Meeting was Over

It was finally over. Luckily, this time around, traffic was not an issue. I remembered in the last few UMNO meetings, the road was practically a gridlock, especially at around 7, as the VIP were leaving the site, all with their accompanying police escort. At least, I have not seen any of those escorts this time around. But maybe because I tended to leave for home a bit later lately.

Regular readers to the blog understood my pet hate of the outriders. The Politicians used this unnecessarily in my opinion and it should only be used when they are absolutely needed. I tended not to give way to them. For me, it was not a matter of life and death. It was sad that people tended to give way to these jokers than they do to passing ambulances.

This year, despite not being the election year, the UMNO meeting had its share of excitement, no less with the Feedlot controversy, and the fiery speech from the Women Wing Head. Great stuff.

New Season of Fringe

After a wait of six months, I finally got hold of the fourth season of Fringe. A new perspective with a new story arch this season, and in the first few episodes, the emphasis was more on new events rather than the main plot. The challenge here was finding time to watch all the episodes .....

It looked like even Puan Anita was interested in the plot. In fact, she was aching it with me yesterday. I also had the whole of the first season Downton Abbey in my cabinet and that would be another 10 hours worth of TV viewing.

Nice Pyramid. Sunway Pyramid.

During one of my lunch break recently, I had the chance to have a quick walk around Sunway Pyramid. Again, despite this still being November, the Xmas decorations at the mall was already in full swing. One of the corner foyer - Sunway Pyramid has four such foyers, located at the edges of the square-shaped mall - was packed to the brim with decorations.

It was a mini grotto, complete with a stage for Santa of course and snowman, with fake snow of course. Very nice. It looked like the Xmas decorations this time around would be grander than both Chinese New Year and Hari Raya. Signs of the economy recovering maybe.

The list of activities were not yet out, but I could imagine there would be carol-singing and Santa making appearances. As we would be spending a week in December at Sunway during the school break, we may be able to explore this a bit more, or even venture towards iCity in Shah Alam. Apparently they have an outdoor snow show thee next month. Looking forward to that.

Take a Bow

As customary, the last few days at school would be prize-giving and party. As for both Idlan and Irfan, the party came first. The prize-giving happened on the very last day of school, last Friday morning.

It started off with the speechesIrfan at the front rowIdlan was practically jumping up and down as his name was readCareful not to drop those certs ....I managed to drop by before starting my clinic. As Irfan has another year in kindy, he was not on stage. There were no prizes for them. It was Idlan who got a few and was gleaming and grinning on stage as his name was read. Irfan was looking on at the front row, clapping as his brother bowed on stage. I was sure he was planning for his prizes in a couple of years time.

Steve Jobs Done

After a weekend where I only managed a couple of chapters, I decided to cheat. I bought the audio version of the book from Audible and listen to it commuting to work. I then managed to finish the book within a couple of weeks. The whole audiobook was about 24 hours long from start to finish, over three chapters.

How did I find the book? To say that it was a real biography would be premature as Jobs is a private man and his life story were only told in tidbits. There was nothing to compare this book to and that made it difficult to just take all been written as fact. It was difficult to ascertain if the stories were narratives or told in the author's perspective. maybe in the next five or so years, we would learn a bit more. And this book would be a great reference to a more definitive read.

This was more a collection of anecdotes of the great man's life. There were many interesting stories in there, giving an interesting perspective to the enigma that was Steve Jobs. He was clearly not an easy man to cope with. A very difficult father and husband, but no doubt he is a legend. He transformed Apple into a tech leader. Twice.

There were also accusation in the online community about why Isaacson was picked as the writer in the first place? Was it because he is from the outside? Was it so that he would be able to see past the technical aspects of Apple creations and understood the flaws? Was he just merely a conduit to more Jobs propaganda? This just all add up to an interesting chemistry.

I would definitely recommend the book not just to all Apple fanboys or girls, but to anybody interested in tech. There were many to be learned about the tech industry here. How everybody were interconnected. And how much Jobs was an inspiration to the current crop of tech greats, as well as the old familiar faces like Bill Gates. They had a mutual respect to each other and it was great to read about how close they become towards the end.

Next read, Gary Neville autobiography. Unfortunately, there was no audiobook for that particular story.