End Of A Decade

With the year 2010 nearly upon us and 2009 breathing its last, one cannot help but look back at the decade we shall no longer be part of. As we gather for this momentous end, I will write of not one, but three tales in this post where I reveal more of myself than usual.

The Zero Decade
The Zero Decade began with a wave of mass hysteria pre-2000, when fears of Y2K (the millennium bug) threatened to cripple computer systems worldwide and create chaos and destruction worldwide. Y2K never came. But chaos and destruction did.

Following the September 11 attacks on New York City in 2001, the George Bush administration started the War on Terror, which led to a still ongoing war between the United States and two Muslim countries and changed the face of air travel forever.

Fast forward to 2002-2004, these were the years I moved from high school to A-Levels to university. For the unfamiliar, A-Levels is a pre-university course required before starting in a British university.

2004 was also a sad year for my part of the world. The Southeast Asian Tsunami hit as 2004 lay dying with the Sumatera island of Indonesia taking the worst. Thankfully though, my country was not terribly ravaged by the beast.

2005-2008 for me was a whirlwind of backpacking-on-a-student-budget-while-studying adventures in England, Europe and other parts of the world. I have not written a lot on my own travels or my field but plan to do so in the latter part of next year.

2008. The world economy went down the toilet. In other news:

• Globally beloved Barrack Obama was elected to the US presidency (replacing less beloved George W. Bush) in hopes of bringing world peace, solving the economic crisis and creating heaven on earth.
• Closer to home, the Malaysian Opposition parties (Pakatan Rakyat) won their biggest victory in a general election in history, and expectations rang high on finally dispelling corruption and inequality to a country rife with both.
• Even closer to home, I left England and joined the workforce in my country with expectations of many an affair with pretty girls and drama worthy of the Friends sitcom.

None of these expectations were met.

2009, was however, the year of some firsts for me:

My First Trip to Borneo
I had never been to the eastern half of my country, despite being a Malaysian for over two decades. In November, I was finally there and took a gander at the rocks


Image above shows the collapsed burrow of a prehistoric animal - remnants of a collapsed house, very much like the one below (not taken in Borneo)



North Borneo millions of years ago was very much like it was today, a land of deltas and meandering rivers, like the present day Baram river (below)



An image mix from Labuan Island and Sarawak (Borneo):

My First Business Trip
Shortly after, I took a 28 hour flight across the globe from Malaysia to Texas with a stopover in Doha, Qatar.


and arrived in the oil capital of the world, Houston.


Also home to the NASA Johnson space center, home of the NASA mission control center

2009 is also the year of a new chapter in my life - a year when I first joined the online community and started this blog. How was your Zero Decade?

Read More......

Christmas

Wishing all readers a Merry Christmas!


More about Santa:
The North American Aerospace Defense Command tracks Santa's sleigh through the night skies every Christmas eve.

Read More......

A Pinch of Salt

Ajinomoto, MSG, monosodium glutamate - these are all names for the flavor enhancing salt that was a brainchild of the Meiji era. Though not as visually awing as the modern Japanese innovations in robotics, or as legend inspiring as the Japanese katana, it nevertheless surpasses the aforementioned in its impact on human society.


Following its invention, MSG became widely used in Oriental restaurants and became synonymous with Chinese restaurants. This humble salt is now used by many fast food outlets and in processed foods (think canned soup, salad dressings and beef jerky).

The Inventor
Dr. Kikunae Ikeda (池田菊苗) was a Japanese professor of Chemistry at (then) Tokyo Imperial University (東京帝國大學), today's Tokyo University (東京大学). He graduated from the same school and spent two years studying in Germany. He became motivated by research applied directly to an improved standard of living for Japanese people. This led to him to seaweed.


The Idea
Kombu (昆布), a type of seaweed is harvested in the seas of China, Japan and Korea. It is used extensively in Japanese dishes (especially that of Okinawa). Inspired by the taste of kombu, Dr. Ikeda found that a flavor other than sweet, sour, salty and spicy existed.
This flavor is called "umai" in Japanese. His experiments resulted in the discovery that the "umai" flavor of kombu comes from monosodium glutamate (MSG), and Dr. Ikeda invented a method of obtaining crystalline MSG, the flavor in its purest form, in 1908.

Making MSG
MSG was made from the hydrolysis of wheat gluten, traditionally known in Japan as fu(麩) up until the mid 1960s. Nowadays, it is usually extracted via the fermentation of carbohydrates.


Swallow Carefully
There have been some concerns about the side-effects of MSG on the consumer, which were said to be the worsening of asthmatic symptoms and increasing body fat accumulation. Indeed, as a child, I was cautioned against the dangers of eating out as the Ajinomoto may "make my hair fall out".

Some MSG Facts
Patent number: 14805, year 41 of the Meiji Era
Molecular formula: C5H8NNaO4

This entry is a submission to the December Japan Blog Matsuri, hosted by DumbOtaku.

Read More......

Ring! goes the phone

Do you just let the phone ring when you are otherwise engaged, or are you compelled to answer it?

Read More......

Artist on Drugs or Geek's Gay Porn?

Read More......

Dromomania

Dromomania (travelling fugue) is an uncontrollable psychological urge to wander.

People with this condition spontaneously depart from their routine, travel long distances and assume different identities and occupations.

One case was that of Jean-Albert Dadas, a Bordeaux gas-fitter. Dadas would suddenly set out on foot and reach cities as far away as Prague, Vienna or Moscow with no memory of his travels.

Intense migraines and masturbatory binges would trigger his flight, and during his travels he was often intermittently amnesiac. He was once admitted to a Bordeaux hospital in 1886 in a state of exhaustion after wandering across southern France.

I, too, suffer from mild dromomania:
- In a family trip to Japan when I was 7, I wandered away from my parents with a friend I made on the plane, for half a day. After that, I left my new-found friend and went off on my own, found myself inside a castle and saw my first (fake) samurai.

- I feel the constant need to walk and wander. I would go walking out to further places for lunch-break on work days, I used to take solo walks all over the city of London when i was studying there.

- I took a course in university that allowed me to hike over hills.

- I supplemented this urge during my university days by backpacking.

- I now wander somewhere else.

A song by Deep Forest to illustrate this:


Song Lyrics And Meaning
Sasi sasi o to aro aro
O angi si nau boroi amu
Ni ma oe e fasi korona
Dolali dasa na, lao dai afuimae
Afuta guau mauri, Afuta wela inomae

Sasi sasi ae o angisi nau
Boroi nima oe e fasi koro na
Dolali dasa na, lao dai afuimae
Afuta guau mauri, Afuta wela inomae
Young brother, young brother you be quiet
Although you are crying to me
Your father has left us
He has gone to the place of the dead
Protect the head of the living, Protect the orphan child

Young brother, young brother hey? although you are crying to me
Your father has left us
He has gone to the place of the dead
Protect the head of the living, protect the orphan child

Interpreting the Song:
This interpretation and lyrics come from one very old lady, living in Fataleka (one of the Solomon Islands), as translated by her grandchildren. The song is said to be very old and hence the new generation does not understand every word.

The song is about a young child crying because he does not see his father with the family. In response his elder sister sung this song to comfort as well as tell him the reality, with an appeal for their deceased father to protect this child in the land of the living (local ancient belief is that the dead care for loved ones they left behind).

The old woman also said that the sample, if listened to carefully, used some words and sounds that were added to make it sound more melo. Expression of some words twice, as well pronounciation of most of the words are different from that of normal conversation. Eg. 'O' should be OE', Angiangi should be angisi. This is very common with local traditional songs.

Read More......

Finding Atlantis

A homemade documentary unraveling Atlantis, the lost city, based on web research:


This video was made by Mark, a self employed video producer. See more of his videos here.

Read More......

It's Raining

Read More......

Recruitment Skills‏

RECRUITING THE RIGHT PERSON FOR THE JOB:

Put about 100 bricks in some particular order in a closed room with an open window. Then send 2 or 3 candidates in the room and close the door. Leave them alone and come back, after 6 hours and then analyze the situation.

• If they are counting the bricks, put them in the accounts department
• If they are recounting them, put them in auditing.
• If they are arranging the bricks in some strange order, put them in planning.
• If they are throwing the bricks at each other, put them in operations.
• If they are sleeping, put them in security.
• If they have broken the bricks into pieces, put them in information technology.
• If they are sitting idle, put them in human resources.
• If they say they have tried different combinations, yet not a brick has been moved, put them in sales.
• If they have already left for the day, put them in marketing.
• If they are staring out of the window, put them on strategic planning.
• If they are talking to each other and not a single brick has been moved, congratulate them and put them in top management

Read More......