“The people should not expect the pump prices to be constantly reduced just because crude oil prices have fallen below US$50 per barrel”, said Najib.  Why not? why does the Rakyat have to pay premium price for fuel while the world pays less? With world economy deteriorating the government still expects the Rakyat to pay premium price? I can’t understand the logic of this.  

“If we keep cutting the pump prices whenever crude oil prices fall then we will have to also increase the pump prices every time there is an increase in the international market”, said Najib again.  Well, haven’t we been increasing the pump prices when the world price increase? I guess he forgot the 40% increase in recently. 

What this country need is a system to enable the floating of the fuel price.  Today, the pump operators are being billed upfront for the petrol they ordered, and when the government announce the fuel price reduction, the pump operators are slap with a loss.  So, the fuel price cannot be easily float as the fuel price is volatile.  Other countries have done it, US especially, their fuel prices change everyday.  If they can do it, why can’t we? I am sure they have a system to enable the floating of fuel prices.  Why can’t we adopt this system?

So, when I read what Najib said over the press, I just can’t comprehend why the government don’t try to help the rakyat.  I guess they have been enjoying free fuel courtesy of tax payers money, so to them, it is trival, I guess the UMNO polling weights more in their mind than the Rakyat’s suffering.  It’s just depressing isn’t it.

 

PG & Pat Wedding from Kew L. Ang on Vimeo.

Photos from my camera.  I first compile this 16:9 version and felt that wide screen would be nicer.  Unfortunately Photo Story 3 doesn’t fully support widescreen, so I did it with Picasa 3.  Photo Story 3 can do widescreen, but need to use irfanView and papa john’s profile, too much trouble.  For Picasa 3, I first crop them into the widescreen format and then compile them.  Simpler, but still time consuming.  I wonder if it is easier in Mac?? 

PG & Pat Wedding Widescreen from Kew L. Ang on Vimeo.

When I was in Japan about a year ago, i found that many camera prices were rather attractive, almost 30-40% cheaper than what I would pay here in Malaysia.  But the camera language is in Japanese, and there is no option to change it to English or any other language.  There are “International” versions, but they cost the same here.  So, this got me thinking.  How about, we get the camera in Japan, and then get it refreshed with an English Firmware? Would that work?

So, I appeal to camera enthusiast out there, do you know if this works? If yes, then, the next thing to figure out is how to get a ‘friend’ to purchase one back here…

One hard experience that I have learnt from WordPress is not to jump onto the latest release as everyone else.  Even thought sometimes there’s a security threat, for many times, things are sure to be broken when I do the migration.  Then I would have to spend hours figuring out what’s wrong and dig through the forum sites for solutions.  I have had my blog broken for so many times that I have lost count.  Only recently, I have upgraded to the 2.6.3 and found something broken with Windows Live Writer.  All the < and > character were missing, and so when I post up to the blog, instead of <p>Hello</p>, it becomes pHello/p.  Seams like no one encounter this problem, and when I posted a thread on the forum, no help from there either. 

So, when WordPress 2.7 enters beta 2, I was tempted to migrate.  There were so many features that I need, and yet, this little voice in me asking me not to be crazy.  After all, I am no Bruce Willies in Die Hard nor Mel Gibson in Bravehear, two of my favourite expression for people who are not afraid to die.  Then on the other hand I am a little bored, some spices will sure be a time killer.  Well, lets first do a backup and sleep on it.  Tomorrow will be the right day to Die Hard.

Reading the news from Buddhist Channel, I was intrigue on the news that the Buddha boy who have been meditating in the jungle of Nepal for years was the re-incarnation of Siddhartha Gautama.  I was curious as all this while I learnt from Buddhist text that Buddha, is an enlighten being who have successfully come out of the wheel of suffering (birth and re-birth) through self purification of one’s mind.  Therefore, cannot be reborn again.  If this as a fundamental teaching in Buddhist text, how come there are still so many that believe the Buddha Boy is Siddhartha?  Enlighten me please.