"It is not merely of some importance but is of fundamental importance that justice should not only be done,
but should manifestly and undoubtedly be seen to be done.
"

- Lord Chief Justice Hewart

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Strong Suggestions

As I sit in the office biding my time, waiting to be released from the state of nothingness. While my gastric juices corrode my stomach walls and my brain throbs, radiating the pain that is caused by my eyes...

* * * * *

Bosses called me into the office today. They discussed about me not wanting to take leave on the 11th and 12th. They said that they were taking those days off themselves and would be pointless for me to show up for work on those days as the office would be more or less closed. I told them I would not mind showing up for work as I had things I could try finishing up on anyway. It was then countered by implication that one person coming to the office using the energy was not efficient. I had no choice but to accept a mild insistence to take those days off. Suck.

Oh which reminds me, today is 30th. I want my cheque!

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Back in Business

Apparently I forgot to disable some BIOS settings which fixed a constant prompt, asking me to install a device which can never be installed and does not exist.

My rig is full operational and back in business. I am a little sad because my chassis' operation light bulb has blown.

* * * * *

Boss will not let me take the 5th (Tuesday) and 6th (Wednesday) off in conjunction with Chinese New Year public holidays on 7th (Thursday) and 8th (Friday). He said he was anticipating some work needed to be done on those days. You would think that most people would be in the Chinese New Year mood already... who are these people that do not have lives!?

I was planning to go on a WoW marathon with Shawn during that entire duration. I guess mine will be 2 days less. Shitberries.

Monday, January 28, 2008

For the Horde!

What can I say, the Canadians wanted me to return to World of Warcraft. It is hard out of there for a paladin.

Sunday, January 27, 2008

The Ressurection

Spent the entire Friday night till Saturday night trying to recover my precious lost files. Took me tries of 3 different programs and whole lot of going through junk files before I managed to recover all my files. They were all intact and so far none that looks corrupted.

Through this traumatizing event, I have learn that files that are deleted or formatted will never truly be gone from the harddisk until it is replaced by something else. What the deletion and formation does is mark the discarded files as 'empty space' to be a green light for news files to write over. Naturally since I accidentally wiped my harddisk out, there would be nothing to replace them yet. Acting fast, I managed to recover my stuff.

I win.

Saturday, January 26, 2008

Fuck Windows

So upon reformatting, Windows decides to be smart with me. It showed my 4 partitions as one partition. Now realizing this earlier enough or even experienced such bullshit. I wiped out all my files. All my files are gone. My years of accumulating images, photos, flash content, manga, movies, commercials, series, documents, music, games. ALL FUCKING GONE. My entire life of documented imagery and videos since 1998; my first computer passing on these files from generation to generation. All disappeared just like that. Can someone stab me in the head already!?

Take away my memories. There is no more visual memoirs of my past. My past is gone. There is nothing left for me to remember them by. FUCK THIS BULLSHIT.

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Bowling at 10am

Seriously. Who bowls at 10am in the morning on a public holiday? I spent the whole night going back and forth to the toilet. Must have been something I ate yesterday. Already sleep deprived I had to go bowling because Bee Lee wanted an outing. I chose to go due to unspoken obligation and courtesy.

I have to say, the bowling balls at the 1 Utama bowling alleys are good. The holes in the balls actually were big enough for my fingers. Most places have balls with too small of holes and makes it really difficult for me to get a good handle and thus unable to bowl accurately. Considering that I have not played for a long time, I did pretty well this time around. Until towards the end, I went 'Ah fuck it' and threw gutter balls due to my laziness to aim.

Right beside our alley, there was this kid and his grandfather playing a few games. A few games. I think it is pretty cool that a grandfather would take his grandkid out to spend some time together at a shopping mall. Furthermore, bowling! Many old people would give it a miss and do something more relaxing and less vigorous.

It was quite funny to see Bee Lee bringing an extra pair of pants today. Just the sight of it already brings up so many possibilities as to why he brought them. In reality he needed to exchange them for a different one. However in the complex and complicated minds of people such as myself, I wanted to believe other things.

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

I Know...

People do not believe that I can see through people. I just took a test to determine if I am good at telling if people are faking a smile. It starts off by asking your inclination towards being optimistic of pessimistic. I naturally lean towards the pessimistic side. I also indicated that I am somewhat able to discern people's behavior. It then asks to determine if 20 faces' smile are genuine or fake.


Now you may be say things like, tests like these do not prove anything. Fair enough. However it does make me feel a little better of myself.

Post your comments regarding the results you got! Take the test here.

Selamat Thaipusam!

General elections must really be near. The Thaipusam public holiday which originally was effective for certain states in the country is now considered a federal public holiday as well. With this in effect, my boss also declares the office closed tomorrow.

Long live boss!

Monday, January 21, 2008

Blasted Weather II

So now it storms while I am at work. The storm waited while I was at work, away from my precious powerstation at home being vulnerable to lightning bolts via crappy telephone wires. Fortunately my dad is at home and has helped disconnect my system keeping the forces of nature at bay.

While on the subject of computers. I think it is time I 'pimp' its exteriors a little bit. My new power supply has no lights and the casing's back fan has blown its bulbs. Time to get a new one with new lights and hopefully this time around they do not burn. My new power supply seems to have a removable fan in itself also using one of those standard case fans. Perhaps I could replace it with one that has lights too.

The beauty of having an illuminated box when you are alone in a dark room is somewhat soothing.

Sunday, January 20, 2008

Blasted Weather

Which geomancer predicted that this year would be rainy and shit really needs to get stoned to death. It is frickin' hot these days. I will tell you why. It is because of the moon. The moon affects gravity. Thus somehow makes all the rain go away. Therefore we should blow up the moon.

* * * * *

Today was the funeral of my granduncle; my maternal grandmother's brother. He passed away on Friday due to a heart attack. God rest his soul. My only regret is that I never knew him better. However that would be quite difficult as our lives' schedules would have never worked out.

I was glad that I managed to chat a little with my uncles; my mother's sisters' husbands. It has been a few years since I actually manage catch up with them to talk and see how things are going. Having decent and proper conversations are what I look forward to when meeting extended family members. I guess there will be something to look forward to this Chinese New Year.

Saturday, January 19, 2008

Paying for Better Vision

Went to Low Yat with Marcus today. Thanks for the ride Marcus! Must buy you dinner sometime!

Bought myself a new video card as well as a power supply to go with it incase my new video card would require more power than my current power supply could provide. The vendor there persuaded me to go over budget to get a better model of a video card which I inevitably succumbed. I now owe Marcus money for paying the extra for the video card. Oddly enough the speakers I want (see my wishlist) is still nowhere to be seen. Oh well... saves me some as long as it is not out.

Testing it out on Unreal Tournament 3 and Portal returned good results in terms of performance. I thought to myself, since these graphic intense games seemed to be fine. World of Warcraft would look even better as it was not very heavy in visuals. For some strange reason I still had the similar frames per second as I would have with my previous video card. However visuals were indubitably better; sharper and more vibrant. I am still stumped as to what is preventing me from acquiring a higher FPS as my friends normally have. I only get half of what they get. More investigations!

Friday, January 18, 2008

Well... Shit.

My fun filled weekend plans have been quashed. Thanks a lot Ryan! Not only do I not get to eat at The Ship... yeah. I do not get to go eat at The Ship!

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Text Formatting

I spent some time checking out the coding for .css today to find out how I can justify my paragraphs so it would look tidy and neat in a perfect block. I was trying to find ways to implement the coding globally in a sense that when I type anything in any part of my blog, it would justify the text automatically. Try as I may, I somehow am unable to do so, after going through a few tutorials as well as trying the coding a few times in different places. My only conclusion is that this blog's template is somehow preventing that from happening.


What I did was the next best option; which was to manually insert the .css coding into each and every post I write. Thankfully this blog enables a 'template post' to be set. Whereby once set, all my postings will start with the code. You can say I pre-coded it to save myself from always having to type out of the code for each post I make. I have also managed to increase the width of my article column. Now I will not have to resize Youtube videos whenever I link them here. Progress!

Saturday, January 12, 2008

Teh Tarik & Chicken

Went to serve teh tarik at YMCA again today. The turn out was only a few as there was some other function for the blind. The volunteers who showed up today actually outnumber our 'customers' by a large ratio. I am starting to think they have more happening lives than me.

* * * * *

Enoch and I proceeded to Sri Hartamas for lunch. We went to try this place called BBQ Chicken. Name sounded ordinary but I was looking forward to eating some non-beef dish after my activities this week. I ate too many burgers this week and it is actually making me jelak. This place takes the claims of being Korea's No. 1 Chicken Restaurant being proud of using 100% extra virgin olive oil for their chicken.


Service was pretty slow. We waited for more than half an hour. It felt as if they actually had to hunt down chickens. Enoch and I imagined the chef chasing some chickens down the road beside the place. We also witnessed them serving customers that arrived and ordered after us. After a long while finally the food arrived.


A long wait and that was it!?


Enoch ordered the Original Chicken set which consisted of 3 pieces of chicken, coleslaw and mashies.


I ordered the Hot Hot Drum set which consisted of 3 pieces of chicken, coleslaw and mashies.

Well this was the last time I get adventurous with food especially spicy stuff. The chicken burnt my tongue in terms of spiciness. It was so hot I burst out into sweat. Now I was always quite sensitive when it comes to hot stuff; be it temperature or spiciness. Atmosphere or food. I sweat easily even they are stuff I can handle.

However this time around it was really hot. I was raining. It felt as if I was eating thorns. That was not my problem though. My problem was paying RM17.50 for what would have been an equivalent of a Dinner Plate at KFC, which would have been cheaper and just as filling. The Original Chicken tasted better than the Hot Hot Drum. Probably due to the Hot Hot Drum tasting nothing but pure spiciness.

I Miss My Family

Yes. I actually miss playing with my friends over in North America. Canada to be more precise. Back when everything was so simple. Hope to see you guys in Wrath of the Lich King!

Friday, January 11, 2008

I Am Proud to be One

Nice guys finish last. I have been there done that. After my previous relationship, it taught me a lesson and schooled me for being dumb into actually giving it a shot thinking it would have worked out. This article from boingbook.com is exactly how I felt. I changed after that and I have never been happier.

Taking shit from a girl, being how she wants you to be, is no way to live.

Wednesday, January 9, 2008

Toneless Roma Reprised

I am not the only one to have had a bad experience at the local Tony Roma's.

http://www.melvinf.com/archives/foodblog/tony-romas-in
-sunway-pyramid-20071016/


Apparently Mr. Melvin Foong had a less than satisfying experience himself and it was not even at the same branch.

Pnews Reviews 09.01.08

Raja Zarith says Fluency in language does not mean one is unpatriotic.
The wife of the Tengku Mahkota of Johor has expressed her opinions of the importance of being fluent in the English language with compelling reasons being that the knowledge of the language would be useful in everyday activities as well as international communications.

Original article here.


I am amused that there are still people who think being fluent in English makes them pro-British, pro-English or even pro-American in regards to being unpatriotic. It is really retarded to make such baseless assumptions. I can tell you now that my command of English helped me get around while I was studying overseas a whole lot more than say, my ability (or lack thereof) to converse in Chinese dialects.


Beware of Strangers Looking for Their 'Pets'
I was reading this particular article. Where some guy tricked a six year old girl into following him in search of his 'cat'. It reminded me of what happened to my friend not too long ago. She was walking her dog in her own neighborhood when some strange guy drove up to her and asked her if she had seen his dog. Of course my friend just said no and walked off. This country has a lot of weirdos. Be very careful especially when it comes to strangers. If you notice their opening questions a little silly or unusual. Just act stupid and avoid them at all costs.

Happy Awal Muharram!

Initially my company did not recognize January 10 as a public holiday for whatever reason. Yesterday I got an email from my boss saying that we would be taking that day off since it was a federal holiday which meant that the entire nation would be on holiday as well. He said there was no point in us being opened then.

Long live boss!

Monday, January 7, 2008

Treasure and Prosperity

I wish every week could be started off like this.

It was just another day at the office. This time around I was the only one who came to work on time and was alone for a bit until my colleague/boss came in later than his usual time. Followed by the intern at around noon and my main boss after lunch. It was quite lively for a bit when my boss was asking my colleague/boss about some recommendations related to computers. He was pro-mac while I was pro... practicality. I would not say I am pro-pc but to me it is the most practical operating system and widely used at the moment, hence easier to get around. I would like to own an Apple computer along with having a Windows based computer so I have the best of both worlds in their respective casings. Anyways the office atmosphere got lively when we were discussing about computers and their uses depending on what a person needed.

I was waiting for the elevator on my way out for lunch today when one of the elevators' door opened. I was about to step in as usual when I noticed the elevator was halfway down with the doors still wide opened. I paused for a while trying to register what was going on. I saw two legs standing on top of the elevator. It looked like the guy was cleaning the insides of the elevator shaft. I proceeded to do a 180 degree turn and headed down the fire escape stairs instead of waiting for the cursed elevator.

It is rare occasion that I do lunches on working days. I decided to eat chup fun or as some would call it; economy rice. I do not see how economical it is anymore. Especially when they charged RM4.70 for some vegetables, a fried egg and 2 thin slices of luncheon meat. RM4.70!!! Outrageous. I could have acquired a large plate of char kuay teow for RM.4.50 and would be stuffed silly by it.

* * * * *

After office hours it was rush to 1 Utama. I met up with Afzal to catch a movie. We watched National Treasure: Book of Secrets. It is a sequel to the first movie which Afzal and I also watched. While waiting for the cinema to be opened, we got some refreshments. I needed something to sustain me throughout the movie because we had not eaten dinner yet. I got myself popcorn to share and a regular coke for myself while Afzal had a large coke. Looking at the size of his cup; it was huge, I asked him if he was sure he could finish that entire thing and made some jokes about having to go to the bathroom halfway throughout the movie. The joke was actually on me, and later to my knowledge, Afzal too. We both had to go to the bathroom badly around halfway through the movie, but none of us wanted to miss any part of the movie. it got really bad towards the end. Towards the end it became worse. Speaking of the movie, I could swear only Afzal and I were the only two persons laughing at the jokes in the film. Everybody else was just retarded.

Spoiler:
Towards the end there was a scene of a sunken temple with water flowing here and there. There was also this scene where there were floods and heavy waters and currants flowing. I tell you, that was not fun. It felt as if all the water being drained in this part of the movie was all being siphoned into my bladder.

Never in my life was I so anxious to get to the end of the movie. I had to walk really slow and funny. Here begins my agonizing struggle to the bathroom. I had to walk a flight of stairs which exit led to the car park. From there I had to cross a drive way into the entrance to Parkson. I had to take two flights of escalators and head across from Parkson to the bathroom beside MPH. That was the longest journey I ever had in my entire life. This journey caused me to have a temporary tourette syndrome. Every step closer and closer to the bathroom was accompanied with a burst of 'Fuck!'

Afzal was cool enough to let me have the first cubicle available. I have never felt more relieved.

After a whole world had been lifted off, we then headed for dinner. We had the Prosperity Meal at McDonalds. I will learn from Afzal, in not ordering the green tea that comes with their meal as it is more expensive than regular coke and does not taste that great.

All in all I had a great time as usual hanging out with Afzal. Reminds me of the good old days where we used to do it more often than not especially those walks around the mall late at night when all shops are closed and nobody is around to clutter the place. Looking forward to doing it even more in the future! The year has only begun man!

Saturday, January 5, 2008

Last One Standing

I just came back from the dentist. I have not made a visit to my regular dentist for around 3 years now. It is very bad to not visit your dentist on a regularly basis of twice a year and I highly discourage such acts. The reason why I went hiatus on my dentist was because I was in Australia and really did not see how to fit my expenses for trips to the dentist. Yes I was that tight for cash.

Thankfully I do not have any cavities in my teeth after taking x-rays just to be sure. The x-ray also showed that I still had a baby tooth among my adult teeth. Who would have thought? I guess it refuses to die. Since I am back from Australia and generating my own income, I will be making regular visits to the dentist. I do not wish to be like those old people. They are unable to enjoy food and they look horrible.

My teeth stays with me!

Thursday, January 3, 2008

Please Turn Off Your Clothes

Most of you have probably seen the signs prohibiting use of mobile phones at petrol stations. The theory is that mobile phones could create sparks which ignites the fumes which are in the air around the petrol station thus leading to an explosion. Well, I am still quite alive and I came across this video to help disagree with the mobile phone theory.





...I don't think I want to come out of the car anymore at petrol stations. Given the fact that I shock people whenever my skin touches theirs and myself when I touch metal.

InQuest & Intern

I was checking around for information on InQuest magazine. To my sad surprise, they announced that they were discontinuing the magazine as of September 2007. Just when I was preparing to get back into MTG. InQuest provides information regarding latest MTG cards, pricing as well as ratings for each and every card there is for MTG.

The magazine was not just limited to articles related to MTG but also news and interests which subscribers would have read as well. InQuest, you shall be missed. Hopefully there will be a replacement for it. Kind of miss having some form of hard copy of card lists, ratings and pricing.

* * * * *

Entered the office today to see a girl sitting at the far end of the room. As my usual self, I played it cool; walking to my desk pretending I did not notice her. A while after, my boss calls me into his room. He tells me that she is a new intern fresh out of high school awaiting her exam results... and I was suppose to teach her how to use some image editing tools within her time with us.

I introduced myself and asked her questions to find out her interests and past times to see if I could use any of them to relate to and make her learning experiences with the company enjoyable. That did not work out too well. Turns out she has a very limited scope of interests and does not sound like she is exposed to much media. The only thing she expressed great interest in are Korean movies and Korean boy bands.

*sigh*

When asked the reason she chose to dive into this field, her response was the influence of her friends. Wonderful! It seems like an evergreen trend since I can remember back in my days. I am now curious to find out in which college she is planning to enroll.

Wednesday, January 2, 2008

Darwin Awards

Shawn linked me a site initially referring to this article. Intrigued by it, I was curious enough to click around, exploring more articles. Turns out that website has a lot of brilliant things people do. Furthermore the irony of procreation and death.

I am probably going to visit that site more often now.

Be Kind to Dumb Animals?

Yes I know, I should leave them alone, but I just cannot help it when people who are out of league try to start something especially when they do not even know what they are talking about.

Click here for excerpts.

Weird Dream Waking Up to A Scare

Woke up from a dream. A really award winning episode this time around.

The first part of the dream, I was still a college/uni student. The campus in my dream was that of the university which I went to when I was in Australia. Now while I was studying in Australia, I had to either walk or take the train to my campus as my house was kind of a distance from the campus, however it was still within walking distance. In my dream, my accommodation, was some apartment which looked something like Nagato Yuki's apartment in The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi. The exteriors at least. I never got to see what the inside looked like. So everyday I would walk to and from campus traveling across meadow-like and farm-like plains with shops that resemble that of the ones in Melbourne.

The story kind of fast forwards to me already knowing this girl which looked like a cross between a young Emma Stone (from Superbad) and a young Lindsay Lohan. She looked really really sweet. I have no idea how I got to know her in the dream. She had the physical appearance of being an early teen. As I write this my memory of the details of this part is fading. All I can remember is that there was a long part about me walking her to her house somewhere in the setting aforementioned, but I already knew where she lived and knew what her house looked like. Her house looked like some European mansion with spires on the dark blue roof.

* * * * *

Alright now to the second part. I think my imagination pattern is kind of messed up but oh well. Shit. I cannot remember how the starting part goes however it has something to do with Claire Danes and Steve Martin. Some of you know that they both starred in a movie together, perhaps that was where my brain picked it up, though I never really watched that movie. It was something about them being rather 'close' friends and I was somehow watching her from a distance, and I don't know possibly having feelings for her? Just a disclaimer, I never ever was attracted to her in real life. It did not feel like I was stalking her whenever she was out with Steve, rather the way how I was watching her was like me watching them on screen, like an audience.

Anyway, there came a part where there was a police investigation at a crime scene, outside of this long U shaped building which was dark and gloomy in appearance. Apparently something happened to Claire Danes. It was not clear whether she was murdered or kidnapped or something else. All I knew was that she was no longer in the picture. Steve Martin was supposed to investigate on the case because apparently he was a detective/inspector? Probably my mind picked that up from Pink Panther (what the fuck. I know). I followed him on his trail of investigation until a certain point it got really serious where the authorities told him that his assistance was no longer needed and they were bringing in the big people. So in comes this FBI'ish looking guy which in my mind was giving mix portrayal between William Fichtner and... some other actor who I cannot remember anymore. He was supposed to be old and either had white hair or was balding, also one of those good at acting as the villain.

I was following this FBI'ish guy around trying to pursue something. Yes from investigation it became a pursuit. However this guy, like William Fichtner's role in Prison Break, was going around killing people that would have been useful to the investigation. In my sane mind, what he was doing was horrible and I actually saw the blood coming out from these people in results of him shooting them in cold blood. However my self in the dream was indifferent and unmoved by it. All this took place in the said building, which interiors kind of looked like a computer game, a mild resemblance to Black Mesa of Halflife.

The ending of this dream came to a part where this guy was sort of in hot pursuit of his target, whatever the heck it was, in a long corridor in one of the highest floors of the building with windows lined up all along the right side of us as the windows were overlooking the wing of the U shaped building. All of a sudden from both ends of the corridor came more FBI kind of people to arrest this William Fichtner guy. Instead of surrendering to them, I broke a window pain using the handle of a gun for him to jump out. He had a para gliding parachute kind of thing which he activated as he jumped out. Needless to say providing him a safe landing.

That is all I can remember of this story.

* * * * *

The next scene was Steve Martin having dinner with Claire Danes at this very expensive restaurants. The kind where they only accept really high class people, where the interiors were decorated like those British or European setting. For some reason I was sitting beside Claire Danes as if I was intruding their 'date'. Steve Martin was trying to hide his disappointment in me being there while Claire Danes felt secure and happy that I was with her, as if that she and I were secretly an item. This scene consisted mostly of deciding what to eat. Their menu was so out of place though. The menu had graphical images of the food that the place served. The food in the menu were not what they would serve in fancy restaurants like this. The food that was shown in the menu were variance of fish and chips and other meals that were accompanied with fries.

I could not really remember how the ending went, because I woke up. This dream I had, were quite detailed in terms of the things I saw, however it would be rather difficult to explain. If only I could illustrate what I saw in my dreams.

* * * * *

I woke up and read an sms from my colleague who is also one of my bosses, asking me if I should be in office today as office officially opens today. That scared me a little. However I logged into my email account and checked and confirmed that my other boss said that office opens tomorrow, January 3, 2008. I relayed that to my colleague and said he could access my email and check it if he would like. His response was "I must be too eager to work then."

Tuesday, January 1, 2008

Give Me Cheese!

I just realized that it is the year of the rat. It is the Chinese zodiac which I was born in. Which means that 2 cycles have already come to past.

Two Thousand and Eight

I do not feel a difference. However the transition to the new years was something remarkable. Usually I do not even think of going out around major events due to the fact that most places would be heavily crowded with people.

Last night was strangely different. 1 Utama was normal like every other place. In fact there was not even a queue at the entrance to the parking at the new wing. The crowd in the complex was normal as any other public holiday or weekend.

Carl's Jr actually sold out their Portobello Mushroom burger. This time around I noticed something different, their fries... it was different. It was bigger and did not look like the typical fries as McDonalds, Burger King or KFC would have. Their fries looked as if they were custom made and it was not greasy as though they were deep fried. A possibility of them being oven baked.