Happy Birthday, Malaysia!

Tanggal 31, Bulan 8 57!
The parade? One of the best and most meaningful ever =) Good job! Good weather! No more words to describe the morning other than these, hehe. Happy birthday, Malaysia!

Recipie! ---- Baked Potatoes

How do you make a hearty breakfast/dinner dish? Let me show you how. =) My very own experiment.

Ingredients :
4 potatoes, spring onion, oregano (dried), Tabasco sauce, extra virgin olive oil, lemon, pepper.


Steps:

1. Peel the potatoes. Then, cut them into smaller pieces.

2. Boil the potatoes in salt water until you can drive your knife through them easily. 3. Put the potatoes into a bowl and mash them completely.

4. Cut a lemon and squeeze the juice into the potatoes to your taste.

5. Add chopped spring onion, Tabasco sauce and olive oil to the potatoes. To your taste.

6. Mix thoroughly.

7. Spread the mashed potatoes in a baking tray, or in my case, a metal plate.

8. Bake in the preheated oven until the potatoes show a golden colour. (I used 250°C)

9. Serve! With toast, egg, etc... can also add butter if you want.

Ok, the colour of the dish in the picture may not look smooth, but it tastes good! How's that for a beginner's first time full fledged cooking? Feedback is most welcomed. Bon appetit!

Winds Of Change

Truly Clear
At last, the days of acrid smell is over and it had better stay that way. It rained! And from 1 Utama, you can finally see way out until the Telekom building in the far distance. It really felt nice when small drops of sky juice hit my face. Somehow the winds changed and now the smoke is headed up north. Sorry, northern states. It actually hurts when the papers reported that some farmers are still burning padi stalks up north. Some kind of education and extra funding should be given to help them change their ways.




Here's another view that's blessedly clear of haze.






Say Who?
Talking about winds of change. Not only did the winds actually change direction, the stories in the news did too! It is an article from The Star today (17 August 2005) which says that Malaysian planters in Indonesia did not start any fires. How did Indonesia come to a conclusion that they did the last time? This openly suggests that Indonesia is playing the convenient blame game. When we complain about their actions, they simply say, "It's your own fault! Don't blame us..". Ah, the fibbers. What a big show of the so-called ASEAN spirit. What great neighbourliness. Nonsensical stories made up by their press is the thanks we get for lending a hand to put out their own fires.

What Say?

Explain this
(Article from the New Straits Times, 12 August 2005) This is simply unacceptable. How can this excuse saying that "it is a lifestyle that cannot be changed" be used? It is like saying we have been going to war with spears and stones for centuries, therefore we cannot switch to guns as it is difficult to stop using our own sticks and stones. It is somehow very illogical to be unable to educate the planters to switch to less destructive methods of land clearing as Indonesia has such a huge population. They are able to recruit more law enforcers as their economy is now improving. Indonesia is a member of the OPEC and therefore they have the energy to conduct surveillance. Malaysia is also an agriculture country. We have long forbid slash and burn methods even though there is a handful who are still ill-informed. Did our agriculture activities suffer? No! In fact, it flourished as there is less pollutants in the air which inhibits proper plant growth. If Indonesians cannot change their ways, why on earth do we provide help to them? It is clearly wasting our efforts as well as risking our firemens' lives. Maybe if we could hold our breath for a longer time, we should wait until there's nothing left to burn in Sumatera. Only then, the air will clear. For a very long time.

Traitors
Oi! These people are overboard! How can our own countrymen across the Straits do this to their homeland? Don't they know what is happening here? Malaysian cops should hop over there and throw all of them into jail, lock up their businesses and fine them. This is very shameful, with the fact that everyone is pointing their fingers at the Indonesians. These Malaysian firms better stop this heinous act as the world thinks we are actually self-destructing. What a shame.

Darkness Comes And Goes

Still Dark
The haze actually lifted in the morning, increasing visibility to a little more than 1km as compared to yesterdays horror. That is the INTAN building in the distance. About 250 schools have closed today and are to close tomorrow too. However, at about 1pm, the winds shifted and the haze is back, blanketing the city again in thick smoke. Even the smell is in every building, air-conditioned or not. Quite a number of minor accidents also occurred due to poor visibilty. I noticed that the postman in my area does not wear a mask. I hope Pos Malaysia will remind their personnel to wear them as well as provide the masks. Today, many people have slammed the Indonesians over the haze. We are tired of helping them douse their own fires as reoccurence is the thanks we get. So what if they have the death penalty for the culprits? No one seems to be executed just yet and the fires rage on. KL has offered to send help. Hopefully the Indonesians have a change in attitude and cease to let us suffer because of their people's inconsiderate actions.

Genius!
This is a really good idea by him to keep from breathing in the unhealthy air! =) It should be marketed. Really.



(The Sun, 11 August 2005, front page)

Haze Worsened

Suffocating
The air has worsened tremendously today, the visibility at a low of 300m. From the Universiti roundabout, the INTAN building disappeared from sight. The air smells worse and people started choking and their eyes watering. My eyes hurt now. What students do not understand is why the Government can't declare an emergency at this point of time. They can hardly pay attention to the lessons and the teachers can't speak at their normal volume. The Ministry should note that schools are not so fortunate to have air conditioners to use. If the situation worsens tomorrow, students cannot be blamed for skipping school. The schools are given the liberty to shut down but there's a catch. The off days have to be replaced on Saturdays. Let me ask, if the haze does not lift until December, would we replace the days next year? Will students be expelled for not attending classes in order to protect their own health? Why do schools demand Medical Certs from these students? Who wants to pay a doctor just to get a piece of paper? This problem in the administrations should be looked into now before anything worse happens.

There were a few blessed drops of rain that fell on P.J. . Please pray for a full monsoon blast that should be here during this season. Slight hail also hit Subang Jaya. What a phenomenon!

Smoked

Who Moved The Mountain?!
Try to look in the distance. Where is the mountain and the condominium? The photo was taken from the same location as yesterday's. Today's condition is the worst ever since the smoke hit us. Visibilty's down to a low of approximately 700m. In certain parts of Subang, you can't see things clearly beyond 500m. The air smells as if you're the one burning away. Are we being smoked out of our country? The Indonesians have admitted that a large portion of the haze came from Sumatra due to open burning. We hope that the authourities there could put a stop to the irresponsible act. We too have the problem with peat fire. Good luck and many thanks to the firemen out there doing their best. We have reportedly managed to douse 70% of active blazes in the hot spots. The picture on the left shows how bad visibilty is. There is supposed to be a mountain and a condominiumin the distance which are about 1km away. Even the tree slightly in the distance which is easily 100m away appears grey. There is one thing I saw which ticked me off. As I walked along some shops in front of a college, many people were puffing away. They do not seemed disturbed by the present haze and now they are working to thicken the smoke. Somehow, I don't see them thinking about the health of others. We should not be so lenient about human rights. We non-smokers also have our rights to obtain clean air if not less dangerous air. The police should let non-smokers snuff out any cigarettes at our discretion.

Surprising!
"The Star" published an article (page 4, main section) entitled "Open burning in Klang Valley banned" today (9th August 2005). What does that mean? Does the Department Of Environment mean that they had been endorsing some open burning before? They had better explain it soon before an inquiry is launched.

Overexcited Chemistry Procedure

The Big Hair
Take a look at the lamp post. Bad hair day huh? It is found in Section 19 P.J. . I wonder how the authourities allow such a mess to perch over the public. It is time to clear that up and show our neatness in all that we do. That is a little too dangerous. Imagine a bird that landed up there and touching a live wire. I bet its feathers will look like that.





How's The Air?
It's clear skies today at 5.30 pm! A very drastic difference from the condition this morning. At about 9.30 am, the Telekom Tower was hardly visible from Section 12. The air was choking and we prayed that the school would do us some good by aborting all classes immediately. Ah, and once again, the lime juice has worked its miracle again! My throat feels fine after the drink even though the acidity of the fruit was a little too high. Hint: don't ask for kurang gula!



The Overexcited Chemistry Procedure
The chemical test today was a success! We managed to pin point the existence of the chloride ion in the unidentified salt. First, we saw the misty fumes of HCl when we added sulphuric acid. Then the silver nitrate test gave us the white precipitate that dissolves in aqueous ammonia. Finally, we did a brave test (The T.L.K. style). We added the solid salt with potassium dichromate (VII) with concentrated sulphuric acid. Berjaya! Red fumes which came out confirmed the chloride ion. However, it kept generating. Frantic actions brought the T.L.K. waving the test tube around, with the thing still smoking. Then, the smoke died as the chemicals were drowned in water. Ah, the experience! Now, we have to monitor ourselves as we could have breathed in much toxins. And look at my hands. Either the sulphuric acid nibbled at my fingers or the silver nitrate oxidised on it. Scary...

Haze Woes

---Photos included from now!---

The haze is bad. As you strain your eyes, the mountain in the background is just about 1 km away from where I stand as the crow flies. The air is saturated with burning smell as if someone is burning dry leaves next to me. The dust got into my eye and after rubbing, a stye developed. How's that! Got a problem with dry throats and scared of getting sick? Never fear, just go prepare a lime juice on the rock every day sans excessive sugar. It'll help you get through. Man, I just imagine a fan as big as Melaka blowing all the smoke away from KL (the invention of T.L.K.). And where is the rain? The SW monsoon should be raging now but not a single drop of water from the sky has reached earth. As we can see, the weather must be crazy. We ought to hack into the eco-system and turn on the rain command. (based on the theory of K.N.M.) =) How about that.

Ah, either the USD appreciated again or the MYR went down. Its RM3.7954 to USD1 ! What happened? The King's passing and the oil fluctuations? The air in Malaysia had scared investors? What?

Oil Prices Up

Petrol prices soar by 10 sen! I got a shock when I saw RM1.62 per litre glaring at me from the digital display at the petrol pump. No one sent any SMS this time to alert about the hike, darned. However, we still have one of the lowest petrol prices in the region. The Gov. declares petrol subsidies of over RM6 billion. Thank you for that.

Come to think of it, instead of gritting our teeth over the increase, we should be thinking of effective ways of reducing petrol dependancy. It is high time we actually make Hydrogen fueled engines available. Since we are into making us into a developed nation, let's get the research going and introduce a new automotive industry. Get the ASEAN to collaborate. What nation wouldn't want a piece of the pie? It looks delicious..

Child Psycology:
A child looks at two cabbages and asks his father what they are. He says,"This one is a round cabbage, and that is a Chinese cabbage. Can you tell me the difference between the two?". The child replies,"Well, one is round and the other one is Chinese.". Father laughs and says,"Very good!".

The kid isn't entirely wrong. It is undoubtedly true that one is round and the other originated from China. Even if the child is correct, he has to be told the meaning of what he said plus the correct contextual meaning of the situation. Children have to be taught the correct things from young even if we think that they may not understand us. You'd be pleasantly surprise that children pick up what we say and approve fast enough to carry it through their lives. Go easy on the jokes as they may think that some of them are for real and understand things the wrong way. Admire but do not take child-like faith for granted.

----Breaking news in the papers: Sky Kingdom lost its grandeur!---- what....?