Intelligence: Ability To Adapt

Quote of the day:
"There's no such thing as fair or unfair, there's only unfair." - Pessimist

With agents who have no decency to make appointments at least one day in advanced, and having FOUR agents saying "I'll bring my client there in two hours" and TWO agents saying "I'm on the way", I have no peace in rushing for a perfect viewing of the office buildings. Due to that, my time to blog was taken away. :(

Before I begin with the story, Blood Donation today! Ya, in my building. Hope no more blood donation scare that I had last time. Not talking about business lately as the 'search' for location is still ongoing, and the business world have been quiet except other than the CIMB (actually BCB) giving VSS and some of their security staff have been asking for a job here, as well as the amazingly ridiculous HSBC advert on tv showing a dude half-squatting watching another dude putting his hands in and out of his pocket. It actually looks more like the dude is watching his butt. Anyway, that's another story.

It's interesting to watch the way my son develops intelligence according to cause-and-effect. After pulling propping himself up holding to something, and later falling down backwards hitting his head on the floor and crying a few times, he adapted by letting go of his footing before he falls, so that he falls sitting instead of falling backwards. And then, while falling in sitting position holding the side of the crib, and always hitting his forehead at the crib, he nows pushes himself away first before falling to a sitting position. That's quick. Never knew intelligence start at a very young age.

Lately, there's a "test the waters" intelligence too. That is, before propping himself up holding something, he ensures that the 'something' can really hold his weight before really standing up. So, he ends up putting some of his weight on the 'something' and then pushing the 'something' to see if it's stable, and when all is right, only then will he stand up. I wonder what other things he'll learn by himself within the next one month. Short post today. :D

Oh, that's the ghost!

I think some of you would have seen the video on two guards in Singapore who saw a pontianak (female vampire) during their night shift. It's been circulating the internet for quite some time, and many have dismissed it as fake, myself included. Just in case you've not seen it, click the link below.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=4LnuLBr43K4

At first, I thought the 'ghost' is that white 2-dimensional thingy that appeared halfway through the video beside the gate. And so did everyone else on the internet!! Sure, you can wonder how come that white 2-dimensional board suddenly appeared when the first half of the video it couldn't be seen. I would like to say that the camera angle at the first half of the video didn't reflect the board into the camera, or a light wasn't on to have it reflected.

Anyway, my colleague noticed that I have the video and when I mentioned the fake, he said I've been looking at the wrong thing. Yes indeed. That board is not the ghost. The ghost appeared at the last 10 seconds of the video when the guards started to back off from the gate. Take notice that in the last 10 seconds, a white light started to 'dance' from the bottom left corner of the video, near the security bar, and moved towards the gate and near the end of the video, the light can be seen somewhere near the top of the gate.

Imagine this. Videos cannot capture ghost. If we see white light on the video, imagine what the guards REALLY saw with their own eyes which COULD see the ghost. Creepy! When I watched the video again and see that dancing light, my hairs stood on end. Yup, this is genuine, not a fake video. Sigh... I knew from the scream of the guard it really sounded a 'sincere fear-y scream'... but I was wondering why they feared a 2-D board. Now I know. Eeee.....

Beautiful Nightmare

I had a beautiful nightmare yesterday. It was in a hotel room, and I've just taken a rest on the bed watching tv after doing my work at the work-table at one side of the room. While watching tv, I looked into the large mirror beside the tv and can see that work-table. Amazingly, I see myself at the work-table at the same time I'm seeing myself looking at the mirror too. There's two of me!

But when I looked back at the work-table, there was no one there. So I decided to go to the work-table. Sat on the seat, looked back at the mirror, and see another 'me' sitting on the bed watching tv. It got me scared lah of course, but excited too. So I grabbed my camcorder and went back to the bed. At least now I can record the mirror to show two of myself!

The moment I lifted up the camcorder, it felt really heavy. And my attempt to do a short commentary stating time, where I am, and what the tape is showing seems to be very difficult as if my lips at locked and I can't say a word. So, basically I'm hearing myself saying word-by-word in a very slow manner, struggling to have my voice heard.

Then that other 'me' in the mirror got up from his work-table and approached the mirror, looking angrily at me. Of course then I know that was not 'me' at all, just 'something' in my image. Manage to struggle and wake up in real life twice only to fall back to sleep and continue the nightmare. Then I zoned out (pengsan) as it stepped out of the mirror coming at me.

Overall, a bit duh that I zoned out and dunno what happens next. These texts cannot fully potray how it was, and the hotel room is quite nice too. Should draw it lah, but my drawing skill is pathetic. If I try to draw a scenery, it'll look like a dog. If I try to draw a dog, it'll look like a beautiful scenery. :P

My Son's Memory Diary: Part 1 (Birth - 10th Apr 2006)

Since there was a certain insect that buzzed near me telling me that it's been a while since I've written anything related to my baby (literally), I think that it's high time for me to write something, such as opinions and future thoughts.

My first and current opportunity (that word sounds weird, but everyone says that a 'problem' is an 'opportunity', so I'll call it that) is that my son has started to recognise people and now refuses to be held by anyone who've not been around him on a constant basis. This includes my own sibling, uncles&aunties who've not met him for some time, the garbage man and the Clinique counter salesgirl. I guess the garbage man was too stinko and the salesgirl was too perfume-y. Kidding, no such thing as the last two individuals. As 'sad' as this may seem, since we've met babies who are very friendly who'll crawl at any stranger, I have to respect this as a characteristic that he's developing. Good also that he just doesn't follow any stranger.

Next is that he summersaults! Being able to prop himself to a standing position in the cot, with the cot 'gate' being at a somewhat low level, the top of the 'gate' is at his chest level. There were at least four occasions this week alone whereby he picks up his bolster with one hand, and then proceeded to hugging the bolster with both hands not realising that he has no more support. And taadah, circus act. He falls over the 'gate' out of the cot, luckily onto the bed.

Also, I don't get the idea on why babies 'spray'. It's like he's just done a religious prayer and then started to 'spray' his saliva to 'cleanse' the area in front of him. I've not gone around asking or reading whether this is a normal phenomena, but I guess it is for babies whose teeth are beginning to grow. However, it is an embarassment to have him spray shoppers and items at the shopping mall. At least these people and items are 'blessed'. :D

One thing for sure is that he's photogenic. He's someone who will not look away from any camera or video camera aimed at taking his photo. So it's also difficult to take candid shots of him. Anyway, it's also good that at least I'm not taking the back of his head all the time.

Right-handed or left-handed?! He nearly always pick up things with his left hand. But, he always hit tables, floors, anything that can be hit by the palm using his right hand. Seriously I don't have on the handed-ness, but of course in the future should he be left-handed, he needs to be taught the courtesy of giving and receiving things using the right hand.

The curse of Barney! It is totally weird that babies really do like watching Barney?! What does Barney has that X-Men doesn't have? "I love you" songs, more songs, "I love you", purple in colour and "I love you". Also, teletubbies also hits the right chord with babies. I guess this is the musical stage before they start speaking, so tunes are the way to go for now. Later it'll be Dora the Explorer, my all time favourite Blue's Clues (go figure, I seem to like this duh show), Spongebob Squarepants (I like this show too), and many others like Higglytown Heroes. Only after that things like X-Men, Batman, and all the not-so-cute drawings type of cartoon will come in. Hey, at least he likes watching South Park due to the cute drawings. :P

Baby's first shoes, a product that should be created. We have his first shoe, given by an aunt. The thing is, he's still not walking yet and have only been standing up aided the past two weeks. Why is it that the shoe doesn't fit anymore. This means that the shoe was for 1-6 months or maybe even 1-3 months old kinda shoe. Yes, we did put it on him when he was younger (that's weird to say!) and it fits, but those shoes, I guess it's merely as a decoration then. He can hardly fit in the shoes anymore, his feet I mean, not his entire self.

Uncontrollable weight distribution. This, to me, is a very amusing habit. While carrying a 10kg baby is easier than carrying an 5kg laptop for a long period, the way he distribute his weight is a havoc. At one moment he leans to the left, and I have to follow my own weight distribution to keep the balance. Then, he leans to the right, and as I shift my own posture, he leans to the left. And then he totally bends down that my other hand need to take care of his additional weight. At least it keeps my arm strong to have a firm grip on him and my waist on a constant contraction left and right. Still, I don't think this is a good way to lose weight.

First swim. This is an incident to remember. Instead of buying the swimming diaper, we went straight ahead to the small sized swimming trunk which of course is big on him. Yay, diaper on, ready to go swimming, but first, let's pee on mommy. :P Poor mommy carrying him get soaked by pee from body down to feet. Anyway, first swim was fun with him constantly trying to bend down to drink pool water. Successful twice, and then we really find that holding his head close to the water is dangerous to his health. Otherwise, he enjoys the water.

First mall. Baby's first mall is Ampang Park. 'Nuff said.
First hotel. Sunway Hotel. 'Nuff said.
First hospital. Where he's born lah, duh.
First clinic. Where we go for pregnancy check-up.
First fall. At my parents home, head down first onto the floor while asleep. Lucky there was a mattress and quick reaction from his dad when his mom was woken up telepathically from him calling for help.
First solid food. I dunno whether it was KFC's whipped potato first, or the salt on a french fry.
First drink. Duh!!!
First clothes. Two piece blue shirt and pants from Poney.
First midnight outing. Watching fireworks during New Year 2006.
First car ride. Daddy's car.
First haircut. Night before Hari Raya Haji 2006.

There are a lot of other firsts, but those will certainly push towards a deeper knowledge on family location/information/identity/criminal records/bite marks.

Market Research Weekend

Following up on the olde entrepreneurial posts that I've written, especially on the new year's resolution that some business should be up and running this year, me and a biz partner went out for market research during the weekend. Ended up meeting old friends pun ada.

Anyway, without too much hints on the business idea,... yet,... our first step was actually driving around the Klang Valley to look for that market we're looking for. In other words, Location of Market. No, not the wet market, but market as in the people who would be our clients, where to they reside, where can we find most of them and all that lar. Interestingly enough, we noticed some trends in commercial areas.

Older commercial areas, will nearly always 'die' to newer commercial areas unless that older ones already have a strong 'base' such as Bangsar. Cannot talk about Hartamas coz' it's considered quite new but Bangsar is such an oldie that's doing very well. Simply put, we actually even drove to Taman Melawati where in the 1980s business was booming quite well there. This time, it was rather dead. Only about 30% of the entire commercial area is in operation, however, the newer Taman Permata where the huge Giant complex is, business is thriving. Pity the former.

We checked PJ and new townships as well. New townships are always a risk. We have fresh community who we have no idea how they're like. However, by the looks of other shops and the kind of people who crowd at the place, we can guess what kind of people come to these areas. PJ, such that of SS2 is always full of people, the best place and one of the most expensive places to start a business. We're talking quantity here, of course we can say the best place is Bangsar or Hartamas, but look at what industry you wanna venture in lah. Like us, opening a shoe shine stall, of course cannot consider Bangsar or Hartamas lah. Eh wait, did I say shoe shine?! Eh, no lar. Not that business, though it is an entrepreneurial business. Is it entrepreneural or rial??

One other thing noticed is the different crowd at different hours of the day. In the morning, one area would have older folks walking keeping fit while at the same time in another area, you see children all biking around. In the afternoon, some area are darn noisy with cars in the workshops revving and revving and revving, sometimes u feel like u just wanna hit a gong beside the driver's ear, while at other areas it's soooo quiet you think no one is around, and we're talking commercial district here! Nights are fun. Some areas are dark by 10pm while others have a good night life. Also, differences in areas, one area malays only... other areas are a balanced mix of people in one mamak shop. Nice to be in Malaysia.

We also notice there are two types of ways to enter the commercial retail industry. One is to join the crowd. Oh, there got 3 already open mah, we open one more lor. The other one is to be the pioneer. Eh, let's create a market here. See there, everyone walking with selipar and kasut koyak-koyak, we'll start the first shop here then. Both are risky, but seriously, it's more fun being the pioneer in terms of strategical thinking and planning on how to attract customers without paying umbrella girls to hold umbrella bearing our logo.

Whatever it is, location has been analysed and determined over a week period. Eh, not really, it's been 3-4 months of choosing locations and narrowing them down. Now on to costing....