less than an hour after i posted this, then this came up: Sony got sued for their rootkit-DRM.
===
i've always been of the opinion that if i buy a CD, i would at least have total freedom on what i can do with the CD. of course, that does not involve actually pirating the stuff on it and distributing it. what i really expect to do, is to actually be able to make a copy so that i wouldn't have to damage the original while in use, maybe rip the music to my mp3 player, or just simply use my own CHOICE of audio player to play the CD on my PC.
seems like we're not allowed to do all that if you buy a copy protected CD from Sony:
Sony, Rootkits and Digital Rights Management Gone Too Far
Mark's Sysinternals Blog
i've my own experience with audio CDs like this. you insert your perfectly legal, original CD into you PC CDROM drive, and it autorun and launches it's own proprietary player that's basically inadequate, poorly programmed and hogs your system resources, to play the songs from the CD. what you get is some cheesy-colored interface, tons of system resources occupied, and inferior sound quality.
if you tried to launch your favourite player (winamp, for instance), it won't play. if you had more than one of such CDs, opening them up one by one will actually create more CDROM drives for you. at least, that's what Windows Explorer shows.
i'm pretty OK with ppl protecting their intellectual property, but when they install things into my PC without letting me know about it, and by the things they installed, governs how i SHOULD enjoy what i BOUGHT with MY money, they're going a little too far. and now, Sony is actually creating security risks by using a rootkit to do what should be done by much better written code, that's just plain stupid.
Sony still keeps arguing that the rootkit-DRM doesn't introduce any security risks here. well, less than a day after the issue was brought up by sysinternals, WoW players already found a way to use it to cheat. it wouldn't belong before someone actually think of some malicious way to use Sony's rootkit-DRM.
More from Sony:
"6. I have heard that the protection software is really malware/spyware. Could this be true?
Of course not. The protection software simply acts to prevent unlimited copying and ripping from discs featuring this protection solution. It is otherwise inactive. The software does not collect any personal information nor is it designed to be intrusive to your computer system. Also, the protection components are never installed without the consumer first accepting the End User License Agreement.
If at some point you wish to remove the software from your machine simply contact customer service through this link. You will, though, be unable to use the disc on your computer once you uninstall the components.
Our technology vendors are constantly looking to improve the product as well as respond to any critical software issues found. Please check here for upgrades to address any known issues."
contacting Sony to remove the rootkit requires the user to fill out a form, using IE and install an ActiveX program. after that form, they'll send you an email telling you there's an upgrade for the DRM software, but if you still wanna proceed to uninstall it, then you'll have to follow another link and fill in another form.
they're still more or less unwilling to provide help for users to uninstall the rootkit, and somehow, by some incomprehensible logic, they actually think that we will still trust them enough after the whole rootkit fiasco to actually run IE and install ActiveX from their site. :)
i think the worse thing here is that if you DO remove the rootkit, you won't be able to listen to the CD on your PC again. basically, you're screwed.
good news is, the CD protection is so badly written, all you need to do is press the shift key while inserting the CD to stop it from autorunning, don't double-click on the CD, or maybe use a Mac or Linux box.
Sony just pissed people off without managing to properly protect their CDs.
Tuesday, November 8, 2005
Wednesday, October 19, 2005
lazy or busy?
i've beeen more or less working my ass off for the past month. well, that was during my day shift week. night shift is slightly better, except for the times when i get shitty cases from even shittier customers.
outside of work, i've got quite a few books to spend my time with. really appreciate sheryl's help in getting me the books from borders in kl. they're much cheaper than i expected too, since borders was having a discount.
finished reading neil gaiman's the wolves in the walls already. well, anyone could've finished the book in 15-20mins. that's not the point tho. the books really good. great illustrations from dave mckean (as usual), extremely great ideas by neil gaiman (as usual too). i kinda wanted to post a couple of pages up, but i don't have a scanner. pics taken from my camera can't do it justice.
sandman: endless nights is also very good. new stories of the endless told, giving more depth to the characters, who, in the sandman library series, already are given a great depth, making them very believable. the colaboration of comic artists that drawn each of the seven chapters actually gave more live to the characters by using varying and suprisingly effective drawing styles, tailored to each of the characters nature. i think i'm gonna be rereading this book soon.
just started off with anansi boys. as usually, very distinctive neil gaiman writing style. so far, the story is quite engaging. i've only gone through 3 chapters.
playing a ps2 game called atelier iris. very very old school playing style, with a few new ideas. even the graphics are reminiscence of the ff6 era. susi saw it and asked if i were playing a girl's game. well, it does look kinda girlie.
almost done with the game. it's rare but it's the first time that i played an rpg but don't feel like going through all the trouble to finished all the side quests and find all the hidden items. i think that pretty much says the game is not that good.
my old nokia 7650 died last saturday.
i wished it could've at least lasted another month, since my bro's gonna be back from uk with some phones. as it is, i had to shell out some moolah to get myself a new phone first.
ended up with this:panasonic A200 (the black one, of course)
RM280. basic color phone, no extra functions. cheap and small, just what i wanted. i was trying to get the white one, but could only find the black one. the white one's cool, color is very ipod-ish. couldn't wait for new stock, since i needed to get a phone that night itself. it's about 2/3 the length of a nokia 8210. after using 7650 for so long, holding this phone makes me feel like i can drop it anytime.
well, let's hope my bro brings something good back.
outside of work, i've got quite a few books to spend my time with. really appreciate sheryl's help in getting me the books from borders in kl. they're much cheaper than i expected too, since borders was having a discount.
finished reading neil gaiman's the wolves in the walls already. well, anyone could've finished the book in 15-20mins. that's not the point tho. the books really good. great illustrations from dave mckean (as usual), extremely great ideas by neil gaiman (as usual too). i kinda wanted to post a couple of pages up, but i don't have a scanner. pics taken from my camera can't do it justice.
sandman: endless nights is also very good. new stories of the endless told, giving more depth to the characters, who, in the sandman library series, already are given a great depth, making them very believable. the colaboration of comic artists that drawn each of the seven chapters actually gave more live to the characters by using varying and suprisingly effective drawing styles, tailored to each of the characters nature. i think i'm gonna be rereading this book soon.
just started off with anansi boys. as usually, very distinctive neil gaiman writing style. so far, the story is quite engaging. i've only gone through 3 chapters.
playing a ps2 game called atelier iris. very very old school playing style, with a few new ideas. even the graphics are reminiscence of the ff6 era. susi saw it and asked if i were playing a girl's game. well, it does look kinda girlie.
almost done with the game. it's rare but it's the first time that i played an rpg but don't feel like going through all the trouble to finished all the side quests and find all the hidden items. i think that pretty much says the game is not that good.
my old nokia 7650 died last saturday.
i wished it could've at least lasted another month, since my bro's gonna be back from uk with some phones. as it is, i had to shell out some moolah to get myself a new phone first.
ended up with this:panasonic A200 (the black one, of course)
RM280. basic color phone, no extra functions. cheap and small, just what i wanted. i was trying to get the white one, but could only find the black one. the white one's cool, color is very ipod-ish. couldn't wait for new stock, since i needed to get a phone that night itself. it's about 2/3 the length of a nokia 8210. after using 7650 for so long, holding this phone makes me feel like i can drop it anytime.
well, let's hope my bro brings something good back.
Monday, September 26, 2005
just take the damned bus
just take the damned bus.
our generous traffic branch of the malaysia police force extended a discount period for paying summonses til sept 30. i took the chance n went ahead with paying mine. nothing serious, just made an illegal u-turn n ended up stumbling upon the white-clad campers. guess they needed their quota for the month.
there's a scene between a cop n this young girl, not more than 18, who was there for the discount too. it seems like the car is her mom's, n her friend drove it, unaware than the road tax has expired n no insurance was purchased for the car.
i'm not sure if insurance is required by the law here, but according to the cop, the summonse was for a total of 3 violations: expired road tax, no insurance, n denying to sign n acknowledge the summonse when asked to sign. for each of the 3, she has to pay RM300, which comes to a total of RM900.
it sounds like total bullshit to me. denying to sign n acknowledge a summonse is an offence?! wtf?! does that mean that when we're given a summonse, we'll HAVE to sign it no matter what?
if i'm stopped by some corrupt cop looking to earn a few quick bucks, hinting at me to pay for some made up offense, n i refused to pay, so he gave me a summonse, which i definitely will not agree nor acknowledge, i'm actually violating the law?? so i'm in the wrong for not agreeing/admitting to something i did not do in the first place? what a great system we have.
i've always had a bad impression of the local traffic rules n regulations - too many loopholes for all those corrupt cops out there to prey on us. now, it's gotten worse as they get more empowered, n the rules get more ridiculous.
1. 14-day loss of licences for errant drivers.
2. drive traffice offenders off our roads.
the new rules are:
1.DANGEROUS or reckless driving resulting in death
2.RECKLESS and dangerous driving
3.CARELESS and inconsiderate driving
4.DRIVING under the influence of alcohol or drugs
5.DRIVING or controlling a motor vehicle while the alcohol level in the blood system exceeds the permitted level
6.BEATING the traffic lights
7.DRIVING in excess of 40kph above the speed limit
now can someone tell me the difference between driving under the influence of alcohol n driving while the alcohol level in the blood system exceeds the permitted level?? how can someone be driving under influence of alcohol n not have the level exceed the permitted level??
when u look at it, drunk driving actually violates rules #2,3,4,5 all at the same time. u're driving under influence, having alcohol levels exceeding the limit, driving carelessly n recklessly.
am i the only one that's seeing the absurd redundancies in those ridiculous rules?
our transport minister is right about the increased opportunity for bribery with the new rules. we've more or less been getting either hinted subtly or directly asked for 'duit kopi' by traffic cops, n that's when if we broke 1 rule, we broke 1 rule.
now with these new rules, the extra summonses n the 14-day revoking of licences, our white-clad kings of the roads are gonna be having a field day. everyday.
our generous traffic branch of the malaysia police force extended a discount period for paying summonses til sept 30. i took the chance n went ahead with paying mine. nothing serious, just made an illegal u-turn n ended up stumbling upon the white-clad campers. guess they needed their quota for the month.
there's a scene between a cop n this young girl, not more than 18, who was there for the discount too. it seems like the car is her mom's, n her friend drove it, unaware than the road tax has expired n no insurance was purchased for the car.
i'm not sure if insurance is required by the law here, but according to the cop, the summonse was for a total of 3 violations: expired road tax, no insurance, n denying to sign n acknowledge the summonse when asked to sign. for each of the 3, she has to pay RM300, which comes to a total of RM900.
it sounds like total bullshit to me. denying to sign n acknowledge a summonse is an offence?! wtf?! does that mean that when we're given a summonse, we'll HAVE to sign it no matter what?
if i'm stopped by some corrupt cop looking to earn a few quick bucks, hinting at me to pay for some made up offense, n i refused to pay, so he gave me a summonse, which i definitely will not agree nor acknowledge, i'm actually violating the law?? so i'm in the wrong for not agreeing/admitting to something i did not do in the first place? what a great system we have.
i've always had a bad impression of the local traffic rules n regulations - too many loopholes for all those corrupt cops out there to prey on us. now, it's gotten worse as they get more empowered, n the rules get more ridiculous.
1. 14-day loss of licences for errant drivers.
2. drive traffice offenders off our roads.
the new rules are:
1.DANGEROUS or reckless driving resulting in death
2.RECKLESS and dangerous driving
3.CARELESS and inconsiderate driving
4.DRIVING under the influence of alcohol or drugs
5.DRIVING or controlling a motor vehicle while the alcohol level in the blood system exceeds the permitted level
6.BEATING the traffic lights
7.DRIVING in excess of 40kph above the speed limit
now can someone tell me the difference between driving under the influence of alcohol n driving while the alcohol level in the blood system exceeds the permitted level?? how can someone be driving under influence of alcohol n not have the level exceed the permitted level??
when u look at it, drunk driving actually violates rules #2,3,4,5 all at the same time. u're driving under influence, having alcohol levels exceeding the limit, driving carelessly n recklessly.
am i the only one that's seeing the absurd redundancies in those ridiculous rules?
our transport minister is right about the increased opportunity for bribery with the new rules. we've more or less been getting either hinted subtly or directly asked for 'duit kopi' by traffic cops, n that's when if we broke 1 rule, we broke 1 rule.
now with these new rules, the extra summonses n the 14-day revoking of licences, our white-clad kings of the roads are gonna be having a field day. everyday.
Monday, September 5, 2005
mirrormask
it always amazes me how many different ideas that neil gaiman can come up with in each of his new stories. dave mckean's creativity and ingenuity with his illustrations always leaves me speechless. i've been totally marvelled by their works since sandman, and yet again their latest collaboration took my breathe away before i even manage to see the movie.
early in the sandman series, richard madoc, a novelist, exchanges a trichinobezoar for a the muse, calliope. "I need her. If I didn't have her, I wouldn't be able to write. I wouldn't have ideas." says richard madoc when morpheus the dream king arrives to free the enslaved muse.
sometimes, i wonder if neil gaiman has a few muses of his own locked up in his attic. :)
i read through the first 100+ pages of the script and there are already so many unheard-of ideas - sphinxes love eating books, books will float back to the library if you don't want them anymore and the flutter around like butterflies too, people wear masks and believe that you can't express any emotion without masks - my brain will probably fry itself if i were to try coming up with stuff like these.
photos from the set n the movie shows a very strong feel of dave mckean. it's like seeing his illustrations coming to live on screen. ok, i'm just guessing on that but i'll bet the movie will feel exactly like that to anyone who's familiar with dave mckean's style in art. the panning of the camera on certain scenes looks really impressive from the script.
the story is a twist of alice in wonderland, making it much darker (when comparing with the comtemporary children's version), more witty humor n a totally brand new neil gaiman fairy tale, riding dave mckean's design n directing.
like i said before i even read the book, a collaboration of my fav artist n fav author, moved to the big screen, what more can i ask for?
PS: that's death from sandman on the side. she's got nothing to do with the movie, i just like the pic. :P
Wednesday, August 31, 2005
are those tits on ur phone?
the malaysian govt is so hell-bent on stopping the spread of almight pr0ns that they're gonna have cops stop ppl on the streets n search their mobile phone. yes, that's right. all ur mobile phones are belong to us, they say. (can't help the lame joke)
similar reports from 2 differe sources: bbc uk and news24.. i've been trying to look for a link from malaysia online papers, but can't seem to locate one. it'll be most interesting to find the Harian Metro article that actually reports on "teenagers are using their mobile phones to video mass sex parties and then send the pictures to each other."
dude, where the hell are the mass sex parties? how do one get invited? i'll like an invitation pls. hello? HELLO~??
so, here's the low down. be prepared to get stopped on the streets by policemen in uniforms or plainclothes asking for ur mobile. be prepared to have them go thru all ur pics, pr0n or not, n be prepared to suffer idiotic comments from them that was supposed to be funny.
the other thing right now is, how much identification do they have to provide the public before we have to oblige n handover our mobiles? what's to stop impostors to actually just grab our mobiles n run? with the bribery among traffic police still rampant nowadays, i think this might just be another opportunity for duit kopi for cops.
ok. i can't get this outta my mind. where the hell are the mass sex parties?!!
similar reports from 2 differe sources: bbc uk and news24.. i've been trying to look for a link from malaysia online papers, but can't seem to locate one. it'll be most interesting to find the Harian Metro article that actually reports on "teenagers are using their mobile phones to video mass sex parties and then send the pictures to each other."
dude, where the hell are the mass sex parties? how do one get invited? i'll like an invitation pls. hello? HELLO~??
so, here's the low down. be prepared to get stopped on the streets by policemen in uniforms or plainclothes asking for ur mobile. be prepared to have them go thru all ur pics, pr0n or not, n be prepared to suffer idiotic comments from them that was supposed to be funny.
the other thing right now is, how much identification do they have to provide the public before we have to oblige n handover our mobiles? what's to stop impostors to actually just grab our mobiles n run? with the bribery among traffic police still rampant nowadays, i think this might just be another opportunity for duit kopi for cops.
ok. i can't get this outta my mind. where the hell are the mass sex parties?!!
Sunday, August 28, 2005
home sweet home
it's great to be back home in ipoh.
i haven't been back for a couple of month, and i was pretty lucky to be able to just take leave for friday outta no where and go home.
my ex-colleagues all agreed, as soon as they saw me, that i grew fat. damn. i knew that i've gained quite a lot of weight, especially in my mid-section, but hey, y'all didn't have to tell me that the first thing we meet. gah!
trying out jeans on saturday really slapped the fact right on my face. hard. i had to get a pair of jeans that's 2 inches wider in the waist then i usually get to make it fit comfortably. i REALLY need to do something about my weight.
mom's not really helping, but i don't blame her. i miss her cooking so much, i just finished everything she cooked, every meal at home. :) however much people say penang food is great, there's nothing better than a real home-cooked meal. i miss mom's food so much.
reminder: next time, get a return bus ticket as soon as i get back.
it was totally unexpected that most of today's tickets are all sold out. i'd already went a day earlier to get one, but the only ones left are for early morning buses. i ended up having to get the 10am one. missed out on another home-cooked lunch.
met up with a close friend on saturday for some shopping and catching up. she's popular as ever. her ex wants her back. her ex's best friend wants her. so do quite a few others. :)
the funniest was this really sad guy who's gone after 2 other girls in the span of one year, lost but didn't know how to quit, now also going after her. the funny fella actually bought her breakfast this morning. i'm not sure whether she ate it later or not, i'll check up on that later just for laughs, but she just dumped the whole box on her desk and went out for breakfast with me in front of him.
now, if he still doesn't get it after that, then he's a bigger loser than i think he is.
now i'm back in penang. almost fully charged from my trip back home. almost, because i didn't get to stay a few hours more. tomorrow's gonna be hell at work since i left quite a lot hanging thursday evening before i went off.
i haven't been back for a couple of month, and i was pretty lucky to be able to just take leave for friday outta no where and go home.
my ex-colleagues all agreed, as soon as they saw me, that i grew fat. damn. i knew that i've gained quite a lot of weight, especially in my mid-section, but hey, y'all didn't have to tell me that the first thing we meet. gah!
trying out jeans on saturday really slapped the fact right on my face. hard. i had to get a pair of jeans that's 2 inches wider in the waist then i usually get to make it fit comfortably. i REALLY need to do something about my weight.
mom's not really helping, but i don't blame her. i miss her cooking so much, i just finished everything she cooked, every meal at home. :) however much people say penang food is great, there's nothing better than a real home-cooked meal. i miss mom's food so much.
reminder: next time, get a return bus ticket as soon as i get back.
it was totally unexpected that most of today's tickets are all sold out. i'd already went a day earlier to get one, but the only ones left are for early morning buses. i ended up having to get the 10am one. missed out on another home-cooked lunch.
met up with a close friend on saturday for some shopping and catching up. she's popular as ever. her ex wants her back. her ex's best friend wants her. so do quite a few others. :)
the funniest was this really sad guy who's gone after 2 other girls in the span of one year, lost but didn't know how to quit, now also going after her. the funny fella actually bought her breakfast this morning. i'm not sure whether she ate it later or not, i'll check up on that later just for laughs, but she just dumped the whole box on her desk and went out for breakfast with me in front of him.
now, if he still doesn't get it after that, then he's a bigger loser than i think he is.
now i'm back in penang. almost fully charged from my trip back home. almost, because i didn't get to stay a few hours more. tomorrow's gonna be hell at work since i left quite a lot hanging thursday evening before i went off.
Monday, August 15, 2005
the haze has recovered a lil this morning, after a huge thunderstorm sometime before daybreak. i've forgotten to upload the pics to my photobucket account, maybe i'll do that later so i can post them here. i can at least see equatorial this morning.
went to some very rural area in kulim, around 45 minute's drive from penang, for some very fresh fish. the drive was pleasant up til the last part where we were going thru a tight, bumpy country road only wide enough for 1 car at a time.
the entrance to the place was crowded with expensive cars like mercs and bmws. there was even a rare-in-malaysia bmw 1 series. it seems like this place is really famous for its fishes. the "restaurant" is basically just a small "shack" built of simple wood and brick structures, open-aired and surrounded by the ponds in which the fishes are bred. tables and chairs are those used at normal hawker stalls.
we occupied 2 tables, had a total of 6 dishes consisting of 5 (huge!) fishes and veges each. the fishes were extremely good. all 5 fishes were cooked in totally different ways. the meat is extremely tender and sweet for fresh-water produce. the main reason behind this, as what i learnt, is that they seriously only get the fishes from the ponds when ordered. the fishes are cooked straightaway, after being knocked out cold. i'm not much of a fish-fan but the meal was just great.
pics of the surrounding areas and ponds.
the fella catching fishes from the pond.
this is the weirdest pic of the day. this rock is in the middle of the pond and all these frogs are huddled together on the rock. i'm wondering whether they are actually fed to the fishes.
all in all, it was a great trip. the 90-min drive to and fro is well worth it for the extraordinarily good food we had. plus, the price is freaking cheap. altogether we only spent around RM350. that's for a total of 12 dishes for 15 people. :)
went to some very rural area in kulim, around 45 minute's drive from penang, for some very fresh fish. the drive was pleasant up til the last part where we were going thru a tight, bumpy country road only wide enough for 1 car at a time.
the entrance to the place was crowded with expensive cars like mercs and bmws. there was even a rare-in-malaysia bmw 1 series. it seems like this place is really famous for its fishes. the "restaurant" is basically just a small "shack" built of simple wood and brick structures, open-aired and surrounded by the ponds in which the fishes are bred. tables and chairs are those used at normal hawker stalls.
we occupied 2 tables, had a total of 6 dishes consisting of 5 (huge!) fishes and veges each. the fishes were extremely good. all 5 fishes were cooked in totally different ways. the meat is extremely tender and sweet for fresh-water produce. the main reason behind this, as what i learnt, is that they seriously only get the fishes from the ponds when ordered. the fishes are cooked straightaway, after being knocked out cold. i'm not much of a fish-fan but the meal was just great.
pics of the surrounding areas and ponds.
the fella catching fishes from the pond.
this is the weirdest pic of the day. this rock is in the middle of the pond and all these frogs are huddled together on the rock. i'm wondering whether they are actually fed to the fishes.
all in all, it was a great trip. the 90-min drive to and fro is well worth it for the extraordinarily good food we had. plus, the price is freaking cheap. altogether we only spent around RM350. that's for a total of 12 dishes for 15 people. :)
Saturday, August 13, 2005
hazy penang
the haze from indonesia's forest fires has been a big concern for everyone in malaysia. things were getting real bad for the last few days, especially in KL. penang was starting to get hazy yesterday afternoon.
i was up at 4am this morning and there was a mild thunderstorm outside with very strong wind. i thought the haze will at least reside a bit. 7am shows that things aren't that good. this photo is a view from my balcony towards the market near sunshine square. visibility is really low as i can normally see the market from this angle.
this is the road, right below my balcony.
shots of equatorial hotel's golf course, right across the road from my apartment. the red circle is where equatorial should be, but it's not even visible now due to the haze.
views from the other side of the apartment.
Tuesday, August 9, 2005
before or after?
remember this joke from the negotiator?
a marine and an army guy went to the loo together. the marine finished his business and walked away without washing his hands. the army guy made fun of him by saying that in the army, they were taught to was their hands after going to the loo. the marine retorted with, "in the marines, we are taught not to pee on our hands".
well, the thing is, we're all taught to wash our hands after going to the washroom. the reason being that our hands are probably dirty after, and we shouldn't be spreading the germs and bacteria everywhere, worse of all keeping them on our hands and possibly handling food later.
(why anyone wouldn't wash their hands first before handling food is totally beyond me.)
my question is, why only after?
it's general knowledge that our fingers and nails collect the most bacteria. we handle food, we type on our keyboard (which probably hasn't been thoroughly cleaned since the day we bought it), we scratch our itches and probably the worse of all, we handle money. money is said to be among the dirtiest thing that we handle a lot on a daily basis.
so, imagine you touching your privates when you go to the toilet. wouldn't you be directly spreading said germs and bacteria directly to your 'valuables'?
then there are those guys who like to flush the urinal as soon as they stand in front of it, so that they can flush it again when they're done. (what's the deal with that anyway?) i guarantee you, the last guy that did that probably didn't wash his hands before doing his business either. so you're like sticking his germs on your finger, then sticking your finger to you family jewels. (hhmmm... can i make it any grosser?)
then there those who wash their hands afterwards, but never wipe their hands dry. it's common sense that wet/damp hands spread more germs. (don't believe me? check out the links at the end of this entry) why wash your hands when you're gonna be doing more damage than not washing them?
i'm not a hygiene freak. it's just that it's pretty weird to not wash one's hands only after but not before, seeing that our hands are already gathering germs all day long.
link1 link2 link3
a marine and an army guy went to the loo together. the marine finished his business and walked away without washing his hands. the army guy made fun of him by saying that in the army, they were taught to was their hands after going to the loo. the marine retorted with, "in the marines, we are taught not to pee on our hands".
well, the thing is, we're all taught to wash our hands after going to the washroom. the reason being that our hands are probably dirty after, and we shouldn't be spreading the germs and bacteria everywhere, worse of all keeping them on our hands and possibly handling food later.
(why anyone wouldn't wash their hands first before handling food is totally beyond me.)
my question is, why only after?
it's general knowledge that our fingers and nails collect the most bacteria. we handle food, we type on our keyboard (which probably hasn't been thoroughly cleaned since the day we bought it), we scratch our itches and probably the worse of all, we handle money. money is said to be among the dirtiest thing that we handle a lot on a daily basis.
so, imagine you touching your privates when you go to the toilet. wouldn't you be directly spreading said germs and bacteria directly to your 'valuables'?
then there are those guys who like to flush the urinal as soon as they stand in front of it, so that they can flush it again when they're done. (what's the deal with that anyway?) i guarantee you, the last guy that did that probably didn't wash his hands before doing his business either. so you're like sticking his germs on your finger, then sticking your finger to you family jewels. (hhmmm... can i make it any grosser?)
then there those who wash their hands afterwards, but never wipe their hands dry. it's common sense that wet/damp hands spread more germs. (don't believe me? check out the links at the end of this entry) why wash your hands when you're gonna be doing more damage than not washing them?
i'm not a hygiene freak. it's just that it's pretty weird to not wash one's hands only after but not before, seeing that our hands are already gathering germs all day long.
link1 link2 link3
Sunday, August 7, 2005
good deals
spent some time at the pc fair in PISA in the evening. got myself a pretty good deal with the sony T33 digital camera. it's an old model n all, but RM1400 for the camera plus a 512MB memory stick pro duo is still a pretty good deal.
already tested out some of the features of the camera. i'm still pretty impressed with it. i'm kinda thinking now that i probably should've bought an extra 512MB memory stick as 7 minute video in high quality already used up about 140MB. if i were to bring this when i travel, it's definitely not gonna be enough since i don't have anything to temporarily transfer the file.
there are still some other stuff to check out on the camera. granted, it's one of those point n shoot dummies, but there's still quite a lot of stuff to play with. maybe if i took photography a lil more seriously, i'd fork out more to buy a proper digital slr.
also bought myself a cheap external hdd case n a usb2.0 wireless G adaptor. everything tested out just fine. i was hoping to get myself a printer, but instead of prices dropping on the last day, printer prices actually shot up.
the other 2 things that were going pretty cheap were the taiwanese/chinese made mp3 players n thumbdrives of every kind. well, i didn't get any of the mp3 players. let's hope my bro comes thru by getting my that i-pod shuffle he promised.
i was also hoping to get a good monitor, but every one of those in the fair were about market price. didn't really think it's worth it to get them at that price. might as well wait a bit more for the company's employee sales. :)
everything else were disappointingly around market price.
Friday, July 29, 2005
phone choices
i've been shopping around for a phone for the past month.
well, at first, my choices were just limited to SE K750i, SE P910i, Nokia 3230, and O2 XDAII Mini. i thought my choices were very simple since i'm not really interested in getting a 3G phone. so it's either a basic phone with good features, or a PDA phone to play around with.
K750i is a great basic phone, 2MP camera, not laggy n has a good size. the only thing about it is that there just isn't as much to play with since u can't install any apps. price-wise, it'll lose badly to the symbian60 nokia 3230. the only thing i absolutely don't like about the 3230 is the ugly design. i can live with the laggy response from the phone if it had a better design.
i totally eliminated P910i from my choice after playing around with it for a few times. too bulky n heavy. the design looks really stupid anyway. so if i'm going for a PDA phone, it'll be the O2 mini.
what really delayed the whole thing is the coming release of nokia's N91, SE W800i and motorola V3x later this year.
the W800i is essentially the K750i, with an ugly color scheme, better firmware, better music player, n a 512MB memory stick packaged with it. it also doubles as an mp3 player when the phone is off. i've heard n read rumors online about using the W800i firmware on the K750i n getting all the functions. if i can manage to find out how to do that, i might just get the K750i.
N91 is just also. has everything the 3230 has, plus a 4GB microdrive. it's like bringing a mini pc around with that thing.
v3x is by far the one with the best design among the ones i'm interested in. i liked the v3 razr design all along, just didn't like the lacking in features for the price. the v3x addressed all the features issues. :)
the only thing left is how much are these 3 phones gonna cost once they ship.
well, if i suddenly decide i can't stand my old N7650 any longer, i might just get myself the N3230 since it's the cheapest. then maybe get a new phone early next year. :)
well, at first, my choices were just limited to SE K750i, SE P910i, Nokia 3230, and O2 XDAII Mini. i thought my choices were very simple since i'm not really interested in getting a 3G phone. so it's either a basic phone with good features, or a PDA phone to play around with.
K750i is a great basic phone, 2MP camera, not laggy n has a good size. the only thing about it is that there just isn't as much to play with since u can't install any apps. price-wise, it'll lose badly to the symbian60 nokia 3230. the only thing i absolutely don't like about the 3230 is the ugly design. i can live with the laggy response from the phone if it had a better design.
i totally eliminated P910i from my choice after playing around with it for a few times. too bulky n heavy. the design looks really stupid anyway. so if i'm going for a PDA phone, it'll be the O2 mini.
what really delayed the whole thing is the coming release of nokia's N91, SE W800i and motorola V3x later this year.
the W800i is essentially the K750i, with an ugly color scheme, better firmware, better music player, n a 512MB memory stick packaged with it. it also doubles as an mp3 player when the phone is off. i've heard n read rumors online about using the W800i firmware on the K750i n getting all the functions. if i can manage to find out how to do that, i might just get the K750i.
N91 is just also. has everything the 3230 has, plus a 4GB microdrive. it's like bringing a mini pc around with that thing.
v3x is by far the one with the best design among the ones i'm interested in. i liked the v3 razr design all along, just didn't like the lacking in features for the price. the v3x addressed all the features issues. :)
the only thing left is how much are these 3 phones gonna cost once they ship.
well, if i suddenly decide i can't stand my old N7650 any longer, i might just get myself the N3230 since it's the cheapest. then maybe get a new phone early next year. :)
Tuesday, July 12, 2005
july rants
the past month had been really busy. i've more or less dumped myself into work, pausing only long enough to attend an old classmates wedding dinner in KL.
this guy's the most successful fella that i know of in a relationship. first love, went on for 8 years, then got married. most of my other friends, me included, are like attached, break up, attached again, break up again. well, the 2 other exceptions, 1 got married a couple of years ago, and the other one is still going strong as far as i know. strangely, this other one is the one that most of the people we both know, including ex-classmates, say that we look good together. i guess that if we'd started anything when we were both in KL 10 years back, things might have been different.
10 years back. that make me feel my age. that, and my growing mid-section. i guess i'd better show some consistency in my crunches. :P
-
my new housemate brought the gf over a few wks ago, saying that she's coming over for a visit after her diploma. the visit became longer n longer until tonight, when they got back from KL, the first thing she asked me was whether it's ok for me if she planned to stay her, indefinitely.
since i'm not the main tenant, i said that maybe she should ask the other fella. her reply was that she's already asked n he said to ask me too. one look at the stuff they've brought back from KL, i guess she already decided to stay no matter what i'm gonna say. :)
i don't really mind having a girl around, since it's not like i'm running around naked in the apt. the only thing is that i can't really stand this girl. pretty noisy, fresh outta college with only a diploma in business administration.
i mean, what the fuck does a diploma in business administration show? what does it say what one can do? she n the bf actually asked if there were any vacancies in my company. i thought, what the hell, no harm in trying to help them out. so i asked her to pass me her resume, then asked what she wanted to do.
her answer? "consultant". so i asked, in what? "dunno ah~!" i've been working in my field for years and i don't see a consultant title anywhere in the near future.
this guy's the most successful fella that i know of in a relationship. first love, went on for 8 years, then got married. most of my other friends, me included, are like attached, break up, attached again, break up again. well, the 2 other exceptions, 1 got married a couple of years ago, and the other one is still going strong as far as i know. strangely, this other one is the one that most of the people we both know, including ex-classmates, say that we look good together. i guess that if we'd started anything when we were both in KL 10 years back, things might have been different.
10 years back. that make me feel my age. that, and my growing mid-section. i guess i'd better show some consistency in my crunches. :P
-
my new housemate brought the gf over a few wks ago, saying that she's coming over for a visit after her diploma. the visit became longer n longer until tonight, when they got back from KL, the first thing she asked me was whether it's ok for me if she planned to stay her, indefinitely.
since i'm not the main tenant, i said that maybe she should ask the other fella. her reply was that she's already asked n he said to ask me too. one look at the stuff they've brought back from KL, i guess she already decided to stay no matter what i'm gonna say. :)
i don't really mind having a girl around, since it's not like i'm running around naked in the apt. the only thing is that i can't really stand this girl. pretty noisy, fresh outta college with only a diploma in business administration.
i mean, what the fuck does a diploma in business administration show? what does it say what one can do? she n the bf actually asked if there were any vacancies in my company. i thought, what the hell, no harm in trying to help them out. so i asked her to pass me her resume, then asked what she wanted to do.
her answer? "consultant". so i asked, in what? "dunno ah~!" i've been working in my field for years and i don't see a consultant title anywhere in the near future.
Monday, June 6, 2005
diapers or mawashi?
this ain't about sumo wrestling.
there's this fad - well not really a fad since it's been around for years - that makes guys wanna wear boxers. i think it all started when some of those main stream female mags heaped praises n stuff on men in boxers by saying how it leaves more to imagination, right down to the supposed confessions by women about how men in boxers turn them on. bull. i've met a fair share of women who love men in thongs or g-strings.
here's what i think.
briefs
flies, holes, or none, it doesn't really matter. the cutting's pretty decent for sports, especially for the well-endowed, i'd think. if you're not that big, you might swing a bit running. ouch.
bikini
the tight ones really hurt. the loose ones, which are just slightly less tight, hurt sometimes. don't wear one without a good butt and legs.
tanga
sometimes it's like a looser version of a loose bikini. buy the wrong size and it's hurt all over again. most of them have tight and thick waistbands - no where to go if you get excited.
jockstraps
actually, i can't figure out what are these really for or why people would wanna wear them. uncomfortable to say the least, not to mention your butt is so exposed, it feels like you're in gay porn. the bottom one.
thongs
these are actually quite ok, if you buy a slightly bigger size so that your package is not all knotted up inside. painfully rides up your ass if you're involved in big motions. it's a good way to avoid "male-panty-lines", especially for those who like to wear really tight slacks. (another thing i don't understand - why the hell would someone wanna wear slacks so tight?)
g-strings
extreme wedgies!! sardine your package!! love 'em or hate 'em, no compromise. personally, i think it's a bad idea unless you're going out with someone who really likes them and the plan of the night only involves a quiet dinner and getting laid. or maybe you're strip dancing.
pouches
i think you only really see people wearing these in 2 situations: the advertisement for the product itself and gay porn.
anything leather or worse
jesus fucking christ. what the hell you thinking?! can your skin even breathe in there??
boxers
my fav during the winter. they seriously warms you up a bit.
things to note: be honest with your size, you don't want the whole thing bunching up inside your pants. oh yeah, totally no support, but great for horses.
flies/holes? personal preference. gimme a reason why you'd want more than one button.
in malaysia/summer/tropical countries, it's not very suitable. the whole cutting doesn't help separate one's package from one's thighs, and if you sweat a lot, it's probably not gonna feel very nice. it's already hot here, why add such a big piece of cloth?
boxer shorts
my fav, anywhere. the slightly tighter versions give pretty good support even for sports, while not scrunching your balls. plus, the cloth is usually at very strategic places that separates one's package from one's thighs. and it won't bunch up, won't ride up your ass and doesn't say gay or s&m.
mawashi
don't try it unless you're a sumo wrestler.
oh. that crap about underwear reveals what kinda person you are? total bullshit. i have at least a piece of every type, except for pouches, leathers and the mawashi. so what does that say about my personality??
uuhhmmm, no diapers too.
there's this fad - well not really a fad since it's been around for years - that makes guys wanna wear boxers. i think it all started when some of those main stream female mags heaped praises n stuff on men in boxers by saying how it leaves more to imagination, right down to the supposed confessions by women about how men in boxers turn them on. bull. i've met a fair share of women who love men in thongs or g-strings.
here's what i think.
briefs
flies, holes, or none, it doesn't really matter. the cutting's pretty decent for sports, especially for the well-endowed, i'd think. if you're not that big, you might swing a bit running. ouch.
bikini
the tight ones really hurt. the loose ones, which are just slightly less tight, hurt sometimes. don't wear one without a good butt and legs.
tanga
sometimes it's like a looser version of a loose bikini. buy the wrong size and it's hurt all over again. most of them have tight and thick waistbands - no where to go if you get excited.
jockstraps
actually, i can't figure out what are these really for or why people would wanna wear them. uncomfortable to say the least, not to mention your butt is so exposed, it feels like you're in gay porn. the bottom one.
thongs
these are actually quite ok, if you buy a slightly bigger size so that your package is not all knotted up inside. painfully rides up your ass if you're involved in big motions. it's a good way to avoid "male-panty-lines", especially for those who like to wear really tight slacks. (another thing i don't understand - why the hell would someone wanna wear slacks so tight?)
g-strings
extreme wedgies!! sardine your package!! love 'em or hate 'em, no compromise. personally, i think it's a bad idea unless you're going out with someone who really likes them and the plan of the night only involves a quiet dinner and getting laid. or maybe you're strip dancing.
pouches
i think you only really see people wearing these in 2 situations: the advertisement for the product itself and gay porn.
anything leather or worse
jesus fucking christ. what the hell you thinking?! can your skin even breathe in there??
boxers
my fav during the winter. they seriously warms you up a bit.
things to note: be honest with your size, you don't want the whole thing bunching up inside your pants. oh yeah, totally no support, but great for horses.
flies/holes? personal preference. gimme a reason why you'd want more than one button.
in malaysia/summer/tropical countries, it's not very suitable. the whole cutting doesn't help separate one's package from one's thighs, and if you sweat a lot, it's probably not gonna feel very nice. it's already hot here, why add such a big piece of cloth?
boxer shorts
my fav, anywhere. the slightly tighter versions give pretty good support even for sports, while not scrunching your balls. plus, the cloth is usually at very strategic places that separates one's package from one's thighs. and it won't bunch up, won't ride up your ass and doesn't say gay or s&m.
mawashi
don't try it unless you're a sumo wrestler.
oh. that crap about underwear reveals what kinda person you are? total bullshit. i have at least a piece of every type, except for pouches, leathers and the mawashi. so what does that say about my personality??
uuhhmmm, no diapers too.
Thursday, June 2, 2005
night shift blues
i might be seriously getting addicted to hk tvb series all over again. well, it might be a good thing, since in this case, i'm not spending any money.
my housemate actually passed me around 5 complete sets of tvb series. a friend passed me 1 earlier on. coincidentally, i'm on night shift these 2 wks. instead of buying more dvds, i'll be watching all these. i doubt i'll be able to finish them all in 2 wks.
i'm not sure i'll be watching them all either, since i don't even know whether they're any good. so far, the 1 i finished earlier was pretty ok. engaging, funny but not taxing story. a pretty bad actor as one of the main cast, but that's ok.
just started on the 2nd one regarding the end of the chin and beginnings of the han dynasties. pretty good actors in the main role too. after 3 episodes, i think i like this one. :)
bro's already got tons on his hands, all burnt on dvds. so, i'm probably just gonna watch then delete them. no point making doubles. dvdrs are freaking expensive here in penang. i just checked out the prices from some local shops last evening and they were selling the normal 8x dvd-r for RM5 each, without even a case.
checked online again and found that i can get the same thing for around RM2, provided i buy in bulk. currently negotiating to buy a 50-pc bulk instead of a 100-pc one. 4.5GB per dvd, 50 pcs will already go a long way. i don't see myself downloading so much until i'll be burning so many dvds. hopefully it works.
my housemate actually passed me around 5 complete sets of tvb series. a friend passed me 1 earlier on. coincidentally, i'm on night shift these 2 wks. instead of buying more dvds, i'll be watching all these. i doubt i'll be able to finish them all in 2 wks.
i'm not sure i'll be watching them all either, since i don't even know whether they're any good. so far, the 1 i finished earlier was pretty ok. engaging, funny but not taxing story. a pretty bad actor as one of the main cast, but that's ok.
just started on the 2nd one regarding the end of the chin and beginnings of the han dynasties. pretty good actors in the main role too. after 3 episodes, i think i like this one. :)
bro's already got tons on his hands, all burnt on dvds. so, i'm probably just gonna watch then delete them. no point making doubles. dvdrs are freaking expensive here in penang. i just checked out the prices from some local shops last evening and they were selling the normal 8x dvd-r for RM5 each, without even a case.
checked online again and found that i can get the same thing for around RM2, provided i buy in bulk. currently negotiating to buy a 50-pc bulk instead of a 100-pc one. 4.5GB per dvd, 50 pcs will already go a long way. i don't see myself downloading so much until i'll be burning so many dvds. hopefully it works.
Wednesday, June 1, 2005
geeky shit
my new mousepads are great. bought 2 since i couldn't decide on which one to buy. one's made with glass, quite heavy but very good surface, the other is the one with the pic a few posts back. the lights are not as bright as i thought, but it's still cool when it's dark. now, i've got more blue leds glowing in my room when i sleep. gee.
god of war is a very very good game and it deserves all the good reviews that it got.
it's been a long time since there was any action/adventure game with such a good blend of gameplay and storyline. actually, the story is fucking awesome. very good adaptation of greek mythology in a game, plus the level of realism in the fmvs are stunning, not to mention that the game actually manage to blend gaming with cutscenes perfectly, without much noticeable load time in between.
the background music, ambient sounds and voice-acting are all top-of-the-line too. especially the background music, really adds a really good feel to the overall enjoyment of the game.0
the moves and magic are cool. especially the normal fighting moves, really makes it feel like a toned down version of some street fighting game, with lots of combos where the limit is the player's creativity.
i actually, finished the game twice in 4 days, back to back, cos i got so addicted to it. one thing i really regret is that i bought the normal *ahem* version of the dvd. it seems like all the goodies and hidden movies that can be unlocked are not available to this version. i'd love to get all that, but the non-*ahem* version costs over RM200 plus it's out of stock here in malaysia.
seriously tho, i bought the ps2 with RM800. i don't see the justification of buying a game for over a quarter of that price. games are extremely over-priced. i would've bought it if it were like, hhmmm, RM50 or less.
god of war is a very very good game and it deserves all the good reviews that it got.
it's been a long time since there was any action/adventure game with such a good blend of gameplay and storyline. actually, the story is fucking awesome. very good adaptation of greek mythology in a game, plus the level of realism in the fmvs are stunning, not to mention that the game actually manage to blend gaming with cutscenes perfectly, without much noticeable load time in between.
the background music, ambient sounds and voice-acting are all top-of-the-line too. especially the background music, really adds a really good feel to the overall enjoyment of the game.0
the moves and magic are cool. especially the normal fighting moves, really makes it feel like a toned down version of some street fighting game, with lots of combos where the limit is the player's creativity.
i actually, finished the game twice in 4 days, back to back, cos i got so addicted to it. one thing i really regret is that i bought the normal *ahem* version of the dvd. it seems like all the goodies and hidden movies that can be unlocked are not available to this version. i'd love to get all that, but the non-*ahem* version costs over RM200 plus it's out of stock here in malaysia.
seriously tho, i bought the ps2 with RM800. i don't see the justification of buying a game for over a quarter of that price. games are extremely over-priced. i would've bought it if it were like, hhmmm, RM50 or less.
Tuesday, May 17, 2005
random rants
working out a list of what software, tools, drivers etc that i'd need, so i can make a backup of everything on a dvd, instead of having them lying all around in 2 different hard disks. n then i realized that i really install a lot of stuff into my pc. which is probably why i seem to be always running out of disk space.
i kinda need to clean up my pc a bit. reinstall n stuff, since it's been in the same state for over a yr now, n the performance is dropping like mad. first up, get all the stuff i need collected n documented, then start the ugly part.
-
i think i'm gonna get myself one of these:
someone's selling it pretty cheap online. looks like a pretty good mouse surface. 4x USB1.1 ports, USB2.0 uplink to pc. n it's got lights. :) just in time, since my old fellowes mousepad for 6 yrs is pretty much worn out already.
-
god of war has been getting rave reviews from quite a few different sources, n ranks much higher than GT4. maybe it's time i consider buying the game. not getting anywhere with initial d. keeps losing on uphill battles. tekken 5 is still doing good. would really love a full fledge rpg for a change tho. it's been some time since NWN.
-
last friday was a pretty good karaoke event. all of us screamed our hearts out, especially when the oldies n classics came up. we're not all that old, but somehow most of us knows more old songs than new ones.
tried to sneak some fries in cos i didn't finish my snack in McD before going in n got caught. the girl actually went real nice n said "we'll keep it for u. pls come get it back when u leave." i never went for the fries.
-
went n got myself pissed drunk last sunday after a corp dinner. a bunch of us just wouldn't hear of going home so early, even tho we had to work the next morning. well, they had to. i'm on noon shift. :P so, a mug of beer actually turned into 2 bottles of brandy, which was gone in less than 2 hrs.
at least i still managed to get back, go up the elevator to my place n undress before i crashed n fell asleep. fell asleep, not passed out.
i kinda need to clean up my pc a bit. reinstall n stuff, since it's been in the same state for over a yr now, n the performance is dropping like mad. first up, get all the stuff i need collected n documented, then start the ugly part.
-
i think i'm gonna get myself one of these:
someone's selling it pretty cheap online. looks like a pretty good mouse surface. 4x USB1.1 ports, USB2.0 uplink to pc. n it's got lights. :) just in time, since my old fellowes mousepad for 6 yrs is pretty much worn out already.
-
god of war has been getting rave reviews from quite a few different sources, n ranks much higher than GT4. maybe it's time i consider buying the game. not getting anywhere with initial d. keeps losing on uphill battles. tekken 5 is still doing good. would really love a full fledge rpg for a change tho. it's been some time since NWN.
-
last friday was a pretty good karaoke event. all of us screamed our hearts out, especially when the oldies n classics came up. we're not all that old, but somehow most of us knows more old songs than new ones.
tried to sneak some fries in cos i didn't finish my snack in McD before going in n got caught. the girl actually went real nice n said "we'll keep it for u. pls come get it back when u leave." i never went for the fries.
-
went n got myself pissed drunk last sunday after a corp dinner. a bunch of us just wouldn't hear of going home so early, even tho we had to work the next morning. well, they had to. i'm on noon shift. :P so, a mug of beer actually turned into 2 bottles of brandy, which was gone in less than 2 hrs.
at least i still managed to get back, go up the elevator to my place n undress before i crashed n fell asleep. fell asleep, not passed out.
Saturday, May 14, 2005
would've used lemony snicket's title but so many people are using it that it's became a cliche now
this has been a bad week at work.
got some pretty cheapskate but demanding customers that are asking for more than what they pay for in very rude ways. actually, they're not really asking, just demanding.
they'd buy a low end product with the lowest (read: cheapest) service level, then come demanding for more than they paid for. even screwed me over the phone just because they can't face the fact that they paid for the lowest (again: cheapest) service for a low end product that they think can be used for business-critical purposes. i'm not sure how some of those can be business-critical when they are new purchases and weren't even assimilated into the business yet.
some of them keep bugging me thru phone n email, as if they (each n everyone of the "they"s) are the only one that i have to deal with for the whole week. notably, half of them are from singapore, the other half are upstart taiwanese companies.
i'm not trying to talk crap about singaporeans in general, but hell, those are generally known as the worse possible group of customers, attitude- n behaviour-wise, throughout the whole team, n a few other teams at that. most will expect the worse when it's a singaporean woman on the line. (personally, all the singaporean women i dealt with at work screwed things up pretty bad for me.)
i was probably gonna be able to settle all of these really difficult ones by yesterday, but the whole damn company had to had a company-wise network storm, which resulted in all the phone, internal n external network lines going down for almost 12 hrs before the manage to fix them up temporarily.
when i finally got access to my email n the central system, i'm already screwed by 3 out of 4 of those difficult ones. can't really do much over the wkend. i'll just have to see how it goes next monday.
luckily, we planned a karaoke session last night, n it went great. the bad part is when i headed home, a storm just came outta nowhere. i was totally soaked when i got back. note: i should've bought a god-damned car.
now, today, it's fucking raining again. i was supposed to get groceries n food, but i'm stuck here getting hungry. the only thing i have left in the fridge is a half-finished 1L box of ice-cream. n 2 bottles of vitagen. i seriously don't think that's a good lunch. dammit.
work in 2 hr's time. dammit.
got some pretty cheapskate but demanding customers that are asking for more than what they pay for in very rude ways. actually, they're not really asking, just demanding.
they'd buy a low end product with the lowest (read: cheapest) service level, then come demanding for more than they paid for. even screwed me over the phone just because they can't face the fact that they paid for the lowest (again: cheapest) service for a low end product that they think can be used for business-critical purposes. i'm not sure how some of those can be business-critical when they are new purchases and weren't even assimilated into the business yet.
some of them keep bugging me thru phone n email, as if they (each n everyone of the "they"s) are the only one that i have to deal with for the whole week. notably, half of them are from singapore, the other half are upstart taiwanese companies.
i'm not trying to talk crap about singaporeans in general, but hell, those are generally known as the worse possible group of customers, attitude- n behaviour-wise, throughout the whole team, n a few other teams at that. most will expect the worse when it's a singaporean woman on the line. (personally, all the singaporean women i dealt with at work screwed things up pretty bad for me.)
i was probably gonna be able to settle all of these really difficult ones by yesterday, but the whole damn company had to had a company-wise network storm, which resulted in all the phone, internal n external network lines going down for almost 12 hrs before the manage to fix them up temporarily.
when i finally got access to my email n the central system, i'm already screwed by 3 out of 4 of those difficult ones. can't really do much over the wkend. i'll just have to see how it goes next monday.
luckily, we planned a karaoke session last night, n it went great. the bad part is when i headed home, a storm just came outta nowhere. i was totally soaked when i got back. note: i should've bought a god-damned car.
now, today, it's fucking raining again. i was supposed to get groceries n food, but i'm stuck here getting hungry. the only thing i have left in the fridge is a half-finished 1L box of ice-cream. n 2 bottles of vitagen. i seriously don't think that's a good lunch. dammit.
work in 2 hr's time. dammit.
Wednesday, May 11, 2005
brain in bytes
i was pondering how convenient it would be to have a MMC card slot somewhere behind my ear, which connects directly to my brain, so that i can store/retrieve/share data or memories with people. u know, a la johnny mnemonic, or maybe a live jack like neo's. :)
n then it occured to me that if this was to work, then it'll mean that we have already devised a way to categorize each cell in the brain, and calculate how much storage they have. like, how many bytes each cell can store. or maybe, it's synapse's (the electrical pulse in ur brain) storage size, instead of each cell.
n then, there's the question of how fast the data can be transmitted, like ur average hard drive having 7200rpm or 10krpm with 8MB buffer. then there's the bus width of the interface n FSB... hhhmmm...
a search in google gave some pretty disheartening results:
link1
link2
well, they're obviously right. a human brain is not organized as computer storage is. we don't really operate by binary bits n bytes, but more in a fuzzy approach, without clear cut 1's n 0's.
recall ur first kiss, then recall ur 10th kiss. i bet u ur memory on the 10th one is probably not as clear as the first one. this is what the fuzzy part means - the quality of the data stored. if it's just simple binary, then both should be as easily remember an as clear as each other, if either can be remember at all. 1's n 0's. :)
i guess we're still a long way from johnny mnemonic. we'll all have to stick with the old, slow way of learning things for a while more.
n then it occured to me that if this was to work, then it'll mean that we have already devised a way to categorize each cell in the brain, and calculate how much storage they have. like, how many bytes each cell can store. or maybe, it's synapse's (the electrical pulse in ur brain) storage size, instead of each cell.
n then, there's the question of how fast the data can be transmitted, like ur average hard drive having 7200rpm or 10krpm with 8MB buffer. then there's the bus width of the interface n FSB... hhhmmm...
a search in google gave some pretty disheartening results:
link1
link2
well, they're obviously right. a human brain is not organized as computer storage is. we don't really operate by binary bits n bytes, but more in a fuzzy approach, without clear cut 1's n 0's.
recall ur first kiss, then recall ur 10th kiss. i bet u ur memory on the 10th one is probably not as clear as the first one. this is what the fuzzy part means - the quality of the data stored. if it's just simple binary, then both should be as easily remember an as clear as each other, if either can be remember at all. 1's n 0's. :)
i guess we're still a long way from johnny mnemonic. we'll all have to stick with the old, slow way of learning things for a while more.
Monday, May 9, 2005
oh my god, my roof's leaking!
who would ever think that this'll happen to a condo?
i mean, seriously, i woke up feeling droplets of water on my face early this morning. checked on the window just by my bed, nothing wrong there. then i noticed the tell-tale lines of water coming down from the ceiling. the little space between my bed n the wall is already getting wet.
i was too tired, so i just moved my bed(actually, mattress) a little further away from the wall n went back to sleep. when i woke up 2 hrs later, the side of my mattress closer to the wall is all wet. fuck. there was a whole puddle of water on the floor right next to it from the wall. so i ended up having to turn the whole mattress over to get it dry, all the while hoping that it won't start to smell bad.
i couldn't really take the whole thing out to my tiny little balcony, since it was still raining pretty heavily by then. there weren't any sun the whole day thru anyway.
one good thing is that by the time i got outta bed, i'm already hearing sounds of a few people fixing up the roof. lotsa heavy drilling n hammering. let's just hope that it's really all fixed, cos looking at my lil weather bar, it seems like more heavy rain early tomorrow morning.
i mean, seriously, i woke up feeling droplets of water on my face early this morning. checked on the window just by my bed, nothing wrong there. then i noticed the tell-tale lines of water coming down from the ceiling. the little space between my bed n the wall is already getting wet.
i was too tired, so i just moved my bed(actually, mattress) a little further away from the wall n went back to sleep. when i woke up 2 hrs later, the side of my mattress closer to the wall is all wet. fuck. there was a whole puddle of water on the floor right next to it from the wall. so i ended up having to turn the whole mattress over to get it dry, all the while hoping that it won't start to smell bad.
i couldn't really take the whole thing out to my tiny little balcony, since it was still raining pretty heavily by then. there weren't any sun the whole day thru anyway.
one good thing is that by the time i got outta bed, i'm already hearing sounds of a few people fixing up the roof. lotsa heavy drilling n hammering. let's just hope that it's really all fixed, cos looking at my lil weather bar, it seems like more heavy rain early tomorrow morning.
Wednesday, May 4, 2005
feng shui & the likes
i helped a few friends by asking my mom doing this fortune telling thing for to more or less see how their life is headed n stuff. ended up one of them has a really fucked up life ahead according to 2 different fortune telling thingies my mom did - zi wei dou shu & cheng gu.
i dunno how am i supposed to give the bad news, or whether it'll just be better if i keep it to myself. actually, all of the stuff about this friend's past n also the current behaviour is sickly accurate. which makes me think that the rest of it might just be right.
normally, i don't believe in fortune telling shit. but zi wei dou shu is by far the most (scarily) accurate one that i've come upon, and the reason i'm saying this is that not only that it holds truth to my life, but also whoever's ming pan that i came across of people that i know of. at least half of these are people that my mom doesn't know personally.
so, when it's all sad news, it really worries me how much damage it'll do to the person receiving the news. especially when that someone believes in fortune telling n feng shui stuff so much. actually, come to think of it, people who doesn't really believe in that shit probably wouldn't just asked for a ming pan done out of the blue.
anyway, lillian too said my luck's gonna get a little better. i think she made the whole feng shui thing too commercialized. read thru her zodiac books n you'll see that she avoids telling you all the really bad stuff, n just simply go thru the motions of asking you to becareful. mostly, she just asks you to by crystals/charms that supposedly helps you out. conveniently, her shops sell these. meh~
seriously, the only kind of people that should even go for fortune telling is the kind that can take whatever news comes their way, n deal with it positively. this is the kind of people that do not turn to feng shui whenever things go bad. they shouldn't be the kind that ask for fortune telling, hoping to hear something good because their lives are currently stagnant or their in deep shit.
the power to change your life is in your own hands. fuck feng shui n fortune telling. it's your life. do something about it before you fuck it up.
-edit: fuck. can't get the chinese words to work. damn.
i dunno how am i supposed to give the bad news, or whether it'll just be better if i keep it to myself. actually, all of the stuff about this friend's past n also the current behaviour is sickly accurate. which makes me think that the rest of it might just be right.
normally, i don't believe in fortune telling shit. but zi wei dou shu is by far the most (scarily) accurate one that i've come upon, and the reason i'm saying this is that not only that it holds truth to my life, but also whoever's ming pan that i came across of people that i know of. at least half of these are people that my mom doesn't know personally.
so, when it's all sad news, it really worries me how much damage it'll do to the person receiving the news. especially when that someone believes in fortune telling n feng shui stuff so much. actually, come to think of it, people who doesn't really believe in that shit probably wouldn't just asked for a ming pan done out of the blue.
anyway, lillian too said my luck's gonna get a little better. i think she made the whole feng shui thing too commercialized. read thru her zodiac books n you'll see that she avoids telling you all the really bad stuff, n just simply go thru the motions of asking you to becareful. mostly, she just asks you to by crystals/charms that supposedly helps you out. conveniently, her shops sell these. meh~
seriously, the only kind of people that should even go for fortune telling is the kind that can take whatever news comes their way, n deal with it positively. this is the kind of people that do not turn to feng shui whenever things go bad. they shouldn't be the kind that ask for fortune telling, hoping to hear something good because their lives are currently stagnant or their in deep shit.
the power to change your life is in your own hands. fuck feng shui n fortune telling. it's your life. do something about it before you fuck it up.
-edit: fuck. can't get the chinese words to work. damn.
Saturday, April 30, 2005
getting fat
when you're working so many hours a day, and mostly sitting down after lunch/dinner to work, exercise will not help.
my daily crunches don't do shit. working out at the gym don't do shit. well, admittedly, i got less time for gym now that i'm working so much. gone from 3-4 times a wk to 2-3 times a wk.
resolution: cut fat.
can't seem to think up on anything else. starting surviving on sandwiches if i'm not out eating. simple whole meal bread with ham, cheese n greens. low fat milk, fruit juices instead of soft drinks. i think i might need to cut back on the fruit juices too, even the "natural" ones taste sweeter than i expect.
the really bad thing is how hard it is to control when i'm out eating with friends. really can't find much non-greasy food when you eat out. come to think of it, all the good food are pretty high fat. guess i'm gonna really have to watch out.
i'm all about good food, but i'm more about not looking like danny devito.
my daily crunches don't do shit. working out at the gym don't do shit. well, admittedly, i got less time for gym now that i'm working so much. gone from 3-4 times a wk to 2-3 times a wk.
resolution: cut fat.
can't seem to think up on anything else. starting surviving on sandwiches if i'm not out eating. simple whole meal bread with ham, cheese n greens. low fat milk, fruit juices instead of soft drinks. i think i might need to cut back on the fruit juices too, even the "natural" ones taste sweeter than i expect.
the really bad thing is how hard it is to control when i'm out eating with friends. really can't find much non-greasy food when you eat out. come to think of it, all the good food are pretty high fat. guess i'm gonna really have to watch out.
i'm all about good food, but i'm more about not looking like danny devito.
Monday, April 18, 2005
omfg
i never would've thought it possible, but i fucking woke up at 5+am this morning because of neck pain. it's almost 11pm now, n my neck's still pretty fucking stiff. this is really fucked up, man. couldn't turn my head all the way to either side, n if i tried, it feels like my fucking neck's gonna just go 'pop!!' n breaks.
hell, yeah. one whole paragraph with the f-word in everything single sentence.
seriously, my neck IS *fucking* hurting me. gonna check if someone is willing to take over the last 2 OT hrs of my shift so that i can get off earlier n look for a pillow. i can't even workout properly, freaking neck's hurting like crazy. somehow, now that i think of it, that RM160 pillow i saw back in ipoh sounds pretty good. it's my fucking neck, it's worth more than that.
need to remember to file my income tax too. kept forgetting about it.
hell, yeah. one whole paragraph with the f-word in everything single sentence.
seriously, my neck IS *fucking* hurting me. gonna check if someone is willing to take over the last 2 OT hrs of my shift so that i can get off earlier n look for a pillow. i can't even workout properly, freaking neck's hurting like crazy. somehow, now that i think of it, that RM160 pillow i saw back in ipoh sounds pretty good. it's my fucking neck, it's worth more than that.
need to remember to file my income tax too. kept forgetting about it.
Saturday, April 16, 2005
same old same old
i turned down a couple of invitations from friends for another night of drinking n dancing n trying to pick up girls today. just can't find the strength to make the effort to drink n dance all night.
it dawned on me that there are certain group combinations that i usually do not like to go with. one of these is the oh-so-familiar-around-the-world-type -- a group of guys (read:wolves) on the prowl. if you're a guy, you'll know. you've been there before. well, if you're not a lifeless geek, that is. this combination just makes it so much harder to pick up any decent girls. i mean, c'mon, you're hanging out with a bunch of eyes-shining, saliva-drooling, sexually-depressed (at least they all look like it) guys, huddling around a table, oggling at any chick that passes by. if i were a chick, i'd just make a mental note to not let any of you near me.
the other type is the attention-crazed-girl-with-tons-a-guys combination. like, one or two girls, with tons of guys around, where most of the guys will be like trampling over each other to get to the (only) girl in the group. the girl's probably just with y'all cuz she don't want no cheesy strangers trying to pick her up. n that means y'all ain't getting laid with her either.
most people usually go with a pretty well-balanced group of guys n girls. you'd probably have to work at it to get anywhere in picking up girls in such a group if you don't have anything special (like me.), but at least you won't look such a loser unless you really screwed up big time.
the best is a guy with a bunch of pretty decent looking female friends. they don't have to be really hot or downright gorgeous, just decent looking. as far as i know, nothing screams out to women around that there's something special about you than being in a group like this in a club. i know, cuz when i club in such a group, i usually get picked up by chicks, instead of the other way around. honestly, everytime i'm out in such a group, i usually end up with someone not in the group at the end of the night.
so, when the invitations i got were all from the first two combinations, i just kinda felt tired to even go. well, i haven't really told anyone i'm not going yet, although that's probably what i'm gonna do tonight.
my neck's been giving me problems lately. the chairs and the cubes in the company just don't quite sit well with me. no matter how i sit, it just don't feel comfortable, n i've been having this neck pain since about a week into the job.
tried to get a pillow for it. there was one that i know of from dunlopillo, made from natural rubber, around RM70++. looked for it when i was back in ipoh last time, but it seems like the pillow is not produced anymore. they came up with this new model, feels less solid, supposed to be better materials. costs about RM160!! fuck. i'm not that rich yet.
i'll probably need to see a doctor if this doesn't let up.
it dawned on me that there are certain group combinations that i usually do not like to go with. one of these is the oh-so-familiar-around-the-world-type -- a group of guys (read:wolves) on the prowl. if you're a guy, you'll know. you've been there before. well, if you're not a lifeless geek, that is. this combination just makes it so much harder to pick up any decent girls. i mean, c'mon, you're hanging out with a bunch of eyes-shining, saliva-drooling, sexually-depressed (at least they all look like it) guys, huddling around a table, oggling at any chick that passes by. if i were a chick, i'd just make a mental note to not let any of you near me.
the other type is the attention-crazed-girl-with-tons-a-guys combination. like, one or two girls, with tons of guys around, where most of the guys will be like trampling over each other to get to the (only) girl in the group. the girl's probably just with y'all cuz she don't want no cheesy strangers trying to pick her up. n that means y'all ain't getting laid with her either.
most people usually go with a pretty well-balanced group of guys n girls. you'd probably have to work at it to get anywhere in picking up girls in such a group if you don't have anything special (like me.), but at least you won't look such a loser unless you really screwed up big time.
the best is a guy with a bunch of pretty decent looking female friends. they don't have to be really hot or downright gorgeous, just decent looking. as far as i know, nothing screams out to women around that there's something special about you than being in a group like this in a club. i know, cuz when i club in such a group, i usually get picked up by chicks, instead of the other way around. honestly, everytime i'm out in such a group, i usually end up with someone not in the group at the end of the night.
so, when the invitations i got were all from the first two combinations, i just kinda felt tired to even go. well, i haven't really told anyone i'm not going yet, although that's probably what i'm gonna do tonight.
my neck's been giving me problems lately. the chairs and the cubes in the company just don't quite sit well with me. no matter how i sit, it just don't feel comfortable, n i've been having this neck pain since about a week into the job.
tried to get a pillow for it. there was one that i know of from dunlopillo, made from natural rubber, around RM70++. looked for it when i was back in ipoh last time, but it seems like the pillow is not produced anymore. they came up with this new model, feels less solid, supposed to be better materials. costs about RM160!! fuck. i'm not that rich yet.
i'll probably need to see a doctor if this doesn't let up.
Tuesday, April 12, 2005
it's been a while
it sucks to say this, but if it's not cos i'm sick, i probably would not be free enough to be sitting home, typing this right now.
first off, i think i'm starting to like typing like this allover again. no more politically correct punctuations or caps. well, at least not that much. all those politically n grammatically correct corp emails have been killing me for the past 2+ mths. geez.
on to the sick part. i got food poisoning.
i shoulda known that the beef rendang for lunch last saturday wasn't that good for me, especially when it tasted a lil on the weird side. but hey, i can't complain after working non-stop for 6 hrs before i can get to my meal, sitting cold on my desk.
i'd pretty much suspected food poisoning on sat nite. i'm a glutton, n i had to take a huge dish of fried beehoon with half a bbq stingray for dinner.
so, after 2 days of being friendly with my toilet bowl, not to mention gallons of water gulped down to avoid dehydration, i finally gave in n saw a doctor. that basically told me what i've known so far: mild food poisoning, drinks lotsa water, add some salt just to replenish whatever u lost. blah. the doctor even gave me packets of salt-mixtures, with a cute name like oral rehydration salts. poo.
bet he charge my cost centre a lot with that. i coulda just made do with good old 100 plus.
anyway, it's been a while.
works been hectic, seriously crazy. now i know, for sure, that in general singaporeans are so much ruder than malaysians. aussies are pretty friendly people, most of the time. Dell servers n parts are freaking expensive. (S$57 for a 1-drop SCSI cable) Veritas' support n services fucking suck. it's at least a hundred times harder to understand the indian accent on the phone than in real life. microsoft ppl in india are arrogant eggheads. do not hang a banner that asks ppl to sign to join in at 5 ft off the ground. it's a big deal if u bring non-halal food into a halal restaurant, the place has to be practically hosed down. your finger prints are not that clear if you're really cold. noise-cancelling headphones are the bomb! the slim PSTwo is pretty fucking fragile, u won't want a child near it. some friends are better forgotten. O2 XDA II mini is so freaking hard to find in malaysia. my mom's cooking is still the best. even though i don't have a car, i'd rather invest in property than buy a car. it is seriously hard to source for a 2nd hand 21-inch CRT monitor in good condition. we're definitely not gonna get tekken 5 in malaysian arcades. naruto might be licensed, but the subs are still around.
oh. n i need to come up with a new interface/design for this blog. this current one fucking suck.
first off, i think i'm starting to like typing like this allover again. no more politically correct punctuations or caps. well, at least not that much. all those politically n grammatically correct corp emails have been killing me for the past 2+ mths. geez.
on to the sick part. i got food poisoning.
i shoulda known that the beef rendang for lunch last saturday wasn't that good for me, especially when it tasted a lil on the weird side. but hey, i can't complain after working non-stop for 6 hrs before i can get to my meal, sitting cold on my desk.
i'd pretty much suspected food poisoning on sat nite. i'm a glutton, n i had to take a huge dish of fried beehoon with half a bbq stingray for dinner.
so, after 2 days of being friendly with my toilet bowl, not to mention gallons of water gulped down to avoid dehydration, i finally gave in n saw a doctor. that basically told me what i've known so far: mild food poisoning, drinks lotsa water, add some salt just to replenish whatever u lost. blah. the doctor even gave me packets of salt-mixtures, with a cute name like oral rehydration salts. poo.
bet he charge my cost centre a lot with that. i coulda just made do with good old 100 plus.
anyway, it's been a while.
works been hectic, seriously crazy. now i know, for sure, that in general singaporeans are so much ruder than malaysians. aussies are pretty friendly people, most of the time. Dell servers n parts are freaking expensive. (S$57 for a 1-drop SCSI cable) Veritas' support n services fucking suck. it's at least a hundred times harder to understand the indian accent on the phone than in real life. microsoft ppl in india are arrogant eggheads. do not hang a banner that asks ppl to sign to join in at 5 ft off the ground. it's a big deal if u bring non-halal food into a halal restaurant, the place has to be practically hosed down. your finger prints are not that clear if you're really cold. noise-cancelling headphones are the bomb! the slim PSTwo is pretty fucking fragile, u won't want a child near it. some friends are better forgotten. O2 XDA II mini is so freaking hard to find in malaysia. my mom's cooking is still the best. even though i don't have a car, i'd rather invest in property than buy a car. it is seriously hard to source for a 2nd hand 21-inch CRT monitor in good condition. we're definitely not gonna get tekken 5 in malaysian arcades. naruto might be licensed, but the subs are still around.
oh. n i need to come up with a new interface/design for this blog. this current one fucking suck.
Sunday, January 23, 2005
hair
This is probably a sick thought.
You know when you towel yourself dry after a shower, and you'd never be really really dry anyway? Mostly, it'll take a minute or two after that before you really dry off, depending on the humidity of your surroundings.
Here's the thought: What if you're really really hairy??
I mean like, the type where you not only have hair on chest and ass, but even on the back of your arms, your back, stomach... everywhere!
How long does it take for you to get totally dry after getting wet? So do you wear anything until you're really dried? Or do you just sit under the fan naked? Or maybe use a hair-dryer?
You know when you towel yourself dry after a shower, and you'd never be really really dry anyway? Mostly, it'll take a minute or two after that before you really dry off, depending on the humidity of your surroundings.
Here's the thought: What if you're really really hairy??
I mean like, the type where you not only have hair on chest and ass, but even on the back of your arms, your back, stomach... everywhere!
How long does it take for you to get totally dry after getting wet? So do you wear anything until you're really dried? Or do you just sit under the fan naked? Or maybe use a hair-dryer?
Thursday, January 20, 2005
softskills training
These 2 days of softkills training were really fun. I didn't really expect it to be so easy. I was just basically saying the logical and boom! the answer was right. :)
There are quite some of the stuff that we had to memorize and go by the rules as the company's trying to protect their corporate/professional image.
Made quite a few new friends here. Mostly, I'd say, are the kinda of friends you say hi to and have fun with only. Not the type to go into anything deeper. Seems like everyone secretly looking after themselves.
It was obvious from how everyone was keeping things to themselves, even when asked to share, and only sharing when there is no way to escape it. Very typical Asian culture. Everyone keeps their own knowledge to themselves. So whoever that has enough to share, but still able to hide enough for themselves, will definitely excel.
Kinda sad that this is happening in an American company.
There are quite some of the stuff that we had to memorize and go by the rules as the company's trying to protect their corporate/professional image.
Made quite a few new friends here. Mostly, I'd say, are the kinda of friends you say hi to and have fun with only. Not the type to go into anything deeper. Seems like everyone secretly looking after themselves.
It was obvious from how everyone was keeping things to themselves, even when asked to share, and only sharing when there is no way to escape it. Very typical Asian culture. Everyone keeps their own knowledge to themselves. So whoever that has enough to share, but still able to hide enough for themselves, will definitely excel.
Kinda sad that this is happening in an American company.
Friday, January 14, 2005
expectations at work
Internal Process Briefing at noon today. Kinda made things a lot more clearer on what is required of us at our jobs. A lot is expected of us. That's very understandable as huge corporations like these wanna maintain their professional image. Luckily, the company does ranked on the top of the remuneration and benefits lists on the last survey conducted for my job around the Asia-Pacific region. Hopefully, they live up to that.
Thursday, January 13, 2005
a new beginning
It's been almost a week since I started work here. Things are pretty OK so far, even though the pressure is already slowly piling up.
Last Saturday I was still pretty doubtful if I'll be able to get a reliable second hand bike at a fair price. Well, I did go a lil over budget, but the bike's pretty good so far. No hick-ups yet. Fuel consumption is nothing to brag about, since it's one of those really fuel-friendly Honda models. I kinda wish it'll go faster before I get to full throttle. :) Anyhow, weaving through traffic to work beats being stuck at a jam for an hour. I just have to be more cautious with it during the night. It's been over a year since I'd last ridden a bike, and now I'm already speeding. :P
The room's getting a lil warmer as the rainy season leaves. I guess it's gonna be all hot and stuffy during the afternoons from now on til at least sometime early march. Maybe getting an aircon unit IS a good idea after all. Still, I'm on a really tight budget here if I really wanna save up for an MBA.
Work-wise, everything is picking up. I'm in a for a month of intensive training. Whether I ace through it or not, I'll know by February 14th. Seeing as how skilled and knowledgable my colleagues, even the new-joiners, are at their work, I think it's time I really put an effort into what I do. Laying back an doing only what's enough to get by won't work anymore.
Goodbye easy life, hello battlezone. :)
Everyone's treating me quite alright, and has been really helpful so far. I'd finally gotten a test system that nobody wants for my own use until I get mine. No one seems to know when exactly I'll be getting my systems. Some of the guys that have joined more than a month ago just got theirs. Some other guys that joined with me already gotten theirs on the second day of work. Being in a higher priority queue does get you stuff faster. ¬.¬
Barely calculated out the OT I can expect to be getting, and it looks quite attractive so far. I guess it IS good money if I get the chance to, and is willing to, work OT. I'm all OK with not having much of a life (as most people put it especially when they mean not getting drunk or getting laid), if it means getting tons of money in my bank. Hell, I wanna have lots in my account so I can either take up more certifications, or just plain travel more on my holidays.
Granted, there are tons of babes in the office. My not specifically liking a certain type makes it ridiculously easy for me to find a lot of them hot. :P Being the realist that I am, I'm also painfully (or maybe luckily) aware that with my current social standing, financial background, and probably even my physical appearance, getting any of them would be difficult to say the least.
Even though Susi keeps telling me some of them are pretty damned desperate. I kinda figured that they're desperate for money, power, or mostly just whites. :)
Anyway, money's the first priority now. It's what I need to get an MBA and probably a few other professional certs so that I can get somewhere higher up on the corporate ladder in a shorter time.
Last Saturday I was still pretty doubtful if I'll be able to get a reliable second hand bike at a fair price. Well, I did go a lil over budget, but the bike's pretty good so far. No hick-ups yet. Fuel consumption is nothing to brag about, since it's one of those really fuel-friendly Honda models. I kinda wish it'll go faster before I get to full throttle. :) Anyhow, weaving through traffic to work beats being stuck at a jam for an hour. I just have to be more cautious with it during the night. It's been over a year since I'd last ridden a bike, and now I'm already speeding. :P
The room's getting a lil warmer as the rainy season leaves. I guess it's gonna be all hot and stuffy during the afternoons from now on til at least sometime early march. Maybe getting an aircon unit IS a good idea after all. Still, I'm on a really tight budget here if I really wanna save up for an MBA.
Work-wise, everything is picking up. I'm in a for a month of intensive training. Whether I ace through it or not, I'll know by February 14th. Seeing as how skilled and knowledgable my colleagues, even the new-joiners, are at their work, I think it's time I really put an effort into what I do. Laying back an doing only what's enough to get by won't work anymore.
Goodbye easy life, hello battlezone. :)
Everyone's treating me quite alright, and has been really helpful so far. I'd finally gotten a test system that nobody wants for my own use until I get mine. No one seems to know when exactly I'll be getting my systems. Some of the guys that have joined more than a month ago just got theirs. Some other guys that joined with me already gotten theirs on the second day of work. Being in a higher priority queue does get you stuff faster. ¬.¬
Barely calculated out the OT I can expect to be getting, and it looks quite attractive so far. I guess it IS good money if I get the chance to, and is willing to, work OT. I'm all OK with not having much of a life (as most people put it especially when they mean not getting drunk or getting laid), if it means getting tons of money in my bank. Hell, I wanna have lots in my account so I can either take up more certifications, or just plain travel more on my holidays.
Granted, there are tons of babes in the office. My not specifically liking a certain type makes it ridiculously easy for me to find a lot of them hot. :P Being the realist that I am, I'm also painfully (or maybe luckily) aware that with my current social standing, financial background, and probably even my physical appearance, getting any of them would be difficult to say the least.
Even though Susi keeps telling me some of them are pretty damned desperate. I kinda figured that they're desperate for money, power, or mostly just whites. :)
Anyway, money's the first priority now. It's what I need to get an MBA and probably a few other professional certs so that I can get somewhere higher up on the corporate ladder in a shorter time.
Saturday, January 1, 2005
new year. yay?
1st Jan. :) Didn't even celebrate last night. It's not that I agree with the PM about mourning for the deaths of the tsunami incident, it's just that I didn't feel like celebrating in the first place.
I'm not very much affected by the whole thing, although I do agree that it's really tragic. The dead are dead, but the living will have so much more to deal with, especially those who has not only lost their families and loved ones, but also their livelihoods and their future.
Ultimately, it's a very good move for leaders of the region to cancel all official celebrations for the new year. It will certainly make the coutry look bad if they have celebrations that soon after such a huge tragedy. So, fuck you to those who complain about governments cancelling celebrations. You people should think ahead more instead of just worrying about where you're gonna get drunk on New Year's Eve and who you'll be getting laid with.
Sent some money in to a local charity/relieve fund for tsunami victims in Malaysia under mom's name yesterday. It's not much, but it's about as much as I can spare, seeing how my current financial situation isn't all that good either. Any bit helps, I hope.
I'm not very much affected by the whole thing, although I do agree that it's really tragic. The dead are dead, but the living will have so much more to deal with, especially those who has not only lost their families and loved ones, but also their livelihoods and their future.
Ultimately, it's a very good move for leaders of the region to cancel all official celebrations for the new year. It will certainly make the coutry look bad if they have celebrations that soon after such a huge tragedy. So, fuck you to those who complain about governments cancelling celebrations. You people should think ahead more instead of just worrying about where you're gonna get drunk on New Year's Eve and who you'll be getting laid with.
Sent some money in to a local charity/relieve fund for tsunami victims in Malaysia under mom's name yesterday. It's not much, but it's about as much as I can spare, seeing how my current financial situation isn't all that good either. Any bit helps, I hope.
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