Mind-controlled Prosthetic Robot Arm

This mind-controlled prosthetic robot arm is amazing!

Europe Champions Again!!!

We've won it!!! Again!!!

What a dramatic game! Drogba sent off for slapping poking Vidic in front of the referee and linesmen in the dying moments of normal time. Giggs was so close to scoring only to be denied by Terry near the goal line. Ronaldo then missed his penalty in the shoot-out. I've had a feeling he would miss even before he stepped up. Then Terry, with van der Sar diving the wrong way, his would-have-been-winning-penalty looked like it was destined to hit the net until it missed in the last few moments. Very likely due to a slip.

It's sweeter that it's against Roman's millions this time. We definitely deserve it as we've not lost a single game in Champions League this season.

Fergie has also broken his penalty shoot-out jinx for big games.

"The first penalty shoot-out I've ever won in a big game. I think there was a bit of fate about it. We were fantastic in the first half and could have been three up but then they scored a lucky goal. They were better in the second half. I'm delighted for everyone. It's an amazing achievement. We deserve it."
Man Utd boss Sir Alex Ferguson

Conie Talbot

Johanna found another great version of Whitney. This time it's 6-year old Conie Talbot who performed in UK's You've got Talent. Which version do you prefer?

Charice Pempengeco

Johanna found this video on YouTube. This girl can really sing!

Anticipating another great night

May 21 2008, Luzhniki Stadium, Moscow

Hope the same kind of euphoria will be coming soon.

Manchester United vs Bayern Munich, 1999 UCL Final

Bayern Munich was just 3 minutes away from lifting the UCL trophy when Teddy and Ole scored one each in stoppage time to win the game 2 - 1


Juventus vs Manchester United, 1999 UCL Semi-Final 2nd Leg
United was 2 - 0 down in the first 11 minutes of the game playing away but managed to make a miraculous come back and won 3 - 2


Manchester United vs Arsenal, 1999 FA Cup Semi-Final Replay
Becks scored early. Bergkamp equalised for the Gunners in the middle of the 2nd half. And then Captain Keano was sent off for the 2nd yellow card. Bergkamp's penalty was saved by Schmeichel on the 90th minute! Giggs did a solo run from before the half-way line to score the most amazing goal in extra time.

Route to yet another EPL Title

I'm watching United edging towards the finishing line live... from HT.

Half Time 1 - 0. Ronaldo with yet another goal! His 31st in EPL this season.

80th minute 2 - 0. Giggsy scores! My favourite player since early 90s. He equals Sir Bobby Charlton's appearance record for United in this match. Wonder if this would be his final season with United. Sigh. Will miss him.

92nd minute 2 - 0 FT. It's over! We're the Champions again. Well done to all the players and congrats to Giggsy for equaling Sir Bobby Charlton's record. He should break it in our next match against the Roman Army, likely without Terry after he suffered a serious injury today.

Just found out that Chelski didn't manage to win. Double bonus. Avram Grant's play-off dream or complaint about goal difference are immaterial. His exit is imminent. Even if they have won the title today, the trophy in London is a replica. The real deal is at the JJB Stadium.

Just noticed on the replay that van der Sar has run all the way to the other end to celebrate. He must be really quick on his feet!

Man City, the only team to beat us both legs, hammered 8 - 1 by Middlesborough? Maybe the season is too 'Thaksin' for them. Sven is most likely to go.

And Giggs lift the trophy!!!

Good night!

Koay Teow Th'ng

I finally learnt how to make one of my favourite Malaysian soup dish. Th'ng is soup in Hokkien or Teochew.

Johanna had made this successfully a few times in the last few months. Since she is busy lately I just asked her for the recipe and made it myself. Yum!

Let me tell you about 'brain drain'

From Malaysiakini. Well written. Find it hard to disagree with this guy. Everyone would like to have a sense of belonging in his/her own country. Ironically sometimes one feels more treasured by others.

Let me tell you about 'brain drain'
Kin Kok Low | May 9, 08 4:54pm

I was born in 1949 in Penang when the white men were still the colonial masters of Malaya. During that time there were only two types of people - the British who were the imperial masters and Malayans of different ethnic backgrounds who were the 'ruled'. We called the British ‘Sir’ or ‘Tuan’ - in our own country! My dad worked for Sime Darby (owned by the British then). He was 'exploited' by the boss. He retired after 35 years with the company with very little savings.

I grew up in a slum area in Penang (Dato Keramat Road). Next to our slum was a Malay kampung. We little boys knew we (the Chinese and Malays) were different. But not that much different. We played football, flew kites and catched peacock fish together. We had our little boys fight but our parents never come out with a parang or kung fu knives to kill each other. A few days later we again played tops or badminton together.

To cut the story short, I was fortunate to attend my secondary education at the Penang Free School, passed my HSC and given a state scholarship (the chief minister that time was Dr Lim Chong Yew) to study economics at the University of Malaya. My second day at UM was May 13, 1969. Suddenly, we (Malay and Chinese students) found we were very different. We became suspicious of each other. We gathered in ethnic groups. My childhood friend, Adenan was a clerk working for the HSBC bank. But we were still friends. Our naive minds could not understand why the Malays and Chinese could not live together like Adenan and me.

I graduated and did not take up teaching as required by my scholarship. But I paid back the scholarship money to the government. I joined Malayawata and later in 1975 the Chase Manhattan Bank. During this period I saw the impact of the NEP, the separation of Malaysians based on race, religion, colour and political affiliation. It pained me to see all these. I was a fifth-generation of Chinese Malaysian. My roots were in Malaysia. Malaysia was the country I was brought up and thought I had a future in.

China was not an option for me. I was poor like my Malay friend in Dato Keramat Road. Why discriminate based on race? Why not discriminate bases on social class? There are rich and poor Malays. Likewise there are rich and poor non-Malays. Why can a rich Malay kid receive support (scholarship, allowed to go to university) while a poor non-Malay kid is not given the opportunity? I was born a Malaysian and Malaysia was my country. There was no other country.

I got married and have two wonderful children. Both my wife and I had very successful careers. By 1989, we could experience the intensity of the separation of the races with the onslaught of the NEP. I still have many Malay and Indian friends. In 1989 we decided - for the sake of our children - that we need to go out to have a look at other countries. China was not in our mind as a place we wanted to emigrate. We came to Australia. We all like it.

The good thing about Australia is that when you first meet the immigration officer he says, ‘Welcome to Australia’. The customs officer did not hustle us. We looked at some of the schools for our children. The teachers welcomed our children even though we had not registered them. We went to the government departments and people lined up. There is no ‘cutting the line’. All are served irrespective of their race and the government officer even smiles!

We returned to Malaysia and applied for Australian permanent residency. In 1992, my wife and I left our two very wonderful jobs and with our teenaged children, emigrated to Australia. The first year was a struggle for me as I could not find job. In 1992, Australia had the recession it needed to have. I subsequently found a job and career. Our kids went to school, to university (both received scholarships) and both are now successful bankers. I am still working at 59. I work for a US company.

For our Australian operations we have a country manager who is a French Australian, a general manager who is Anglo Saxon Australian and a finance manager who is an Indian from South Africa. I am the human resources manager and I am ethnically, Chinese. I have an American and a white Australian reporting to me. We have more than 20 different ethnic groups working in our company. We are very different culturally, religiously and socially. But when we come to work we work for one company in one country.

Why do I want to tell my story? Because this is the same story of many qualified, experienced Malaysians now living in Australia, New Zealand, the US, the UK, Singapore and even China. Malaysia is losing very talented people. Talent which is short supply in the world.

As an economist once said, ‘It is better to have 30% of 1,000 than 90% of 200'.

Weekend with Janet & Duane and Alex

We had Janet & Duane over at our place for dinner for the second time. They are shifting to their new home at Waverley Park, which is close to 30km from where we are right now. So we have to treasure their last few weekends at St Kilda Road. We also invited our housemate, Alex along.

Johanna is quite busy with exams so I had agreed to cook. I had decided to learn how to make spaghetti marinara and scallop for starters. Alex had made some lovely chocolate brownies for dessert. We also had some white wine to accompany the food. I wasn't that satisfied with the starter and main course I made. Still a lot of room to improve. But it was a great experience to learn something new as I've been lazy to learn new recipes for quite some time.



We ended up watching "Twin Towers" after dinner. I've run out of good movies to watch and decided to watch this movie I've acquired quite a while ago. It turned out to be quite boring. Nevertheless, I hope Janet, Duane and Alex enjoyed the evening.


Scallop in white wine sauce and cream and mozzarella cheese


Cooking in process


Spaghetti marinara


Chocolate brownies

More photos here.

Stand-up Comedians

I've missed Brian Conley's antics in Brian Conley's Show since the end of my undergrad days. Not only he is a great stand up comedian, he is also a great singer. For some unknown reason to me and probably to many of his fans all over the world, he has not appeared on TV for quite some time. I was so eager to watch his show that when I got back to London again in September 2006. I looked up the TV program with the hope of chancing upon his name, but in vain. However, he stood in for Paul O'Grady in one episode of Paul O'Grady Show when Paul was ill. I was really delighted to watch him again. But then Paul O'Grady Show is no Brian Conley Show.

Not only until yesterday, when I was surfing aimlessly the Internet that I realise that I can look up for him in YouTube. Now I can watch Brian Conley anytime I want.

Recently, I've been introduced to another stand up comedian - Russell Peters. He is also very funny, especially in mimicking the way people from certain race or country talk and behave.

It's great to watch stand up comedy once in a while. They really help us to loosen up especially during stressful times. It's good to laugh at ourselves once in a while.





More of Brian Conley here.

More of Russell Peters here.

Deal or No Deal (UK version)

Probably the most interesting version of Deal or No Deal with the Banker on the phone with the host after each round. Don't really know whether Noel Edmonds made everything up about the 'Banker' or someone is really talking to him on the other end of the phone.

I watched this every afternoon in the first few months of my MSc in London.

The following episode is for Comic Relief (Red Nose Day) with Catherine Tate as Nan. Funny!