Monthly Archives: September 2003

Bad Fortnight

Depression? Bad day? But of course. Bad fortnight perhaps. Maybe it’s the haunting Metallica – One video. Anyway, here’s something for you bored people. It’s got loads of links to my old blog posts, so have fun reading those too!

First off, my financial status was shaky as heck. I was given RM1000 to get something from town. Then I helped a colleague to upgrade her computer. As she had to rush off for a movie, she gave me quite a bit for my agreed dinner. And so I scuttled off to Nando’s for an expensive lush tongue treat.

Little did I know that that would be the last day of such monetary bliss.

Friday. I went down again to get my ATI Radeon 9600Pro. I went to the ATM at the office but it was down, so I only withdrew at the place itself. Little did I know that Human Resources would screw up! I was then RM150 short of a video card. I called up a debtor. He couldn’t make it, but would transfer RM150 (he owed me RM100.) After a call to my bank I got my account number and recited it to him. Luckily he called back to confirm or the last digit would be wrong.

I ran up, with no time to make a better decision. It was 8:30PM and shops were all closing. I asked for the Powercolor Radeon 9600Pro. Fast. From a shop that had unfriendly snobby workers, but heck. It was cheaper.

I didn’t mind owing him RM50, I knew that the next day, I’d get RM350. Yes, I was selling my “PCI mode” MSI GeForce4 Ti4200 128MB 4x to another colleague. He was selling his GeForce2 MX 440 to my first colleague mentioned earlier. (That also explains why I was in a hurry to get the video card…)

Saturday. I was on duty at the AXN Anime Fest, taking care of the Xfresh booth.

Now the problem was that he couldn’t get the RM350. There was no ATM in that large shopping complex that supported it! My female colleague didn’t come, and I had to lug her Geforce 2 in my bag. Not that it was heavy, just that I was afraid of it being squashed.

Oh, and I paid my long time debt of RM75 for a prom ticket. When I went, they gave free door gifts including a RM15 A Cut Above voucher. Since I had never had a haircut costing more than RM10, I decided to give it a try. It was RM38 for a cut by a junior hairstylist, and RM65 for a senior hairstylist. Whoa. RM13 would be okay. Of course, the manager politely explained that the junior hairstylist was on promotion (usually RM50) so my voucher was only applicable for the senior dudes.

Somehow, it got to why I wanted a haircut, and I got to speak to a consultant.

A guy with an unneccessarily funky haircut (read: spiky and dyed and not my area…) appeared. I explained that I didn’t just wanna go to an Indian barber who would shrink my hair and make me look like a boy again. He explained that I’d have to keep my sideburns, however irritating they were, while the top could be lightened. (That would get rid of my fringe stabbing my eyes when the wind blows.)

It was in the growing stage, he said.

Come back in a month or two, he said. Save money, he said.

Wow. Nice guy. That was the cheapest haircut I ever got. I went home, told my mom the story, and she trimmed off just a bit off the fringe.

Sunday. My dad dropped me off at Bandaraya STAR LRT, and I switched over at Masjid Jamek to get to KL Sentral. I missed the Express Rail Link by 4 minutes (the next train would be 10:30am.) When I got out at Putrajaya station, I walked towards the escalator. It wasn’t moving. Yessir, it was that deserted. I don’t know why, but I absent-mindedly walked there anyway. It woke up! There were sensors nearby. It started going up. Cool!

All that was spoiled when I asked where the toilet was. There wasn’t one. Thank goodness for a nearby construction site with lots of tiny hills.

My colleagues then picked me up to head for the Botanical Garden there. We were supposed to do a crossing, where we give out free stuff in the name of promotion. I came a bit too late, and we headed off for lunch.

Souq was a fancy-looking place. For a while I thought we were going to eat in a mosque! Souq had the works. Nando’s. San Francisco Coffee. All on a long C-shaped food court. As I had not much money left, I headed to the ATM, a Bank Islam one. Fortunately it supported my card (as it supported the cross-banking MEPS standard) and I took out my last RM30. It also took the liberty of taxing me. I now have no balance. It was not supposed to take the 3-bucks-and-how-many-cents off, just one ringgit, as far as I knew…

We then headed over to Taman Tun Dr. Ismail for our next cross at the park. By then, I had a headache from the basking in the sun. Thank goodness for free Twiggies, then.

Monday. Yet another bummer. I finally got to check my results online. Who cares what I passed? I failed my Advanced Java Programming and my Interactive Multimedia Project. For the former I had to refer (take the exam again) and the latter, reunit (take the semester again). Argh the irony! I had to fail on my last semester, thus extending my stay! No more winging it I suppose. 🙁

It was expected (the Multimedia one) though I did tell myself not to stop after going this far. I wouldn’t wanna go through the shtload that is Macromedia Shockwave Director 8.5.

Tuesday. Hopefully, go to college, sort things out, get appeal forms (appealing costs a lot!) and hopefully get a convenient timetable. I’d then collect money in the afternoon. Not much, but it would give me some security. I’d then head over to the two-day-old Berjaya Times Square and do a walkabout.

Wish me good luck, and that I may be a graduate in Advanced Diploma in Computer Studies with Majors in Business and Mutlimedia.

Oh, here’s a new quote!
“Heat me up so I can fit another mould.”

Ze Question

I’m ugly crap so why dontcha wanna fix me?
Need I don a red cap to be known as sexy?
I’m broody, I’m moody, I’m woody, so?
Isn’t my large ego what you’d like to know?

Yet Another Lap

It’s sad when you realize that all your efforts only helped change how you feel about yourself, and nobody notices. They still think so, even with no prior notice.

It was then that I accepted myself for being like that. I knew it was bad, and I tried breaking out of it. I thought I did but to no avail! Results may vary.

Perhaps my own individualism is too strongly rooted in me. I’m trying to sell out, with the gag reflex coming right after, but I wonder if it’s all in my head. So all the accomplishments I intended to have were illusions in my introspection. I’m not different from before or any better to any of you.

It’s like dreaming that I’ve climbed out of the well. Or how you’re lying down in bed, and your muscle twitches, and you think you got up.

It’s frustating. When I get into one of these introspective thinking loops, I truly feel like what I’m doing at the moment (say walking around town alone) is meaningless.

What’s worse now is that I realize that I’ve become good at adapting bad traits of others. Fickleness. Hard-headedness. Stinginess. Others used to point out those evils in other people, and I would whole-heartedly agree. G would b***h about H and I would agree with G. I would psyche myself not to inherit H‘s traits. Then I’d realize that I had those same hate-able traits as H, but not from H, but other people totally unrelated to H. My friends were dirty as well. Perhaps then I could relate to H. Of course, G is still drumming in my ears, and I now hate my own traits that I tried so hard not to have.

I can relate to a guy that everybody hates for his traits. They haven’t realized that I was once like him. They don’t hate me in the same way because I had a few years of experience and unnecessary authority.

Insecurity is ironic. It makes me try to break out, but it’s the same thing that draws me back to my roots. I’m too chicken poop to progress and expand. All I wanna be is appreciated, and not in the regular cheap fondness way. If I believed in God, or somebody who had unconditional love, maybe I’d be happy. The scientist in me denies me that cheap illusion.

Perhaps I’m spoilt. I know I’m appreciated somewhat, but I don’t appreciate their appreciation as much as I should.

Then again, who are my friends? Why do I go to them? Some are for purely materialistic reasons. The dude has cool toys. The dude has a car. The dude can go out at night. The dude has a new joke every day. The dude updates me on our interests. In a sense, they are more of business partners.

What do I have to offer?

Dual Head

I borrowed my colleague’s digital camera to take pictures of my beloved computers. Two computers, one being an AMD K6-2 350Mhz generation on the left, and an AMD Athlon XP 1800+ on the right, have a 17″ and 19″ monitor respectively. They look pretty.

Pardon me for the sudden need for you guys to download loads of pictures. 🙂

Dual Head! dhdh.jpg, 8
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Everlasting Fountain

I walked into the toilet of the Pasar Seni LRT station
As I held a full bladder I saw an irritated commotion
I was greeted by the backs of two men
Hoarding the urinals for since dunno-when
People were waiting and the booths were occupied
What took them so long to lower their tide?
Was it something about Pasar Seni
That conditions them to go on endlessly?
Why were they standing so close?
Were they afraid of an inaccurate hose?
What were they trying to conceal?
More importantly what was the deal?
Sorry sir I don’t mean to barge
But isn’t a urinal too claustrophobic for such discharge?
Thank goodness that one of them was done
I quickly turned the vacancy into none
I tried outdoing the forever man sailing port
I rushed high volumes but I was four seconds short
Call it ego to take a loss by heart
At least I didn’t have a four minute headstart

Whee Techie Melee

After formatting my office workstation to Microsoft Windows XP Professional Service Pack 1, I found that I could not use Java applets. A link led me to this.

The end of the Microsoft Virtual Machine.

In case you’re wondering, the Microsoft Virtual Machine is Microsoft’s version of the Java runtime environment, so your computer can run Java applets (and other Java stuff, not to be confused with JavaScript). Examples of Java applets would be chat programs, or other lower-level web applications that don’t have much fancy graphics. (Java has a steep learning curve to coding graphics.) Besides, it would be harder to most to program an IRC client in Macromedia Flash.

I quote the site:

Microsoft will not be able to address potential security issues, nor will the company be able to make any product enhancements.

Very funny. The great thing about Java is that each program has a sandbox, or limited area which the program can access, so it doesn’t and can’t mess with your computer. Heck, Java viruses are rare, with only 3 reported! Even then, they would have to be run as a program, not an applet in a browser.

When Java programs do crash, they don’t bring your whole computer down.

Compare that to Microsoft’s solutions. Sure, .NET is fancy and supports many languages, but the company is notoriously trustworthy. I’m betting on a Microsoft .NET Framework patch pretty soon.

Their tagline seems to be:
If it ain’t broke, we’ll make our own version (and break them).

P.S. I am not an ardent supporter of Java, having half a year of headache coding in Java, but I certainly don’t think Microsoft is in any position to imply that Java is a weakness in their effort to trustworthiness. Heck, the Microsoft Virtual Machine may very well be the most secure piece of software to ever come with Windows!

Oh yes, if you want the real thing, you can download it from:
http://www.java.com

Laughing Matter

What is evil?

My evil laugh.

Yes, I never have a consistent evil laugh. It’s all live improvisation when I am amused by your pitiful cause. However conjured it may be, it still strikes terror in hearts of those who ears catch the hearty waves.

“What the heck was that?”

Oh, I love it when they say that. Then I end up explaining that I was doing my evil laugh and not having some psychotic flashback.

It’s not like I sound possessed; I have controlled evil laughter. Maniacal is the word. It also depends on company. Whether you notice it or not, we all laugh differently with different people. Their laugh rubs off on us. If you think this person laughs all the same all the time, it’s probably because you’re with the person. 😛

It also helps to make an evil snicker, or evil grin.

There are many methods, that I shall attempt to spell out here, but due to cultural and phonetic differences, I do not guarantee that your interpretation and pronunciation of the syllables are the same.

“Hahahah.”
“Muh-ah-haha.”
“NYAH-haha-haha.”
“Kkkk-KAH kah-KAH kah.”
“HAH! Ha ha hah! Nya hahaha.”

These are just the simple forms. It is recommended that you carefully punctuate your laugh with loud and soft bits, dramatic pauses and chortles, as well as eye twinges. You may also gasp, but choking is unprofessional. Save that for the next Austin Powers movie.

If you should stumble and pause, squint your eyes in that formulating-master-plan style. What master plan? Gee, you’re an evildoer and you don’t have a plan? Did you think that you could escape planning all your life, just because your parents were controlling you and forcing you to be an accountant? No! There is no escaping it! (Oh wait, I feel a laugh coming on. Excuse me.)

Disclaimer: I’m not evil, I just like being playfully mean. 🙂

Someday, my friends, I shall write a book, and criminal warlords shall send their footperson (footmen are never as stealthy as footwomen) to break glass casings in fancy bookshops to steal it! And when the footperson returns, the criminal warlord shall keep silent. The footperson shall tremble in anticipation. Had he/she grabbed the wrong book? The warlord flips through the pages, studying the text. Suddenly, thunderous evil laughter is heard!

The footperson is relieved at his/her master’s approval.

P.S. I’ve updated my About Me! page with updated links to DJ Phuturecybersonique, Rocket Queen and fresh, interesting reads from Crappo and Ayunami. Count with me! One! Two! Three! (Thunder crash in background.)