Posted by samsudin at 06:13 PM | Comments (0)

May 04, 2006

Flying to Hong Kong tonight on Cathay Pacific

I have been busy in the office and at home preparing for the long flight to Hong Kong tonigh (Friday morning at 1.00 a.m.). It will be our first flight with Cathay Pacific to HK. There are so many meetings and issues which I need to resolve before I leave for the trip. It will be 2 weeks of business travel from Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore. The weather in Sunnyvale has been nice with sunny fly and cool breeze in the evening.

Posted by samsudin at 04:45 PM | Comments (1)

April 28, 2006

Santa Monica, LA for Group offsite and meetings

We had our first product management group offsite with our colleagues from Burbank in Santa Monica Loews Hotel. The event start at 9.00 a.m. so we have to take the 6.30 a.m. flight from San Jose to LAX. I have been working until midnight everyday and it is hard to wake up at 5.00 a.m. and drive to the airport which is 15 mins from Mountain View. The presentation and meeting was only for 4hr followed by lunch and photo exhibition of Ahes and Snow at the Santa Monica Pier. I had meeting at 4.00 p.m. with someone from Y! news on video ads and was given a tour of the new office in Colorado Avenue. I had dinner with Jackson at Lobster and then took a cab to LAX for our flight at 8.30 p.m. The interesting part of the event was geeting to know some of our counterpart in So Cal and meeting our down to earth SVP who carry backpack and wear sneakers to work everyday.

Posted by samsudin at 08:24 PM | Comments (0)

April 18, 2006

Wiiggles Concert at San Jose HP Pavillion

Posted by samsudin at 11:46 PM | Comments (0)

April 15, 2006

Finally booked our flights to Hong Kong and Singapore for May 2006

I waited for over a week for the corporate travel agent in my office to book for my wife and daughter flight to Hong Kong and Singapore and finally the agent told me she forgot about it after a few reminders! I decided to call Cathay Pacific local office in San Francisco to help book air flight for my wife and Alya. I could have done online but it does not gaurentee that we will get same seats in the plane. I need someone on the phone to locate my corporate reservation and merge my wife and daughter reservation so we can check-in together and get same seating arrangement.

I was very impressed with Cathay Pacific booking and the sales agent can even confirm my seat number during my booking. Adult fare is US$958.50 and for child with seat is US$756.00. The price are not much different as compared to Singapore Airlines but the good reservation service make a huge different for me personally. I have only flew on Singapore Airlines to US since they have good cabin service but I look forward to Cathay Pacific in flight service and entertainment. I might say good bye to Singapore Airline if Cathay can impressed me further.

Posted by samsudin at 04:09 PM | Comments (3)

April 06, 2006

My favourite sandal for 2006

I have been using Teva Sandal for over 10 years since school days and maybe I have used over 30 over pair of different model for sports, outdoor, travelling and even work. I have been seeing Keen sandals but could not find myself changing to new model until I tried it at REI and bought for myself the Keen Newport from REI (20% discount). It feel like a shoe but it is light, breathable and so comfortable that I cannot explain.

Posted by samsudin at 11:44 PM | Comments (0)

April 03, 2006

New Travel Policy

I just to update this in my blog to document a important change in the travel policy for my company. I have worked for almost 6 yrs in my current company and I travel so often for business and understand why we should keep travel cost low. I received an email that the new policy allows Premium Economy for flight which is over 10 hours (example to Asia) and we can use Business class where premium economy is not available. This is still subjected to team travel budget (I am affected) but I am very thrilled that the management understand that long flight is hard for business traveller.

Posted by samsudin at 11:52 PM | Comments (0)

April 01, 2006

San Francisco Zoo

I was not expecting very much from SF Zoo but want to give it a try since we want Alya to get used to animal before our trip in June to San Diego. The Zoo does not have good range of animals and the exhibit layout was not very organized. I have been to the zoo in Sydney Australia in 1992 and few times to Singapore Zooligical garden. I still think Singapore zoo are much better than SF Zoo in many ways but I will not campare it here until I have seen San Diego Zoo. The only fun part today is the grizly bear friendly fight and children zoo where Alya can touch the animals.

Posted by samsudin at 11:36 PM | Comments (0)

March 30, 2006

Dinner with Chris at Baba's Neo

We had dinner with Chris today at Baba's Neo because we want to recommend him the best Malaysian Indian Mee Goreng in Bay Area. It was crowded and took us 10 mins to get a seat. The teh terik was not as good as previously and we waited almost 30 mins for it.

Posted by samsudin at 12:37 AM | Comments (0)

March 25, 2006

My favourite Petzl Tikka Plus Headlamp

As part of my project to stocks on emergency item during disaster, I purchased the Petzl E47P Tikka Plus Headlamp

Posted by samsudin at 10:02 PM | Comments (0)

March 08, 2006

My first ride on the Segway in San Diego

Posted by samsudin at 05:14 PM | Comments (0)

February 17, 2006

View of snow cap mountain from my office desk

The weather has recently drop from nice 72F to a low 52F day time and in the evening, it fall to 35F. It feel like we turn from Summer to Winter overnight. I look out of the window today and surprise to see snow cap mountain right in front of my eyes like a painting. The snow cap mountain is in Mount Hamilton in California's Diablo Range. It has an observatory called Lick Observatory. I created a commotion in the office when I shouted snow and everyone was coming to my desk every 30 mins to see the snow cap mountain.

Posted by samsudin at 04:32 PM | Comments (0)

February 14, 2006

One day Project Management classes

How much can you learn in less than 8 hrs especially for classes like Project Management? I wanted to start doing 2 classes each quarter and started 2006 with Project management. I learn nothing new since most of the concept are similar but the people negotiating technique is very useful although I find my approach is equally effective. I don't celebrate Valentine's Day with my wife (never) so it is like any ordinary day for us.

Posted by samsudin at 11:05 PM | Comments (0)

February 06, 2006

Dinner with co-workers from Yahoo! Japan

I always find it challenging to communicate with our co-workers from Japan because I am not sure if they understand 100% of what I say since most of these engineer does not use English in the office very much. They are fun to be with since they are very polite and keep nodding thier head in every conversation. It a quick business dinner in Mountain View and all I can eat at the Chinese Hunan Restaurant was the prawn and crab.

Posted by samsudin at 12:39 PM | Comments (0)

February 02, 2006

Visit to Yahoo! Launch Music office in Santa Monica

This is my second visit to our office in Santa Monica but this time it is to visit the group that built the fun and great Yahoo! Launch Music. The flight was at 7.50 a.m. so I have to leave early from home at 6.30 a.m. to San Jose airport. It was a quick 50 mins flight and the traffic to Santa Monica was not as heavy as I expected.

We reached the office around 10.30 a.m. with enough time for the tour of the music library that holds over 100,000 music CDs and Video. We even met some of the folks that decode the music CD into WMA format for the launch product. We had lunch at MTV's office cafeteria and start the official meeting at 2.00 p.m.

We left the office at 6.30 p.m. for dinner at 3rd street Promenade in downtime Santa Monica with other sales ops folks based in Southern California. It was a tiring trip since we hardly get any break and there were constant meetings and discussions on many issues. We returned the car at 8.00 p.m. and catched the last Southwest flight at 9.20 p.m. to San Jose. I might have to fly again next week for Burbank to meet the folks at Search and Marketing.

Posted by samsudin at 11:55 PM | Comments (0)

January 17, 2006

Rented a Chevy Trailblazer for a week

Since I do not want to drive my Lexus SUV to Disneyland, I decided to rent an SUV from Avis. I have booked for 4 day which cost me $50 a day but they offer me with a good bargain to rent the Chevy Trailblazer SUV for 7 days at US$250 a week. I can't believe that it is fun to drive as compare to the Ford Explorer and more fuel economical. Highly recommeded for long drive and the seats are pretty comfortable.

Posted by samsudin at 12:00 AM | Comments (0)

January 15, 2006

Fun time in Disneyland Resort

Posted by samsudin at 11:29 PM | Comments (0)

January 13, 2006

Fun Go Kart with Co-workers

The best go kart I ever had and was in the 6th position. The go-kart is very fast and track is very challenging. My shoulder and back is aching after the 30 minutes race. I do not want to mention the place since the person who ran the place is NOT customer friendly.

Posted by samsudin at 04:31 PM | Comments (0)

January 07, 2006

Fresh oranges from the backyard

Picked up some fresh oranges from the backyard. Some of the oranges has started to fall on the ground. Since the orange tree has branches that stretch to the neighbour yard, I decided to pick those big one before they fall on their backyard. Not very sweet since it is still early but it is fun to squeeze them fresh using the new fruit mixer we bought from Walmart.

Posted by samsudin at 09:59 PM | Comments (0)

January 06, 2006

First badminton game for 2006

I started to play badminton again in 2006 after over 7 months of break. It was hard to get into the momentum and I don't have the same kind of stamina and energy. I stop after playing 2 singles and 1 double game. I hope I can play better next week.

Posted by samsudin at 06:17 PM | Comments (0)

December 31, 2005

Check out my Bungy video taken in New Zealand 2002

I finally got my wife help to encode my bungy video into WMV format and showing it in my blog. The bungy was on 2002 in the town of Queenstown, New Zealand at the Kawarau River. The bungy ran by AJ Hackett and it was 43 m high, took average 4 seconds before the cord pull back. This is the world first bungy site and highly recommended for first timer.

Posted by samsudin at 07:25 PM

December 21, 2005

Bought a new Viewsonic 19" LCD Monitor

Since we have 2 PC at home, I decided to let my 18 months daughter Alya to use it and stop bothering us when we using our computer. I ordered on Thursday from http://www.xpcgear.com/ the 19" ViewSonic Flatpanel LCD Minotor and they arrived the next day delivered FREE!!! That is what I called good service. The LCD Monitor is great and it has fast response time of 4ms. Read more here.

Posted by samsudin at 05:40 AM

December 17, 2005

Weekend in Cotswold, London

Posted by samsudin at 06:09 AM

December 01, 2005

To go or not to go for the company year end party

The famous music group Earth Wind and Fire will be performing at our company year end party at San Mateo. I skipped last party since I am not familiar with many of the co-worker in the office and we just settled down in California. I been receiving emails and IM from co-workers asking me to join their group for the year end party but I am not 100% sure if I should go. I would like my wife to join us for the party and put Alya with a baby sitter but we do not want to burden any friends with the responsibilities.

Posted by samsudin at 10:10 PM

November 29, 2005

It is hard to say goodbye

After over 11 days of vacation in California (a little bit of Nevada), my sister and her family have to say goodbye and leave us for Los Angeles today. I hope they really have a great time in with us and enjoy the sightseeing in San Francisco, Santa Cruz, Monterrey, Yosemite, Tahoe, Reno, Sacramento and especially our house in Mointain View.

Posted by samsudin at 10:54 PM

November 24, 2005

Winter in Yosemite 2005

Posted by samsudin at 10:25 PM

November 23, 2005

Yosemite with my sister and her family

Posted by samsudin at 10:35 PM

November 11, 2005

Rosemary Farewell Lunch

There is always someone who did not read the email for what color to wear to work and Rosemary seem be the one out. It is blue Friday. We had dim sum today for lunch with ad ops and developer at ABC Seafood Restaurant in Milpitas.

Posted by samsudin at 06:57 PM

October 19, 2005

Booking for my trip to London in December

I remember the last time I was on London was in 2000 on the way back from Barcelona and was visiting a friend in Shropshire England. Before we say goodbye to 2005, I had to make my final trip to one of the important sales office in UK. My original plan was to visit the office in October to interview someone for the operations position but the UK office help me out completely with the hiring. I know December is a bad time to visit London since it is cold, wet and gloomy but I need to make a trip to help with the new hire and ensure she get all the tools to get her job done.

After a weeks of research I made reservation for a flight to Heathrow with on Virgin Atlantic and will be flying with my wife and daughter. I received a few recommendation for hotel which is centrally located near Convent Garden. I got the travel desk to help me reseve a deluxe so that there is enough for 3 of us.

Posted by samsudin at 10:48 PM

October 04, 2005

Addicted to Law & Order on TV

I watched back to back of 5 hrs Law & Order (Criminal Intent) TV series on the way back from NY when flying with Jet Blue airlines. We used to watch the the Law & Order (SVU) which has better casts with more suspense and drama but I think the CI version has very good story line too.

Posted by samsudin at 12:48 PM

September 21, 2005

Business Travel to Los Angeles, Boston and New York

I normally plan all my vacation and business trip way in advance. I have been planning to make a trip to Boston and New York in early September. Since I plan to bring co-workers to meet some important users, the planning for this trip was hard. Mulitple changes and meeting postponed and not able to find the right hotel and so on.

Finally, last week I finalized the trip and my team will be coming with me so it will be lots of fun travelling with Alice and Jackson to Boston and New York together. Bachal is coming for Boston but he has to leave early for training. Prior to the east coast trip, I have to fly to Los Angeles to meet and greet some important user who manage the entertainment and music industry. My wife and Alya is coming with me to LA this time since it is 1 day meeting and we are staying for 3 days only. Toko Rame, here we come.

Posted by samsudin at 11:45 PM

September 20, 2005

First rain in months and I forgot to wind up my car window

After such a long hot summer, it rain today and there were thunder and lightning. The funny part of the rain experience was that I see email reminder to driver to cover thier convertibles car because no one expected it to rain (although the weather forcast has already warn aboout it yesterday).

I was laughing loud when I see the email sending around the office (>5000 people) and someone called me and he told me that my driver side window was down and my car seat is wet. I replied back, you must be kidding to tell me that joke but he was very serious and I immediately jump out of chair to the car park and realized that is in fact true. The bluff was on myself....joker me.

Posted by samsudin at 11:33 PM

August 22, 2005

Damn Super Funny Blog by "Lockson"

It has been a busy week with many issues in the office and hiring of new team in UK. My wife IM me about a damn super funny blog by Rockson Takumi Tan called Talk Rock. I have to warn that there are so much vulgar word in the blog but if you lived in Singapore all your life, you can understand what the word means. This is my favourite entry 12 commando police vs Fantastic Four .

Posted by samsudin at 04:26 PM

August 17, 2005

Optimal Thinking: How to Be Your Best Self

As part of the ongoing self development process which we need to cultivate in the working environment, we have to read books which is related to our work. I was planning to get books for my team members and after doing so much research and getting feedback from co-workers, I bought Optimal Thinking: How to Be Your Best Self and it has been fun reading.

Posted by samsudin at 09:20 AM

August 16, 2005

Top Three Submarine Movie ....

I enjoy watching submarine movie because there are so much suspense and lots of great action and dialog. My top 3 submarine movies in order of number 3 is The Hunt for Red October . Sean Connery was amazing although there were no Russian accent at all coming from him.

The next movie which has full suspense for almost 2 hrs is U-571. Bon Jovi is in the movie and the cast are great. My all time favourite is Crimson Tide. It's about a mutiny on a nuclear submarine and Denzel Washington and Gene Hackman acting was brilliant. I am not a good critic, go to Amazon for the details but I can watch Crimson Tide again and again.

Posted by samsudin at 09:31 PM

August 11, 2005

Volunteer Day at Family Giving Tree to sort backpack for school kids

The team from Yahoo! Ad Systems spending a day to sort backpack for school kids which is organize by Family Giving Tree. It is a 4hrs of fun packing stationaries into the back pack, sorting the bag into groups and loading them into vans for delivery. We pack almost 300 bags today, loading over 400 bags for distribution and sorted over 100 bags into the age group. I will definitely do it again next year and buy more backpack (complete sets) for the kids again.

Posted by samsudin at 08:35 PM

July 29, 2005

My first blog at Blogspot

I was cleaning up my bookmark on my laptop today and found an old link to my first blog Sambog Blog which hosted by blogspot. Fun to read the old stuff and I added some funny song about "We are Singapore"

Posted by samsudin at 09:49 PM

July 27, 2005

My laptop and my working space in the kitchen

This is a picture of my desk in the kitchen with my HP NC4000 Laptop (1GB RAM baby) with docking station, my Treo 650, external 80 G hard disk, the Canon Elph SD 300 and a cup of Milo (Singapore imported). Wonder why the Treo 650 is next to my laptop, I am using the bluetooth to Sych the data.

Posted by samsudin at 10:28 PM

July 26, 2005

Do you Flickr ?

This is my second account on Flickr where I will host photos from Yahoo! Check it out here http://www.flickr.com/photos/samsudin

Posted by samsudin at 02:22 PM

July 20, 2005

First Aid and CPR Training

I attended a 4 hrs session today on First Aid organise by my company since I join the Emergency Response Team (ERT). Tomorrow, we will cover CPR in the next 4hrs and follow by certification. It has been a while since I attended CPR classes in the military and during Outward Bound Courses in Singapore.

Posted by samsudin at 09:41 PM

July 18, 2005

Public Transport and Cycling to work

Took the VTA with my bike to the office today. The VTA train cost me $1.75 and it is only 5 mins ride. I wish I got discount since it was only 5 stops. I ride the back home today which is 7miles from Sunnyvale to my house in Mountain View.

Posted by samsudin at 09:56 PM

July 16, 2005

My first Geocaching using Garmin GPS

I never expected that there is more for Garmin GPS 60CS other than the traditional navigating, digital compass, altimeter, speedometer and so on. I recently discover that you can do Geocaching and it is lot of fun with a GPS unit. I found my first cache today which is 3/4 miles from our house in Mountain View.

This is what I found in the first cache, an old army mess tin can with log book for us to sign and some stuff left behind by others who found it previously. This is so much fun. The photo was taken using my Palm Treo 650.

Posted by samsudin at 08:03 PM

July 03, 2005

Pike Place Market in Seattle Washington

The famous Pike's Place Fish Market where the staff throw fish to make the job fun and enjoyable. It is a must see attraction in Seattle and so many books written about Pike's Place Food Market.

Posted by samsudin at 11:07 PM

June 24, 2005

Bought a Garmin GPSMap 60cs

I have always wanted to own a handheld GPS device. My first big project at TIBS Taxi was for Automated Taxi Booking System using the GPS to locate taxi and that was exciting. The accuracy for commercial GPS at that time was 100m and with today personal handheld device, it is up to 3 meters. I did a long research for the best portable (not cheap) GPS device and decided to buy from Amazon the Garmin GPSMap 60C 56 MB GPS with 256-Color TFT Display.

Posted by samsudin at 06:54 PM

June 22, 2005

Purchased One Year National Park Pass

It will be our first summer in US and all excited about visiting National Park in California and around the region. Our first trip was Muir Woods and I decided to spend $50 dollar on Nationals Park Pass which entitles us with unlimited entries to all National Parks in US for everyone in the vehicle. We will be heading to Crater Lake National Park over the 4th of July long weekend and hopefully Yosemite in August.

Posted by samsudin at 11:32 PM

May 20, 2005

Favourite Mamak Mee Goreng in Singapore

One of the places which we use to frequent in Singapore was the India stall selling fried noodle or rice (mee or nasi goreng). When I was staying over at my parents place in Bukit Batok, we visited our favourite makan place at West Coast Hawker center to buy sup tulang (Bone soap).

Posted by samsudin at 12:52 AM

May 17, 2005

Clearing mails, meetings families and relatives

We need to balance the amount of time we spent with families, relatives and friends. The first 3 days was focus on the wedding and meeting all parents, brothers and immediate families. We want Alya to spent quality time with the grandparents so Monday was stay at home day and catching up on old times. I had the chance to visit the local office in Singapore, lunch with the engineering team and shopping at Sim Lim Square. I had to come back another day for lunch with sales and ad ops.

Tuesday was the doctor appointment for Alya to update her vaccinations record in Singapore and check on her development. Dr Teo was happy that we have settle down well in California and Alya is growing up very well. We headed to Woodlands Causeway point for shopping at Kiddy Palace and try out Yakun Kaya. I finally cleared all the snail mail which was sent to Yishun address and collect from our house in Woodlands.

Posted by samsudin at 05:12 PM

May 15, 2005

Someone actually wanted to buy my website and domain sambog.com

I registered sambog.com since May 2001. My first domain was samsudin.com which was registered back in 1998 during the dot.com boom (yah never make it big). Today was a historical moment for me and someone wanted to buy my domain sambog.com since it was listed in Yahoo! directory. Click on the search result of sambog and you understand what I meant.

Sambog.com was categorized as weblog in Yahoo! directory and they make a lot of different in search result listing. I was ready to sell my domain if the price is right (>US$100k). I was offered less than 4 digits range and the buyer wanted the content which is my blog. I could figure how my domain could be sold with the right price but the content is something which I cannot share since it is the story of my life on the virtual world. Sorry dude, maybe next time with the right price.

Posted by samsudin at 02:52 AM

May 08, 2005

eReader for my Palm Treo 650

I have been using my Palm Treo 650 mainly for reading corporate mail, phone and calendar. The possibilities are endless and the other common use of Treo 3 are MP3 player but you need to get an adapter since the headphone jack is very small. Camera feature are decent but I cannot live with < 3 Megapixel of resolution. I decided to try e-reader which is recommended by Palm Software to read books using the Treo. I do not seem to like the selection as compare to ebook and only basic e-reader is free. The good news is that e-reader title are much cheaper.

Posted by samsudin at 07:58 PM

May 05, 2005

Got a call for a job offer at Sidesteps.com

It has been a busy week so my blog was not as updated as my daughter weblog at www.alyanabilah.com. I have so much to follow up since my meeting in New York and Boston and I have not fill up the vacant position for my team. Around 10.30 a.m. in the morning, the HR from sidesteps.com which is travel search portal called me for a position as Advertising Operations Manager in the firm.

It was a moral booster to know that I am still marketable in the Internet industry and they found my resume at Hotjobs which I posted 2 years ago. I updated recently in February with a new job title and contact number. There is no way I will leave my current organization. I love what I do and enjoy the daily challenges, meeting new people and making sure everyone is happy. My current employer had given me the trust and responsibility to manage a global ad system operations and I had an exciting career ahead with lots of oppurtunity coming. Importantly, I get the chance to travel around America, Europe and Asia.

Posted by samsudin at 09:18 PM

April 26, 2005

Boston Here I come and Go

I reached Boston City after 5 hrs train ride after 8.30 p.m. at night. The cab driver was friendly and show me the Boston Red Sox stadium and the famous MIT university before sending me to the hotel Nine Zero. I checked in hotel, get my dinner and headed back to my room to get online and do some work before I go to bed at 1.00 a.m.

Posted by samsudin at 08:35 PM

Wireless Internet at the NY Penn Train Station

I woke up at 8.00 a.m. and had croissant for breakfast which I bought from the nearby bakery stall. I decided to skip hotel breakfast and get something light. I took a longer route back and explore the Times Square again. It is good to be a Starwood member because you do not have to check out when leaving the hotel. I left at 9.30 a.m for Yahoo! Hotjobs office.

They have a nice office which is 10 mins taxi ride from the hotel. I had a good 2.5hrs meeting to discuss on our inventory management system and ad delivery reports. I met our recruiter and HR who is in this office. Quick lunch and then I am off to the train station. The express train was cancelled so I had to take the regular train which take 5hrs intead of 3.5hrs to Boston.

I decided to sign up for Cingular wiressless Internet and currently I am writing this blog from the Penn station in New York. The train will have the wireless connection so at least I can do some work in the train and maybe catch some sleep.

Posted by samsudin at 10:37 AM

April 25, 2005

Time Square, New York City

Posted by samsudin at 08:02 PM

April 21, 2005

Dinner with Mardiana and Richard from Mountain View

We had dinner with a student from NUS who is in Bay Area for an internship with a startup and doing exchange programme with Stanford University. We introduce her to our favourite chinese Dadar seafood restaurant in Milpitas. It is nice to meet a fellow Singaporean who share almost similar experience moving to California.

Posted by samsudin at 11:10 PM

April 20, 2005

Finally Received my Palm Treo 650

After 2 weeks of waiting for my new cell phone cum PDA organizer, I received the Palm Treo 650 for my work. Finally I can received email and make unlimited call from my PDA. It is so exciting because I can check email from anywhere even when I am in the toilet doing my personal business. If you need the number drop me an email.

Posted by samsudin at 04:58 PM

April 15, 2005

Looking forward to sunny weekend

We are lucky that it has been sunny the whole week and I look forward to a nice weekend and maybe take some photos.

Posted by samsudin at 08:15 AM

March 24, 2005

Badminton Fever

Since I started playing badminton back in January, there was only 3 of us from my department but today there are 8 of us. I did not enjoy badminton during school days because I was very bad at it. It changed now, I am playing for for sports than competition. For double game, it is hard to win constantly sine we changed partner after each game and you need to understand the partner well to win.

Posted by samsudin at 03:40 PM

March 13, 2005

A Few Good Men

It was a very short weekend since I spend most of the time coding PHP until 2.00 a.m. for a web project which I have to complete myself after the engineer left for another project. I was watching A Few Good Men Direct TV movies channel while doing the PHP coding. Great acting by Tom Cruise and Jack Nicholson. We love foreign movie and we watched the best Korean movie ever about a boy and mute grandmother called The Way Home. Rated 4.5 stars.

Posted by samsudin at 11:08 PM | Comments (0)

March 02, 2005

Sugar Ray LIVE for Yahoo! 10th year birthday party

We had a great celebration at Yahoo! 10th birthday party with some emotional stories from a loyal user to a wedding proposal from a Yahoo! Personal user. There were some good news for staffs who have worked more than 5 years and I will be getting a special Yahoo! gumball machine soon. For 10 years staffs, they will receive an espresso machine (yellow color) and once they hit 15th, it will be foosball table.

The party continue with a rock concert by Sugar Ray and here is the glimpse of the photos.

Posted by samsudin at 09:41 PM | Comments (2)

February 15, 2005

Greetings from an old German friend

It has been almost 4.5 years since I left Deutsche Bank and lost contact with almost everyone especially those in Germany. I have not heard any news from those in Barcelona, Spain since my last trip in 2001 but hopefully I will get some news soon. I received a surprise comment on my blog from Michael Schoen. He use to work in Singapore office and we shared the same hobby which is photography. It was a pleasant surprise to receive email from him and look forward to meet him again one day.

Posted by samsudin at 11:45 PM | Comments (0)

February 04, 2005

Got a new 20 inch Dell LCD Monitor

After waiting for 4 months, I arrived at my desk and got a pleasant surprise to see a 20 inch Dell LCD Monitor already hook up to the PCs. It surely make my day .......yahoooooo.

Posted by samsudin at 05:09 PM

February 03, 2005

Badminton Anyone ?

I thought badminton will be a history when I moved to California but it turn out otherwise. I tried going to the gym every week but it gets boring each time and badminton bring back my quest for healthy lifestyle. During a meeting with group engineers, I mentioned badminton as my favourite sports in Singapore. It triggered interest in everyone and they invited me to join the badminton game every Friday.

Since there will be a meeting tomorrow, we decided to ask 2 others co-workers to join us for badminton today. It was a fun 1 hr game and we play 3 set and obviously, we won 2 sets. We left at 11.30 a.m. and was back to the gym for shower by 12.30 and had lunch at my desk. It bring back memory of the badminton I used to play with wife, Casey and Fion at Ayer Rajah. It will never be the same because the weather was so much nicer.

Posted by samsudin at 08:09 PM

December 25, 2004

Great company and excellent food

My wife invited her ex-Uni friend Ruth and her hubby Chri from San Francisco to our house on Christmas day. She cooked Mee Siam for lunch and then Salmon for dinner.

Posted by samsudin at 03:23 AM

December 24, 2004

Christmas at Mountain View

Posted by samsudin at 01:25 PM

December 12, 2004

My favourite new gadget in the new house

After moving to new house in Mountain View, I have to put heavy investment on Sony DVD Recorder, a boom box, toaster, vacuum cleaner, clothes iron and a thermometer for the house. I did not have the chance to research all the various thermometer & hydrometer sensor but I was at a sports shop and they are selling the Oregon Scientic Standard Thermo-Hygrometer with Clock for $39.90. It monitor indoor and outdoor temperature and humidity using wireless sensor. It has atomic clock with 2 alarm and display the min and max temperature and humidity.

Posted by samsudin at 01:01 PM

November 29, 2004

Finally received my California driving license

What can I say, it feels great to acquire a driving license for the second time after 13yrs driving on the road but this time in Califonia. I remembered the last time when I was 21yrs old and I passed the Singapore driving test after a 2nd try. History repeats itself and I passed after a 2nd try again in California. The test is easy but after 13yrs on the road especially coming from Singapore, you tend to pick up all the bad driving habits and bring it along to California.

Posted by samsudin at 04:44 PM

November 28, 2004

Ebay actually pay for sambog as search keyword

I was checking how updated is my website appearing on Yahoo! search and when I did a query for sambog, it display a Yahoo! Overture ads which is purchased by Ebay. Never knew anyone who would want to pay sambog as a search keyword.

Posted by samsudin at 06:41 AM

November 23, 2004

Bought a new Canon SD300 or IXUS 40

This is the first time in my life that I only do a week research on camera and then I bought it immediatly without waiting for full review. Befoer we move to Mountain View, I list down stuff to buy which include DVD writer, toaster, vacuum, iron and digital camera. With such a short time, I bought all these within a week. I check dpreview on the latest digital camera and found that Canon SD300 is good enough and meet requirements that it is small, 4.0M, big screen and light.

I was suppose to get the DVD writer , the toaster and the camera at the Best Buy shop in Santana row but the lousy sales assistant are hopeless there. They cannot find the Sony DVD recorder I wanted and not one can explain if I can connect my Direct TV with the DVD recorder. After 1hr and i finally found a new set and grab the toaster but cannot find time to check out the camera. We visited again on Friday the Best Buy at Palo Alto and found a nice sales assistant who was kind enought to explain the feature. Finally, I bought for my wife a new Canon SD300 digital camera which I hope as a gift for her birthday too.

Posted by samsudin at 07:17 AM | Comments (0)

October 24, 2004

A visit to Elly & Family in Daly City

It is Sunday and we have to rush like crazy to buy gift in the morning for our friend Ely's birthday and buy soda/cakes/crackers for dinner. We left at 11.00 a.m. to Target to get the birthday gift and then Albertson for groceries. We rushed back home to drop off the groceries for our place and changed Alya to make sure she is warm enought for SF weather.

We left at 2.00 p.m. and I took highway 280 to Daly city. Before we went to Ely's place for dinner, we met up with my wife ex-uni friend, Ruth and her hubby. Ruth is Singaporean and she is married to Chris who has been living in SF for the past 3 yrs. Nice couple and they drove us around SF and brought us to the nearby supermarket.

By 6.30 p.m. we are at Ely's place for dinner and stayed up until 9.00 p.m. I had one of the best dinner, Roti Jala and Porridge (bubur masjid). Thanks Ely. We reached home at 10.30 p.m. and I slept early for work on Monday.

Posted by samsudin at 02:19 PM | Comments (0)

October 23, 2004

We bought a 4yr old Lexus RX 300 for US$18,500

After 3 weeks of car hunting, we decided to change to Lexus because it is reliable even though it is a used car and at least we know the car has a good record. We started looking at new Acura but the Acura TSX which is within our budget range is too small and the TL is too expensive at $34k (before tax). I cannot find any used Acura so we dicided to look at Craiglist for used Lexus.

Posted by samsudin at 06:55 AM | Comments (3)

September 27, 2004

What does my sign say today about me ?

Some days are better than others, and today may just be one where you want to take a seat on the sidelines. Focus on reality rather than what you want to be there. A laser-like attention to detail comes to your aid at this time. Do not try to start a new project or deal with financial issues and put off making large decisions until later. Given your whimsical mood, you could be very entertaining at a party this evening. Quoted from Yahoo! Astrology

Posted by samsudin at 11:27 AM | Comments (0)

August 26, 2004

Submit US visa to US embassy in Singapore

My experience to prepare for my US L1 visa application started on 20th Aug and after so much changes and modifications, I completed by 23rd August. They provide fantastic online tools to enter into boxes and user clicks submit to generate a printed form with bar code. If you made mistake, click back, change and submit. I have to complete the form for my wife and daughter and this is a long and painful process.

Posted by samsudin at 03:30 PM | Comments (0)

July 07, 2004

Free Chicco Baby Monitor

My company give $100 to staff as new born baby gift. Our HR ask for what I wanted but I told her it is easier if I purchased it myself and claim the amount. I headed to Robinson to get Chicco Baby Monitor (S$129) and claim it from the company.

Posted by samsudin at 01:35 PM | Comments (0)

June 09, 2004

It has been days since ....

Blame it on the faulty wireless keyboard which was giving me problem since Sunday night. I finally got it fixed today since I am at home. After watching a number of Discovery Hobby and Leisure program which show viewer how they dismantle car and restore it back give me the inspiration to fix the wireless keyboard.

I have been getting mild head ache and changing to a new contour pillow seem to help a bit but coffee seem to be the way. Now my back is not doing too good after I move the bed in the guest room.

Posted by samsudin at 10:18 PM | Comments (0)

May 24, 2004

Memory card and UV Filter

I experimented with the Panasonic DV Camera GS-200 last weekend and it turn to out to be fun but not easy to handle both the Nikon DSLR and at the same time the Panasonic DV Camera. The picture was excellent and very rich without any filter as I have expected from a 3CCD DV with Leica lens. The photo taken using 2.2 Mega pixel was below average but I will try to use FINE setting to see how it turn this weekend again. I visited Sim Lim Square and got the SanDisk 512 SD card and Hoya HMC UV filter.

Posted by samsudin at 01:31 PM | Comments (1)

May 17, 2004

Finally upgraded to movable type v3

Just a post to test if everything is ok.

Posted by samsudin at 10:59 PM | Comments (0)

Movable Type Version 3

They release Movable Type version 3 and I cannot see what is the major improvement other the new comment which required user to have typepad account now.

Posted by samsudin at 05:36 PM | Comments (0)

May 14, 2004

Rupert Won $1 million America Tribal Council

Congratulations to Rupert Boneham, winner of $1 million. He deserved it :-)

Posted by samsudin at 10:45 PM | Comments (0)

May 10, 2004

Back home by 7.00 p.m. for Survivor

I cannot help it but to check the winner on CBS website and damn it Amber won !!! I left office at 5.50 p.m. so I can reach my wife office by 6.30 p.m, grab dinner and watch Survivor 8 All star at 7.30 p.m.

Posted by samsudin at 08:39 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

May 08, 2004

Chewing gum from Pharmacies ?

I set my blog as default homepage and the first thing I notice today is the ads on Impress Chewing Gum available in Singapore Pharmacies ? We all know that Singapore government was pressured to allow chewing gum since signing the FTA with US.

Posted by samsudin at 11:08 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

May 06, 2004

Babyhood by Paul Reiser

My wife was looking low and high for this book and she found it last night. She seem to be laughing by herself when reading it. I read this first book Coouplehood 8 yrs ago and hardly remember the content. I am still reading the exiciting book which Donald recommended Donald me about Financial Planing. It has been more than 3 yrs since I read in the train and it help to keep your mind off the travelling time.

Posted by samsudin at 11:45 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

May 03, 2004

What's your plan for Mother's Day ?

We heard on the radio this morning where the DJs were asking user for their plan for the coming Mother's Day on 9th May 2004. It is interesting to hear that everyone has the same idea to bring their mom out for lunch/dinner. We both need get something for our moms because they both does not like to eat out. I spent 3hrs on Sunday to add a Mother's Day product for Sophia flower website Petal Portal.

Posted by samsudin at 09:57 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

China has 5 days Labour Day

I got an email from a colleague in China that there are close from 3rd May until 7th May for International Labour Day .... that is what I call good labour movement. Our neighbour Malaysian get 2 extra public holidays for Vesak day and Prophet Muhammad Birthday.

Posted by samsudin at 09:32 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

April 30, 2004

Win free trip to Perth in the airline survey

If you are dying to get free tickets to Perth, take part in this Airline Survey.

Posted by samsudin at 04:20 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 29, 2004

Amazon Search Engine

Everyone seem to be in the search business and Google will be going IPO soon. Bill & Company will soon build their own engine platform for MSN but the new kid on the block Amazon is testing their own search engine A9.com.

Posted by samsudin at 11:08 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 28, 2004

Excellent Bookmark Tool

I added a feature into Movable Type to post boomark into my blog. Isn't it cool.

Samsudin.com - Sharing the moment in images

Posted by samsudin at 03:00 PM | Comments (0)

All I want in July is a Apple Mini Ipod

Since I will be taking public transport (MRT) once my wife gave birth end of June, I need to keep myself entertain on the 35 min journey ride from Woodlands to Bugis. One of the item that I have in mind is the new Apple Mini Ipod. An awesome specs for something so small and cute.

Posted by samsudin at 11:21 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Where to go for hotel discount in Singapore

I always have problem trying to recommend hotel which are reasonable in Singapore but the Google Ads sense on my blog seem to have the answer. For example http://www.asiabesthotel.com has good bargain which I bet no one knew about it. Check it out !!!

Posted by samsudin at 09:40 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 27, 2004

New Yahoo! Messenger 6.0 Beta

Yahoo! release new Messenger 6.0 Beta and lot of funs with Avatar, Launch music and now you can set invisible to specific friends in your list.

Posted by samsudin at 03:41 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 26, 2004

Toilet Joke

I was barely sitting down when I heard a voice from the other stall saying: "Hi, how are you?"

I'm not the type to start a conversation in the men's restroom but I don't know what got into me, so I answered, somewhat embarrassed, "Doin' just fine!"

And the other guy says: "So what are you up to?"

What kind of question is that? At that point, I'm thinking this is too bizarre so I say: "Uhhh, I'm like you, just traveling!"

At this point I am just trying to get out as fast as I can when I hear another question. "Can I come over?"

Ok, this question is just too weird for me but I figured I could just be polite and end the conversation. I tell him, "No........I'm a little busy right now!!!"

Then I hear the guy say nervously...

"Listen, I'll have to call you back. There's an idiot in the other stall who keeps answering all my questions!!!"

Posted by samsudin at 04:09 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

I'll be damn ...

Please note that the year is in-correct.

Posted by samsudin at 10:14 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 25, 2004

Formula 1 is getting boring

It seem no one can beat Shumi in this season and it make the race so boring. At least the Honda team is trying to prove something this season. Read the news here.

Posted by samsudin at 11:21 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Running out of idea for wallpaper images ?

When you are running out of idea for wallpaper images, transparent monitor is the next best option. Check it for yourself here.

Posted by samsudin at 07:56 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

April 23, 2004

It's finally the weekend again

It is time to plan for the weekend again and I am dying to get out of the office for a good dinner in the evening. On the way to work, I detoured to Bedok for breakfast to avoid the massive traffic jam. I had $2.00 Nasi Lemak with Teh Tarik which damn sweet and cost me 80 cents. Must be the most expensive coffeshop tea in Singapore.

I left for the office at 9.15 a.m. and not much difference either on the ECP. The traffic is slow from Marine Parade onwards and stuck for next 25 mins. The sales lunch meeting was quick and continued to chunk quaterly reports until 6.00 p.m.

Posted by samsudin at 01:24 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 22, 2004

Finally Received Google GMail

Excellent web mail interface with no ads and mailbox space of 1000 MB. It is fast, sleek, clean and very smart. Gmail is still in beta and if you gave blogger account, you should be get invitation to sign up for beta testing. Sorry cannot give you my account.

Posted by samsudin at 04:25 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Earth Day

I wonder if anyone in Singapore even know that today is Earth Day!!!

Posted by samsudin at 02:42 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 20, 2004

What color are you ?

Posted by samsudin at 02:44 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 15, 2004

Another Photos & Journals Website

I must have images uploaded everywhere on the web and the new one is http://zorpia.com/samsudin where it use stupid points system to reward you. Give it a try always looking for new place to upload photos. Thanks to Zoso for sharing with me the links.

Posted by samsudin at 01:39 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Mini Madness

Lunch time was a thrill with the Mini Cooper S Works Tuning at 200 hp. It has been years since I drove a manual transmission car so it takes a while to get use to it. It was fun driving a 6 gear manual but S$127k is a little too steep for a future family man like myself.

Posted by samsudin at 01:20 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack