Monday, October 31, 2005

NICOL WINS CAROL WEYMULLER SQUASH CHAMPIONSHIP!

Nicol David (Mas) beats Natalie Grinham (Aus) 5/9, 9/6, 9/4, 9/3 (60m) in the Carol Weymuller Squash Tournament 2005 in The Heights Casino, Brooklyn, NY!
http://www.squashsite.co.uk/weymuller2005.htm

Friday, October 28, 2005

ANOTHER CON JOB VIA EMAIL!

If you have received an email like the one below, you would be wise to delete and forget about it. Above all don't respond to it unless you want to get conned into parting with some of your money!

Q-soft E Sweepstakes.
41-48 Drive Eland Square
West Copland 7721NL.
Ref No: QES-35187-22/05.
Serial No: 301133


Date: October 27th, 2005.

Dear Sir/Madam,

SWEEPSTAKE PRIZE AWARD INFORMATION.

This is to officially inform you of the result of our Q-soft Email
Sweepstakes draw that was conducted on the 26th day of October 2005. This
email address which was attached to Serial Number 301133 and selected by our
E-games Random Selection System (ERSS) has won you our sweepstakes program
in the general prize category. You have now been approved to claim a total
payment sum of USD$980,000:00 (NINE HUNDRED AND EIGHTY THOUSAND US DOLLARS
ONLY) as attaches to payment file Ref No: QES-35187-22/05. We are aware of
the surprises that do follow such a notification message based on the fact
that you have not purchase a lottery ticket from us, but be informed here
that it was a promotional program from our Q-soft company with the major aim
of introducing our services and the same time promoting the benefit of the
Internet usage.

These approved funds can only be claimed by contacting our assign payment
house. Due to the nature of this program, we ask that you keep a copy of
this notification message safe until your claim has been processed and
collected; as this is the only security measure that has been put in place
to save guild your interest. You can begin this claim now by contacting the
Payment house on email address: alkinsfin@katamail.com with your Complete
Names, Postal (Resident) Address, Telephone and Fax Numbers, Occupation,
Reference Numbers and the amount approved (Won) for the processing of this
claim. All funds not applied for after the 9th day of November 2005 will be
return back to us.

Felicitations as we do expect you to make better use of these funds.

Sincerely Yours,
Milkos Williams (Dr).
Q-soft E. Sweepstakes.
Email: qsoft@winning.com

***************************************************************************
Note: In accordance with the Q-soft Sweepstakes policy and regulations,
this notification is dispatched directly to the prize Winners only. If you
are not the rightful recipient and feel you have received this message by
error, kindly destroy any copy in your possession for you are not authorized
to read, print, retain or disseminate any part of it.
***************************************

Wednesday, October 26, 2005

CON JOB WITH A NEW TWIST!

If you have received an email offering you a share in a vast sum of money salted away by some deposed African dictator, you would probably have smelt a rat and refused to remit a certain sum of money ostensibly for legal fees in order to get your share released by the "authorities" unless, of course you are a moron or "mentally challenged" as the politically correct would like to say. Just the other day it was reported in the Star that a lecturer was conned of several hundred thousand ringgit in such a scam! Makes you wonder how one gets to be a lecturer with so little grey matter between the ears. Below is an email I have just received which is basically the same con job but with a twist.

Hello,

This offer might be strange, but is the wish of a dying 68 years old woman
who now realizes belatedly that there is more to life than mere acquisition
of cash{money} and fame. My name is Mrs. Jennifer Wilson a widow. My late
husband and I perhaps due to our aristocratic background and bad influences
lived and never cared for nobody or whose ox was gored, our motto was be
rich and famous and the world will be at your feet. I am diabetic and
recently diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. The report is obviously not
good, several chemotherapy treatments have not helped either and the obvious
fact is that I have few days/weeks more on planet earth.

Being childless couple, I inherited all my husband wealth and our relations
are no good, as they are waiting patiently for my death to use all our money
for illicit and obscene business/things. Before my health deteriorated that
I am completely dependant on them for basic necessities I have done
charitable ventures within our neighborhoods and beyond and this angered
them as they wish to reap from where they did not sow.

Having come to the realizations of what life is all about-caring for
others. I have given legal consent and full authority to my
attorney-Barrister Dean J. Cooper of Springfield Consultants to immediately
disbursed all the money to people/charitable homes and the choice of
beneficiaries was done by sampling.Your name was luckily picked and I have
willed the sum of US$1,500,000.00{One Million, Five Hundred thousand U.S.
Dollars}only to you.

This money should be used STRICTLY for humanitarian/charitable cause.
Contact my lawyer immediately who will guide you on the modalities for the
collection of this money. His e-mail address is deanjcooper@netscape.net
Please quote my personal reference number for ease of
collection-law/chamber/solicitors/je/ws/WILL/9834520012 when reaching him by
mail.

I plead with you never to deviate from this agreement and I beg of you to
pray that my soul rest in peace.
njhhj
Thanks.

Jennifer Wilson.

Tuesday, October 25, 2005

SIRENS, THE BANE OF 21ST CENTURY!

Ten years ago whenever I visited my son in Chicago, I was deeply perturbed by the incessant wailing of sirens both during daytime and nighttime. I used to think how lucky we were in Malaysia where we could get by every 24 hours without hearing the highly disturbing siren screaming like a tormented banshee! This is no longer true today. Like the banshee we are tormented by the ear-piercing screaming of sirens both in the daytime as well as at night. Sometimes I wonder whether the ambulances or policecars charging down the road in the wake of their ear-piercing sirens really need to be in such haste and for whatever reason.
If you live on one side of a narrow road and an ambulance or a policecar comes screeching down the road with its siren switched on at its ear-piercing loudest, the reverberations of the high-pitch siren bouncing off the buildings will give you a headache long after the vehicle has gone past.
If you have been caught in a three-lane bumper-to-bumper traffic, sandwiched on either side by other vehicles and an ambulance or a policecar comes charging up behind you with its siren screaming in ear-piercing decibels, you can pee in your pants, and when there is no way in which you can move to the side for the ambulance or the policecar to pass you and the incessant siren keeps screaming as though in admonishment of your failure to give way, you feel like getting out of the car and walking off, leaving it in the middle of the road!
Isn't there a law that forbids ambulance or police sirens to be used above certain decibels? Shouldn't ambulance and policecar drivers be warned not to use their sirens indiscriminately? Why are our cities beginning to sound like Chicago?

Wednesday, October 12, 2005

BOOKSHOPS THAT WRAP UP THEIR BOOKS IN PLASTIC!



In today's Star, under StarBiz http://biz.thestar.com.my/bizweek/ "Popular opens sixth outlet in Penang", area manager of Popular Book Co, Leong Li Ching said that she "hoped the strong focus on customer service would help its second flagship store in the country remain competitive." I have been to this latest new Popular outlet in Gurney Plaza a few times since it was opened and I must say that like most other bookshops in this country, Popular finds it necessary to wrap their books, though not all, in plastic. I find this most annoying and "uncivilised". If you go to Barnes & Noble in USA, you will not find their books wrapped in plastic. As a matter of fact you could sit in their coffee-shop and browse through a magazine or a book at leisure and at the end of an hour or two or even more if you walked away without buying anything you would not be burdened with a guilt feeling that you had put their magazine or book at risk of being soiled. I don't understand how Popular Book Co can hope to "bank on its customer-oriented strategy to draw shoppers" when they adopt the anti-shopper attitude of wrapping up their books in plastic. Back in the 90's, Popular Book Co would have a browsing copy for customers to look through at leisure before deciding whether to make the purchase or not. Now that their books are wrapped up in plastic no such browsing copy is made available. Why doesn't Popular Book Co set the trend and refrain from the uncivilised practice of wrapping up their books in plastic? How do bookshops expect customers to fork out a hundred ringgit or more for a book when they can't see its contents. It's like buying a pig in a poke!

Sunday, October 02, 2005

TMB HAS GONE MAD!


I have just received my integrated Bil Telefon & Multimedia dated 19 Sept 2005 from TMB which amounts to an astronomical RM829.08. I wonder whether I can sue TMB if I suffer a heart attack as a result of this bill.

In the past I have read in the newspapers complaints by unfortunate subscribers of the astronomical bills that TMB served on them for telephone usage that they claimed they never made. I didn't know that one day I would fall victim to TMB's billing department. According to the bill, it seems that I have been owing them RM60 every month for the rental of a ADSL modem since the day I subscribed to streamyx from 5.10.2004 and up to 19.9.05, amounting to RM688.44. If that amount has been owed since 5.10.2004, I wonder why they have waited for so long before making any effort to collect from me. In the first place I am subscribing to the cheapest streamyx package available, i.e. RM44 per month, and if I opted to rent a modem from TMB for RM60 a month I must be daft or crazy. In the second place I purchased an Aztech ADSL Modem from them for RM158 when I applied for streamyx installation and has been using it since then. After reading the A-G Report 2004 in the Star this morning and the nasty shock of the TMB bill, I think UMNO Youth and Khairy should not worry so much about wanting to extend the NEP for another 30 years. They should worry whether there will be any economic cake for them to share at all! When a giant of a company like TMB can't even prepare a simple integrated Bil Telefon & Multimedia properly what hope do we have for the future of our beloved country?