BuzzLife

Yes, it’s me Yeknee aka BuzzLife. I have been hibernating in the dark for more than a year and a drop of golden sun woke me up with a loud buzz.. Thanks to the wake up call, I am now back with a vengeance.

BuzzLife has moved to a bigger and more luxurious home at Yeknee’s DAILY BUZZ. Stay tuned.

Happy New Year 2008, folks!

Dear readers,

Thank you so much for keeping BuzzLife company all this while. I am currently facing a great challenge in my life and have to concentrate fully on my family who is my pillar strength plus some other priorities. With that I would like to sign out for the last time, vowing to return back one day, stronger and wiser….

Yours truly,

Yek Nee
Signing out for the last time..

Ever wonder how those big computers, IT brands were formed? Amazingly lots of them are derived from very strange circumstances. Check them out:

Adobe -This came from the name of the river Adobe Creek that ran behind the house of founder John Warnock.

Apple Computers - It was the favorite fruit of founder Steve Jobs. he was three months late in filing for a business, and he threatened to call his company Apple Computers if the other colleagues didn’t suggest a better name by 5 o’clock.

Compaq - This name was formed by using COMp for computer, and PAQ to denote a small integral object.

Google - The name started as a joke boasting about the amount of information the search-engine would be able to search. It was originally named ‘Googol’, a word for the number represented by 1 followed by 100 zeros. After founders - Stanford graduate students Sergey Brin and Larry Page presented their projects to an angel investor, they received a cheque made out  to ‘Google’.

Hotmail - Founder Jack Smith got the idea of accessing e-mail via the web from a computer anywhere in the world. When Sabeer Bhatia came up with the business plan for the mail service, he tried all kinds of names ending in ‘mail’ and finally settled for hotmail as included the letters "html" - the programming language used to write web pages. It was initially referred to as HoTMail with selective upper-casing.

Hewlett Packard - Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard tossed a coin to decide whether the company they founded would be called Hewlett-Packard or Packard-Hewlett.

Intel -Bob Noyce and Gordon Moore wanted to name their new company ‘Moore Noyce’ but that was already trademarked by a hotel chain so they had to settle for an acronym of INTegrated ELectronics.

Microsoft - Coined by Bill Gates to represent the company that was devoted t MICROcomputer SOFTware. Orignally christened Micro-Soft, the ‘-’ was removed later on.

Would you like to know the SECRET to everything - joy, health, money, relationships, love, happiness.. everything you have ever wanted? It is the SECRET which has travelled through centuries to reach you.

I first read about it from Sifu’s dailynuggets. Sifu put up a link to watch it free online. It is frustrating to view it online with my narrowband Streamyx. So when finally my original copy arrived, hand carried on the way from USA by Simon, I was awed by this fascinating movie. It has completely changed my mindset, my thinking and could change my life forever.. It conveys a simple yet powerful message that you’ve got to take charge of your thoughts, your mind to get what you want.

If you want to know what is this SECRET all about, if you want to achieve everything you want beyond your wildest dream, find out you can do it by watching this 102 minutes movie free online. Go fast, fast because it is free for a limited period of time only.

Recently, a young, fresh graduate who joined the company a month ago resigned without giving any notice. She was with the R & D Dept. Reason? She needs her life back! Why? She was working more than 60 hrs a week although the contract of employment required her to work 45 hrs per week with a simple clause saying, "to work extra hours if required". This means additional 3 hours per day!

My former university mate who works as an accountant for a giant multinational once told me not to disturb her last week of every month till the 1st week of the following month. Month-end closing, need to submit financial report to parent company in USA. What disturbing me was the fact that she would stay back till 11.oopm just to finish her report, including weekends. I am not only worry for her health but her safety as well.

My present workplace not so long ago introduced the so-called executive excess hour allowance for management staff to reduce the high turnover of manpower due to work overstress. Although money does matter when one has to work stretched hours, but as what the fresh graduate said, money can’t buy life! I would rather appreciate that the management would look into how to keep the working hour of all employees at 45 hours per week or even flexi-working hours. For eg, is the long hour attributed by shortage of manpower, or because of ridiculous deadline, or the before-5-pm assignment or just simply because of too-much-work.

That said, a phone call to my counterpart in Australia would be greeted with an answering machine for any calls made after 5.00pm local time. On the contrary, any phone call to my counterpart in Japan would always be answered even if you call after 9.00 p.m local time. While overtime might be an alien word in the European or Oceania countries, I must say that it is the Asian culture to work long hours.

Well, that leaves me wondering, are the money that we are getting for this kind of working hours worth it? The long working hours not only deprive us of our health, but also the quality time with our family. There are people whom I knew personally, who had a high-ranking position, collapsed in the office due to heart related problem and eventually passed away. The company easily found a replacement while their families could never have their papa back. 

Ask ourselves, do we want to live this kind of pathetic lifestyle until our retirement? Do we want our children to grow up with papa and mama who are so near yet so far? Are our working and family life well balanced? Think about it wisely. You have a choice and decision is all yours!

Are you and your partner compatible? Most likely, only a fortune teller or a feng shui master can tell you. Haha.. those days, our parents used to check for birthdates, blah, blah to find whether the guys my sisters and I were going out with is the "ONE"…

Here, we have a Dr. Love, whom at a mouse click, will tell you whether you would have a successful relationship with someone you are seeing or even someone you have married! Just type your name and your other half’s name (or any names you deemd suitable) at Love Calculator dot com. Simple as that.

Although the Love Calculator claims that accuracy has been proven, I am skeptical and doubtful about the result. Haa… a quick check, hubby and I are only 25% compatible! And surprisingly an old flame and I are 79% compatible. Err.. how come he (my ex) and I didn’t have a happy ending.. ha!

Disclaimer : Try at your own risk. This blogger is not responsible for any result derived from the calculations.

Yet another new chapter in Big J’s life.. He’s graduating from pre-school and will start Primary 1 in a different town in Jan 2007. Sadly, his best buddies will go to different schools next year.

The three Mousketeers.. from left.. Shien Hang who will be attending Khe Beng Primary School, Big J who will be attending Chung Hua Primary School, and Yu Shue is attending Lik Hung Primary School.

Our promising young Ice Skater, Rhiannon who has won several medals in international ice skating competitions at the tender age of 5.

A talented 6 year-old Natasya, who conducted the graduation choir.

And Little J with his favorite pose.

The boys are all geared up for their Dragon Boat performance.

Congratulations to all the P1M and P2M students of Tadika Yume on your graduation.

I bought this south bound Transnasional bus ticket for my cousin sister who is doing a Law degree in Multimedia University in Malacca. And I found this additional charges interesting.

Skim Lindungan Mesra Selalu (literally translated in English as "Always Protection Friendly Scheme) which is MYR0.10. Although the amount is small, the first impression I have it’s a protection money. Or could it be a sales tax (but how come only 0.9% ler?). Scratching my head.

Twice in a week experience, flights delay! Last Saturday, my maid’s flight AK953 from Jakarta was delayed for 3 hours. Today, my cousin sister’s flight AK5265 from Sibu, originally ETD at 8:35 pm was delayed to 9:55pm. As I type this entry, an SMS came in saying, "My plane leaves at 10:20pm, this time it is confirmed." 

The infamous budget airlines Air Asia has yet again lived up to her reputation of being the "King" of delay or even flight cancellations. Tony dear, just because you have made it possible for almost everyone to fly now, you shouldn’t take it for granted that just because passengers pay less, they have to endure to the discomfort of flights being delayed and it happens too frequent that it has caught the attention of Transport Minister. Read here. Only that nothing has improved thus far.

Oh yes, cut cost as you may need to, just don’t spoil the airlines’ reputation by not training your crew members’ the basic social skills or manners. I personally have experienced numerous rude remark from your cabin crews. Remark such as, "you cannot talk and stand here, go back to your seat, switch off your handphone now, don’t use your lap tops." I wonder why they are never trained to use the word "please".  One incident is good enough to leave a bad stain.. oh.. low cost carrier, low class cost service…

"You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help enough other people get what they want." Zig Ziglar quoted.

I tried to help. But wasn’t appreciated. I tried to help again. But I was told off. When I finally tried one last chance to help, I was back stabbed. Sigh.. how nice if all human thinks, acts, behaves alike. Then the world will be so peaceful…. Lesson learnt, do not be distracted by criticism. The only taste of success some people have is when they take a bite out of you….

One can easily insert an emotion, a smiley face in the email or IMs. Somehow, I prefer to type and make "face characters" to express my feelings and they reflect more personal touch..

Which of the following "face characters" do you use the most?

1. ( ^ _  ^ )  smiling, happy

2. ( ^ 0 ^ ) /  greeting

3. m(_ _)m  thank you

4. ( ^ _ ^; )  cold sweat

5. (* ^ _ ^ *)  blushing

6. \ ( ^ 0 ^ ) /  cheers

7. ( > _ < )  crying

The Indonesian used to use stones to wash their clothes while the Chinese used leaves. One century later, soap or more commonly known as detergent has become a neccesity household items in our daily lives. Would you buy a washing machine that doesn’t need detergent to clean your clothes? Skeptical, no?

Makers of white good products have since evolved in technology to bring the detergent free washing machine to our homes, much to the dismay of detergent makers. First it was Sanyo who unveiled the world’s first hybrid washing machine which do not require detergent in 2001. The invention has drawn a strong protest from Japan Soap and detergent Association. The detergent makers disputes Sanyo’s claims that the detergent free washer cleans better and falling flat on cost saving. The product did not have a success story.

Next, the Korean Daewo washing machine says "no" to soap in 2002, using quite a similiar technology. Daewoo claimed that their newly-invented washer has more washing power, up to 20% cleaner than conventional washers. It not only saves detergent but saves water as well.

And recently the Chinese maker Haier joins rivals to offer consumers a choice of no-soap washer. But buyers have been slow to take a spin, as people just can’t believe clothes can be washed without detergent. Haier patent right technology is based on a similar mechanism to detergents: using the interaction of acidic and alkaline ions to clean dirty substances.

Haier Natural Wash is going at RM3,999 for a 7 kg top-load detergent free washer vs. RM799, the price of a conventional 7 kg top load washer. The price difference itself is good enough for you to buy approximately 200 packets of 3 kg powdered laundry detergent. This can easily last you more than 15 yrs of consumption! Is it really cost saving? Is it worth buying? Do your own calculations!