The Return of Monopoly

Arguably one of the most popular board games of all time, Monopoly. One would have thought only kids play that game, I mean I played it when I was like 9 years of age! I still remember the days playing against my cousins in a small town called Mukah. Who would have thought of playing the actual board game again? I have played the computer version of Monopoly last year but got bored as computer AI is still not as smart! So I've unistalled it.Until recently, thanks to one of our cell group members named Betty (the self proclaimed, cutest of em' all), she bought a new version of the Monopoly (World Edition). She was quite desperate to play the game each time. Pity Ye Seng who has to accompany her to play the game most of the time (also letting her build hotels, houses, etc and let her win the game :P)

So, as her group mates in the small group as well as the Friday gatherings, we decided to play the game as well. My oh my, it has since become an addiction for us!! For the past 2 weeks, every Friday & Saturday we would stay back after the gatherings to play monopoly! It normally ended around 1-2am! Even during exam periods!

Each time we have different winners, but normally the interesting thing is finding out who the loser is! Maybe it was due to me who during our 1st game mentioned that I'd never lose a monopoly game before, so they all wanted to see me lose! Bugger! I lost on the first night! Went bankrupt after hitting "Paris" with 3 houses I think. Then the cute Nexus who was the victor also lost on other nights. He only managed to buy 2 land titles and was hoping to lose 1/4 way through! By the way, Betty always seems to get the "Free parking" to collect all the taxes! Don't know how she does it, EVERYTIME! A bit unfair...:P
Betty
Nexus

Anyway, next time if we do play, I'll be the banker. I'm going to change the rules a little bit to add more spice into the game! Maybe we could have recession periods, booming periods, land prices falls, auction of land titles, lower interest rate loans for players, etc! It could be more fun!!

Ladies & gentlemens, get your dice ready! A new & improved monopoly will be on the way!

危机

About 2 weeks ago, in my post I mentioned about 危机, where it means in time of crisis, there're opportunities. Was just browsing through Jeff Ooi's blog today and I found the same thing too. It was used by one of the South Korean ministers to describe the Penang Government.

Indeed, a South Korean minister expressed his surprise that Penang was bold in looking out for opportunities within crisis times. The Chinese phrase "wei ji" ( 危机）, which was inferred to by Korea's First Deputy Minister of Tourism, Sports and Culture, precisely denotes that there are ample opportunities in the midst of crisis. More

It seems that the Koreans have mastered the ancient strategy well. What used to belong to the Chinese, now the Chinese couldn't grapse it well. Let's look at what our M'sian Chinese politician has to say about it:

Gerakan vice-president Huan Cheng Guan questioned the effectiveness of the trip, saying the state government could not even solve the financial crisis faced by the Football Association of Penang or hold a successful cultural expo at the Penang Pesta site. “The Koreans are now busy rescuing their own companies; do you think they have time for us? (Chief Minister) Lim Guan Eng should take care of his own backyard and ensure that everything is in order before leaving the country,” he added. More

Just compare at the different mentality between the two. One view the opportunity that exists, one view that it's a total waste of resources. According to Jeff Ooi, Huan Cheng Guan is a MBA holder! Some has to wonder which University did he get it from??

Maybe Huan is just trying to be an opportunist to play political game to attack the Penang State Government but without realising it, he has made himself a laughing stock to others. I guess that's the common standards for them. Shame on them!

What about us, the normal citizens? Are we in the same boat or worse of? I sincerely hope not. Let's learn to grasp some of the basic knowledge of survival and success. Do not be satisfied too easily. Aim higher in knowledge! The Koreans are a very poor country but they are able to develop so fast because they uses their brains a lot. If they are not using their brains, they would have been much worse off than what they are today. We thank God for that.

The key question for us: What can we do in time of crisis?

Discounts & Freebies!

FREE small slurpee on Friday 7th November, 2008 from 7am – 11pm @ 7-Eleven

FREE SMALL SLURPEE* ON 7-ELEVEN DAY

Just wish your local 7-Eleven store operator a ‘Happy 7-Eleven Day’ on Friday 7th of November and a free Slurpee is all yours!

*Limit of 1 FREE small Slurpee per person per store. Offer limited from 7am – 11pm on Friday 7th November, 2008

http://www.slurpee.com.au/

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AirAsia X turns ONE - Melbourne-KL ($182), Perth-KL ($157), Gold Coast-KL ($171)

Booking starts tonight (12 AM Msian time, 1 AM Perth, or 3 AM Melbourne)

Booking Period : 4 Nov 2008 - 9 Nov 2008
Travel Period : 1 Aug 2009 - 24 Oct 2009

The fare quoted is one way and includes tax and surchages, valid for both outbound and inbound.

As usual, add ons (baggage, meals, choice of seats) are extra. But it’s still damn cheap.

Connect to other destinations across Asia from AirAsia hub, Kuala Lumpur.
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Let's all get slurpy this Friday, yeah?

Facebook-ing

People always say that if you been to China but not the Great Wall (万里长城), you haven't been to China yet. In the Internet these days, if you don't have a Facebook account, you haven't really seen the Internet yet!
Facebook claimed to have over 100Million users worldwide, with numbers increasing by the minutes! Sounds all good yeah?

Well, things could backfired sometimes. Let's look at some of the recent news:

Virgin Atlantic has sacked 13 of its cabin staff after they criticised the airline and some of its passengers on social networking website Facebook. More

More than a hundred gatecrashers wrecked a family home after a teenager's house party was advertised on the Facebook social website. One partygoer said: "It got out of control. "People were having sex in bedrooms, smoking cannabis and wrecking the front garden." More

Kyle Doyle, a 21-year-old resolutions expert for telecommunications firm AAPT, bragged about his day off on the social networking site while telling his employer he was away for "medical reasons". But he was found out when his boss spotted this Facebook profile update on the day in question, August 21: "Kyle Doyle is not going to work, f*** it I'm still trashed. SICKIE WOO!" More

There're many more of these cases where someone has been caught by their employer. So, updating your status in Facebook at the wrong time may result in serious consequences! A lot of companies have started to "ban" Facebook at work citing reasons of distractions, etc.

On the other hand, banning Facebook, Myspace or Hotmail may backfire at the employers in the long run. By cutting communication or social networking in an ever growing IT dependent society may not be the best move. In fact, employers should start looking into ways to incorporate the free service to their advantage! Perhaps increasing communication & improving relationships between staff members, get more "life" into their 9-5 routine, etc. After all, working is about having fun and enjoying what you are doing.

By the way, I know quite a few companies especially in Singapore have used MSN Messenger as a communication tools for their staffs. Cost effective! As long as they can deliver the results, why not? Companies can set guidelines to those networking websites or tools, but banning it without full understanding might do more harm than good in the long run.

Anyway, boys & girls, if you are dating secretly, may be wise not to add your parents or relatives into your Facebook! You might just need to explain your case sooner than expected. He he!

Thoughts Of The Day

The world is really not fair. Why do people always need to clear up the mess created by others? I was told again today by Oliver that I was "demanded" to present myself again on Wednesday Prayer meeting to share the Korea experience. Anyway, the sharing has already been posted here.

Now, I have to call the person in charge to tell them I'm not going to be present on Wednesday night, not the easiest thing to do. Since "no" is not an acceptable answer, normally. However, might get an exception this time as they must have think that I'm hopeless by now! Hehehe!

The problem now is, why do I have to clear the mess that others brought up? I NEVER promised to share it during Wednesday PM in the first place. Then somehow, a second promise were made to others again, but not made by myself. Someone did it on my behalf without my consent but everyone is asking me to be responsible in this matter. I was like, "What? It's not my problem!!". The world is so unfair!

Call me selfish, inconsiderate, irresponsible or whatever but I just don't feel like sharing it during Wed PM. Call me a pessimist but I think sharing it on Wed wouldn't help anyone at all. Enough said.

By the way, tonight (Sunday) sermon by Rev Loi was OK, regarding lukewarm Christians. However, the explanations regarding the lukewarm water that has Calcium Bicarbonate and unsafe for drinking, that I have serious doubts. I'm not a scientist or chemical expert, but I think to claim that lukewarm water is undrinkable due to the substance it has is invalid.

Water naturally contains a range of trace substances at levels which are suitable for drinking – indeed many of these substances are actually essential for health. Calcium and magnesium are naturally occurring minerals is found, for example, in limestone and chalk rock. Both, but particularly calcium, contribute to the natural hardness of water. They are essential elements for health.More about water quality

What's lukewarm temperature? Basically, it's just slightly above room temperature, not too hot, not too cold. So I would say about 30 degrees. Isn't most the water we drank are lukewarm? We don't normally drink hot or cold water unless you are making special drinks like Milo or Ice milk tea. So by saying lukewarm water contains calcium bicarbonate and unsafe, we might as well not be drinking any "normal" water. Maybe someone with knowledge on this can correct me? Or it could be I heard wrong during the sermon.

Let's look at some of the benefits of drinking different temperatures of water:

Hot water: When toxin in the body goes up, the body concentrates them in the liver lymph system, intestines and skin to speed up their excretion. But the problem is toxins can make our metabolism slow. That is where the hot water does its work. By flooding the GI tract with heat, it stimulate peristalsis-muscle contractions that encourages the movement of toxins from the liver and lymph system into the digestive tract, therefore speeding their elimination from the body. Hot water also makes your pores open, which can allow stored toxins in the skin tissue to evaporate into the air.

Lukewarm water: When you drink lukewarm water you will feel full quickly. As soon as the water enters the stomach, the organ registers fullness more quickly than with hot or cold water. This makes the stomach expand rapidly, stimulating the brain's nerve to turn off hunger pangs. Room temperature water is also more rapidly absorbed by the stomach lining, so it doesn't stall the digestive process the way hot or cold liquids can.

Cold water: When you drink cold water your metabolism becomes 3% faster within 10 minutes of finishing a glass of cold water, and it stays elevated for 30minutes more says an expert. The reason here is that your body has to work harder to heat the cold water before it can be absorbed and used by the cells.