Well things definitely was not going to plan yesterday. During breakfast, they ran out of food and we had to wait long for our order. Then during lunch, the usual place where we had lunch don't serve buffet anymore. My poor Mum had to endure all that plus the screaming kids.
That did not stop the shopping spirit though. We shopped in the afternoon, then we hit the pasar malam in the late after noon. Since the boys went to sleep I went to the beach alone, then back for some more shopping at night. This time at a night market. The good news is good old ManYoo won at a canter at Middlesborough. We are all set to win the league now!
I went out early this morning to buy some breakfast. It was raining most of the night, but it is bright sunshine this morning. I finished sorting out the pics but due to bandwidth issue, I'll post it later when I reach KL.
Yes, having breakfast again. My usual holiday staple diet - nasi lemak, roti canai and teh tarik - yes, all three! The boys are restless since their sausages haven't arrived yet.
Slight change in plan yesterday. My Dad had to go back to Penang for business and my sister Julia is going to Melaka to visit her in-law for the weekend. So she dropped my mum in Seremban and she is enjoying my children's company.
As usual, we had fun looking for dinner. The beach are certainly filling up with visitors now. This is a bit more like it, but still it's not as jam-packed as usual. Restaurant business should be good, but instead most of them are closed. What ever left open were either full or well below par. We just had some nasi goreng, so everyone is looking forward for breakfast this morning.
The beach neae our apartment was also filled with campers. They were still partying well past midnight. I sat at the balcony enjoying the flashlight daNcing on the beach.
When I woke up this morning, the beach were already filled with bathers. There were also organised group activities - I think it was a school reunion of some sort. The banana boat were already out. Big party out there.
As for our plan, it's shopping day again, this time plus my mum. Still editing mY pics. Some of them were uploaded on my flicker account already. I had a problem logging into my website last night and had to update it via email.
Currently I am in Port Dickson staying at our beach apartment at Bayu Beach Resort. Yes, we are defying the threat of swine flu. Hit the beach upon arrival yesterday and completely knackered after.
Had a lousy dinner at one of the Thai food outlet near here. The decor was not bad but the service is to die for ..... I mean you're more likely to die than get a decent one. Not only the food did not come as ordered, the drinks did not arrive at all. When I went to enquire, they had the cheek to come over 5 minutes later to check if I was lying. The drinks then finally arrived 10 minutes after that. FFS, if you messed up at least trust your customer.
The food I ordered for my boys were too spicy, and when we asked, they said sorry that theady who took our order is on her break, and they blamed it fully on her! It may be her fault but just get on with it and stop cleaning your dirty laundry in public.
We then had a drive to town. We noticed that it is relatively quiet compared to last year. Maybe it's the swine flu thing or just that people have less money to spend. It wasn't as buzzing as it was. And then the condition of the beach.... Put it this way. It needs maintenance.
I am blogging while waiting for my breakfast ... and it is here. I'll post up some pics when I setlle back in the apartment. It sounded like Anita has other plans for the day, and I am sure it involves shopping!
SARS, then bird flu. Another global epidemic. Devastating as the epidemic can be, one thing that interest the technocratis are the elements of Web 2.0 influencing the dissemination of information or misinformation in the mass media.
On the plus side, IT is important in communications. There is no doubt about it. But what is of concern is the lack of control over the flow of information. It was easy 20 years ago to control television and printed news to vet the kind of information being served to the public. Now, can we control the flow information in websites, emails, facebook, friendster and worse of all, twitter! Informations are updated to the minutes if not seconds. The authority will be powerless to control the information flow.
They will be left down with two choices. They can fight the information flow .... good luck to them. More sensibly they should just join what they cannot fight. Let me illustrate two important lessons from the last couple of weeks. Remember the youtube post I embedded on my site about the Domino's employee who were practically putting filth on the pizza. The video has since been taken down. Within the next 24 hours, Domino responded by posting another video on Youtube with its President apologising profusely about what happened. Not only that they responded promptly, they were also seen as hip and cool to their target. Those who have seen the add must have been IT savvy, and this is the targeted group who need to see the apologising reply as well. Smart move.
This is opposite to Amazon.com. A couple of weekend back, while updating their database, they accidentally brought down their whole catalogue of gay and lesbian-related titles. People started complaining. The problem was rectified soon after, but no apologies or explanation was given until a few days after. The punters can't wait few days. That is far too long in the Web 2.0 era. Slow reaction there.
My point is, the authority should take control of the Web, but not to control the flow of information, but to utilise its reach. I saw the WHO press conference live earlier on CNN.com from Geneva basically explaining that the Secretary-General has upgraded the pandemic status of the flu to grade 4, a couple of grades from stopping cross-border movement. What is I would suggest is the Kementerian Penerangan should do something similar. A fast updating website - something that sounds like selsemababi.com.my or something. Disseminate information fast, turning it also as a portal for those wanting to learn more about the epidemic. The Kementerian can then vet and streamline the information better. They can also do tweeter updates as well, or even a facebook page! Failing that, you can always follow @palmdoc in twitter ... He has all the up-tp-date info one way or the other! There is also a map-based site that will track the confirmed cases that worth checking from time to time.
To finish things off, have a look at this video from 1976. Go selsemababi.com.my
Sunday, May 3, 2009 at 10:47AM 