Thanks Panasonic for the free air conditioner!

Sometime back in April i bought a cheapo Panasonic air con for my house's guest room where my brother-in-law's family would be staying for a few months.

It was the most entry level model that anyone can find in the market. And if air cons were shoes, then this would be the Croc knock offs that is being sold in the pasar malam. Basically it just blows cold air out. No fancy ionizer, plasma cluster, allergy free, death rays, or what ever new technology is being put into an air con nowadays. I got it for RM 1050, including installation, which i was lead to believe was a good deal.



Anyway, few days later, while i was reading the newspaper, i saw that Panasonic is having a contest, which is giving a way 333 prizes every month, for 3 months. That's like 999 total prizes up for grabs!!!
So without waiting, i quickly went online to check for details of the contest.
Found my way to the Panasonic website to download the entry form and get a better understanding of how the contest works.



So basically the contest is pretty simple.
Each RM 300 you spent on any Panasonic product entitles you for 1 entry. So the RM 1050 i spent got me 3 entries.
Answer 2 very idiotically simple questions. And no slogans whatsoever (thank god!)
Complete the form, attach a photocopy of the receipt and the original copy of the warranty card and send it back by post.
Cross your fingers, count your lucky stars and get ready for a lucky draw.

Pretty simple right?

Each draw happens at the beginning of the month, eg. i purchased my air con in April, so i am entitled for the May lucky draw. And each month, 111 lucky person would win an air con, another 111 would win a refrigerator and the remaining 111 would win a washing machine (crap prize).

I mean how hard would that be right? After all, i got 3 entries. Eat dust to those who bought a measly rm 300 product hahahaha

But then later only i realized that at that time, Panasonic was having a lot of promotions, especially with the Viera plasma and LCD TV (i too was almost tempted to swipe my card for a cash and carry 32" LCD TV promotion)

Then it hit me that my measly 3 entries might not even win me anything. Sure, there are 999 prizes to be given away, but we could be talking about thousands of entries. Anyone who bought the plasma and LCD TVs would get no less than 9 entries alone! Thats 3 times higher chance than me.

Well, if it is mine, then it is mine.

Very quickly i forgot about the contest. I did remember checking the newspaper in the beginning of May for the result but didn't see any. In fact the May results came out sometime in mid June i believe. Talk about being slow!

Then one fine day, i got a call from Panasonic that i had won the air con in the 333 contest. She asked me to check the past few day's newspaper. At first i thought it was a prank. I mean, i need to see some proof before i get too happy for the wrong reasons.

Sure enough, when i checked back the newspaper at the date she mentioned, there it was, the results.



Wohoo!!! That's my name!



Ok, so now i have to wait for a letter from Panasonic, informing me which Panasonic dealer i should contact to collect my prize.

After a few weeks of endless waiting (surprisingly the more you expect of something, the longer the wait seemed), the letter finally arrived.



The dealer was the shop where i bought the cheapo air con from. I promptly called the dude up and demanded my well deserved prize inquired about the prize.

"Erm, your air con haven't come yet lah"

"So when can get?"

"Donno leh. When come lioa, i give you a call"


Well, that's what basically happened and after another few weeks of waiting, finally the dude called me to inform that the prize is in his shop. After doing some research, i tried to persuade him to trade the prize (1.75 hp inverter) to a non-inverter 2.0 hp, which should roughly be the same price tag. But no deal he said, since the prize came directly from Panasonic and he won't make a cent from this (apart from the RM300 commission for being the dealer of the contest winner)

So after haggling with the installation price (yeah, inverter uses different piping and is much more expensive to install and service, which is why i preferred a non-inverter version), I finally got it down to RM280 (non-inverter installation is around RM150) and asked him to come today.

Installation was a breeze (well, i would assume so. But heck, i wouldn't know since i was at work today but my dad did called me up saying they broke a few roof tiles which by the time i got home was already repaired but the question is where did he find some new tiles to replace the broken ones?)

And why the heck was the air con unit installed so high up? And whats with the ugly white cable concealer?

* Note to self: remember to paint it over.



Now still testing the air con performance.
For a 1.75 hp, the blower is quite strong and effective to cover the whole living room.

Though at first it took some time to cool down the whole area (area was not confined and the air escapes everywhere), but once it is in high gear, we found ourselves shivering under its strong cold currents. Don't play play ar.




Ah... Panasonic... you complete me. my living room.

Business trip to Senai, Johor

I just came back from Senai yesterday after a tiring week attending Baan training there.

Went over to Senai on Monday morning, taking the 7.30 am MAS flight, which means i took the taxi at 6.00 am, waking up at 5.00 am. Add that to the fact that i slept at around 12.30 am, that means i only got like 4.5 hours of sleep the night before.
So you can imagine how tiring it is to travel like this.

Once touchdown, it is straight to the office. And enduring another 8 hours of training (well, you know sometimes these can get pretty boring).

Once the Day 1 training is done, time to check out the hotel.
This time i stayed at the Puteri Pacific Hotel JB. Ahh, this hotel certainly brings back memories, as few years back, this was where i called my Second home.

It was called Pan Pacific back then, and i have stayed here collectively for more than 90 days throughout (probably even more, i lost count). Too bad they don't have any reward programme, otherwise i'll probably be a Gold/Platinum member by now.

And it is within walking distance to the City Square mall, so it was a good choice for me.



The comfortable bed. This will be my bed for the next 4 nights.

Just FYI, i slept on the left side of the bed (the opposite side of what is shown below).
No specific reason for choosing the sides, but just make sure the other side is piled up with stuff eg. clothes, bags when you sleep, to prevent ahem from getting too comfortable.



For dinner, my colleague and I went over to City Square and tried the Portuguese Chicken. At RM 11.90, it was a deal for half a chicken, but later we realized that the chicken was kinda small, and it was only so so in the taste department. But we saw a sizeable crowd there, so i guess we KL people have higher expectations on what we eat. (hahahaha)



After dinner, time to head back to the hotel and start working.
Yes, the perils of being on business trips. Seen it before, will again.

Sunrise the next morning.
Look at the dirty glass windows!



Another round of sunrise the next few days, greeting me in the morning to endure more boring trainings.



So does the sunsets, greeting me when i get back to continue working my ass off till wee hours into the night.




C'est la vie. What a wonderful life.

More kitchen renovation pictures

These were taking like 2 months back.

6 concrete support beams went up. Hope this will provide the required foundation. As i mentioned before, the backyard area is sinking and the developer did not do actual piling there, so we can see alot of the neighbours doing such extension having cracks there. It is only a matter of time before the whole thing rips off (well, maybe not so extreme lah), so i pray pray ours will be ok.



Once the beams have set, time to put up the brick walls.
Look left. Wall is up.



Look right. Wall is up too.



The opening for the windows.



Next up would be the ceiling and roof.

Score A Programme - E-Learning portal for kids

Score A Programme™

We Have Helped Thousands of Children Score- 'A's in UPSR & PMR...

We are The Top E-Learning Company in Malaysia...

We Bring Tuition To Your Home
24 Hours a Day, 365 Days in a Year.
Anytime ! Anywhere !

Score A Programme™ introduces your children to the world of IT (Internet Teaching).
Score A's inception in the OUTPUT Learning started in the year 1999 for students from Standard 1 - Form 3.
100% according to the syllabus of the Malaysian Ministry of Education.

Why Score A Programme (18 highlights) ?

1. Highly Interactive - Attracts students to have initiative to do more revision
2. Immediate Marks Given - Facilitates students to identity their mistakes without referring to the answers
3. Time Management - Students need to answer during the stipulated time given
4. eReport Card - Parents can monitor their child's educational progress anytime, anywhere!
5. SMS Report - Parents will be informed with regards to their childs' progress through real time SMS
6. Cross Referencing - If students do not understand, they can click on the eNotes and explanations will be given
7. Study Plan - Students can supervise their revision and study time-table from previous records
8. Number of Tries - Students can try a second and third time to get the correct asnwer
9. Motivational Quotes - Develop student's confidence with motivational quotes if they get the correct answers
10. e-Dictionary - Click to find out the meaning of words that they do not understand
11. Difficult Levels - Games Stimulation -Students need to achieve 80 marks in order to move to a high level
12. 'Hot' Questions - Direct from Smart Teachers. Not available from any bookstore
13. Current Standards - The contents are always up-dated to meet the current standards required
14. National Competition - Students nationwide can compete and also know their current placings
15. Annual Achievement Awards - Every year, 'Score A Scholar Night' recognizes and rewards top achievers
16. Output Learning - Examinations are output learning
17. Easily Accessible - Anytime, Anywhere . No need to carry stacks of books when traveling
18. Financial Rebate - Study for free! Just introduce Score A programme to 4 families

Syllabus Contents

The Score A Programme™ covers the 100% latest syllabus from Malaysia Ministry of Education. For every single change on the syllabus, it only takes 24 hours for the changes to be updated in Score A system.

Score A database as of now hold over 250,000 high quality questions in the question bank, and it will always be updated. We have all the expert teachers acknowledged by the Ministry to safe guards and maintain those questions. They are the question creators approved by the ‘Lembaga Peperiksaan Kebangsaan’.

Primary School (Standard 1-6)

1. Bahasa Malaysia
2. Bahasa Cina
3. Bahasa English
4. Science (SK & SJK(C))
5. Mathematics (SK & SJK(C))

Lower Secondary School (Form 1-3)

1. Bahasa Malaysia
2. English
3. Bahasa Cina
4. Geografi
5. Sejarah
6. Mathematics
7. Science
   

Form 4 & 5 - to be launched soon


The Company

Kenshido International Sdn Bhd
Wisma Kenshido, No 1-1, 1-2, 1-3,Jalan PJU 5/6, Dataran Sunway PJU 5,
47810 Kota Damansara, Petaling Jaya, Selangor Malaysia.
Tel: 603-6141 8286 (Hunting Line) Fax:603-6141 8126, 6141 8136
Website: http://www.kenshido.com / www.scorea.com
E-mail: enquiries@kenshido.com

Board of Directors

History

• Kenshido International Sdn. Bhd. started in 1999 (formally known as Edu-2u Portal Sdn. Bhd.).
• Pioneer E-Learning company in Malaysia.
• R&D for 3 years to develop the system with capital of RM4.5 million.
• In 2002, Score A programme™ was launched to 14 vision schools in Malaysia for free to test its effectiveness. The project was in coordination with and was supported by the Ministry of Education.
• The vision school trials went on for 3 years from 2002 to 2005, with an astonishing 93% of students using the Score A programme™ getting 5As in UPSR and 8As in PMR.
• Since then more schools have been introduced to the programme.
• In 3 March 2006, the Score A programme™ was officially launched by the then Menteri Pelajaran Malaysia Y.B. Dato’ Sri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein after the programme has proven its effectiveness on students.
• After gaining the recognition and support from the Ministry of Education, the Score A programme™ was launched to the public.

AJL License (931448) and Paid-up Capital (RM 5M)




The only E-Learning Portal endorsed by our Minister of Education
Y.B. Dato’ Sri Hishammuddin.



Support from National PIBG.




Media Report

Buletin TV3

Astro News


The Star


East Malaysia News


Utusan Malaysia


Tamil News



Testimonials

Appreciation and acknowledgment from schools




Students' testimonials

1. What is Score A Programme™?
   Score A Programme™ is a fully interactive and effective programme to help students Be Exam Ready And Score A’s™.
   
   
2. What is "Input Learning™"?
   "Input Learning™" is putting information into your "Neuron". Reading, studying, listening and memorizing are "Input Learning™". Many students only carry out "Input Learning™", that is why they get average marks. To score, you need "Output Learning™".
   
   
3. What is "Output Learning™"?
   Output learning™ teaches students on how to apply what they have studied in school through specially prepared assessments in the Score A Programme™ - The Ultimate Output Learning Tool™
   
   
4. Why do students need Score A Programme™?
   Score A Programme™ has been carefully designed to provide students with many features to help them prepare for their examinations. With Score A Programme™, students will be able to assess their level of understanding of all subjects or topics that they have been taught in school. Score A Programme™ also allows students unlimited practises to sharpen their examination skills, helps build their confidence, and encourages them to develop a Score-A attitude.
   
   
5. Why is eReport Card in Score A Programme™ important?
   eReport Card is a unique feature that gives parents unprecedented first hand knowledge of their children's academic performances. Parents will be well informed of their children's strong and weak subjects even before their children bring home their actual school report card. The eReport Card enables parents to monitor their children's progress at any time convenient to them. Parents then can render assistance, if and when necessary.
   
   
6. What are the levels and subjects covered by Score A Programme™?
   Score A Programme™ covers all subjects taught in National schools from Year 1 to Form 3. Score A Programme™ also includes all subjects taught in the National Chinese School The content of Score A Programme™ is in line with the school syllabus and curriculum set by the Ministry of Education, and covers all major government examinations - UPSR & PMR.
   
   
7. Will Score A Programme™ burden my children?
   No. Score A Programme™ is not a repetition of "Input Learning" and hence, will not burden your children.
   
   
8. Do my children still need Score A Programme™ although they are currently attending tuition classes?
   Yes, because tuition is another form of Input Learning. In fact, Score A Programme™ will complement the tuition classes attended by your children.
   
   
9. Why does Score A Programme™ focus only on objective-type questions?
   Because Score A Programme™ applies Output Learning techniques and test students on their level of understanding through multiple-choice questions.The mastering of multiple-choice questions will enable them to do well in the subjective questions.
   
   
10. Is Score A Programme™ affordable?
    Yes. Score A Programme™ is easily affordable. Score A Programme™ is very cost effective, and is value for money based on the following features:
    1. Score A Programme™ is priced on a “per family” basis, regardless of the number of school-going children.
    2. Score A Programme™ allows each user unlimited eAssessment and eTrial Exam practise at no extra charge. It is in line with the concept of “Practise Makes perfect”.
    3. Score A Programme™ allows each user access to various school levels.

Score A programme™ Unique Features




eTopic - Topical questions

eTopic is a revision module that allows students to do short regular exercises and provides instant Output Learning to assess a student's level of understanding of a particular topic taught in school. Students can select a particular topic taught in class that day and instantly find out if they have understood what they have learnt and review their understanding of that topic. Parents will be able to monitor their children’s academic progress and help them identify their children's strength and weaknesses so that timely measures can be taken to correct any shortcomings.

With eTopic, answers are corrected instantly to allow the student to learn from their mistakes. Each question allows the student four attempts to find the right answer. Each attempt that is incorrect will have 1/3 point deducted, and when the wrong answer is selected, the student will be informed instantly, thus "forcing" the student to re-read the question before his or her 2nd, 3rd or 4th attempt. This instills the habit of reading the question carefully and understanding it before attempting an answer.




eAssessment - General questions

eAssessment™ was carefully designed to allow your children do exercises as often as they want and provides instant Output Learning to assess your children's understanding of a particular subject taught in school. Your children can select a subject at any one time and instantly find out if they have understood what they have learnt and review their understanding of that subject. As parents, you will then be able to identify your child's strength and weaknesses so that timely measures can be taken to correct any shortcomings before the actual examinations.


The key objectives are:
1. To provide instant output learning.
2. To sharpen exam skills by allowing students unlimited practise.
3. To help students to answer correctly, 1st time, every time.
4. To establish the habit to read and understand questions before answering.

When a student is practising with eAssessment™, answers are corrected instantly to allow the student to learn from the their mistakes. Each question allows the student four attempts to find the right answer. Each attempt that is incorrect will have 1/3 point deducted, and when the wrong answer is selected, the student will be informed instantly, thus "forcing" the student to re-read the question before his or her 2nd, 3rd or 4th attempt. This instils the habit of reading the question carefully and understanding it before attempting an answer.




eTrial Exams

eTrial Exam™ module is designed to simulate actual exam environment for UPSR, PMR and SPM. It further enhance your children’s exam readiness. This module will help your children condition themselves to the pressure of completing the exam in a specific amount of time allocated according to Examination Board's Standards. eTrial Exam™ was designed like an actual exam and the student will have to submit it for correction or grading after they have completed it. The grading is instant. This module thus help and condition students to be confident, exam ready and score A’s.





ePast Year Exam

ePastYearExam allows students sitting for national examinations to practise on actual past years’ examination papers. These are actual UPSR, PMR and SPM examination papers set by the Ministry of Education and is made possible through our affiliationship with Cerdik Publications Sdn Bhd, who has been given the exclusive rights by the Ministry of Education to publish and distribute past years’ examination papers. Each exam paper is set exactly as the actual examination paper format and students have the options to select questions either by “year” or by “random” and have to complete all exercises within the time allocated. This exclusive and invaluable feature allows students countless examination practices thus helps and condition students to be exam ready and Score A's in the real examinations.




eProgress

eProgress is a monitoring chart that allows parents keep track of their children’s performances on eTopic. This feature is an effective monitoring tool that is designed to keep parents informed of their children’s work schedule, ensuring parents that their children eTopic exercises are done and completed accordingly. Parents would be updated on the number of attempts their children has done on each topic, thus specifically highlighting the “difficult topics” faced by their children. This information will help parents identify specific topics in a subject that their children have difficulties in, instead of generalising and categorising weaknesses by subjects.




eReport Card (Online and SMS)

eReport Card™ is A MUST HAVE feature for any concerned parents. It records all your children’s output learning sessions, be it eAssessment or eTrial Exam. This feature gives parents unprecedented 1st hand knowledge of their children’s strong and weak subjects. It records and displays your children’s average scores for each subject for that month. You can also check on previous months’ results to compare the difference.

Click on “More” & it will display the actual score of each output learning exercises. Furthermore, the eReport Card™ records the last 10 completed eAssessment™ or eTrial Exam™ to give you a review of their performances & identify weakness so that timely measures can be taken to correct whatever deficiency before the actual exam takes place.

The key objectives are:
1. Allow parents constant & timely monitoring of children's academic performances.
2. Evaluation of performances to render assistance, if & when necessary.

Trace and keep an eye on your children's studies and lesson movement. Without going through any third-party, parents are able directly encourage their children with this eReport Card™. Undoubtedly, this evaluation tool is priceless for those who want to score straight A's.





eNotes

eNotes are brief notes but compact especially prepared for use for all subjects in the Score A Programme™. eNotes is specially suitable for students wishing to do revision on any subject before practicing. It is prepared topically. Therefore, students are encouraged to go over the eNotes before answering questions in eTopic.

So that, students will be better prepared when they start to do exercises or answer questions in the eTopic specifically when looking for the correct answers.

eDictionary

To further help student better understand questions in English, we provide an eDictionary to help define or explain the meaning of any words in question. At the same time, this will help students learn English while preparing for exams.




Nationwide Honour Roll

Through this Nationwide Honors Roll, students from all around Malaysia (and abroad) competes among each others to achieve the highest ranking. This encourages more practices and ensures better understanding in the subject.

For more information about Score A Programme™, please visit : http://www.scorea.com/

For online demo Score A Programme™, click on


Demo ID: 82828

Score A Programme™ – 24 hours per day, 365 days per year, anytime, anywhere !



How much does this cost?

Single Starter Package
Each Portal will cost you RM298.00

• Package of 1 parent account and 1 student account per portal
• Consist of Activation Code: RM50.00 and Top Up Code: RM248.00
• (RM248 + RM 50 = RM298)
• 1 portal for one parent only
• Additional fees of RM50.00 for additional student account
• For usage of 3 month

Starter Package
Each Portal will cost you RM596.00

• Package of 1 parent account and 2 student accounts per portal
• Consist of Activation Code: RM50.00 and Top Up Code: RM248.00
• (RM248 + RM 50 = RM298 x 2 = RM596)
• 1 portal for one parent only
• Additional fees of RM50.00 for additional student account
• For usage of 6 month

Top Up Charge

• RM248.00 for 3 month usage (irregardless of number of children)
  

Overview

No. of kids	Pay (RM)	Consist Of		Duration	Monthly Average per kid
		Activation	Top up
1	298	1 x RM50	1 x RM248	3 Months	RM99.33
2	596	2 x RM50	2 x RM248	6 Months	RM49.66
3	596+50	3 x RM50	2 x RM248	6 Months	RM35.88
4	596+100	4 x RM50	2 x RM248	6 Months	RM29.00
5	596+150	5 x RM50	2 x RM248	6 Months	RM24.86

• Activation fee RM50 is only paid once for life per kid to register for his/her account.
• The RM248 top up can be used for all kids in one family, thus more kids will enjoy much cheaper rate.
• All registered students are entitled for all subjects according to Ministry of Education syllabus applicable to their school level.
• Eg. for 2 kids package, it only costs RM1.65 per day for each kid! Divide that by the multiple subjects, it costs a few cents per subject. Topping up the next 3 months will be even cheaper. Now that's a cheap and affordable investment for your children's future.
  

If you have any questions about the Score A programme™, please drop me an email at calvaryzone@gmail.com or leave a comment here and i will try to provide you the answers.

If you are interested to purchase the Starter package, please let me know.
Or if you know someone who could benefit from this programme, please kindly direct him/her to this site :)

Life without blogging - I am back

Wah, been almost 1 month + since i had my last post. Sorry for the long hiatus.

Too many things going on that i have to take a break from blogging. I needed the extra time to organize and prioritize my life back again. :)

Short post this time, just to let you know that i am still alive.
Summary of what went on during this period of time.

1. Went for a quick business trip to Zhuhai. Just 3 days with no weekends. Rushed like hell to get back. And a shit load of work waiting for me with open arms. Its a wonder how some people get to go to business trips for relaxation, while i am totally the opposite. I go there to work like crazy for the project during office hours. Go back to hotel to work like crazy for my other projects. Quickly get the hell out of there by catching the next available flight back. Only to realize that once i am back i still need to follow up and support the project. And did i mentioned my other projects as well. Die die must do.
   
2. My kitchen renovation is still not moving as quickly as i hoped due to most resources taken up by my brother-in-law's house renovation. We have the same contractor, and since his house is more urgent, his house gets priority (yeah, now i know how second class citizens feel). But it is moving back on track in the last few days and considering how a (and i quote my contractor's own words) "simple 3 weeks job" had dragged on for over 2 months lioa, i have to pray hard hard for this to be over with cos now we can't use the kitchen at all, meaning cannot boil water and wash clothes and dishes.
3. Painted the feature wall of one of the rooms with lots of help from my dad. It is not easy ok. Bought 9 cans of 1 litre paint for 6 more walls to go. Damaged? approx RM 270. Slogging for the next few weekends to get them painted. Priceless.