Then of course there are the independent internet-based radio stations like Sabahan.FM.

Now there’s KKFM, operating at 91.1 Mhz which was launched early July 2010 with the tagline “Bukan Sekadar Muzik” (Not Just Music).

It’s run by an educational institution, so it won’t be surprising if they sell textbooks online next.

One of its 4 permanent DJs is Felix Agus, of Akademi Fantasia 3 fame.

It can be heard at Telipok, Sepanggar, Menggatal, Inanam, Kota Kinabalu, Penampang, Kinarut and Beringgis, Papar daily between 6am and 8pm. Language used is Bahasa Malaysia and English.

It was reported in the papers at the end of March 2010 that Patricia Yapp, 32 of Sandakan, Sabah, Malaysia is the world’s first qualified female pilot of that machine.

That is quite an achievement: I wonder why Soviet ladies back then, or of other communist nations didn’t achieve the feat first?

Major Yapp drives the Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) MiGs since 2006.

And she wants more: to drive the even more advanced craft, the Sukhoi SU-30MKM.

Don’t say she’s stopping there: long term, she also wants to be the nation’s first female astronaut: make sure nobody can say “space tourist” this time.

Ms Yapp certainly seems like someone with boundless enthusiasim for life and all its challenges. Potential suitors would need to undergo energy auditing first, to ensure they can catch up!

Source
EasyCOmesEasyGoes

She was a young woman who lived on the island of Langkawi in the early 19th century, the most beautiful woman on that island. She was married to Wan Darus, a warrior. One day, he had to go away on military duties and she was left alone. During that time, she became an acquaintance of Deraman, a young man. Later Mahsuri was accused of committing adultery, tied to a tree and stabbed to death. It’s then that the story took on a paranormal tone. Instead of red blood, white blood supposedly flowed out – proving her innocence. Before she died, she cursed Langkawi bad luck lasting seven generations.

A portrait of Mahsuri

And did bad luck befall Langkawi – the Siamese invaded the island in 1821 and crops failed for decades.

The curse apparently ended at the tail-end of the 20th century when Langkawi prospered as a tourist attraction – that includes her tomb (Makan Mahsuri) of course.

The first seventh-generation descendant of Mahsuri, and certainly the most famous, is Sirintra Yayee (Wan Aishah Wan Nawawi), born 1985, who’s said to have inherited Mahsuri’s legendary beauty.

In fact there are some rival claimants to the title of “the first seventh-generation descendant of Mahsuri” that one could make slideshows out of all of them.

Sirintra lives in Phuket and is a Thai citizen.

She visited Kedah (where Langkawi is) in May 2000 to mark the lifting of the curse.

She got married to Alee Tongyun in April 2010

Jointly implemented by the governments of Malaysia, Brunei & Indonesia, it covers an area of 220,000 square kilometers of tropical rainforest spanning the said 3 countries.

Amongst the most interesting species discovered are:

The lungless frog (Barbourula kalimantanensis)

The 7cm-long Bornean Flat-headed Frog was discovered in 2008 and is the world’s first frog without any lungs. Instead of lungs, it breathes through its skin. Other organs occupy the space where the lungs are expected to be, hence making it appear flatter the other frogs.

The ninja slug (Ibycus rachelae)

This colourful long-tailed slug was discovered on leaves at altitudes of up to 1,900m on Mount Kinabalu, Sabah. The tail is 3 times longer than it’s head. Total length is 4cm. This unusual animal uses harpoon-like “love darts” made of calcium carbonate during courtship, which sticks to and injects a hormone into a chosen mate.

The world’s longest insect (Phobaeticus chani)

That looks dangerously close to the guy’s eyes – still, whatever shoots out of the thing’s mouth is probably better than the best anti wrinkle eye cream the western world could offer…

This was found near Kinabalu Park, Sabah and is 56.7cm long. Only 3 specimens have ever been found.

In the HoB, there can be found 10 primate species, 350+ birds, 150+ reptiles and amphibians and more than 10,000 endemic plants. And the numbers keep growing: 3 new species are found every month.

It’s been pointed out to me that the larger dog is Coca-Cola and the smaller one, its daughter, is Pepsi-Cola.

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It became infamous when it was paraded by its owner at KDCA Hall at the height of the Kaamatan celebrations (end of May 2005) dressed in what looked like Kadazan/Dusun traditional attire. In local culture, that is taboo.

The incident was furiously debated in a top local newspaper for some time.

Someone took a video of it then:

Click here to view the embedded video.

The dog is a regular sight in and around Kota Kinabalu, in invariably different and colourful costume every time.

Rahma saw the dog towards the end of May 2009 at Gaya Street Sunday Market:

The owner:

Dorina took the following photo in January 2006:

Disney took the following photo in January 2009 (?)

Elleycia took the following photo on 30th May 2009 at KDCA Hall:

I took the following photo on 31st May 2009 (the following day) at KDCA Hall:

The “things” can be cars, mobile phones, games, televisions, camcorders, portable media players, tourist sites visited, film; you get the idea, it’s basically anything!

Having established the connection of common interest, they can then take it to a higher level, for example by discussing in more depth about their gadgets in order to get more out of it.

Hence, you can say it’s a consumer network site.

Hint: you can even use it as a tool to promote your own blog as you share more information and write more reviews.

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.

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”.

Clark Howard of the popular U.S. talk radio host of the nationally syndicated consumer advocate program The Clark Howard Show even recommended them in a post dated 27th June 2007:

Zennioptical.com is still giving amazing deals on prescription eyeglasses to the public. $8 is all it costs for basic prescription glasses. Clark has ordered a pair and so have others on the staff and the customer service and the products have been fantastic. Clark finally got his in and he has not had any problems with them. So if you want some cheap prescription eyeglasses that don’t feel cheap, check out Zenni!

Their frames PLUS lens sell for as low as USD8 (of course you’d have to pay for the packaging and postage), but still don’t you think that’s quite cheap? Looking at the catalog photos for those cheapest glasses – I didn’t think they looked too bad.

Like this one:

I think I know who to recommend these to.

Choices for frames and lens are aplenty, including the following kinds of lenses: single vision, sunsensor, tinted sunglasses, bifocal and progressive.

How can they sell at such low prices? They say the reason for that is: they sell only those they manufactured themselves, and direct to the customer.

3 years and 10 songs (6 Kadazandusun, 2 Bahasa Malaysia, 2 English) later, they finally did it.

If you’re tired of “MIDI songs” and want to hear real musical instruments being played by a true-blue Sabahan pop/rock band, this album is for you.

Apart from having the expected solid melodies, arrangement wise I’d say they went further than most local artistes; there are extended instrumental breaks, for example that minute-long violin-led solo in “Oiyad” and “Iya Om Iya” and that 90-second guitar riff fest reminiscent of Led Zeppelin in “Itu Bukan.”

As a result, the shortest song clocks in at 4:22 (Nung Olingan Oku Dia) while the longest, “Itu Bukan” is at more than 7 minutes.

Further setting them apart is songs like “Iya Om Iya” which I have never witnessed being attempted in Dusun language before: retro images of smoky bars come to mind.

Lyrics wise, apart from the usual love songs, there is also the socially-aware “Misompuru”, which calls for a united society.

Here are some previews, snippets of songs off the CD.

[UPDATE: 16th July 2009: I'm having problems with the internal player, please listen to the previews here. Apologies for the inconvenience.]

“Growing in the light” was written and sung by the group’s multi-instrumentalist Gilbert “Ebert” Lajim.

“Nung nolingan oku dia” has an opening piano and vocal melody that I think Elton John would be proud of. It was written by Gilbert “Ebert” Lajim, with Cyril “Kuak” Johnny on lead vocals. This song is being played almost daily at SuriaFM (105.9 in Sabah) by DJ Othoe:

Click here to view the embedded video.

“Terima kasih” was co-written by the group’s bassist Ezbon “Golib” Godomon and Cyril “Kuak” Johnny. Kuak’s on lead vocals.

“Stream” has an excellent riff and a U2-influenced soaring chorus. It was written by Ezbon “Golib” Godomon.

“Matai-patai do masi”: I don’t know about you, but I have never heard an original Dusun song so heavily early-60s era Beatles-influenced and executed so well. It was written by Gilbert “Ebert” Lajim and the vocals handled by both him and Kuak. Ebert’s two sisters did the backing vocals. I think this will be a favourite with concert audiences.

Please support our local musicians.

If you like what you hear, and would like to purchase the CD (RM20) or cassette (RM13), I was informed that you can get them at music stores in Kota Kinabalu, Penampang, Kuala Lumpur and Johor. I have personally verified that they are available at CKS Donggongon and Polysound Kg Air.

Alternatively, I also keep some in stock. Please email me at bengodomon@gmail.com or leave a comment.

About the album

The songs were mostly recorded and mixed at Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS), probably the most advanced recording studio in the state. It was mastered by Roger Wang (RAM Studio) and released under TJC Talent Studio of Tenghilan.

Front:

Back:

… does one of them look like he’s wearing a 5.11 Tactical Jacket?