Even Larry is facing hard times ..

Not to be left out of the corporate bailouts given by the US government, the biggest joke I came across lately was that Larry Flynt, the Publisher of porno magazine Hustler, and Francis of Girls Gone Wild were proposing to get bailout loans. They argued that why shouldn't they be treated the same as the Big Three as the services they offered were far more important than supplying cars.

Hugh Hefner and Bob Guccione will be the next in the queue line.

Dwindling reserves ....

I wish I could understand how Bank Negara Malaysia calculate its monthly forex reserve. What are the factors that cause the reserve to fluctuate ? Anyway, it is announced today that BNM's forex reserve is RM 316.8 billion (USD 91.4 billion) which is sufficient to sustain 7.4 months of import and is 3.3 time its short term external debts. BNM further says that the decrease in BNM's reserve is also due to MYR's strengthening, during the last quartet of 2008, against most major currencies.

On another note, according to MITI, the country's export for November 2008 has reduced by 4.9% to RM 51.79 billion while its import has also reduced by 8.6 % to EM 40.29 billion. This RM 11 billion favourable balance of payment has been the 133rd positive monthly surplus that the country has enjoyed. In the eleven months of 2008, export has been RM 817.42 billion while import Rm 487.1 billion - which is a trade surplus of RM 130.33 billion.

The biggest contribution to the decrease in export is due to the reduction in the export of electronic and electrical goods which forms about 40 percent of the country's export in terms of value. Export of crude palm oil whose price has dropped from about RM 4,500 per tonne to about RM 1,500 during the last few months has also contributed to the dimishing export. However, on a positive note, export of petroleum products, gas and LNG increased has increased in value in the last few months.

A betrayal most foul ..

1. NB had 295,000 in savings as at Jan 2008. The saving as at Jan 2009 has reduced to 181,000.

2. We discovered when updating savings book on 02/01/2009

3. 2 days later, NB bolted from house.

4. On 04/01/2009, we discovered that money was withdrawn monthly over a period from Feb 2008.

5. The balance of 181,000 left in saving was also withdrawn until there was no money left.

6. I later was told that NB used the money for speculative trading activity on the internet, possibly forex trading.

7. Money was withdrawn in 2008 without us knowing.

9. NB has apologised via SMS saying it was NB's fault

10. Betrayal most foul in the family

Resistance 2, a refresher ..

Resistance 2 started where Resistance 1 left off. We saw in Resistance 1 that, after the explosion of the London Tower, Sgt. Nathan Hale was wandering aimlessly on a snow-laden road in the London country side. A VTOL plane soon landed for 6 Blackops soldiers to capture him. When in the plane, Hale was immediately held down and immobilised by tranquiler shots to his head. And that's how Resistance 2 started.

After playing Resistance 2 a few times, and getting frustrated of being killed when playing on superhuman mode, slowly, I am getting the hang of the game's storyline. Having been defeated in Britain, the Chimaera are now attempting to defeat America. In Britain, the Chimaera were defeated single-handedly by a sergeant in the US Rangers by the name of Nathan Hale. Hale was one of the 12,000 US troops sent to Britain to help the country fight the all conquering new enemy who had defeated Russia and Europe. Nathan Hale survived being killed because he had been infected by a strange virus that made him evolve slowly to an entity that had the characteristics of a Chimaera soldier, that is, being able to heal when wounded (though not not being invulnerable), and being quick and agile on the move.

Nathan Hale was caught by Blackops soldiers immediately after he had destroyed the Chimaera's London Tower and all the network of towers and tubes throughout Britain. Indeed, as Hale had killed the Angels, he had unwittingly killed all the Chimaera soldiers. His actions alone deserved him several Medals of Honour and Victoria Crosses. While in the plane, Hale was told that he would join a few others, similarly infected, called the Sentinels - of the SRPA unit- led by Major Blake, who, by the way, was not infected. He was told that the objective  was to save America and thus the world by killing the Chimaera's leader called Daedalus. After a series of escapades in which Hale was to destroy the goliaths, Chimaera soldiers, and drones, he met the members of the SRPA team and a Russian doctor. The appearance of the Russian doctor was logical enough since he was the doctor that started all the Chimaera problems. Malinkov experimented with a pure species of Chimaera way back in Russia

Sgt. Warner, Hawthorn, and Capelli were similarly infected as Sgt. Hale, but how they were infected were not known; but certainly not in Britain for Hale was the only survivor in the American campaign there. 

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For me, the most dreaded creature was the furies against which there was no defence. If you fall into the water, you are swallowed whole. Ugh !

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Daedalus who was formerly Jordan Shepard was not as deadly as the Angel of Resistance One. He had no weapon at all, merely relying on his tentacle to slash - which was ineffective against Hale.

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One thing that left me wondering was about the last bit  when Nathan Hale was looking at a large broken orb and behind him was Capelli saying what the object was. Was it the moon that broke in pieces ? And why did Imsoniacs fade the scene too quickly for us to understand ? The shooting of Hale is an anti-climax. If Hale was to be killed, let him be destroyed in an atomic blast rather than be executed by the crazy Capelli.

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To continue ...

You can't blame him ...

You can't blame him for the crime of the century. He was born to commit it. Bernard Madoff, who admitted to be solely responsible for the biggest white-collar crime ever, made of with USD 50 billion. So don't blame a person by the name of Ponzi should the descendent of Charles Ponzi swindle you out of your money in a pyramid scam. Malaysians have their own Ponzi and it's Pak Man Telo.

Recession ? What recession ! ...

The roads leading to Kuala Lumpur are full of all types of vehicle. The streets of Kuala Lumpur are jam-packed with cars. So are the parking lots in the supermarkets. MidValley, KLCC, Ikano, Curve, the stores in Bukit Bintang, and many others have no dearth of customers. The prices of goods are still high and traders are still smiling. This scene, typical of any day in Kuala Lumpur, is unlike the ones that I know during the 1997/1998 and 1985/1986 recessions in Malaysia. Then, everyone had little money or was unwilling to spend. While today we read reports in the West of increasing unemployment, big companies going bankcrupt, and people committing suicides, the scenario in Malaysia is entirely different. People are spending and traders are maintaining prices of goods. And, as for cars and houses, traders and developers are increasing their prices. Why, a BMW still cost in the hundreds of thousands and double-storey terrace houses are in the half-millions, while penthouses and bungalows are in the millions.

What is going on in this country ! Don't Malaysians fear the incoming recession in 2009, or is there not going to be one ?