It may be the Year of the Rat but...

It may be the Year of the Rat, but all those Rat figurines with their large luminous eyes and long tails are not selling well. When asked why, those interviewed said, " Cos they'll eat up everything in the house." Superstition, it seems die hard.

Plastic surgery

NTV 7, the feel good channel had an interesting talk on plastic surgery this morning. With affluence, many Malaysians are willing to go under the surgeon's knife to have a face lift or correct a physical defect. However, there are many unqualified and unethical people out there trying to scam unsuspecting victims.

The two experts on the program pointed the finger at beauticians but there are also qualified doctors who blotch such jobs simply because they do not have the expertise. They are only fortunate because Malaysians find the subject embarrassing and would would rather suffer in silence than sue the surgeon.

Adobe e-seminar

Today, I attended, for the first time, an e-seminar on Flash Media/Video organized by Adobe. Its gives a run down on the various features of the program.

Web videos are the in thing and supposed to be very effective for internet marketing, conferencing and the like. It claims that advertising through Flash Media is a US$ 70 billion industry. There is a trial download for 15 days.

Sad, Sad, PPP Experience

I don't think anyone has a sadder experience than me with PPP and IZEA. When I first signed up, I accepted a PPP Direct offer for which I was reprimanded. They told me that since my blog was not approved, I was not eligible for direct offers. Fine, I accepted that. Then, they told me that blogs would have to be active for at least six months before they could be approved by PPP. Everything was shelved and I had almost forgotten about PPP until I received one of their newsletters.

On the spur of the moment, I applied for the approval of my blog. What joy and happiness filled my heart when the good news finally arrived that my blog was approved! But oh! how short lived the joy turned out to be!

You see, in the template where the post is uploaded, they had mistakenly inserted the name of my post as my blog. I didn't understand it at that time. I only thought they wanted me to upload my Adobe Photoshop Workshop 2007 post. I had trouble uploading the file and all the required codes, in the process of which, I lost the post due to a 404 error. I managed to recover the post after several days of tinkering and finally succeeded uploading all the requirements in correct order.

Then I waited and waited but there was no response. When I finally checked with Customer Support, the same guy who was in charge of my case from the beginning told me my post was rejected because it wasn't current. That was when I discovered that it wasn't that they had approved the post but had used the title of the post as my URL!

Bamboo

An outdoor garden with bamboo trees in the background acting as a shade against prying eyes.


The city of Suzhou in Jiangsu Province is famous for its beautiful women, among them the Soong sisters, wives of Sun Yat Sen and Chiang Kai Shek. Apart from that, Suzhou is also famous for its silk and gardens.

Much pain goes into the planning and landscaping of a Suzhou garden. There are bound to be bamboos and weeping willows. In fact, these two trees are often found in Chinese paintings.

Bamboo has a very cooling effect on the surroundings. I have a potted bamboo plant but I intend to plant them as a shade around the house.

Pomelo

The pomelo is a round fruit that belongs to the grapefruit family. Actually, it is native to Malaysia and is grown in abundance in Menglembu, Perak. It is also a must item on Chinese New Year because of its round shape which signifies unity.

I remember some of my foreign colleagues who didn't know what it was for. But once initiated, they fell in love with the fruit.

The fruit has a thick skin which you can remove quite easily. Cut of the top and bottom layer of the fruit, like you would, a lemon. Then cut into the skin, segment by segment and peel it off. Inside is the fruit, which is in segments, like a mandarin orange. It's nice to eat the pomelo, just as it is but today, the pomelo is an ingredient found in salads as well as the raw fish salad, which Malaysian relish on the seventh day of Chinese New Year.

By the way, the skin has a very soothing fragrance and is used as a medicine. The skin can also be boiled and then used as a bath. It apparently takes away arthritic pains.

Chinese Dumplings (Jiao (3) zi

Lately, Chinese products have come under severe attack for poor quality control. First, it was dolls, then, tooth paste and the latest -Chinese dumplings. It seems that some Japanese became ill after eating Chinese Jiao zi, that was probably prepared under unhygienic conditions.

I think China should buck up on its quality control instead of suspecting sabotage or foul play. Today's consumer demands the best in terms of safety and hygiene.

Jiao zi was never one of my favorites when I was in China although no less than three ladies had tried to teach me how to make them. I still preferred our local wonton and prawn dumplings.

However, in winter, when I was too lazy to cook, I learned to eat jiao zi which you can buy at the frozen section of any Parksons Supermarket in China. Actually there was one particular brand which was introduced to me by a local. It suited my taste. I can't remember the name of the brand, though.

Our local frozen food, however, in particular, dumplings, has much to catch up n terms of quality and taste.