October 2007 – CHATROOM
October 1, 2007BULLETIN
ANNOUNCEMENT
For any hunt kaki that have difficulty forming a team for TOS Assunta Hunt and TOS Sun Hunt, please contact lohcheekwan@gmail.com.
ckloh might able to arrange something for either hunt, no guarantee though, anyway, no harms getting to know new friends.
PRIZE-WARE AVAILABLE
Item 1 – PHILIPS 21″ COLOR TV Model : 21PT2325
From: ce5nt
Email Contact: ce5nt@yahoo.com
Expiry Date (if any): Warranty – Not registered Yet
Further descriptions: Still inside box – not unpacked.
Barter trade (Y/N): Y
Sale (Y/N): Y
Asking Price/Barter Value : RM350 o.n.o.
Others : None
Delivery : Not including delivery. Ex-Subang Jaya.
COMING HUNTS
1. Deepavali Hunt 2007 Tamil Foundation Malaysia (Tamil Translation)
Date: 6th October, 2007 – 7th October, 2007 (Sat-Sun)
Clerk of course: Pava
Hunt course: KL – Malacca
Entry Fees: RM 590 (4 pax), RM 480 (3 pax), RM 100 per pax (non-staying)
Prizes: RM 2K, RM 1.5K, RM 1K
More info:
http://www.tamilfoundation.org/deepavali_hunt.htm
2. Time Out Hunt Hokkaido (JAPAN)
Date: 9th October, 2007 – 13th October, 2007 (Tue-Sat)
Clerk of course: TOS
Hunt course: Hokkaido
Entry Fees: RM 3,399 per pax (4 persons package)
Prizes: Free Hokkaido Hunt trip next year
More info:
http://www.hunthokkaido.com/
3. Mensa Penang Eye-Q Treasure Hunt
Date: 28th October, 2007 (Sun)
Clerk of course: Road Runners
Hunt course: Penang Island
Entry Fees: RM 240 per team
Prizes: RM 1K, RM 0.8K, RM 0.5K
More info:
http://michaelpang.com.my/home/blog.php?blog_id=190&category_id=&start=0&arcyear=&arcmonth=&curyear=&curmonth=&curday=
4. Assunta Alumni Summer Hunt 2007
Date: 28th October, 2007 (Sun)
Clerk of course: TOS
Hunt course: Klang Valley
Entry Fees: RM 300 per team
Prizes: RM 5K, RM 3K, RM 2K
More info:
http://www.timeoutsolutions.com/index.php?option=com_extcalendar&Itemid=51&extmode=view&extid=36&PHPSESSID=c16f09a1f0bd53513c2566d00ae54927
5. The Sun Motor Hunt 2007!!
Date: 3rd November, 2007 (Sat)
Clerk of course: TOS
Hunt course: Klang Valley
Entry Fees: RM 370 per team
Prizes: RM 175,000 worth of prizes to be given away
More info:
http://www.timeoutsolutions.com/index.php?option=com_extcalendar&Itemid=51&extmode=view&extid=34
6. Kembara Bernama 2007
Date: 3rd November, 2007 – 4th November, 2007 (Sat-Sun)
Clerk of course: Govind Nair
Hunt course: KL – Awana Kijal
Entry Fees: RM150 per pax
Prizes: Not Available
More info:
http://www.michaelpang.com.my/sitebcx/_files/File/RulesnRegulations.doc
7. OGA Treasure Hunt 2007
Date: 4th November, 2007 (Sun)
Clerk of course: Pava
Hunt course: Seremban
Entry Fees: RM 200 (2 person), RM 270 (3 person), RM 320 (4 person)
Prizes: Total prizes worth RM 6k for Open and Closed category
More info:
http://www.geocities.com/machunter_koo/calendar.html
Date: 10th November, 2007 (Sat)
Clerk of course: Razif
Hunt course: Klang Valley
Entry Fees: Not Available
Prizes: Not Available
More info:
http://www.michaelpang.com.my/sitebcx/_files/File/MARITIME%20HUNT%202007%20-%20Briefing%20Notes.doc
9. TDWCCKL-EQ Taman Desa Fun Hunt
Date: 10th November, 2007 (Sat)
Clerk of course: Trailblazers
Hunt course: Klang Valley (Taman Desa)
Entry Fees: RM 150 per team
Prizes: Not Available
More info:
http://michaelpang.com.my/home/blog.php?blog_id=183&category_id=&start=0&arcyear=&arcmonth=&curyear=&curmonth=&curday=
10. Cyberjaya Amazing Challenge
Date: 10th November, 2007 (Sat)
Clerk of course: Engage! Event Management (Richard Si)
Hunt course: Cyberjaya
Entry Fees: RM 55 per pax
Prizes: RM 2.5K, RM1.5K, RM 0.8K
More info:
http://www.geocities.com/machunter_koo/calendar.html
11. MAH Treasure Hunt 2007
Date: 17th November, 2007 – 18th November, 2007 (Sat-Sun)
Clerk of course: TAB
Hunt course: KL – Ma;acca
Entry Fees: RM 550 per team
Prizes: RM 2K, RM 1.5K, RM 1k
More info:
http://www.geocities.com/machunter_koo/calendar.html
12. Temple Building Fund Hunt
Date: 18th November, 2007 (Sun)
Clerk of course: Take 5 (VK Chong)
Hunt course: Klang Valley
Entry Fees: RM 320 per team
Prizes: RM 4k, RM 2k, RM 1k
More info:
http://www.michaelpang.com.my/sitebcx/_files/File/view.pdf
13. Lebaran Challenge (Novice Hunt)
Date: 18th November, 2007 (Sun)
Clerk of course: Fun Hunt People (Zahrol)
Hunt course: Klang Valley
Entry Fees: RM 70 per pax
Prizes: RM 1K, RM 0.8K, RM 0.5K
More info:
http://www.geocities.com/zahrolk/Lebaran_Entry_Form.doc
14. Seri Costa Treasure Hunt
Date: 24th November, 2007 – 25th November, 2007 (Sat-Sun)
Clerk of course: TOS
Hunt course: KL – Ma;acca
Entry Fees: RM 140 per pax
Prizes: Not Available
More info:
http://www.timeoutsolutions.com/index.php?option=com_extcalendar&Itemid=51&extmode=view&extid=39
15. Kembara Ansara 2007
Date: 25th November, 2007 (Sun)
Clerk of course: Fun Hunt People (Zahrol)
Hunt course: Klang Valley
Entry Fees: Not available
Prizes: Not available
More info:
http://www.geocities.com/zahrolk/FHP_calendar.html
16. Beautiful Gate Hunt
Date: 1st December, 2007 (Sat)
Clerk of course: Michael Pang
Hunt course: Klang Valley
Entry Fees: Not Available
Prizes: Not Available
More info:
http://michaelpang.com.my/home/blog.php?blog_id=183&category_id=&start=0&arcyear=&arcmonth=&curyear=&curmonth=&curday=
Riddle Raiders 
ce5nt & renroc,
Congratulations to both on Deepavali Hunt.
Please share with us the experience of Deepavali Hunt. Is there any disadvantage for the non-Tamil speaking hunters, as it is bilingual clues, Tamil and English?
Wouldn’t know for sure whether there were any Tamil clues, but from Pava’s comments, it seemed that the Tamil version did not provide any clues – merely a translation of the English version. The only disadvantage was the Tamil/Indian-based knowledge eg.
billionaire, singer, river, city etc. though with
mobile phone/internet, this wasn’t that much of a disadvantage.
The 8-pt difference does not reflect the true picture – HuntersRus were just unfortunate that they
could not purchase one of the ‘picture treasures’ (8 pts each).
How so, renroc? What d’you mean by “could not purchase on of the picture treasures”? You mean ran out of stock?
Oh by the way, I find it very amusing that the top 2 places of a Deepavali hunt were won by (entirely) Chinese hunters! Just what will it take to beat you freak hunters!?
By the way, isn’t amazing that there’re not less than 10 hunts in November? Total madness! So many hunts to choose from… probably these are reasons enough to attract new CoCs?
Heard that it was out of stock in the Brickfields area
where all the 5 treasures (partial photographs were the ‘clues’) were available.
Unfortunately for the organisers (but fortunately for me – my first podium finish in 2007), Ramesh could not make it.
Another new hunt in Nov, Oga Hunt in Seremban on Nov 4th by Pava.
“A small step for me but definitely a great leap for the Malaysian people.”
— Dr Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor, first Malaysian Angkasawan.
Each year, several local local university students would spend a few weeks in my firm on “practical training”. They’re mostly in their final year of the U. And each year I’d be disappointed anew. Whenever there is a need to produce a report, they’d struggle to complete a page of A4 double-spaced write-up. Not that the end result would be anything close to an average standard.
I discussed this problem with one of their professors who visited us to get some feedback. Of course nothing has been done since then. Our culture is like that, you see. From early school days, we are accustomed to the multiple-choice questions in exams. In the universities, assignments are often about “cutting and pasting” from other sources. Our brains are not trained to come up with something original.
Like I said, it is in our culture. The Malaysian Idol; Who Wants to be a Millionaire; Roda Impian; Record Books, are some examples on how we COPY from others — with some modifications, of course. But in all fairness, perhaps Malaysia did come up with something original too; though I suspect when compared to the ones that we copied from others, those original ones are negligible.
Thanks, doc, for representing Malaysia in this historic breakthrough. I sincerely think this is a significant start for us all. Nevermind about the forthcoming datukship when you come home. I hope this trip is more about finding a cure for cancer; rather than about fasting in space. Above all of those, I would have been happier if you had come up with a more original parting words, instead of copying from Neil Armstrong when he landed on the moon decades ago (with some modifiction, of course). I suppose it is not easy to betray the true identity of being a Malaysian…
And so, more hunters have found their way into the TOS masters list. Perhaps a slight relief for those so-called “novice” hunters, some of whom are quite strong actually! Now it all depends on how long these “strong novice” hunters can lie low so that they won’t be detected by the TOS radar too soon?
Well, folks, I have just received an email from a friend; I am pleasantly surprised that my blabbering in this blog all this while didn’t go unnoticed. In fact, I was told that my posts have been interesting!
This friend has encouraged me to start my own blog so that I can blabber some more. Well, provided that I have the brains to figure out how/where to start… hehehe. Maybe I will really sit down and try harder to figure out how to start a blog during this long Raya holidays…
And then there is also that fear of not knowing what to write about. But then again, I suppose there are so many topics of interest out there…
Just the other day, we had a speaker during one of our Rotary Club meetings. Did you know that the good doctor Dobson has made inroads into Malaysia with his “FOCUS ON THE FAMILY”? No, this was not about all those commentaries one gets to hear while shopping in the Giant Supermarket. The speaker was telling us Rotarians about their programs focusing on secondary students.
What are their goals? Well, they actually go around educating these students — especially girls — on the many negative effects of pre-marital sex! At the end of the lecture sessions, they’d pass out “pledge cards” to those girls. They’re supposed to “pledge” to preserve their virginity until they’re married. Yes, we do have such programmes in Malaysia, folks!
I can’t decide whether to be impressed or surprised, but apparently 94% (or was it 96%?) of those girls actually pledged to preserve virginity!
At the end of that talk, some Rotarians raised some interesting questions. But when it was my turn, I asked the speaker if there’s any use of those “pledges” from the girls? I mean — I’m not trying to be negative-thinking here — Britney Spears also pledged to preserve virginity until she’s married? Well, apparently not if Mr Timberlake had anything to say about it?
Those girls can fill up as many pledge cards as they like, but whether that means anything as far as preventing them from indulging in pre-marital sex remains to be seen!
As for me, I’m safe for the moment. My JJ is only about 5 years old now. Maybe in a few more years from now — and time flies, folks! — I’ll start looking into those “pledge cards” seriously…
Oh by the way, to the muslims, I wish you all SELAMAT HARI RAYA AIDIL FITRI — MAAF ZAHIR DAN BATIN.
Oh yes, when talking about Britney Spears, I forgot to say that I had a friend who idolized Britney. This was years ago. I asked him why? He said because Britney represented the perfect type of girl — beautiful, rich, intelligent and PURE. In fact, he was the one who told me about Britney’s “pledge”.
Well, our conversation somehow wondered quite far that day and we ended up making a comparison with Madonna. For those of you who don’t know who’s Madonna, she is the one who didn’t “pledge” to remain a virgin — she was only LIKE a virgin, but not really one.
I haven’t been in contact with my friend since. I wonder whether he is still in love with Britney NOW. I thought her marriage which lasted an amazing 55 hours was something hard to outdo. I hope my friend, Wong, doesn’t feel too disappointed in Britney…
But of course Britney pales in comparison to Michael Jackson. He went shopping in an Arab state disguised as a woman. He dressed up his sons in spiderman suits when they went shopping, in order to protect them from the photographers, you see. Of course he has a perfect explanation for it — he wanted his sons to have a NORMAL life. Maybe it’s me, but I don’t consider going around in spiderman suit as being normal…
Oh I just realised that the hunt to Hokkaido is already over. Did any of the RR members or regular commentators here go for it? Care to share the experience with us? I’m sure it must be very interesting — apart from expensive?
I heard that the RR team got toasted in yesterday’s hunt, huh? I mean LITERALLY got toasted! Not surprising, considering the very strong field. All those grandmasters! Decent placing though — No 9. Congratulations!
So just out of curiosity, what’s the value of the toaster that you won?
THE GRAPES WERE SOUR!
More like that for everyone except the winning team.
Our team was quite close to winning it – if we had guessed that there were 1 or 2 more bundles of 18’s – we would be one looking at the other “sour” faces instead of being one of them!
I can imagine the pain of losing the big bucks because of a bunch of grapes. Based on Mike’s comment, even perfect score for the questions was not good enough.
But at least Mike’s team won some expensive cosmetics stuff, so I guess the for the next year or so, they’ll be hunting with pretty faces!
Now, just to move things a bit…
3 friends went for makan in a restaurant. They agreed to split the bill equally. In the end, the bill showed an amount of RM25 due. All 3 of them had no small change; so each gave RM10.
The waiter came back shortly after with the change, i.e. 5 x RM1 = RM5. Each of them took back RM1; and left RM2 at tip for the waiter.
How much did EACH person spend for the makan?
Oops! I didn’t really expect someone like renroc would actually try the above question. And he answered it so effortlessly. OK, let me give something a bit more decent this time (claire is disqualified — she’s been asked):
A kind of leaf that grows in the pond can double within every 24 hours. One becomes two; then 2 becomes 4; 4 becomes 8 EVERY 24 hours.
Now we put ONE leaf into a pond. It takes 40 days for this single leaf to multiply and cover the entire surface of the pond.
OK, fine. We take away all the leaves, and then start again. But this time we start with TWO leaves. How long does it take to cover the entire surface of the pond?
And yet another:
10 identical boxes are numbered from 1 to 10. In each box there are 10 gold chains; and each chain weighs 100 grams. Therefore, the contents of each box is 1kg.
But now you’ve been told that the gold chains in one of those 10 boxes are only 99 grams each, meaning a total of 990 grams.
You are provided with a sensitive scale, but you are only allowed to weigh ONCE — only ONE reading allowed. Ignoring the weight of the boxes (they’re all identical anyway), tell me how are you to know which box is the one with 990 grams of gold chains?
Anyone answered your latest 2 riddles yet ckoh?
Yes, my dear claire. My loyal customer, renroc did. And again he did so perfectly! My questions must be getting quite dull these days… hehehe.
The following ‘puzzle’ was given by an external trainer/consultant to about 20 of my colleagues many years ago.
About half of them gave the ‘officially correct’ answer (which I disagree with), 4 gave ‘what I consider to be the correct answer’, while the rest gave other answers.
A couple of years or so later, I attended some training session where an internal trainer repeated the puzzle and gave the same official answer. I disagreed vehemently, and was told that the answer depended on one’s point of view.
A long build-up to justify a ‘ridiculous Q’ :
A farmer bought a cow for $60.
He then sold it for $70.
Regretting the sale, he repurchased the cow for $80.
He finally sold it again for $90.
What was his profit ?
Looks straightforward to me. Just to be sure, you are asking for the PROFIT — meaning in $, not necessarily in %, right? I ask this question because of that “depended on one’s point of view”. The “point of view” thing is almost always something to do with percentages, although I don’t really see how it should be a problem in this case?
Well, folks, tomorrow is THE day — theSun Hunt! I suppose some of you won’t be sleeping tonight because of the excitement, huh? RM175,000 at stake, this must be the highlight of treasure hunt of 2007. Well, apart from the STFOGA which was famous for all the wrong reasons.
Browsed through the participants’ list — especially the grandmasters. Keeping an eye open for the famous “Machine”, but I can’t find them on the list. Can anyone tell me what’s happened to them? Surely no serious hunter would want to miss a hunt such as this?
By the way, to all of you, good luck and may the best team win (and belanja me makan when I am there next)!
Oh! I feel like an idiot. Someone was kind enough to tell me that the “Machine” is a.k.a “Cryptically Challenged”. Please forgive my igorance! OK, now THAT is more like it. Let the game begin!
How depressing…
I attempted that “cow business” question above by renroc shortly after he posted it. I thought it was so straightforward. I saw no trick in the question. And when I submitted my answer to renroc, indeed it was THAT straightforward after all.
But renroc explained how the question could become tricky. He told me to try it on others. So this morning, during our Monday “brain-storming” meeting, I posed the question to my staff.
There were 12 of them in the meeting. As usual, most of them refrained from answering — they chose to be spoon-fed with the answer. The few who did try gave the wrong answer, in fact the “official” — but wrong — answer intended by the setter, just like what renroc said!
Hey ckloh, go check out Julie’s blog under “The Sun Hunt”.
http://julieths.blogspot.com/2007/11/sun-motor-hunt-2007.html
Try the question I posted in the comments. Apparently claire is still working on it. Just wondering if you can beat her to it… hehehe… quick!!