost immediately after they handed me the watch in a Swatch plastic bag, my colleague Iriese says there's more, but I have to go to the other end of the office to collect it myself. First thing which crossed my mind - "takkan give me bicycle?" because I've recently been joking so much with them about having to cycle instead of driving around, to save on spending of course.


This is what I found in a Carrefour plastic bag hiding in the corner. OMFG! They bought me a 19" Samsung SyncMaster LCD monitor. My face totally lit up with joy and I was all smiles for the rest of the day.

So out with the old...

...in with the new!
It's so f*cking cool man! (Please excuse the language.)

I'm so completely enjoying the extra space it's giving me. And I completely love the extra viewable area. Upgrading from a 17" to a 19" monitor is close to heavenly. And have you ever heard people brag about the colour and contrast and resolution on Samsung monitors? IT'S ALL THAT AND MORE!!!!



The one thing I like most about this LCD is the aesthetics. Totally sexy, and fits right in with the rest of my setup.


Oh, and if you noticed the webcam sitting on top of the monitor, I bought that 2 weeks ago - Microsoft LifeCam VX-6000. It set my dad back RM280. Yea, he's paying for it whether he likes it or not because he and mom are getting so much pleasure from being able to make video calls with Ivan in Bristol.


Life is good. Hahaha!


Okay back to the topic. So I'm done with the last career, time to start my new one. I've already got my website set up - you can check it out here. I'm looking to grow my business, of course, so feel free to forward it along to anyone you know who might be interested in making a change in their lives, or people looking for an extra RM1,000-RM2,000 income per month just part-time.

20 September 2007

Mount Kinabalu

Because Soon Yean finally published a post on our Mount Kinabalu trip and Robert linked him, I decided that I wanted to be better. I’m going to do both, publish a post AND link to Soon Yean’s post! Call it kiasu-ism at its best, or worst. *Bwuek*

I must start off by apologizing for taking THIS long to update. Lack of motivation – it’s everyone’s fault except my own.

Anyway, as some of you know, plans for our Mount Kinabalu expedition were underway as early as January this year. If you’re planning such a trip for yourself too, we strongly recommend confirming your travel dates early. I understand from Robert (who made most of the arrangements – thanks buddy!), you can’t climb Mt Kinabalu if you don’t have your accommodation arrangements at Laban Rata confirmed before hand. And of course there’s no Genting Highlands Resorts up there so the rooms are snapped up pretty quickly. You can make your bookings as far as 6 months in advance, and I recommend you do so. More info available here.

Moving along…

Nearing the actual dates, we tried to get our act together by getting in shape. Actually it was just 2 or 3 miserable attempts at Bukit Gasing and Bukit Kiara. Now that I’ve been to the top of Mount Kinabalu and back, my advice to anyone else is forget the bukit-bukit (hills) you find in your area. If you’re serious about getting your body (read legs) ready for the climb, walk stairs! I shit you not. Build up your leg muscles by climbing or descending staircases EVERYDAY! Much of the hike up to Laban Rata is stair-like.

Also, if you’re thinking of packing light, that’s a great idea. But just in case you have extras to carry, like your girlfriend’s backpack when she gets tired, I also recommend you work on your back. Try doing the staircase exercise with a 5 to 10 kilo backpack. If you attempt my suggested exercise and fail (your leg/back muscles give way) do one of the following two:
a) train more
b) cancel your trip

This was our travel itinerary, which you can follow or maybe even enhance to suit your interests. The actual hike up and down the mountain will take a full 2 days and 1 night. We added an extra two nights just so that we wouldn’t have to rush – total 4 days 3 nights in Kinabalu.

Day 1 - fly into Kota Kinabalu. They have a small cozy international airport there so it’s possible to fly in from other countries, although I don’t know the routes. Of course we flew in from KL.

From there, you’ll need to find your way to Kinabalu park. There are a number of ways to do this, i.e. bus, taxi, on foot (highly not recommended). Or you can do what we did – rent a car. A 1,500cc Proton Wira cost us RM90/day, petrol not included). We were a group of 4 so it was ideal. Having a rental allowed us the flexibility to stop by in KK town (10mins from airport) to get Robert, have a meal and do some last minute shopping for essentials.

We didn’t spend too much time in KK before continuing our journey to Kinabalu Park. The journey is very much like driving from KL to Genting Highlands… nothing much spectacular. It got very misty at one part of our journey that we could barely see a few meters in front of the car. Soon Yean did quite well with Grace as his navigator. We stopped along the way to stretch our legs and buy bananas at the roadside stalls.

Trivia – bananas, chocolates and nuts are great sources of energy. I recommend Snickers® - high in both chocolate and nuts. If they ever come up with a banana+nut-filled version of Snickers®… hmmm….

It wasn’t much later when we found ourselves at the Kinabalu Park headquarters. This is where some of the numerous Kinabalu Park lodges are located. People generally check-in for a night before starting their Summit trail hike at Timpohon gate early the next morning. However, our group’s plan was to hike Mesilau trail. Mesilau trail is a longer, more scenic route. After about 6.5km it joins up with Summit trail’s 4.5km mark (approximate) near the Layang-layang rest hut. Mesilau Trail steps are smaller than the huge ones at the early stages of Summit Trail, so it’s somewhat easier to climb at the expense of distance and time.

Soon after we reached Mesilau Nature Resort and checking in, we were sitting down for a nice dinner at the restaurant. To be honest, I was not expecting very much. Pricing in their menu is like much of the mountain, a bit steep. It’s on par with any esteemed cafĂ© in town. They also have the ambience and setting to go with it so I was not disappointed. The real surprise was that the food was actually really good. The four of us went back to our rooms with happy tummies. Kudos to the chef and staff!

We took the shared hostel known as Bishop’s Head Hostel. There are a number of rooms there with each room housing 3 double-decker beds – so it sleeps six people. We had it to ourselves as there weren’t many travelers climbing from Mesilau on the weekday. Temperature at this altitude is already at the lower end of 20’s, and higher end of 10’s at night. I would have liked to oversleep the next morning but the excitement of the climb didn’t permit it.

We packed a set lunch each from the restaurant, which included tuna or egg sandwich, bananas, chicken wing, a hard-boiled egg and a bottle of mineral water. We had some of the sandwiches for breakfast.

Unsure of how our bodies would be affected by the climb and the altitude, we decided to head out early – 8am. We were the first group to leave on the trail. I truly truly truly hated being in the front because there were lots and lots of transparent spider webs hanging across the trail and I kept walking my face into them. After that experience, I am strongly against being the first to walk the trail in the morning.

We went a slow but steady pace and it took 9 hours for us to get from Mesilau Nature Resort to Laban Rata, arriving shortly past 5pm. Some of the things I noticed, worth mentioning, you should look out for…
- Kipuyut bridge which hangs over a beautiful stream with a spectacular waterfall to one side and the rest of the steady stream to the other.
- Watch as the scene of the forest around you transforms from something so normal, so familiar, into something right out of a Harry Potter movie, with low trees and thick fogs.
- Look through the gaps between the trees when you hit the top of hill ranges. Don’t miss the picturesque view of the valleys and low lands below. Where the weather is good, you may even see as far as the South China Sea in the distant horizon.
- Observe the detail of Summit Trail… I strongly suspect that much of it is actually a waterfall which has had its water diverted off the route so that we can safely traverse it.
- The view from above the clouds is heaven-like, and blinding at the same time.
- It was rainy pretty much the entire time so the wilderness was quiet. But rain or shine, the squirrels and rats which camp at each of rest huts are adorable. You’ll just fall right in love with them and start giving them food you brought for yourself. Heck, you might even snatch food from your friends to feed the animals. And notice how they get bigger/fatter the higher up you climb.

At Laban Rata, the mess hall is full of life with many a climber sitting around with a hot drink or warm food, sharing stories of their climb to this point and their expectations of the next stage. This is where you’ll find expensive yet lousy food, but still appreciate it. This is also where I bought my very own pair of Kampung Adidas as my pair of RockPort hiking shoes gave way to the abuse on the way up. RM14 for 2 pieces of rubber and a pair of black shoelaces. Best money I’ve ever spent… serious!

Temperature at this altitude was about 9 degrees Celsius and once again the view was astounding. Our beds were waiting for us at Gunting Lagadan hut, another 10 minutes hike away. The gate to the next and infinitely more perilous stage of the climb is also here. The rooms had double-decker beds as well, sleeping 4 in each room, perfect for our group.

We sat around for a bit complaining about the sore backs and feet and then got to preparations for the next stage. I believe it was barely 8pm when we put out the lights. Early indeed, but if the next phase was to begin at 2.30am, 8pm wasn’t early enough.

I don’t know why we did it, but we really didn’t have to… set our alarms that is. At 2am the noise from climbers getting ready in the hallways is loud enough to wake the dead (given that we slept like the dead). We left most of the non-essentials there in our room and climbed the rest of the way with just warm clothes on our back, a raincoat, camera, torchlight, water, and some light snacks. All that fits into a nice fat hip pouch. The huge backpack you hiked up with can be left in the room because the biggest item in there (read your warm clothing) is already on your back.

At 2.30am, it was still dark and stormy and our guide didn’t care much for letting us out there so soon. 15 minutes later we were off. I was a bit concerned about reaching the peak on time. Sunrise was scheduled at 6.05am and no amount of complaining in the world could ever postpone that event. As you can imagine, the scenery up there – pitch black. Apart from the light coming from our foreheads pointed at the ground 3 feet in front of us, we couldn’t see anything else. It was just step after step after step after step.

The winds got stronger as we passed well above the trees and there was nothing left to shield us from the burning cold winds except our clothes. My advice: wear 2 layers of climate control material beneath your hooded jacket and use weather proof gloves and shoes. Turning around and looking into the distant, I noticed it was a cloudless dark sky. We could see the lights from the small towns below and even that which was shining all the way from Kota Kinabalu. Breathtaking view!

I like our guide Morris even though I don’t know how to spell his name. He was very encouraging all the way through. He kept our pace and made sure we reached the peak on time.

5.50am, our destination finally reached us – Low’s Peak, 4,092 meters above sea level, the highest peak on the mountain . It was still pitch black except for the lights coming from the torches of the other climbers. We all took turns gathering around the peak for photos. That was the most horrible photo experience I’ve ever had. It was just too cold to smile. When I tried holding the camera, the thick, wet gardening gloves I wore made it impossible for me to press the buttons on the camera. And when I removed the gloves, my fingers were too stiff and shaky to operate the camera properly. Dumbfounding!

I truly regret reaching the peak so early. A 15 minute wait for the sunrise at that altitude, in that weather, is like an eternity in hell (if hell were to freeze over). It wasn’t long before Low’s Peak got too crowded and so we moved downwards to put some of the rocks between us and the wind. That helped little, but it was still appreciated.

As the sun came up the veil of shadow was lifted from the lands below, revealing the most magnificent sights I have ever laid eyes on. The closest thing to it I’ve ever seen before was only on TV, and it was still nowhere near the real thing. The view was… it was… I give up… it just cannot be defined with my limited vocabulary. Just get up there yourself and you will see what I mean.

No time to reflect on our achievements. I was too eager to get back down to warmer temperature. At that time, even 10 degrees Celsius seemed warm to me. That’s colder than any office air-conditioning system would give you. But I would still have preferred it to the near freezing temperatures at the summit.

As we slowly made our way back down the summit, we could finally breathe in the enormity of the mountain. With light, the dark and beastly mountain had transformed into a vast and beautiful rocky landscape. The trickling water from early showers made each and every rock glisten with shimmery light.

To the end of the highest rock plateau in Malaysia, we could now see how treacherous our climb up was. Had we noticed it any earlier, we would probably had taken even more care when coming up. Some might have even given up before making that climb had it been visible. But now that we were up there, the only way to go was down.

And so we took it a foot at a time, with one hand on the rope, and another hand on the rock for balance, and a third invisible hand hanging on to friends for support… knowing that someone will be quick enough to reach us before we fall if we slipped. I strongly believe that that is the bond the four of us built on this trip to conquer Mount Kinabalu. To know that if any of us trips, there will be others quick to catch us before we hit the ground. I now have more trust in them than ever before.

It took as long to get back to the Gunting Lagadan hut as it did to get from there to the summit. We made it back there just before 9.30am and collapsed in bed. Checkout was to be at 11am so that gave us close to an hour’s rest. Our final stage – descending. The weather was still wet with light showers here and there. We were so fed up with having to keep putting on and taking off our ponchos that we just left it on till the last bit.

The first part of the descent was quick and fluent. But I didn’t realize how quick my legs would yield to the constant downhill pace. Barely halfway through, our entire group was down to a slow and steady pace once again. As we went below the clouds, the familiar forest we saw just the day before reappeared once again. With each step, the trees grew taller and taller. Making our way down, the stair-like trail was becoming a nightmare for our legs and minds. At each corner we turn, we would be greeted by more stairs.

4.5 hours later, we made it to Timpohon gate, the start/end of Summit Trail. I was so relieved that it was finally over. A 10 minute van-ride away was once again Kinabalu Park Headquarters where we picked up our certificates and our car. I volunteered to drive the journey back to Kota Kinabalu since the others seemed to be no better off than I.

We had pre-booked a hotel in town for that evening. As we got back into town we began to speculate about the hotel and its layout – “I sure hope the hotel has a lift because I don’t think I can climb anymore stairs”! Hilarious bunch we are. Due to budget constraints, all 4 of us shared the 2 single beds in the small room. We were out cold by 9.30pm.

The next day was a relaxing one at the nearby mall – CenterPoint for a massage (canceled because it was too expensive), and also the Filipino market to pick up some souvenirs. Our flight back to KL was delayed slightly and when we got back to Soon Yean’s apartment, we found Grace’s car battery dead. But that’s another story altogether.

For those of you who are looking to try Mt Kinabalu, the following sites have helped me gather invaluable information.
http://www.mount-kinabalu-borneo.com/
http://www.angelfire.com/wi3/huaying1/sabah.html

Also, consider making a stop at the nearby Poring Hotsprings after your climb, before returning to town.

And please take good care on such a trip. Any attempt to climb Mount Kinabalu or any other mountain of this caliber is no laughing matter. Lives have been lost (even on Mt Kinabalu) on the account of recklessness and poor planning so please prepare yourselves well, both physically and psychologically.

Trivia: The fastest anyone has made it from Timpohon to Summit and back to Timpohon - below 3hrs - mad people!

If you’ve read all the way up to this point, I take my hat off to you. Please leave a message. Thank you!

18 September 2007

My Personality - ENTP

I just took a personality test at MyPersonality.Info

ENTP, as described by PersonalityPage...

As an ENTP, your primary mode of living is focused externally, where you take things in primarily via your intuition. Your secondary mode is internal, where you deal with things rationally and logically.

With Extraverted Intuition dominating their personality, the ENTP's primary interest in life is understanding the world that they live in. They are constantly absorbing ideas and images about the situations they are presented in their lives. Using their intuition to process this information, they are usually extremely quick and accurate in their ability to size up a situation. With the exception of their ENFP cousin, the ENTP has a deeper understanding of their environment than any of the other types.

This ability to intuitively understand people and situations puts the ENTP at a distinct advantage in their lives. They generally understand things quickly and with great depth. Accordingly, they are quite flexible and adapt well to a wide range of tasks. They are good at most anything that interests them. As they grow and further develop their intuitive abilities and insights, they become very aware of possibilities, and this makes them quite resourceful when solving problems.

ENTPs are idea people. Their perceptive abilities cause them to see possibilities everywhere. They get excited and enthusiastic about their ideas, and are able to spread their enthusiasm to others. In this way, they get the support that they need to fulfill their visions.

ENTPs are less interested in developing plans of actions or making decisions than they are in generating possibilities and ideas. Following through on the implementation of an idea is usually a chore to the ENTP. For some ENTPs, this results in the habit of never finishing what they start. The ENTP who has not developed their Thinking process will have problems with jumping enthusiastically from idea to idea, without following through on their plans. The ENTP needs to take care to think through their ideas fully in order to take advantage of them.

The ENTP's auxiliary process of Introverted Thinking drives their decision making process. Although the ENTP is more interested in absorbing information than in making decisions, they are quite rational and logical in reaching conclusions. When they apply Thinking to their Intuitive perceptions, the outcome can be very powerful indeed. A well-developed ENTP is extremely visionary, inventive, and enterprising.

ENTPs are fluent conversationalists, mentally quick, and enjoy verbal sparring with others. They love to debate issues, and may even switch sides sometimes just for the love of the debate. When they express their underlying principles, however, they may feel awkward and speak abruptly and intensely.

The ENTP personality type is sometimes referred to the "Lawyer" type. The ENTP "lawyer" quickly and accurately understands a situation, and objectively and logically acts upon the situation. Their Thinking side makes their actions and decisions based on an objective list of rules or laws. If the ENTP was defending someone who had actually committed a crime, they are likely to take advantage of quirks in the law that will get their client off the hook. If they were to actually win the case, they would see their actions as completely fair and proper to the situation, because their actions were lawful. The guilt or innocence of their client would not be as relevant. If this type of reasoning goes uncompletely unchecked by the ENTP, it could result in a character that is perceived by others as unethical or even dishonest. The ENTP, who does not naturally consider the more personal or human element in decision making, should take care to notice the subjective, personal side of situations. This is a potential problem are for ENTPs. Although their logical abilities lend strength and purpose to the ENTP, they may also isolate them from their feelings and from other people.

The least developed area for the ENTP is the Sensing-Feeling arena. If the Sensing areas are neglected, the ENTP may tend to not take care of details in their life. If the Feeling part of themself is neglected, the ENTP may not value other people's input enough, or may become overly harsh and aggressive.

Under stress, the ENTP may lose their ability to generate possibilities, and become obsessed with minor details. These details may seem to be extremely important to the ENTP, but in reality are usually not important to the big picture.

In general, ENTPs are upbeat visionaries. They highly value knowledge, and spend much of their lives seeking a higher understanding. They live in the world of possibilities, and become excited about concepts, challenges and difficulties. When presented with a problem, they're good at improvising and quickly come up with a creative solution. Creative, clever, curious, and theoretical, ENTPs have a broad range of possibilities in their lives.

14 September 2007

Wake Me Up When It's Over

I just took a glance at my organizer. Bloody hell… I’m all booked out for the next 5 days.

Friday 6pm – Meet Jo & Jess down in KL for Haagen-Dazs.
Friday 8pm – Herbalife training @ KL
Friday 10pm – Clubbing @ Poppy
Saturday 10am – Grocery shopping for KLU barbecue
Saturday 2.30pm – Shake party @ Menara MPL
Saturday 4.30pm – Gym
Saturday 6pm – KLU barbecue
Saturday 10.30pm – Zetuan’s B’day barbecue (or what’s left of it)
Sunday 9am – wash 3 cars (maybe 4) and other housekeeping
Sunday 11am – Shopping for a webcam and suit
Sunday 7pm – KG’s wedding reception @ Equatorial
Monday 8.30am – nothing @ office
Monday 5.30pm – Meet Lynn and/or Gym
Monday 8pm – TangLung party @ Kelana
Tuesday 8.30am – nothing @ office
Tuesday 2pm – Chairman’s Club Tour @ Shangri-La
Tuesday 9pm – Nutrition Club proposal presentation @ D’sara Perdana

If I turn down any invitations for Wednesday, please be understanding. Show some compassion. Thank you!

12 September 2007

EyeMaze

I came across a pretty neat site with simple games, about a year back. Very simple Flash games, but entertaining nonetheless. I’ve always been a sucker for puzzle games.

Recently I came back to this site and found a whole lot more games in their list. I’ve been spending a bit of time working out the solutions to the puzzle games.

For those of you who’ve given up, here’s the walkthrough for some of the games I’ve completed, just to help you along. Skip the rest of this post if you want to try it out first.

I will add walkthroughs to the others as I complete them.

Grow Ver.1
Drop each item over the “Grow” word in this order:
1. House
2. Tree
3. Castle
4. Water
5. Tower
6. Rock
7. Treasure Chest
8. Stairs
Watch the story unfold.

Grow Ver.2
It goes in accordingly…
1. Cone
2. Cube
3. Paper
4. Cylinder
5. Hole
6. Ball
The ending is pretty damn cool!

Chronon Ver.0
Basically you have to free the yellow guy who's trapped in the cage in the middle of the house before the master comes back at 19.00. The concept of this game is to move things around the house at different times of the day. Not the most simple of games because you can actually move back and forth between times to change different objects, which will then lead to different outcomes.

For me the toughest part to figure out was the clock. It’s one of the most important items in the game. The clock only ticks when it’s hanging on the wall. And because it’s a cuckoo clock, certain things will pop up when the clock shows a certain time of day.
12 o’clock – key to unlock chest
1 o’clock – egg
7 o’clock – lit candle

Here’s my walkthrough to get you to 100/100.

To unlock the chest…
Timeline: 12.25
Put the wreath in the fireplace.
Hang the clock on the wall (it shows 9.30).
Timeline: 14.55
The clock has been ticking for 2.5hrs, therefore now it shows 1 o’clock. The key appears.
Click on the key to unlock the chest. 9.45 will now appear in your timeline at the top.

To get the egg…
Timeline: 6.15
Hang the clock on the wall (it shows 9.30).
Timeline: 9.45
The clock strikes 1 and the egg appears on top of the clock, like the key. Click on the egg to move it to the fireplace with all the other cake ingredients.

To hatch the monster egg…
Timeline: 6.15
Move the wreath to the table
Move the monster egg onto the wreath
Open the curtains
Timeline: 9.05
The monster egg hatches

To send the winged monster up the chimney to fetch milk…
Timeline: 9.05
Move the shelf from the fireplace to the wall
Tie the rope to the winged monster
Give the empty bottle (left side) to the monster.
Timeline: 9.45
Monster has collected milk in bottle and fruit in tail. Click on the rope at the fireplace to reel him back in before the rain comes.

To get the firewood under the cage…
Timeline: 6.15
The clock is on the wall showing 9.30
Timeline: 9.05
The clock is on the wall showing 12.20
Click on the clock’s tail to make it straight
Timeline: 9.45
The clock strikes 1, and the cage is raised.
Move the wood off the floor to the shelf above the window.

Like it or not, it rains and the open chimney causes a flood. To dry the floor…
Timeline: 12.25
Take the fruit from the winged monster and put it under the table.
Tie the rope to the fruit.
Timeline: 14.55
The brown monster dug a hole through the floor to get the fruit. The water drains out.
The cage collapses under the weight of the growing winged monster, and the bars open up for the yellow guy to get out.
The rope is in place for the yellow guy to escape from the house.

If you’ve gotten this far, you’ve met the mission of the game – to help the yellow guy escape. Go to timeline 19.00 and see how it turns out. However, you will not get 100/100 score. Read on if you want to continue… I’m going to teach you to bake a cake.

To start the fire…
Timeline: 12.25
Move the round bottle (filled with water) from the stand on the right to the stand on the left.
Put the bottle of milk in the stand on the right.
Give the mirror to the winged monster – it’s quite vain.
Make sure the hatch above is open.
Timeline: 14.55
The sun comes out and the light is directed through the roof, via the mirror, to the wreath and it catches fire.
Move the burning wreath to the fire place.
Put the fire wood on top of the burning wreath.
Replace the shelf in the fireplace.

To prepare the cake for baking…
Timeline: 14.55
Put the baking tray onto the table
Add the necessary ingredients. Different ingredients bring different endings.
Here’s a list of ingredients available: butter, sugar, egg, flour, poison, water, milk. (I recommend you try different recipes to see the different outcomes. It’s quite interesting.)
Timeline: 18.10
Move the baking pan to the fireplace. The fireplace should be nice and hot by now.
Timeline: 19.00
The cake is baked. The master is back.

Still haven’t gotten the desired outcome?
Try only these ingredients for the cake – butter, sugar, egg, flour and milk.
Timeline: 19.00
A delicious cake is served. All the characters are in the house sharing the cake.

Still didn’t get 100/100?
The room is too dark.

To get the candle out of the clock, you have to get the clock to strike 7 when timeline is 19.00...
Timeline: 14.55
The clock hanging on the wall should show 6.10.
Stop it from ticking by taking it off the wall and putting it on the shelf.
Timeline: 18.10
Put the clock back onto the wall to get it ticking as normal.
Timeline: 19.00
Perfect scene, perfect score!

***if you added poison to the recipe to bake, yellow guy will be on the roof, winged monster will be kicked out, master will turn to stone, and the brown monster will still be biting on the rope.

09 September 2007

Cake Pics

Ask and you shall receive. This post is in response to Nigel's request related to one of my previous posts - "My Cake Experience"


Test cake: Didn't complete the decorating because it was really late.

Choc chip cake stuffed with marshmellow & chocolate buttercream filling

Final product: Simple and from the heart

Sorry I don't have more pictures worthy of posting. I was so caught up with the cake that I didn't have time to document the process.

06 September 2007

Random Thought: Life is Fantastic!

While playing confidant to an old flame, I made an interesting realization about life. Some of you may know this already, but I know that there are still many who don’t.

Direction and purpose… both in life are very important. To have something to work towards or look forward to, that is really vital to stay psychologically healthy, to be happy.

What drives you? Think about it! Do you have a 10-year plan? A 5-year plan? A 1-year plan? And just as important as having goals, I find that we also need to have things to look forward to. That overdue vacation with a loved one or dear friend; a special occasion or event; buying something that excites you; an anticipated exciting change in life, it all counts!

The above is what makes the difference between saying “life sucks” or “life is just ok” and being able to say “life is fantastic”. Are you truly enjoying your time here? Or are you just living it a day at a time. That choice is in your hands and really, you can choose to do something about it!

In unrelated news: Funny thing happened today. Our President is down from Japan having a meeting with all the managers. Rumor has it we’re involved in a buy-over. And we’re not the buyers. If this rumor is true, a serious change in things around here can be expected. I wonder how that would affect me if I stayed on. Would I have adjusted well to the change of bosses and maybe even working culture? Or maybe they’d retrench me and pay me off. That would have been nice. Alas, my departure from this company is already confirmed and I guess I’ll never know. Still, I have no regrets and am eager to move on to greener pastures.

05 September 2007

Counting Down

As the days run by and I get just that much closer to my last day of service here at NMM, the boredom grows exponentially. Although I clock in at 8.30 sharp and clock out 5.00pm on the dot daily, I still feel more mentally exhausted than when I used to O.T. till late night. It’s the lack of interesting activity I tell you.

I am actually doing what I can to delay the numerous tasks of the handover process just so that I still retain some work to do while waiting it out (Kiasu about having no work… not exactly the best kind of kiasu-ism).

Even with today coming to a close, I still have 14 more working days to suffer. I’m also still entitled to 3 more days of annual leave. The initial idea was to run off the leave on the last 3 days of service, thereby bringing the end just a little be closer. That plan has had to be scrapped.

My boss just told me that our exec is putting together a farewell lunch in my name, to be held on the 25th, so I have to work till then. Looking on the bright side of it, he also mentioned that after speaking to our GM, he’s gotten approval for the company to pay me off for any unused leave. That works for me since I really could use all the money I can get.

So, 14 working days… and counting…

In the mean time, any ideas on what I can do with my time in the office without it being too obvious that I’m not working?