Wishing all my friends and readers a “HAPPY NEW YEAR OF THE TIGER 2010” – wherever they might be, lah… May your 2010 resolutions would come into a reality!

Well, it won’t be a surprise (anymore) that more items would be pricey beginning from this New Year. But what to do, that’s life!

For ASB investors, the year 2009 gave them a slightly increase in return of investment (ROI), i.e. an increase of 0.3% dividend* of 7.3%, as compared to 2008’s dividend rate of 7.0%.

Basic calculation for ROI is as follows:

ROI = 7.3%/100% x 100 Malaysian cents = 7.3 Malaysian cents (or RM0.073) for every RM1.00 (or 100 Malaysian cents) per unit share.

Will the rate is going down below 7.0% for this Year of the Tiger?! We won’t be sure about that. Anyway, don’t lose heart, folks! Do keep on investing your money in ASB…

Once again, “Happy New Year 2010 and happy investing”, folks!

————————————–

* The 1.25% (i.e. RM0.0125 or 1.25 Malaysian cents) bonus is excluded from the ROI for ASB investment of less than 10 years of age.

Click here for the average news, including this blog for details on ASB and other investment-related options.

As Christmas 2009 and New Year 2010 are approaching, so I would like to wish all my global readers (if any, lah!)…

“MERRY CHRISTMAS 2009 AND HAPPY NEW YEAR 2010!”

… AnD jOy 2 D wOrLd …

~eNjOy~

See you all next year, folks! God willing, Insya Allah…

P/S:

It doesn’t matter (and of course, it didn’t make any sense!), even if the RMAF FE-5 TIGERsyak’s RM50 million jet engine got stolen, as long as MASWINGS’ flight is available, lah!

Nah! You’ve heard (and read) about this slogan countless of time, right…

So, today’s tip is exactly will touch on that! I know that some guys out there are struggling in doing their paper assignments; and I’m sure that some might have mental block… My other wild guess is that, even Dato’ Temenggong is also scratching his head right now… L.O.L.!!! Good luck in your study, kih!

What I want to share with you guys is this: with the advance of ICT, most reference materials are now documented in Portable Document Format (PDF). And if you’re using MS Word 2007, you can convert the file(s) into PDF, and it’s very convenient to use. The beauty of PDF is all about WYSWYG. Anyway, you can download it here.

After the PDF, and then what?!, as some of you might want to know… Aiyah, ilek² bah!

Since I mentioned earlier that most reference materials are documented in PDF, so here comes the BIG problem – printing the documents… If you don’t pay full attention on it, then it might costs you your monthly food allowance, what!? Ooops, I borrowed that catch phrase from this grandma – no harm was done, I guess! L.O.L.!!!

Most printers are now capable of printing documents in booklet style, I guess! So, that’s the first point – reduce! And most printers couldn’t print in reverse, unless you “force” it to do so, which is quite tedious lah. Most of the time, the one-page printed A4 papers will be gone into waste… And imagine that there were reams of A4 paper gone into waste! Therefore, here comes the second point – reuse! Yup, right… reuse that paper by recycling it for the next printing job, as if you’re going to print the draft(s) only lah!

The recycled A4 paper... Well, you can print the back page for your drafted document; so it’s no big deal!

Well, if you’re well equipped, then these things might be useful lah…

A paper cutter and a hole puncher...

A Maikel Jéksen’s black and (or) white laser jet printer would be good enough for the (print) job! Shown here is Xerox Phaser 3115 laser jet printer. I think the price is down already, but I’m not sure about the latest price. In fact, you can use the cheap, refill toner too... By the way, paper alignment could be different for every printer; or could it be the same?! In this photo, the printed pages are facing the top, so that the blank pages will get printed.

I’ll show you the difference in a short while, as we are now going to do a sampling… Make sure that you have retrieved the PDF file (and of course, you’re going to print it). OK then, let’s print it out…

The PDF file for the day – ready to be printed...

Before printing, choose “Page Scaling: Booklet Printing”, as shown in the “Preview: Composite”... After all is set, then click “OK” to print lah...

After printing is done, you can get a paper cutter to cut the printed pages into halves and then rearrange it. Rearrangement of printed pages depends on how many pages of the printed documents that you have. It might be tedious to do the rearrangement for such a bulky document – like this “SCORE: An overview”, lah! After the rearrangement, you can staple it or use a hole puncher to make holes before tying it with a (knitting) thread. For a bulky document, a gun tacker (or staple gun) is recommended to staple all the pages. See the difference between printed copies of using full-page and booklet (half-page) options below:

Printed copies of “SCORE: An overview” brochure using a full-page and booklet options. The booklet copy looks cute and handy, compared to the full-page copy...

By the way, the cut, blank non-printed pages can also be used (recycled, of course!); staple it and use as sketch/notebooks. It could help in maintaining the almost zero waste; and now you’ll have an extra, monthly food (?!) allowance, uh… L.O.L.!!!

Let’s go back and discuss about this “SCORE: An overview” brochure. In fact, I’ve lots of comments about the contents quality of the brochure. Why?

The reasons are aplenty:

1. out of 144 printed pages, 19 pages (13%) are totally useless;
2. out of these 19 pages, 2 pages are repeated pages from Pages 16 and 17; and the other 17 pages are colorful chapter dividers;
3. the typesetting (or contents arrangement) of that brochure is really the worst!;
4. the company and/or sub-companies that did the printing jobs (for that brochures) had cheated the gomen of the day – they did put that useless pages so as to make it bulky; which has finally led to bulkie rolls (in terms of payment for these culprits!);
5. the contents pages are not well put in place (some pages have page numbers, some are not!);
6. insufficient information on some of the attached photos (no need to put lots of photos lah if they don’t know how to describe or put any relevant information about it… Aiyah!);
7. that brochure goes unedited (“copy and paste” type of job); and
8. I think that’s all (for now) lah!

Yeah, right… That’s politics of debolotment, folks!

L.O.L.!!!

Wahlau wéh…

Whenever I log on into my WORDPRESS.COM, there is snow flowing falling down from heaven! L.O.L.!!!

Yup, ‘tis the season, aye… But then, in reality, we got so much rain during this festive season, lah!

Wuiyo… I’m getting ready and looking towards it. I really missed the get-together sessions with my families and friends…

Just like other working guys, I’m counting on how much resource will be allocated by my boss for FYE 2009… Is it three months?! Or one month only…?! Argh, blame it (again) on Do bye…

Whatever, lah! The most important thing is to make way for the party, YEAH!

And “Happy Pre-Christmas” to all…

We all knew that the Middle East is sort of haven for every kind of migrant workers – from janitors, construction workers, nurses, engineers; you name it! Yup, we have heard about their monthly salaries from RM30K and above. Wow!, it’s nice to hear about that, since we can hardly earn that kind of money right here in (the middle of) Sarawak and anywhere else within Malaysia! Yup, for sure some guys out there will refresh their memories whenever they are listening to “Bujang Runggu Ensing” song by Ricky El a.k.a. Tuai Rumah Lat…

But now, I’m not sure whether the booming time for Dubai will be ended soon, as I got the following information from the Internet. Read here, here, here, here, here and here (read the readers’ variety of comments) for details.

Ooops! Got to go, folks! I’m doing some info hunting on resource development impact on local economy – on what’s resource coefficient, employment coefficient, etc.

Need some more?! Read here and here (again!)… L.O.L.!!!

This morning, I had a glance at today’s Eastern Times headline at the news stand. Damn…

I grabbed my cell phone and sent the following messages to two colleagues of mine – Apai Dum and Akih Layang:

“Baru badu makai mi Kempua ba Endanemuendur tu, kih! Agi nganti krita siwa ka bejalai ngagai Ulukin tu… AKAI DAI! Agi ngangkat sumpah baru gak Aki Salah Udin nyadi Tiwaiti, kih! Nadai urang bukai! Aki Jus pan ulih gak nyadi baka nya, wai-wai FM… Haha!”

The English translation is more or less like this:

“(I) had Kampua noodle for breakfast just now at Nowhere, dude! (I’m) still waiting for the bus to go Downtown… DAMN! That old Grandpa Udin’s Fault has renewed his oath as the (new) Governor, dude! Nobody else (seems eligible for the post)! Grandpa George is also eligible for the post, man… Haha!”

Apai Dum’s reply:

“Au pia!? Lama ga d(é) nganti dia, kih… Legi ku madah Kentaki Jus ngambi minta nyadi TYT. (O)K meh kih, b(e)nung b(e)randau (e)nggau T(uai) R(umah) Gorila & ging di upis.

The English translation is more or less like this, lah…

“Is it!? You’ve been waiting there for so long, dude… I’ll inform Grandpa George then to have him apply for the (Governor’s) post. OK dude, (I’m) having a meeting with Village Chief Gorila and gang in the office right now.”

Akih Layang’s reply:

“Enda ulih Aki Jus laban udah rabun ayam!”

The English translation:

“Grandpa George is not eligible (for the post), as he is short-sighted!”

Well, I’ve no more comment about the reappointment, lah… YaWwwwwnnn!

What a nice and cool place over here, as I’m staying at Ulukin’s Hotel California. I’ve nicknamed it as “Hotel Kari Ponia”, while my friend – Akih Layang – nicknamed it as “Utel Kuli Punya”… What the heck! L.O.L.!!!

Read the other headline here!

I knew that some guys out there share that “common” dream – to own a house! Unfortunately, most of us can’t afford to buy an urban house costing more than RM50K… Yup, some of us are thinking about building country homes – providing that we have legal sites, stable income, etc. The main dilemma is how and where to get bank loan at an affordable price (i.e. in terms of eligibility, monthly repayment, etc.). This article serves as guidelines for guys who have an annual income of less than RM20K.

The REAL QUESTION is “How to ...?” (e.g. to live that dream, lah!)...

Well, don’t keep on losing that precious hair of yours by thinking so hard about the money! After you ascertain that you have a legal site for your future dream home, then you should come up with your pre-planned budget for the house, let say around RM15K – RM20K, including a rough sketch about the layout. About the layout, uhmmm… I think you should do it by sketching each cubic plot by 8 ft. x 8 ft. x 10 ft. or 10 ft. x 10 ft. x 10 ft. or 12 ft. x 12 ft. x 10 ft., whichever suits your needs, lah…

The next step is to identify, consult and negotiate with the house building team (a master house builder with his two assistants would be enough) about the cost – possibly within your pre-planned budget. Never reveal the amount that you are going to spend, otherwise, the master house builder will choke you… L.O.L.!!!

The best thing is to ascertain that the house building team will be paid on daily pay basis; never let them to state their own contract fee, otherwise you’ll bite your finger in the end; meaning that your dream house is too costly to be built and out of the initial pre-planned budget. Once an agreement is reached, you should buy all the needed building materials and let them carry on with their construction works. In my kampong, the master house builder is paid between RM45.00 to RM50.00 per day, while his two assistants are paid between RM40.00 to RM45.00 per day.

A concrete house is preferable than a timber house. A Hoppus-ton (about 1.416 m³) of lumber will costs around RM3K – RM4K; so it’s not really worth the pre-planned budget. Can you imagine that a price of one Kapor lumber at 2 ft. x 4 ft. x 12 ft. is about RM70.00 (or more than that!), especially in Kuching hardware shops? Well, you might use lumber for the construction, maybe around 20% – 30% of the total costs.

I keep on thinking (ya lah, of course…) that I’m going to use varnished bamboo wall on the outside of the room(s) and then cover the inside room(s) with an inch thick plywood. And that would be nice, lah… Hmmmph! Do you know that bamboo (wall) panels are exported from China?

OK, let’s go back to the real issue here. I’ve made lots of internet search lately, as my gurl friend has been asking me on how to get the money to renovate their vintage family home. Is it by getting an EPF loan?! Well, that would possibly impossible!, as the procedures are too complex. I’ve checked with SPNB; this one is possibly impossible too! Aiya…

To cut it short, I’ve found that Bank Rakyat and CIMB are the best choices in getting personal loan(s). But then, Bank Rakyat only caters its personal loan for private employees with minimum monthly salary of RM1.5K! This could be afforded by those guys with a monthly income of RM2.0K lah… Anyway, CIMB has made an attractive personal loan offer for private employees who have minimum monthly salary of RM800.00. I would be grateful if there’s any other attractive offer by other Malaysian local bank(s), but so far, only CIMB’s offer is da best!

So, for those who keep of dreaming about building and owning a home, you got it, man! I can assure you that with the right pre-planned budget and amount of loan to be made (including the trustworthy house building team), your dream house will become a reality within two months! Yup, the construction period really depends on available budget and the attitude of house building team; the house construction could be finished within 3.5 weeks or 2.5 months, lah…

As they say, “A loooong journey starts with a single step!”; so, if you don’t make any move in getting your personal loan (from CIMB, of course!), it would possibly possible that your dream remains a dream and that house layout sketch(es) of yours would be eaten by the book bugs… L.O.L.!!!

One of my so many house layout sketches...

A-ha! A dream house for a family of four... Fuyoh!

I’m trying to imagine on how to collect rain water based on this roofing plan... Urban hydrologists always consider roofing as an artificial watershed to collect rain water for personal consumption...

So, here’s my dream house’s interior layout plan... It could be subjected to change – with approval – from the Home Minister, of course!

Bank Rakyat’s e-Personal Financing. The bank only caters personal loans for private employees who have minimum monthly wages at RM1.5K... Click the above image for details...

Calculations are made easy with this embedded financial calculator! Click the above image for details...

The current profit (interest) rate on any amount of loan to be repaid in the next 15 years, as imposed by Bank Rakyat is 5.85%... Click the above image for details...

OK, let say that you are determined to make a personal loan of RM15K and will repay for the next 15 years at the bank’s profit rate at 5.85%... Or, you can enter any value that you want using this financial calculator. Well, just click on the above image for details...

CIMB’s e-Personal Financing looks affordable for all non-gomen employees, as it caters personal loans for those who have minimum monthly wages at RM0.8K... Click the above image for details...

The monthly amount to be repaid (based on a RM15K personal loan; 5.85% profit rate; a 15-year repayment) is almost (or exactly) the same as Bank Rakyat’s... Click on the above image for details...

A guide to Base Lending Rate in Malaysia, with the current rate at 5.55%. Click on the above image for details...

Click on the above image for local and foreign banks’ latest BLR...

And I’m pretty sure that you’ve read this before…

Click on the above image to get the 2009 rate for ASB Financing...

]]> http://tiyungdayak.wordpress.com/2009/11/21/the-dream/feed/ 1 Tiyung Dayak A personal dream... House Layout #1 House Layout #2 House Layout #3 House Layout #4 Bank Rakyat’s Guide for e-Personal Loan... e-Financial Calculator Bank Rakyat’s Profit Rate A sample and yet simple loan repayment calculation... CIMB’s Guide for e-Personal Loan... CIMB’s e-Financial Calculator BLR Guidelines The Banks’ Latest BLR Maybank’s 2009 Guidelines for ASB Financing... http://tiyungdayak.wordpress.com/2009/11/19/%e2%80%9ckernel%e2%80%99s%e2%80%9d-order/ http://tiyungdayak.wordpress.com/2009/11/19/%e2%80%9ckernel%e2%80%99s%e2%80%9d-order/#comments Thu, 19 Nov 2009 01:14:51 +0000 tiyungdayak http://tiyungdayak.wordpress.com/?p=1252 ]]>

It might sound “ridiculous”, but most guys cook their own food, especially for those who are away from home, right! “Bravo!”, as some of them are excellent cooks compared to ladies… Oops!, I’m sorry to say that, ladies…

For amateur guy cooks, I’ve some tips for you. I learned it from my colleague – nicknamed “Colonel [kur-nl] James” – an excellent cook. It’s about how to make fried fish tastes like fried chicken, you know lah…

Fry it with that infamous frying powder?!

Nay, that’s crappy!, coz it will get burn while frying…

Let’s do it with mackerel – locally known as “ikan sadin” – very tasty lah this kind of fish. One, whole fish will do – just for testing. In case the fish is frozen, just chop it into several pieces and put it inside a basin of water. After a while, clean it by removing all the non-edible parts. Toss (or drain out) the excess water from the fish for about half an hour…

Then put the pieces (the chopped fish) into a small basin; add a tablespoon full of salt, two tablespoons full of turmeric powder and a quarter of glass full of sieved, tamarind (ashom jowo) puree onto it (extracted from 4 – 5 fermented, pulpy seeds). Mix the ingredients with the fish – evenly. Then put it aside. That’s known as “marinade” (perap) – for about half an hour would be enough, lah. The tamarind acts as a castaway agent for that fishy smell, so have no worry about that. During this free time, you can do other things; for example, sweeping the floor or cleaning the dishes (Gosh…) or whatever that suits your time best, lah!

Owh, by the way… don’t forget to cover that marinade fish in the bowl – either with a plate or put it under the food cover (tudong saji) – to avoid flies and/or being stolen by that crappy, neighbour’s cat (if any!)…

When all is done, then get an egg; smack (read about “batter” in cooking) and stir it in a bowl. For how long?! Gosh…

Then, put some corn starch (tepong jagong) into another bowl; a mug full would be enough, lah.

Dip the fish – piece by piece – into the stirred egg. Make sure that the egg will fully cover the whole piece.

Then, cover the piece with some corn starch, until it looks like Maikel Jéksen; I mean the piece is dry with a whitish look, lah. Pale color will do no good, lah. And that’s the main purpose of using stirred egg (or two eggs) – in order to coat the pieces with corn starch… L.O.L.!!! Yup, get it all done and arrange it nicely on a (ceramic) plate. That’s how every professional chéf do, lah…

Then, fry some cooking oil in a wok over a small fire; a frying pan will do, for sure. Put the first whitish piece into the oil after it’s getting hotter (simmering); fry it for about 1 – 2 minutes. Then put another piece; also fry it for about 1 – 2 minutes before you put another one, until the frying cooking oil have covers (part of) the pieces. Each piece needs to be fried for about 6 – 7 minutes (until the color is golden brown, lah!). Make sure that each piece is to be flipped over (turn it upside and down), so that it won’t get burned, lah…

After frying some pieces (wait until it cools down), then make a sampling or two…

How is the taste like?!

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Yup, I’ve told you already… Crispy, tender, not too salty (and also not too sour, aye!?), savory, mouthful – you name it! So, next time, do call (or text (SMSes/MMSes)) your mom, sister(s) and gal friend(s) – immediately – that you now can beat them – in cooking (or frying fish), of course! L.O.L.!!! For sure, their very common reply would be “Huh?! Aaaaa…” (sounds like they are less interested to know that you’ve done that!)…

So, happy cooking, guys! After frying/cooking, don’t forget to do the general cleaning; don’t leave everything behind – especially the sink! Clear the sink, so that it would be in a good working order! Yup, and that’s AN ORDER!

Hmmm... I could imagine that my gurl friend would say “Yummy, yummy!” – whenever she sees this photo, lah...

Don’t just stare; go and buy one!, and try it today, lah!

The above recipe is fully endorsed by the self-taught chéf... L.O.L.!!!

By the way, do eat more fish and less (red) meat. Do you know that fish is a good source of making Gen-X XY chromosome? And if you eat more chicken and other red meat, for sure you are making Gen-X XX chromosome… This statement is true enough – based on proven, scientific studies. Read about the benefits of fish consumption here, here, here, here, here, here and here for details.

This morning, I had my daily routine done in accordance to one of Catholic traditions. And I had encountered the following passage in the first reading:
“ … Antiochus issued a decree to his whole kingdom. All the peoples of his empire had to renounce their particular customs and become one people. …” (1 Maccabees 1: 41 – 42)

A-ha! That’s mean the hoo-haas about the “one-here, one-there; banned-this one, banned-that one, etc.” can be traced back to the year 175 B.C., lah! Gosh, it does have similarity though…

So, to my Christian brothers and sisters, have courage to live life to the fullest and keep the faith, as our Lord JC always reminds us to “pray continually and not to lose heart” (Luke 18: 1)…

Additional readings: here, here and here.

May God bless our beloved Sarawak and us all… Amen +

Nay, I’m not in the mood to discuss on who’s who in the new state cabinet line-up…

I just want to show you some of the photos taken by my friend last night, captured using his NOKIA™ N95 cell phone. Thanks to him and my other friends for not inviting me to their wWw.WiLd_PaRty@Sa(L)vageGarden last night, for they had organized another final blow on Tora Bora… L.O.L.!!!

By the way, I just passed by that Tora Bora and I can see a pair of hornets hovering around their ruined nest(s)!

Do enjoy the photos as shown below. If you have doubts on what’s this and that; click:

1. here;
2. here;
3. here;
4. here;
5. here;
6. here;
7. here;
8. here;
9. here;

10.  here; and

11.  here for details…

L.O.L.!!!

The priceless trophies – the ruined, clustered hornet nests and its damned, future inhabitants – looted from that Tora Bora cavern...

The black brownish, dead pupae (or pupas) that were trapped inside the burnt clustered nests during first, second, third and fourth Ops Bunker...

Other priceless, looted trophies... Do I see gold over there? L.O.L.!!!

Yup, this is the priceless, “golden” hornet larva...

My friends really “enjoyed” themselves last night @ Sa(L)vage Garden BBQ Party, where they had grilled/roasted some hornet larvas over a fire! It’s edible, anyway; another source of “not-so-easy-to-get” supplement of wild protein (duh!), just like honey bee larvas. But... nay, I would prefer either smoke or fried sago weevil larvas for dinner, lah! Why?! That hornet larvas were collected after been “flamethrown” with insecticide aerosols, what...?!, even though the larvas were well protected inside its sacs... Aiya! I’m such a lucky guy, though... Kuuuuurrrrr s’mangat!

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