Beijing Olympic and possibly first Gold for Malaysia

This is a bad time to be at the end of a PhD. I'm so tied up with writing and correction with the thesis that I hardly have time to watch the Olympic. Anyhow, I did watch the opening. It is just awesome! Telstra has this ads for Olympic that carries a song with this lyrics - "we are one, and we are many...." and I thought it's a very good reflection of the drummers, the Taichi performers and many others at the Beijing Olympic opening.

I also think that the concept of a painting 'drawn' by the dancers, the kids and all the athletes is just brilliant. However, the last minute change from the super-sweet -voice singer to the super-cute-looking singer by direction of high official is a bit of a shame.

Actually this post is about tonight man's badminton final between Lee Chong Wei (Msia) and Lin Dan (China). Malaysia had never won gold in Olympic and tonight may be the first time the national anthem of Malaysia being played in Olympic ceremony. Lee Chong Wei is in good form, so is Lin Dan. Actually Lin Dan is on fire and won all his games in this Olympic in straight 2 games. They played each other many times before and Lee always win when the game is in home ground.

It's sad that Australia TV doesn't broadcast it! Why did SBS broadcast woman's badminton final but not man's?

Anyhow, I hope Lee Chong Wei will win for Malaysia, like what he did for the Sudirman Cup 2007. Go Lee Chong Wei!!

Condoleezza Rice in Perth

Another side thing is that I got within 500m from Condoleezza Rice today without noticing it. The US Secretary of State came to Perth today and dined at University Club at UWA. It's <500m away from computer science building and my house. See it on Wikimapia (CS is at top left, UniClub at bottom right).
I read the news too late.

A dead body found under Jojo's jetty at the end of Broadway!

Source: The West Australians

Restaurant staff find body in Swan River
12th June 2008, 7:00 WST

Staff at a swanky Nedlands restaurant found a body floating in the river last night.

Police were called to JoJo’s Café after a man's body was seen floating under the restaurant’s jetty.

A police spokeswoman said the gruesome discovery off Broadway, Nedlands, was made about 9.30pm and water police were called to retrieve him.

Major Crime officers attended the scene and police investigations are continuing.

The man, aged between 55-70, had no identification on him and police are not treating it as a suspicious death.

PERTH
JAYNE RICKARD

Snapfish 20cents online photo print

It was advertised as 15cent a print at HP's online photo site Snapfish but 1-60 photos postage costs $2.95, so it work out to be about 20cents if you print 60 photos in one order.

Beware of a catch if you print 100 photos! Because 61-99 photos cost $4.95 in postage, but 100 photos costs $8.95! Strange arrangement and I overlooked it last time! :`(
See the full pricing here.

20 free prints for new account.
(Let me know before you register if you wouldn't mind me getting 20 free print by "telling a friend")

Buying guide: Running shoes

Interesting Running shoes buying guide from Choice.com.

Pre-election Zimbabwe

I saw Danno blogged about his devalued Zimbabwe dollar last week. And today I stumbled upon this in-picture report of Pre-election Zimbabwe on BBC. 1US = 25million ZD?! Thousands of people have to walk 3km every day to work! 80% people unemployed, escalating HIV infection, one meal a day for many!!! That's mad!
Will Mugabe still win the election on 29th this month? He has the army in his pocket. How about the ordinary Zimbabweans?

Mugabe's good friend Mahathir has stepped down for more than 4 years. Malaysians have also shown their disgust of corruption and misgovernment by the election tsunami on 8 March. Will Zimbabwe have some new hope after the election?

Malaysia is in a much better state compared to Zimbabwe and it's really not a good comparison...

Anyway, have a look at the picture and report.
Pre-election Zimbabwe

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd on China Central TV

陆克文总理中央台访问 (November 24, 2007)



Man! I'm impressed! 陆克文's Mandarin is so good! The Chinese journalist Xiaorui is rather snobbish looking though...

Computer Network is cool

I used to think computer network is a boring subject back in my EE years.
But recently the perception has changed for me, the networking itself is boring, but what it makes available is really cool.
And this The Hack of the year which I stumbled upon prompted this post.
And I watched Die hard 4 recently, it's hackers too. So much actions. I throughly enjoyed it. And the hacker Mat Farrell kind of look like Nick. (follow the links to compare for yourself. Ahem!)

UWA on 3D campus collections

Seems like only 2 campuses had the collection properly done, just us UWA and Melbourne U by someone name Wei Wei.

Where are other schools?

Check it out.
Build Your Campus in 3D Competition (Australia and New Zealand) Collection

Stack of photos from phone

I've downloaded a stack of photos from my phone.


On June 18, I received this RaboPlus hardware pass code generator for their internet banking. Read Rabobank 6.6% online saving account for details.
Oh, recently Australia has increased the interest rate again. The Howard government does not particularly welcome that as election is coming soon. But I'm happy as most banks followed by increasing their rate too. At this time, Raboplus is standing at 6.7% while BankWest at 7% (12-month introduction rate)!!


On July 6, I received a very heart warming gift from a Malaysian auntie, ChoonHo's mom. She was here on holiday for 2 months, I was the first new friend she met here in Perth and we had 4-5 good chats altogether. And before she left for Malaysia, she knitted me this scarf as a gift. Each knot is a blessing, she said. I'm so touched. I'm so blessed.


On July 7 (obviously), I got this cool parking docket.


On July 19, I witnessed a police chase. Some car thief was chased down by 8 police cars. It was raining and didn't want to get wet. So I only got a photo of the channel 9 news car illegally parked on verged.


That night, I had dinner with my housemates at HKBBQ. The tofu dish is fantastic!

So is the BBQ

and the squid.



On July 26, I took a panorama of my desk using the stitching program that come with my k800i.

Butterfly lovers in Perth from Malaysia

Google alerts me about this Butterfly lovers in Perth from Malaysia article in The Star newspaper.

I actually watched it here in Perth on 10 June. It's good and I really enjoyed it. I got a free ticket from a friend of mine. And I was pleasantly surprised to find out that it's from Malaysia! Most of them speak well-trained Mandarin, I'm quite impressed. A few still sound funny. :P

I thought the staging is impressive too.

It took awhile for The Star to pick up the story.

Becoming a Savvy Scholar Tutorials

MIT OpenCourseWare | Materials Science and Engineering | 3.093 Information Exploration: Becoming a Savvy Scholar, Fall 2006 | Tutorials

My office space

A fish eye view of my office.
Ok, stop playing with my phone and get back to work!

Test 2

More

The tree

Testing blogging from mobile phone.

My cousin, Siong

I met up with my cousin Siong today morning. Man! I didn't know how he could recognise me?! I was there making a phone call before going to search for him ( I have no idea how anyway, thought maybe just call him when I can't find him), then this man just come straight to me calling my name unmistakably. I haven't seen him for maybe 20 years? I simply have no recollection of seeing him before. Maybe he my parents showed him some of my photos when he visited them couple of years ago.

Anyway, we sat down and had a great chat and getting to know each other. He's really cool. Yes, you are. (Yes, siong ko, I expect you'd read this sooner or later. :P )
It's great to have a cousin close by.

He's a chef in-training. And here's his foody blog. Don't click the link without a full stomach! Man! The food looks good!

Siong Ko, when do I get to taste some? :P~~

Those has me on MSN will be familiar with my "(i) TzuYen - does research, eats vegies." My cousin calls the world to "live mad, eat chilli". HaHa! Is it just coincident or is it a family expression?

PhD survival guide

Another PhD survival guide I stumbled upon.

Google China Development

Dr Kai-Fu Lee talked about Google's operation in China for the past 1.5 years.

There are some interesting developments there including google maps in Chinese: 谷歌地图
This is the location of Ramada Hotel I stayed in when I went to Shanghai in December. Cool!

Looking for Year 10 Maths and English tutor

A friend of mine is looking for someone who can tutor her daughter in year 10 Maths and English. Her son in year 6 is also after some tutoring in Maths and English. They live in Murdoch area.

Subjects: Maths, English
Year: 10 & 6
Location: Murdoch area
Rates: negotiable

The mother feels that the school (Como) level is not good enough, but the daughter chooses to be at the school for her golf training. The girl is a young star golfer. I have met them, nice kids.

If you can help, please let me know. Thanks!

Python ate a whole pregnant ewe in Malaysia

Another piece of (old) news about Malaysia that I picked up browsing the net.

Python ate a whole pregnant ewe in Malaysia

On National Geography