settling into the new/old place

i've finally moved back to penang yesterday.
took up the small room in the old place that i was staying before, since the fella moved out. the room is really pretty damn small. i only brought half the stuff that i had in penang here and already the room is freaking crowded.
here's a corner where i'm using boxes to put my pc for the time being. i'll need to get a small table that can just fit the dual monitors soon. it's cracking my back sitting like this while on the pc.


the fella that last stayed here with his girlfriend was acting weirder and weirder. according to one of my housemates, he went cuckoo over a few unwashed dishes and nearly started a fight because of that. sometimes when he's fed up with stuff, he'll take a knife and start jumping and stabbing mineral water bottles. everyone else was glad that he moved out. i still remember waking up to clinking sounds at 2am in the morning to find him on the floor doing flies with dumbbells right in front of my room door.

well, work starts on tuesday. bad news has been steadily coming in through friends, latest being 2 more of the better fellas in the team just resigned last week. i'll be next if i find a better offer.

wrecking a new car at home.

this came roughly one and a half weeks ago.


along with these.


a week after i got it, i backed it into a wall in my house. so it really seems like my leg is not fit enough to drive yet, cos i'm thinking it's mostly due to me still not being able to control the gas well.

the car doesn't look too wrecked from the outside, but according to my bro's "professional evaluation by visual examination", the whole rear bumper and the back panel will probably need to be replaced, along with a few other things.


the wall's pretty bad. this section of the wall is mostly made up of bricks, without actual supporting beams, so the whole thing sorta looks crumbling already even though the impact wasn't too great.
here's a pic of the damage from the outside.


damage from the inside.


right now, a couple of masons are over to fix it. they've already wrecked most of the wall now. after this is getting the window grill to be fixed, then wall it up again. it'll probably take 3 days to complete.

my recovery progress has been good these couple of months. the last checkup in march had good results. the doctor asked me to start walking with only 1 crutch, which i'd already been doing secretly for a couple of weeks before that. right now, i can already walk without crutches, but with a very pronounced limp. it seems like my leg has forgotten the correct way to walk. :)
the next checkup will be mid may. hopefully, i'll have everything settled by then to get back to work. the only thing left now is to get a new place to stay in penang.

things for my car are mostly settled. i should be able to get it by this week or latest early next week. it's not a very good time to be getting a vios now. the latest face life will probably be out this october, a yaris 4-door sedan rebranded as vios. i'd wait for that if i didn't need a car now for work. the idea of taking cabs for trips everywhere til the car is out doesn't really sit well with me, especially with cab fares in penang being quite high.

work might not be all good news either. it seems that in my absense, the management had everything arranged to their liking and things has been going on for some time the way they wanted. i'm the part that would unbalance the whole thing now if i went back. so, instead of giving me a much deserved promotion, they're trying to push me over to another team.
although this new team is more prestigious than the 1 i'm currently in, it's still not a promotion. plus, i'll be having bad shift work, extra responsibilities and without much added benefits or increment. not to mention it's kinda like starting all over with my past 2 years efforts in the current team mostly wasted.
i'm just hoping that i'll be lucky enough to land a better job elsewhere soon. job market isn't all that great lately.

what happened in these few months, part 4

moving all my stuff back from penang cost me RM500, including 2 movers. the lorry owner's james neighbour. i kinda get the feeling it wasn't really that expensive, and that he probably put some in his pocket, but i'm just relieved that things were settled. i tried to sell off the queen-sized mattress, fridge and aircon before moving, but couldn't manage to. so these 3 things are actually lying around in ipoh now, not being used. if i ever need to move to an unfurnished house again, i might bring them with me. another RM500 for moving is cheaper than buying them again.

earlier in january, mom discovered termites in the wardrobe in my room here. a lot of my old stuff were infested and totally damage. i guess probably around half of the stuff i kept in ipoh were thrown away because of that. the rest were all moved and packed into huge plastic boxes that we bought later. most of the wooden stuff were disposed off, just in case. and so, all the stuff that i moved back from penang were also repacked into huge plastic boxes.

around a week before chinese new year, i was finally able to move back upstairs. bro was giving a lot of trouble by then, not willing to help dismantle the bed and move the mattress upstairs. mom got really pissed with that and had a friend helped. i was totally useless in that. at the time, i still needed both crutches to be able to walk. anyway, we managed to get the living room back to how it was supposed to be a week before chinese new year. i know mom takes pride in how she designed and kept the place looking good. it'll be a pity if it doesn't look well when a lot of people are visiting during that period.

anyway, bro was giving a lot of trouble to everyone at home. truth is, he's been a total different person since coming back from the UK. before that, he was always good to mom, very helpful, and kind. after he got back, the good part was only to his friends. he's gotten this attitude that somehow says "i've been overseas for 6 years. i've seen more than you and i'm better than you". very bad attitude when talking to mom too, as if he's feeling that mom's more of a burden as she gets older.

all this while, he's telling his friends and our relatives that the reason he's back from the UK, and the reason he doesn't want a job outside of ipoh is because of mom. the truth is, he's hardly home and is always out with friends until late at night during work days, and out the whole day when he's off. i've seen the looks and the tone of voice of his when mom's asked him to drive her anywhere or help her with anything at all, and it's not nice. i feel like slapping him sometimes when he pretends to be all good in front of other people.

he's also became very lazy - doesn't make his own bed when he wakes up, doesn't help with chores around the house, doesn't even keep himself clean. i've been telling him that mom likes the place clean. chores like mopping the floor, cleaning the windows, fans and toilets need to be done. there're only 3 of us, and i'm mostly in penang, so it's either he does it or let mom do all these at her age herself. it's like i'm talking to a wall. he just doesn't listen at all.

mom got really fed up with his attitude the day before chinese new year, and scolded him. instead of realizing his mistakes, or just taking it in stride, he yelled back at mom. i tried to stop the whole yelling match, but i guess mom got it pent up inside too long, i couldn't do much. that ended in him just driving off and mom crying the whole afternoon, then asked him to move out after chinese new year when he got back. after that he never even spoke to mom throughout the festive season.

i spoke with him about the whole thing a couple of weeks after that, after he had enough time to really think about it and cool down. he still insisted that he did nothing wrong, did everything he can for the family, we just don't know how to appreciate him, and that he is too disappointed to care anymore. he said he'll move out soon and is already looking for a place. i made it clear to him that we can't stop him from moving out, but he should at least make peace with mom. if he just moved out like that, it'll be showing that he really doesn't want the family anymore and there will be no turning back. i left him thinking about that.

it's been one and a half months already, the two of them are still not on talking terms, more like avoiding each other. bro's still living at home, but is out everyday, doesn't come home for meals at all. i'm now the person to relay messages between them. both of them are just too stubborn to make an obvious first move to resolve this. i wonder how long this will go on.

i'm posting this from my mom's pc, while waiting for a new graphic card for my newly assembled pc. :)

what happened in these few months, part 3

so, i got discharged from the hospital on dec 15 last year. lied in the back of my brothers perodua myvi, with tons of pillows around my leg, all the way back to ipoh. i was hoping that the pillows will help support and also minimize the effects of the bumps along the road. (yeah, malaysian highways still have bumps occasionally) in the end, the pillows didn't really help that much.

mom bought a new single bed, along with a new mattress and put it downstairs. the whole living room was rearranged, with 1 corner's furniture shifted away to accommodate the bed. i still couldn't go upstairs to my bedroom yet, so that was where i slept and spent most of my days for a while.

my ex ling got wind of what happened from this big-mouthed florist that we both know and came visited. the florist knew cos he was asking about me when my mom was over there buying flowers, before i got back to ipoh. she changed quite a bit, looked better than before. but that's where the good things stopped. in a 30 minute conversation, i found out that she'd became this really super superficial person. it made me glad that we never got much further than 2 years.

i transfered all my history from pantai mutiara back to ipoh specialist centre, consulting amother doctor while i'm here as it was easier for me to not travel so far. my first visit was to get the stitches removed and to have the doctor, dr. leung, revise the x-rays and stuff.

yes, i had to have the stitches removed!! that's why i mentioned earlier that the procedure i went through was really out-dated. (refer to part 1) 19 stitches on my thigh, and 8 on my butt.
to top it all off, dr. leung actually told me that with the newer procedures that he use, i didn't even need to have stitches on my side of my thigh. the small opening on my butt would've been enough to realign the bones, insert the steel rod, and even screw it tight if needed. at that point, i decided on two thing - i will switch everything back to dr leung, and if there ever was a way to sue the doctor from penang on this, i will.

the next time i went back for a fresh round of x-ray was in the middle of january. by that time, i can already get upstairs, very slowly. mom was still pretty worried about my falling down the stairs, so she forbade me from moving back up, and i was still sleeping in the living room. (by this time, i'd also finished a few novels and ps2 games, including ffxii, and gotten pretty damn good in tekken 5. that's pretty much says how much i get outta the house, which is almost not at all)

the x-ray showed signs of the bones growing back together. it looked like dust gathering around the part where the bone was broken in two. the little chip that broke off from the side will be the problem, said dr. leung. before that piece grows back together with the rest, the bottom part of the bone will be able to be rotated slightly, which will cause my foot to point outwards. this has been going on all the while and i've been consciously rotating it back to the correct position all this while. funny how i forgot to mention this earlier.

i was already asking him when can i expect to drive and get back to work. he just laughed and asked me to be patient, estimating another 3-4 months, went ahead and gave me two month's worth of medical leave. new medication included calcium and another 2 types of pills for the damaged cartilage in my knee. those cost me almost RM300. of course, my company wasn't very thrilled about this, since they have to pay me even though i'm not at work. :)

i think that was the same day when the next bad news came. the new place i moved into (i haven't really lived there yet, just dumped my stuff there) had some contract issues. the house owner wanted to sell the place and gave everyone one month's notice. according to what i heard from my (didn't quite make it) housemate, the owner refused to fix the problems with the water and the piping, saying that he will be selling the house anyway, and if we didn't like it, we can fix it ourselves or move out. (i found out later that the owner is a singaporean-indian, based on experience dealing with this type at work, i guess it's just typical) so everyone ended up moving out, and i had to get help to move all my stuff back to ipoh.

what happened in these few months, part 2

i was in this temporary room with 2 beds. it's where they put people after an operation, before the actual room the patient wants is sorted out.

my mom and bro were there first thing in the morning. mom worried the whole night even though i already called and told her that i only broke a leg, everywhere else was ok except for minor scratches, the ct-scan was all clear too. after seeing the truth of it, she was in a better shape. :) anyway, the worse part at the time, besides my leg, was my lower lip. it was all swollen and raw.

james and a few other were there a bit later. then a few of my superiors. the doctor came by, told me the surgery went well, that i'll be in pain for some time (as if i can't feel that), that i'll be able to start learning to walk with crutches in 3 days, then discharged within the week.
with the pain that i was in, i was really skeptical of that.

towards noon, one of the staff nurses came by to move me to a room that i was entitled to according to my company's insurance. i was all too happy to move because the old man on the bed next to me turns on the tv too loud.

the nurse told me that it'll be on the 3rd floor. imagine my surprise when i was pushed out of the elevator and was pushed towards the direction pointed to by a sign that says "executive suite" (or something like that). the room was huge, nice bed, sofas, fridge, tv, and a big closet for clothes. my mom was wondering whether they had me in the wrong place, which i totally agreed. my brother was going on about how the room is more like made for visitors than me, cos i couldn't move anyway, which i totally agreed with too.
after much checking, the nurse told me that they actually did make a mistake. i'm entitled to the twin sharing rooms downstairs. i was too tired by then, so i just told her that i'd pay whatever extra that the insurance won't cover. she was all too happy about that. :)
(later, i found out that they're still gonna cover everything for me. i haven't been back yet to confirm everything, hopefully they won't let me down on this.)

so, i ended up in a nice room with a nice view for the next 2 weeks. i over-stayed cos i had to arrange for the rest of my stuff to be moved to the new place, and also wait for my bro to be free to come drive me back to ipoh for my recovery.

i also had to make a police report so that i can claim from squall's insurance. the bastard didn't want to take any responsibility and just said that his insurance will take care of everything when i ask him. after that, he just stopped calling or answering calls. til now, i still feel that there should be something in the law to make people like these bear responsibility, even though they have insurance.
the police report was a hassle. i had to travel all the way to the hq in georgetown to make the report. they wouldn't send anyone over to the hospital to take the statement. another fine example of how malaysian public service is in total contradiction to it's supposed goal - provide convenience and simplicity to life.

the nurses are great. very friendly, except for one. i have no idea what's wrong with her. anyway, i made a couple of pretty promising acquaintances with a couple of them. i'm not sure if anything will come out of those, but we're still in contact now. :)

learning to walk on crutches was easier than i thought. i was all over the room after a couple of lessons despite the pain. it was a really healthy change from being confined to the bed. i was really glad it wasn't too hard, cos they'll be my best friend for at least a few months.

the 2 weeks in the hospital more or less let me know who are the best friends i had in penang at the time. i didn't really let too many people know about the whole thing, didn't want to make a big fuss out of it, but news traveled efficiently, especially in the office (thanks to james for scaring some people by sending them email about my accident, haha). quite a lot of people came, some came everyday. +2 even left me her ipod speakers/charger so that i wouldn't be too bored, which (somehow, unknown to me) i broke. the thing still charges, but the speakers died. i still have yet to pay her back for that.

updates updates updates (or what happened in these few months, part 1)

updates updates updates (or what happened in these few months, part 1)

i took the phone that was on the previous post for repairs under warranty, and got a phone call that it was fixed later in the afternoon. pretty good service from samsung in ipoh. :)

now, the story is not really about the phone, but the phone's malfunctioning is probably part of the aftermath of the story. after all, besides the (probably) huge shock that the phone has from my fall during the accident, i also kept dropping it while i was in the hospital. being pretty much immobile as i was during the first week, reaching over to the night stand for the phone was an ordeal. so, to cut the bullshit short, the story is about my accident.

the when:
november 28, 2006. after work, on the way home. this is in the middle of my bad luck streak, which started roughly 2 months earlier when the landlord suddenly said the apartment is sold, and that we all had to move, then after i found and confirmed another place, the apartment buyer didn't wanna buy the place anymore. oh, and i was supposed to move into the new place on nov 30th. fuck.

the where:
which is a very embarrassing topic as i've been using the same road almost everyday for 2 years, even had an accident on it now, and i still can't remember the name of the road. it's just this big main road in front of PISA, right at the junction where traffic can cross from the other side of the road to turn into Relau.

the rest of it:
i was on my way home after work, slowing down when nearing the above mentioned junction as usual. some bikes were waiting to cross, but waiting by the side as usual since i'm coming on the main road. a car just swerved out from behind the bikes suddenly, crossing the road right in front of me. i couldn't stop or avoid him at all as it happened too suddenly. bang!
the next thing i knew, i was on my back on the road. no pain then, i was totally conscious. my first response was to put my feet under me and get up, and that's when i felt my right leg just wiggled a bit when i tried to move it. so i looked at it and found my right thigh in an S-shape. my first thought at that was actually "this is gonna be fucking inconvenient".

thinking back on it all, i'm still amazed by what i did next.

so, the fella who hit me (which i later found out, calls himself squall. *gah*) got out of the car and wanted to help me up, so i just shaked him off and told him to leave me alone and call an ambulance. i just got my phone out and started calling friends and colleagues to arrange for my company's insurance coverage, someone to come get my stuff etc.

anyway, the ambulance got there in less than 15 minutes. by that time, the pain already sunk in and i was sweating and gritting my teeth when talking because of it. well, the paramedic was surprised that i was still conscious enough to make decisions. i had him pass me my ipod and wallet, which were both in the pockets on the right side of my cargo pants before cutting my pants open to check the damage. i asked them to take me to pantai mutiara, which was the closest private hospital, instead of the general hospital coz that'll probably take another hour due to the heavy traffic after work.

the worse part was being lifted into the ambulance, bumped inside it all the way to the hospital, then being lifted onto the hospital bed. the whole thing happened before any painkillers. the painkillers came after the doctor had a look at me. after that, being lifted onto the x-ray table and the ct-scan machine wasn't that bad.

the exact term the doctor (which, later i found to be not that good) used to describe my leg injury is "a fracture in the femur". that doesn't sound very serious, does it? i mean, people get fractured bones when they fall down in a basketball court. that's exactly how misleading some medical terms sound. the real description in this case is probably something like "thigh bone broken in two, with a chip on the side, muscles torn but luckily no open wound on the outside".

james and lai, two of my colleagues were there trying to help. great guys, both of them. :)

the surgery was 3 hours later. before which, i told the doctor i don't even want a single finger to be conscious of what's happening during the surgery. basically, they cut open my thigh on the side, and also a smaller cut on my ass, rearrange the bones, then sew it back up. this procedure, as i found out much later after getting back to ipoh, if fucking out-dated.

i woke up the next morning in pain even with pain killers. just bandages, no cast.

it pays to flirt (with sales-girls)

actually, the correct title should be -
my phone got fucking stolen!
BUT, i was having such a good time buying a new one, my mood's all good now.
anyway, i was in the office, my ipod and phone were side by side at the inner side of my desk as usual. i still remember checking the phone cos i got a miss call and some messages.
2 hours later, the phone's gone but the ipod was still there. grr.
i'm not very pisssed about losing the phone, although i only got it towards end of last year. it only cost me around RM250. what really pissed me off is that i lost over 100 contacts that were saved in my SIM card. it'll take me pretty damn long to get back those that i can still contact through other means. i dunno what to do about the others.
so, i went straight to get a phone after work. i've already suspended my phone account after i confirmed that i really lost the phone, not misplaced it. i can get a new SIM activated tomorrow at lunch, so all i need now is a new phone.
as usual, i looked through the few models that caught my eye the past few months. nokia N80 (RM2.4k), sony ericsson K800(RM1.9k), samsung D840 (RM1.5k+), samsung D900 (RM1.8k).
well, i didn't wanna spend more than RM2k. so even though i really really love the N80, that's outta the question. the K800 was around the same, cos adding in the memory card will bring it over 2k. D900 is just not that worth it, considering the only difference between it and D840 was a 3M-pixel camera. i don't need that.
so, i started bargaining with the sales-girl. asked for a memory card for the phone too, since the built in memory is 70MB. she was quoting me RM150 for the memory card. (she probably didn't know that i know that the card is selling for around RM80-90 outside...) so i started bargaining more. well, it ended up more like flirting and i got myself the phone plus a 512MB memory card for a total of RM1450. AND, i got
her phone number. :) kinda cute, so i'm thinking whether i'd call her out when i got my SIM tomorrow.
anyway, here's the phone. nice, eh?
specs

how may i be of service?

women in the workplace are actually more empowered than we are led to believe.

it's true. this empowerment doesn't just come from corporate or workplace policies (ie, harrassments n stuff), but from their male counterparts thinking more with their penises than their brains. of course, in most cases, this is subject to one or more of the following: 1)she's hot; 2)there aren't much competition around; 3)she's not butt ugly.

case in point, the place where i work. it's famous among the companies around there area for having lotsa chicks, and mostly hot ones at that. although i don't really agree to the second part, but beauty is in the eye of the beholder, i digress.

now, here's what most people doesn't know - the abundance of the fairer sex is only limited to a few departments, with sales having the most, obviously. from my experience with them, i know they are used to getting their way with things and people. if wiles, charms AND threats don't work, you will get an email from their boss, or to YOUR boss, or worse. of course, when it's outside of work they have most guys by their balls, and this is only half metaphorically.

those in departments overflowing with male testosterone (mine being one of those) doesn't even need to grab anyone's ball to get what they want. guys will line up to lick their feet and ask to be of service in whichever way possible. again, this is subjected to the 3 conditions above, 'cos i can definitely see a couple of them in my department not getting any special treatment at all.

so, on and around valentine's day, christmas and almost any overly-commercialized holidays, flowers and gifts flood into the office, and cluttering the desks of (almost) every non butt-ugly chick. i still remember this huge ratan bird cage with a half-foot tall teddy bear holding a heart, sitting on a swing with flowers on the bottom from last year. the whole thing was probably 2-3 feet tall and this poor girl actually had to go downstairs to the employee entrance to collect it, then bring the whole thing up to her desk, going through probably half of the office's cubicles. actually, poor girl is probably a very bad adjective to use, seeing as she's getting such affectionate thoughts.

normal days, you got random gifts, cakes or other "designer" food on desks. extra help on work so that they don't have to strain their brains too much, in case of getting new wrinkles. help with sales leads, help with technical advise, help with taking weird hour shifts and almost anything you can think of. i think the worse part of all this is that this whole thing is being rubbed in as something guys should do to be more "gentleman".

this past valentine's day, i thought i'd do something to give the ones that seldom/never get any presents a little suprise. well, just the ones i know personally. so i made cards and buy small packets of chocolates, then left those at their desks before i went home the night before valentine.
two hours later i got a call from a co-worker on night shift that night, asking whether i saw anyone leaving the chocolates and card on this chick desk. he's been going after this girl on my team for quite a while and hasn't been able to get anywhere near her pants, let alone inside them. i don't think i want to detail how "psycho" (word used to describe him by her) he gets when it comes to anything that remotely concerns her.
an observation: he's still one of her best resources at work.

that's the power women hold at work nowadays - our balls.
no, wait. your balls, probably. 'cos i definitely don't give a shit.

i'm concerned, n i invent. (apparently)

now THIS, is some cool-ass personality test.
10 pages long, professional looking way to rank stuff. very interesting. anyway, after about 20 minutes of going thru the tests, here's my personal DNA report.
how the hell did i end up an inventor, i have not a clue. it seems like however i grow or change i can never get away from artistic stuff.
oh, n here's cute lil color map of my results. not very flattering, but hey...

Concerned Inventor

it june already?!

update: this car is in malaysia since last yr, selling at almost RM100K at a size of roughly a perodua kelisa. extremely over-priced. as of now, rumors of the 2007/08 vios, which is actually a yaris sedan, will be around RM60-80K is abundant. - 28/03/07

moved to more advanced product support partially, n gotten myself some extra mgmt responsibilities at work lately. still the same team, still the same grade, still the same pay.
things already gotten pretty hectic. extra long working hrs, with OT, luckily. it still gets very tiring at the end of the day. everyday. the only that really lighten me up with all this is that i get to learn quite a number of new things, just when i'm getting really bored with what i was doing.


the extra money from the extra hrs should come in handy. yaris is finally launched in malaysia, although a bit pricey. i'm still gonna check it out n see if i can afford one. need to get myself a car. sick n tired of the sun n the rain.
since the sedan version is not available (at least i didn't see it in the toyota malaysia site), it's probably gonna be one of these. now, i just need to find time n visit one of their showrooms to check it out n see what price i can get it at. i bet it looks pretty damn nice in a city. :)
anyway, nearest prices i know if around RM100k for the yaris, about the same for a honda jazz vtec, and the 2006 honda civic at around RM117k. *sigh* money, money, money.

and then, there's the upcoming price hike for petrol again...

blew some money on a 24" wide screen monitor. haven't got my hands on it yet, but it seems i might have to go all the way to the mainland to get it during office hrs. not an option. hopefully i can get it arranged to be shipped to the island or something. cheap things usually doesn't come without problems, eh?
well, if everything goes well with the monitor, i'll be running dual wide screen displays. then my current 19" analogue LCD will be brought back to ipoh for my mom. she's using this pretty dated 17" non-flat CRT for movies. i tried it out n it pretty much sucks. mom deserves better.

shaved

OK. i haven't drawn anything for a long time, so the drawing looks pretty strange.
still don't think i wanna take a pic n post it here.

i've been looking kinda like that for 1 1/2 mths now. shaved cos i finally made up my mind to do it. thanks to my bro for the first shave, he actually did it better than the second one done here in penang in a salon that cost me RM18.

currently i'm keeping it at probably only about 1/2 inch in length. feels good. my mom says i look like an old man with this, so did +2 when she first saw me. everyone else was shocked. general consensus was that i got dumped. haha. james n a few others think that i look scary. a couple of engineers from taiwan who are over here for training said that i look like taiwanese mafia. (woohoo!)

the rumor that having such short hair saves on shampoo is not entirely true.
all the while i've been using my shower gel instead of my shampoo to wash my hair after shaving, but my hair just doesn't feel the same to touch. plus, i kept feeling that my scalp is not clean enough.
so the other day i just wash my hair with shampoo n voila! my hair feels much cleaner. well, probably i dun have to use as much as having longer hair, but i damn well need it.

my third shave will be this wkend when i go home. it seems like my hair is just growing too fast.

graveyard shift ramblings

work has so much ups n downs lately. not a day of easy sailing for the past month.
changes are coming though. some of the seniors are moving up, new people coming in. major re-organization ensured. i'm just hoping that what was promised for me comes true. too bad there isn't must black n white on that to guarantee it.

bought myself over RM400 of books the other day. out of the blue, i just thought to visit MPH cos my day of shopping was going without any success. the only pair of shoes that i wanted to buy was out of my size. the sales person (i think she was the boss of the branch) was very helpful, even called up other branches in the peninsular to check stock. too bad they didn't have any left.
so, anyway, stumbling on that many books i wanted was pure good luck. although they did not have everything in stock in the gurney MPH branch, the books were all available at other branches. at the same time, the 4 dan brown books were on 20% discount, so i ended up getting them too.
MPH called me up in 3 days time n told me the books were all ready. when i went there, they handed me a whole box. the cashier was pretty damned suprised that i was buying so much.

so far, i finished da vinci code, started on angels and demon.
i was really hesitant on jumping on the dan brown bandwagon. it's like everyone's talking about the book, how good it was etc. then there's the moving opening later this month.
honestly, the book was really good. good not just because of the story, or the suspense on every corner, or the nicely paced rhythm on how the story progressed. (the story actually happened in the short span of about 2 days!) the best thing about the book was how it painting a visually stunning n convincing picture of the famous da vinci paintings n frescoes n the museums.
this poses a challenge for the upcoming movie. i have yet to see the movie stills, but i bet it probably couldn't reproduce the stunning visual effects in the novel that dan brown has painted, especially when the movie is probably modified to fit the story into a 2-hour duration.
oh, i really dun think i'd like seeing tom hanks as robert langdon.

fights

i hate fighting with ppl. it leaves a bad taste in my mouth, n always makes me think back n somehow think that i could've handled things better. somehow.

just had a, well, pretty huge fight with susi the other day, thru emails. started with a puppy. haha. ended up abt me being insensitive n her being too sensitive. or something like that. how sad can i be.

i still remember the last 2 fights i had besides that, maybe because i really avoid fighting or aggressive confrontations if i could. the one before this is mid last year, a fight over the phone with a very arrogant sales person in my company. someone who was notorious for bullying everyone else into doing what she wants, how she wants. i just refused to give in. :)

the one before that, was with my ex, a mth before we broke up in ... hhmmm... april 2004. i think it should be april, cos i was in the hospital for the last part of march.

and again, i'm thinking whether i could've handle all these situations better. :)

betrayed

i just found out this morning that i got shot in the back in front of my team lead, by someone i considered a friend.

it all started last wk when, during my last 1x1, my team lead told me that someone complained about me not handling some cases properly. of course, i asked for some kinda reference so that i can check. i've been doing things by the book all along, so i was suprised when this came up.

finally, i got an email with the references this morning, n i checked them out. turned out it was this fella whom, for the past year, i've helped both professionally n personally. the cases were going sour, with possible escalations. i handled them exactly as i should when they passed thru my hands, it was quite obvious that he put the blame on me to protect himself from possible hot water that might be pouring right at him later.

this got me really pissed off. a very unexpected betrayal, n it further proves that even if u think u're friends with ppl at work, u'd better think again. anyone can just suddenly turn around n step on u, or empty a few rounds behind ur back.

i dunno how i'm gonna handle this with that fella yet. whether i should talk to him directly, or just bide my time n push him down a spiked pit when one comes along. i think i'm gonna spend the night to cool myself down before i make a decision on that.

"eye-scorching screen candy"

Glenn Gaslin described the movie as an "eye-scorching screen candy, a
gorgeous effects driven fantasy flick" in E! online. the movie in questions is Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean's Mirrormask. he is absolutely right.
i've been waiting to get my hands on the DVD since i knew of the movie going into production. since it's one of those small company, low budget films without any famous stars, i was sure that it will never reach malaysian cinemas, and i was right.
well, not even that, none of the DVD shops that i asked at, since september last year, even heard about the film. so when i bumped into this in a DVD shop earlier in the evening, i just bought it and hurry home. :)
so. it really is eye candy right from the DVD menu to the ending credits.
as what i've mentioned in a previous post here, the movie is really filled with tons and tons of weirdly creative and brilliant ideas, both in the storyline and the audio visual presentation of it. if i'd not known beforehand that this movie was done on a very limited budget, i wouldn't have believed that this film actually only had a budget of four million dollars. just as a comparison, the first lord of the rings movie had a budget of 137 million. the acclaimed fantasy film labyrinth, from the same company as mirrormask, had 40 million.
seeing dave mckean's designs brought to live is a shocking experience. i'm talking about designs with similar color schemes and psychotic feeling as those from sandman comic covers. cats with human faces, fishes that swims through the air, orbiting giants... mixing that, with all the crazily original ideas from neil gaiman - flying books, a dumb sphinx, monkey-birds with beaks that keep falling off, shadows that turn into eyeballs with spidery legs... this is fantasy film at a whole new level. (which also kinda make me wonder what kind of movies will the sandman series make)
it's too bad that this film did not reach cinemas here.

mirrormask@sony pictures
traliers@apple

more pictures, which doesn't really reflect how marvellous things actually look in the movie:

what a way to start the year

a friend of mine killed himself the friday before valentine's.

it came as quite a shock when another friend informed me about this over the phone. i have never thought that any of my friends would really do something as drastic as taking one's own life. (killing another, maybe. ) all i could react to when i got the news over the phone was to agree with pooling together money for the family.

i'm not very close with this friend, so this is not some kinda orbituary or memorial post. just me, not understanding why people would wanna take their own lives.

i still remember him being a very active student back in high school. the fella's always somewhere among the top 20% of the class, did very well in public speaking and singing contests, ok in sports. he was in the school band, and was even the head prefect in school.

he didn't really get far after high school, from what i heard. family didn't do great and he couldn't get a good enough scholarship to get through college, since he was never anywhere near the top 5% in class.

the last time i heard from him was mid last year at another friend's wedding. a few of us car-pooled to KL for the banquet. he came across as a lil depressed, lacked confidence and pretty much tried to hide most of his feelings.

then came the phone call about him jumping off the top floor of the place he was living in.

come to think of it, i didn't do much better than he did, even in high school. even though i was a nerd and basically ended up in the top 3 in class every year, i was never very active in school activities. well, that's mostly because i hate the school's discipline. deliberately failed the prefect exam twice cos the diciplinary master's a bitch. after high school, i never really pour myself into studies anymore until i got back from the states. most of the time, i'm just enjoying myself by indulging in whatever fancies me at the time.

i probably wouldn't be suffering where i am now, if i'd lived paying more attention to my future. compared with most of my friends back from high school, i have really done much for a career.

so, i'm at a point in life where i should already be somewhere, but i'm still way behind on schedule. but i haven't lost hope yet. i still think i can hurry up and get back on schedule if i work hard enough.

one thing about playing games, especially RPGs, a lot is that it really made me realize that real life is not that kinda game -- you can't die and reload from a previously saved game; nor do you have extra lives to play with.

life's just a complicated one-way maze with more branches at every turn. you don't have a map, you can't go back and you're not sure whether you're headed to the correct exit (or if there really is an exit instead of all dead ends). kinda sucks if you think of it that way but i still think that there's always an exit, even if you came to a dead end, you might find a hidden door. :)

i guess that's what's interesting, not knowing where the path will really lead. that, and the other thing i learnt from games -- the bull-headed, stubborn insistence to make it all the way to the end.

content protection gone too far

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.

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.

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.