Miri-Sibu Highway by 2015?

Miri will have a "highway" by 2015. The stretch of road is about 400 kilometers long, and runs from Miri through to Bintulu and Sibu. Yes, after having nearly lost in their stupid election, having won only by really late-night recounts, a zombie invasion and some lights-out sleigh-of-hand of the results they finally got off their butts to do something about the roadways in Sarawak.

According to our Works Minister, "based on the (Barisan Nasional's 13th General Election) manifesto that we will do it in five years, so we will implement it (the upgrading works) in stages."

I know which stage THAT is. It's the panicky adrenaline-pumped-wake-up-call in-fear-of-being-fired stage.

Should've done that eons ago.

But, of interest here, what's a "Highway"?

When I was at school, I recall during our SPM exams there is an oral exam where you are interviewed with examiners from West Malaysia who asked various questions. My recollection is fuzzy, so I don't remember what was the question, but the subject that came up was roads.

I inadvertently answered that Miri has a "highway". The examiners laughed, saying that Miri doesn't have a "highway".

Because we all think "highways" are quadruple-lane car packed roadways that look like this:

But, if you do a search on Bing, or Google, or Yahoo or whatever, you can also get this picture below, which is still labeled "open desert highway":

You see, even in my childhood, watching the TV series "The HighwayMan" involves the guy driving his truck on open, dusty two-way single-lane roads in the middle of no where that look like that. And the series is called "The HIGHWAYMan", not "The Two-Way-Single-Lane-Crappy-Road Man".

Screencap from The "Highwayman"

That, my friends, can be a highway. Miri has plenty of those. The West Malaysian examiners who laughed at my statement are the ones who don't have a clue.

From the news  : http://www.sun2surf.com/news/756279

Oh Look, No Power Outage

Well it looks like there is no power disruption at all. So it's really only affecting Bintulu area.


We hope.

 

It's Ultraman's fault. I know it is. That's for having a beeping light on your chest Ultraman. And don't try to fend off the attack Ultraman, come on we're way faster and better at this than you are.

Power Disruption Tomorrow Sunday 9am - 5pm?

Circulating around Facebook is a picture of a notice that had been issued by Sarawak Energy that Bintulu will have power disruptions from 9am till 5pm and in that timeframe they will rename the company to Sarawak Non-Energy.

While the notice is for Bintulu only, it might affect Miri as well, since, you know, we just rely on The One Link to power everything.

But who knows. We'll see. So if tomorrow you have big plans that involve Electricity, then you'd better store them up in many, many PowerBanks for your iPads and phones and whatever electrical devices you need it for.

Oh, and you'll need to eat everything in your fridge before then as well to prevent food from spoiling. Or use even more PowerBanks to keep the fridge running.

No need candles, as because it'd be a daytime outage. But stock some, in case they screw up right into dusk and cause a zombie outbreak of some sort. We listed some tips on how to prevent Fire from escaping candles and burning everything into the ground here.

Don't think you're off the hook, Ultraman, we still blame you. Because we're awesome at blaming everyone else.

Let's All Blame Ultraman for the Power Disruption

3 Houses Set Ablaze by Candles in Miri

There's a running joke that during the blackout last night, someone might set fire to their houses because Modern Man has long forgotten how to control Fire. Needless to say, that became fact, when three houses went up in smoke, apparently cause by candles during the power outtage.

No casualties were reported.


According to our favorite news source Borneo Post, the Fire and Rescue Department dispatched three engines to the scene (one for each house, maybe) and the firefighters managed to bring the blaze under control within an hour.

Parts of the city got its power back at 9pm, and I only got mine back after 11pm. The fire victims didn't get anything back.

- Would an Apology compensate for this blaze?

Here's some tips for using candles, courtesy of moi:

• Firecrackers are not candles. They look the same; don't be fooled. The same goes for sticks of dynamite. No.
• When Fire is on candle, don't touch the Fire. Fire is Hot. Hot is bad.
• Don't put candle near flamable objects, such as paper, dried leaves, wood, gunpowder, TNT, dynamite, petrol or diesel.
• Put out the flames when you're not doing whatever is needed with Light from Fire. If you don't, Fire will creep away from you when you're not looking and start consuming everything and transform into Massive Destructive Fire. By then, you're screwed.

These are not candles

Read more: http://www.theborneopost.com/2013/06/28/cost-of-candles-three-houses

Sarawak (Non)Energy Apologizes to Sarawakians

Sarawak Energy Berhad (temporarily renamed to Sarawak Non-Energy Berhad on the evening of June 27th) CEO apologizes to all Sarawakians due to the state-wide blackout fiasco. Here is his apology letter which I found on - yeah, Borneo Post again (seriously I need to get my sources from better news sites.)

"Dear Sarawak Energy Customers throughout the State of Sarawak,
Our full team is still working on recovery throughout the State, but we have experienced some unexpected problems to recover the State Power System.
Firstly, the incident started at 17.36 hrs on Thursday (27 June) with a very serious frequency drop in our system that led to a total system failure. The reasons are still not fully known, but with the facts retrievable as of now, looks like the frequency drop may have originated from the Bakun Hydroelectric plant. The system tripping led to a total failure of our system and all our power stations were down, Sejingkat in Kuching, Batang Ai, Mukah coal plant, as well as Bintulu and Miri gas plants."

  Oh, so it was caused by our proud Bakun dam. Damn.

"We have on our side, over the first couple of hours after the system tripped, restored all SEB transmission systems, We are in the process of restoring all of the power plants, but unfortunately we are only able to get power from 2 of the 4 Bakun units after 22.00 hrs.
The system is still very unstable due to the huge impact, but I have at present, a strong team at Menara Sarawak Energy of 30 over of our best people to oversee and restore the system step-by-step, and we have mobilized hundreds of our staff around Sarawak at power stations and substations to support and monitor the recovery of our system.
I personally want to send a strong message on behalf of Sarawak Energy that we are truly sorry for all the inconvenience and losses this incident have created and I can assure you we will not rest until we have good control on the system. We will also ensure a proper investigation is done with third party input to maximize the learning SEB can get from this very serious incident."

 "Good control over the system?" It's happened before, you know, just a few hours after the Bakun dam started operations. That was in 2010.  Plenty of time to have "good control over the system",  you think?

"I have been following the situation closely and this message is written with all the knowledge we have at present moment.
In closing, I sincerely apologize for those who have suffered from the black out and I can assure you we will do our best to normalize the situation by Friday (28 June) morning."

  
I just lost an eletronic equipment due to this. And several people have overloaded computers and equipment due to that on and off again 3 second power surge. Yeah, an Apology will compensate that one right? Which country does the currency Apology belong to? What's the value of an Apology? RM200?

Read more: http://www.theborneopost.com/2013/06/28/sarawak-energy-apologises-to-sarawakians

BLACKOUT!

Yeah, it's not even dark outside and it's already called a blackout. At around 5.30 the whole of Sarawak has gone back into the stone age, with everyone scrambling to buy candles because everyone was too reliant on electricity for light. When it got dark, candle use is widespread. Happy birthday, everyone! Candles! Where's the cake? Oh sorry that melted when the fridge stopped working.

Apparently, this electrical outtage was state-wide. From Kuching all the way to Miri.

Intersections were jammed, because they don't use backup electricity, and also apparently some drivers blacked out as well.

It wasn't until late night at around 11pm we got current back.

The outtage is caused by a tripped circuit caused by overloading at the Kemena-Bintulu sub-station. Apparently, we totally rely on just the one link to keep the whole of Sarawak powered. No secondary backups, it's because we're so awesome. Who needs backups and contingency plans anyway..

Nice planning guys, good job everyone! *claps sarcastically*

Read more at the Borneo Post again: http://www.theborneopost.com/2013/06/28/outrage-over-massive-outage

Recent Shootings Inspire Copycat Shootings?

It seems that Mirians have no originality. One does something and the other just copies. Like the suicides a few years ago. And now this.

Apparently in Taman Tunku people have started to randomly shoot things. With marbles, of all things. A sundry shop gets shot, with the 'bullet' penetrating the glass window (see pic). No one was nearby.

However, according to that shopkeeper, at a nearby market, a similar incident happened "a few days ago" and a female trader was hit by said "bullet". Yet another two incidents of the recent "shooting" was at a coffee shop where a patron was "shot at" and bent over in pain, and a customer buying some pork was shot at as well. (Why wasn't I aware of these "shootings"??)

This should be huge news by now and nobody I know was talking about it, like the murder attempt at Center Point, where everyone knows about it almost immediately).

Read more: http://www.theborneopost.com/2013/06/23/trigger-happy-incidents-scaring-away-shoppers/#ixzz2X65wLkoA

Schoolgirl Fights Snatch Thieves; Snatch Thieves Lose

You go, girl!

So, it was a nice sunny day, well except for the haze, and except there is no sun, and it wasn't really that nice. A schoolgirl named Then was walking along going to school when, suddenly, she spots one of her schoolmate in trouble! Sensing something amiss, when she saw that the two guys were clutching her uniform, and probably brandishing knives at her, she immediately went to help.

Oh, did I mention that she is a black belt in Taekwando?

What transpired wasn't clear, but we can imagine it something like an indian action movie;

She ran up to the two bad guys, who were trying to scare off her with a knife, but in slow motion, she dodges the bad guys and proceeded to flying kick one of them straight into the drain. That guy must be regretting his existence right there and then.

As Borneo Post put it, "The other man aimed a punch at Then but her six years of training in the Korean martial art taught her to duck."

Wait- it takes six years to learn how to duck?  Oh Borneo Post, we love your funny English.

In following the Indian action movie theme, maybe when they were on the motorcycle when she kicked and the motorcycle flew tumbling 360° 30 feet into the air, and explode on contact with the ground.

Which is how I would write the story.  But too bad that didn't happen - the two fled on their motorcycle.


Naturally, a police report on the incident has been lodged. But what good does that do? It's after the fact. It would've been a better story if the police had already caught them already. Police, you're just not very good. Unlike Taekwando Black Belt Girl Then here, who should be receiving Noble Peace Prize of some sort.

Read more: http://www.theborneopost.com/2013/06/21/schoolgirl-taekwondo-exponent-sends-snatch-thieves-fleeing

Pirates of the Miri Port

PIRATES!


But too bad it's not Johnny Depp.

Did someone call me?

Wielding masks and machetes, they boarded a ship off Miri port at about 8pm and slashed three members of the ship. The injured were the chief, captain and one crew member - the rest where unhurt.

The incident took place not long after the ship left for Bintulu after unloading oil at Miri Port.The crew were tied up and locked them in a cabin before fleeing with their mobile phones and some cash. A police report had been lodged.

Read more: http://www.theborneopost.com/2013/06/19/pirates-attack-ship-near-miri/

Murder Attempt Gun Shooting in Miri

The third shooting in 2 years, a local businessman was targeted for murder in broad daylight at 3pm in Centre Point Commercial Center.

Fortuately for him, the assassin sucks, so he escaped unharmed. As they always say, "What doesn't kill you... is a lousy assassin."

The first shooting happened last year with the target killed, and the second shooting happened earlier this year, with the target injured in the head. This particular incident unfolded when the victim was about to enter his car after a meal at a nearby restaurant when a man emerged from the front passenger side of a "dark-coloured 4×4" vehicle and fired a shot at him.

Police later found several bullet holes at the crime scene. Yeah of course, they have, when considering that shots have been fired. What did we expect, rainbows flowing out where the shots went?

According to the police, the suspect’s identity has been confirmed, and they are taking action, but they would not comment further.

Read more: http://www.theborneopost.com/2013/06/20/miri-businessman-survives-bid-on-his-life/