இ ATM PIN # Reversal

We progressed over the centuries with the state-of-the-art Internet Technology where information could be transmitted enormously at lightning speed merely by word-of-mouse. Just zooming in at a small portion of internet regarding em@ils where '@' is part and parcel of our mundane life. Emails that are in circulation ranges from A-Z comprises of the good, bad and ugly. Some are informative and some educational however there are bound to attract Big Ghost Head  大鬼頭 pinyin:*dà guǐ tóu* a common ghostly name used among the Chinese community for mischievous leader. They start the mouse rolling sending viral hoax emails as per their whims and fancies around the globe like those hand written chain letters of the past. Gratitude highlighted a few randomly in his last post "It's a sad sad life!" where he ended up perplexed  and said ~ "I am totally screwed up now and have little chance of recovery." You are not alone Gratitude, it's indeed a bewilderment if we were to follow all the emails received, we can't eat, drink or sleep in peace.

Recently a nagging email which appeared few years ago re-surfaced again and hope this entry may shed some light and may save lives. Please do not follow the tactic below and put a stop in forwarding, it's a HOAX.

Subject: ATM Pin Number reversal tactic

If you should ever be forced by a robber to withdraw money from an ATM machine, you can notify the police by entering your PIN in reverse. For example, if your pin number is 1234, then you would put in 4321. The ATM system recognizes that your PIN number is backwards from the ATM card you placed in the machine. The machine will still give you the money you requested, but unknown to the robber, the police will be immediately dispatched to the location. [...].

Bananaz have checked with a banker friend whose answer is self explanatory.. "If you key-in your pin numbers wrongly for three times, your ATM card will be 'eaten' by the machine. So what is the difference if you key-in your pin number in reverse". Kindly check it out with snoopes.com as they have confirmed its FALSE in their title "PINned Hopes". The system was patented in 1998 but nothing came of it as it was not viable. Totally agree with this quote by Chuck Stones of the Kansas Bankers Association in 2004 ~ "I'm not sure anyone here could remember their PIN numbers backward with a gun to their head". Another alternative website for checking on hoax is truthorfiction.com.


On a brighter side let's relax, have some fun with this cute ATM machine. Credit goes to the original artist for the great sense of humor. Wonder any bank may wish to buy this brilliant idea to generate more transactions. Anyway guys.. dream on!! (If you have a challenge with the wordings pleaze press 'Ctrl' & '+').

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இ SàiWēng shī mǎ 塞翁失馬

Just one last single lonely sheet of calendar left hanging on the wall for Year 2011 with only a teeny weeny little block to be crossed out before we blast off Year 2012 when the clock strikes at midnight. Reflecting over the months, life on the overall is like a roller coaster ride with ups and downs constantly in a state of flux. Congratz to those who lived life to their fullest meeting your desired achievements and for some not faring too well please do not despair. Every cloud has a silver lining @ 天無絕人之路 tiān wú jué rén zhīlù. Ending 2011 with an idiom hopefully it may strike a chord.

 塞翁失馬;焉知非福 pinyin:*SàiWēng shī mǎ;  yān zhī fēi fú* Sài Wēng lost his horse, is it [mis]fortune? (Idiom)

There is this old man called SàiWēng 塞翁, staying at the border of the northern frontier of China, who raised horses for a living. Out of the unexpected his prized horse ran away into the nearby mountains. On hearing this bad news, the neighbours came to offer moral support to comfort him. He surprised them by not getting upset at all and said "Perhaps this may turn out to be a good thing". Sure enough a few days later his prized horse return with a wild stallion. Again news spread to the whole village with the neighbours congratulating him. This time SàiWēng replied "Perhaps this may not be such good luck after all" which puzzled the neighbours even more. The very next day his only son was eager to ride on the wild stallion. Unfortunately he was thrown off the horse, hurled a few feet into mid air. That bad landing cost him dearly who suffered a broken leg and restricted his mobility probably for months to recover. The friendly neighbours came again to console SàiWēng, who wisely responded "Perhaps this may turn out to be a good thing". Sure enough few weeks later a warlord came to town enlisting young able men for battle. A blessing in disguise for SàiWēng's son who was of no use to the army with an injured leg. Almost all the young soldiers who fought in the battle field walked the road of no return as chances of survival are slim.



Moral of the story: Life is full of changes and challenges. One has to learn to face and accept losses and not to over react to misfortunes and the same not to be overjoyed by gains or successes. Things happen for a reason.  It is not often we are as fit as a fiddle or facing shortfalls meeting our target. 人無千日好, 花無百日紅 *Pinyin: rén wú qiān rì hǎo, huā wú bǎi rì hóng* literally. people no 1000 days good (healthy), flowers no hundred days red. Which means humans do fall sick once in a while within 1000 days and flowers shall not bloom forever over hundred days. Good and bad times do not last long forever. Hope for the best and prepare for the worst ~:~ 明天會更好 @ ~:~ míngtiān huì gènghǎo:: tomorrow will be a better day.

Happy is the man who can endure the highest and lowest fortune. He who has endured such vicissitudes with equanimity has deprived misfortune of its power. ~ Seneca



Seizing this very moment to say THANK YOU to all my readers and for your invaluable and interesting comments. Wishing All A Blessed H:A:P:P:Y N:E:W Y:E:A:R 2012!!!
Orkut Graphics Scraps

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இ FELIZ NAVIDAD & HAPPY TWO JILO ONE TWO

Today is Christmas Day, it coincides with the first day of the Chinese 12th Lunar Month. In 7 days from now we shall be ushering in the New Year 2012 and in a month's time to welcome the 1st day of the 1st Lunar Month in the Year of the Dragon 龍 on 23 Jan 2012. It is the ideal time for giving and receiving with rejoice. Weeweechu a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year Two Jilo One Two!

O Holy Night ~ by Rhema Marvanne, an amazing 7 year old girl singer..whoa her sweet voice just blows me away.


O holy night!
The stars are brightly shining
It is the night
Of the dear Savior's birth!
Long lay the world in sin and error pining
Till He appeared and the soul felt His worth
A thrill of hope
The weary world rejoices
For yonder breaks
A new and glorious morn!
Fall on your knees
Oh hear the angel voices
Oh night divine
Oh night when Christ was born
Oh night divine, oh night, oh night divine

Chains shall He break
For the slave is our brother
And in His name all oppression shall cease
Sweet hymns of joy
In grateful chorus raise we
Let all within us praise His holy name
Christ is the Lord, let ever ever praise Thee
Noël, Noël
Oh night, Oh night divine
Noël, Noël
Oh night, Oh night divine
Noël, Noël
Oh, O holy night


Click on the 'snowflake' icon at the bottom right after you start to play the video for the snow flakes to gently fall accompanying this awesome song and cover your screen background of flurry snowflakes.

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இ Scared Die People 嚇死人

This early beautiful morning heard a 'thud' sound echoing through my window followed with a loud cry by Mango from the kitchen ~ ' 嚇死人' *xià sǐ rén* lit.'scared die people'. In English we do use this phrase "scared to death" its a matter of placing the words. Bear with me for a moment while Bananaz digress with why we are quite sure to say 'die' before an exclamation mark when faced with surprises? Most common, 'Die lah I forgot to turn off the air-con at home' or 'this time sure die one my husband is gonna fly off the handle for damaging his precious car'. Sounds familiar? WhyAskWhy? Sorry no answers this round! Maybe its good to figure it out why, open up our mind to reflect why we subconsciously utter this word 'die' in almost all negativities?

Thanks for your patience let's continue with that loud thud sound. Some fellas have fallen out of bed while jumping sky high guess that's bad parenting with no proper control. If its a human being, no language barrier for Bananaz but the problem is, its a bird. What kind of language to speak to the parents to get a king size bed or build a bigger nest and to tell them off, no jumping on the bed next time? How about 'Chirpy chirpy cheep cheep'?

Yes it was our 'uninvited' guest, this wild bird might have fallen from the nest built some years ago at our laundry area, crashed onto our washing machine, bounced over a couple of feet before landing on the floor. Dashed to the kitchen when Mango asked to kindly rescue that poor bird who was lying with wings all flat out, lucky its still moving. Oh Mamma Mia, on second glance its not only one but two birds locked in each other's wings telling live story of the birds and the bees. Told Mango we better not be cruel to interrupt a loving couple who fell from cloud 9 and now in heavenly kingdom but to grab the camera on the double.

Beak to beak cheek to cheek, they just ignore us like we are transparent..

One of them said "Don't leave any love marks on my neck" [the bird do pecks on the neck haha].

Two loving birds together as one



Both remain still for couple of minutes then got up and up up and away..

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இ Hair

Hairdressing business comes in all shapes and sizes. Just recently Merryn posted her son's first hair cut at 4 years old, sitting comfortably without any tussle while his locks of hair snipped by a hairdresser. They sure have their ways to appease kids to sit still with nice toy cars and pretty smiling faces as opposed to those boring bulky barber's chair those days. SeniorsAloud captured a pixz of a street barber in India operating with merely a chair and one giant size mirror under a tree and he is in business. Autumn Belle posted a recent entry of a barber in action who can handle an A-Z hair style. We have all kinds of barbers, One-man show barber, unisex hair salon with London trained hair stylists etc. Lately there is this franchise hair salon business offering quick haircut, mushrooming all over the country charging around RM13.00 - RM15.00 (ave U$4.60). Are you as fussy as Bananaz who just don't feel good over a bad haircut or you are OK with just any hair dresser will do as long as its to your convenience?

Many may not get to see or hear of this kind of activities and skills in a hair salon anymore in our modern era. Below is Peggy, my client and also my trusted hairdresser for the past decade. Timing was not on my side as there is no traditional 'ear picking' on that day sorry no pixz for that. What the heck is 'ear-picking'? Bananaz has never tried personally before but quite curious and tempted to have a go, but Peggy forewarned me that it could be addictive. MercuryNews.com, quoted a Vietnamese resident "It brings a lot of happiness". He also likened a good ear picking to good sex and fans of ear picking have gleefully talked about 'ear-gasms'. Whoa! Any takers?

source: chineseetymology.org

Peggy then showed me her set of ear pick instrument, traditionally made from bamboo as shown in the bottom pixz. Noticed the upper pixz of a lamp with the shade? That's for shining the light into the ear to scoop the earwax out of the ear canal. The cost for ear picking is RM14.00 (U$4.50) and the haircut is RM12.00 (US3.90) an extra RM1.00 more than my last previous Indian barber.

This hair salon is situated near China Town, Petaling Street, KL and the fate of their business is in the hands of the expansion of the LRT station, right now at a limbo as they are in one of those row of shop houses subject to be demolished. (tQ HappySurfer who added there is no demolishing but to be relocated temporary). An old salon open for men only, mostly senior citizens who are their loyal regulars of more than 2 decades with not much of walk-ins or new customers. Sad to say the occupation of these 6 hairdressers can be considered pretty dim. Firstly it takes time to transfer their skills to their next generation, moreover their young ones are not interested, not lucrative to them. Secondly as the diminishing of their loyal regulars who are either dying off one after another or too old with restrictive mobility going for a haircut dampens their revenue. Eventually this skills of ear picking would be lost and over time would completely die out and no longer in practice. According to Peggy, she is committed to carry on until she drops dead or not nimble with the scissors or her eyes are failing her, then to call it quits. 

'Down Puff ' source:Wikipedia

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