With us were 6 other participants, 4 from Bank Negara Malaysia and 2 from SUK Selangor.

Special thanks to the guys from Bank Negara who were kind enough to bring us on a quick tour of Penang.

We might be back here next year for Level 2 and of course the delicious yet much-cheaper-than-Kota Kinabalu Penang food.

There is a big number of glasses’ frames available there. Hence, glasses frame shoppers are more than likely to find one that best suits their requirements.

The materials used include plastic, metal alloy, stainless steel and pure titanium.

There are detailed descriptions (with of course photos) of each one, with information on dimensions of lens (width, height & bridge), frame (width, height & bridge), temple arm length, weight, index lens and colour choices.

Most of the frames cost less than USD30 (about RM100), with some costing less than USD10 (about RM35). In fact, elsewhere on their site, they sell complete eyeglasses (that’s right, with lens) for only USD8 (about RM25).

How did they manage to keep prices so low? According to their website, they manufacture, and only sell their own frames and bring them direct to customers, eliminating overhead like middlemen, retail and advertising costs (they claim to rely on positive word of mouth message-spread).

Shipping is available to anywhere in the world.

If asked to choose one, I think I’d go for the Silver/Gold “Pure Titanium Half Rim Frame”. Weighing a mere 22 grams with the durability of pure titanium, coupled with a reasonable price, I think this is a great frame.

Zenni Optical is based in San Rafael, California, USA.

His blog contains many thought-provoking quotations, as well as stories about his experiences.

Fr Nicholas meeting Pope Benedict XVI

The earliest post in his blog is dated 20th March 2008, an Easter greetings from Rome.

Too many of them in fact, that it’s easy to get overwhelmed by the sheer number of choices.

The usual step is to list down your requirements, from space, bandwidth, domain allocation and other features; and of course that most important factor of all, price.

Then it’s shopping time - but this could be a tedious process.

A useful tool that can help one make an informed decision, or at least narrow down the list is the web hosting reviews site webhostinggeeks.com, which has been in business since 2004.

With a non-cluttered, zen-like web design, the first thing one would see at the site is the list of overall top 10 providers, independently reviewed by webmasters and customers. Most of the names there sounded familiar, with big names like Bluehost, Yahoo! and GoDaddy. All those in the top 10 cost less than USD10/mth, has at least one free domain thrown in and a 1-month money back guarantee.

The site even drilled down to best-ofs in specific categories like “best blog hosting”, “best forum hosting”, and “best dedicated hosting”.

BTW, Pertisa is short for “Persatuan Artis Tempatan Sabah” (Association of Sabahan Local Artistes).

A live, acoustic version of that song, performed on 18th October 2008 at New Pusakag Cafe, Donggongon is available on youtube.

A preview of the studio version of the song is available at their website (the 4th song in the playlist).

Voting commenced on 17th November 2008 and will close on 29th November 2008.

Winners are those who get the most number of votes via the local paper New Sabah Times.

How to vote:
1. Get/purchase/borrow New Sabah Times newspaper during the voting period.
2. Locate and cut out the form - should be somewhere in the middle.
3. Mark your selection with a ballpoint pen.
4. Send the form to the address stated in it.

Detailed info is available at Pertisa’s blog.

Full list of nominees.

Thank you for your support!

The Deputy Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak will leave for Peru on Tuesday, the 18th of November and from there to New York and expected to be back only early December.

Today, Lim Kit Siang held a press conference at the Parliament lobby and asked: who will lead the country in their absence?

He was quoted to have said that it has been at least 30 years since both the top two were not in the country simultaneously.

Even the likeliest ones to be Acting PM are or will also be out of the country:
(i) Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin will be leaving together with Najib.
(ii) Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar, ditto.
(iii) Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz (PM’s Dept) is in Abdullah’s entourage.
(iv) Senator Tan Sri Amirsham Abdul Aziz (PM’s Dept), ditto.
(v) Datuk Shafie Apdal (Unity, Culture, Arts and Heritage), ditto.
(vi) Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin (Higher Education), ditto.

Then Lim asked the tantalizing question:

Can it be the most senior minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Tan Sri Bernard Dompok or the newly elected MCA president, Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat?

Note: someone commented that there were two other occasions in the last 3 years when they were both out of the country at the same time. Still, have so many top-ranking officials been out of the country at the same time that it’s unclear who’s in charge?

Source
The Star, 17th November 2008

From the internet, it seems that only the following hotels currently make the grade:
(i) @Ease Boutique Hotel, Sandakan
(ii) B-Suite, Penang. This one I’m having a first-hand experience right now.
(iii) Imperial International Hotel, Kota Kinabalu [subject to confirmation]

If you have any others to add to the list, please inform me. Thanks!

Well, talking time was only about 30 minutes after considering songs played.

I think it was the first time they spent so much time on radio, very good experience for them.

However, only 4 bandmembers could make it out of the total 7.

It was done in Dusun language (a Kadazandusun dialect).

Here’s the recording (4 parts on youtube):

Talking about a dry topic for 45 minutes right after lunch will always be a challenge, and this being a government (i.e. official) event, I couldn’t possibly do a Steve Riley i.e. walking around in shorts and standing on a chair

Having said that, I think the most difficult part is always the Q&A session, because:

(i) there are too many possible questions, you can’t possible anticipate them all and prepare for each one thoroughly. I preprepared answers to 2 questions which I thought was the hardest and most likely to be asked - they were not.

(ii) you have very little time to prepare an answer, in fact you are pressured to give an answer. After the question is asked, hundreds of expectant eyeballs are on you, and you are seated right in front, onstage.

Thank you organisers for the book and the delicious handmade chocolates!

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Rev Jesse Jackson, the last black to stand for president before Obama was seen in the crowd waiting for Obama to appear, and he was in tears:

In the same crowd, and they too in tears, was Oprah Winfrey and Condoleeza Rice, a Republican.

On the same day, John MCain delivered his concession speech in Phoenix, Arizona:

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