Jenny’s got a problem
Jenny’s got a bum
Jenny has a brainless anthem
And she was saved by a sour plum
Who cares, really, for Jenny?
Who is her custodian?
Was the task up to me
Or the woefully appointed guardian?
(Yes, it sounds dumb, but is intentionally cryptic.)
It wasn’t too long ago that I was missing from work on Sunday, on a date to exist once every 4 years. I was at the National Science Center for a MENSA IQ test. (Thanks to Hannna for the information.)
I sat for the Advanced Progressive Matrices test. I forgot most of the details, but there were no words, just 3×3 patterns, where you’d have to pick the missing one from 8 answers. There were no “if A is B and B is C therefore…” questions; all the questions were abstract patterns free from the constraints of language. I think there were 36 questions, for a maximum of 180 marks. The passing rate was 148 for entry to MENSA; whether that implied that you’d have only 6 chances to answer wrongly at 5 marks per question, or that the answers were weighted differently, I did not know. I did not even know if your score translated directly into the classic benchmark of your Intelligence Quotient or IQ. The guy said he’d send the results by courier in 2 weeks.
Anyway, enough of sounding smart.
Yesterday my momma, she tella me-a to go eat dinnah and go home mahself. And so I called Shaz and he was in KLCC dependably as a lepak buddy. He brought Penang dudes from the Incubus concert! (P.S. My review is here.) The Penang dudes, they uh say hey let’s be at the Kinokuniya, the bookstore upstairs, and we go up the escalators. Hmm if a place has no stairs, like getting to Fitness First on the 2nd floor of Maxis Tower (which is dumb for a fitness center), can we still say upstairs? (Whoa Hannna-ism there.)
Speak of the devil or at least the gollum-lookalike, she was there at Kinokuniya, standing at the counter, so coincidentally near more 4D puzzles. We walked, we talked, we bade farewell to the Shaz-in-a-rush and the Penang dudes about to watch a movie. We convinced Nora, Hannna’s friend, (come to think of it I don’t remember if her real name has one N or two Ns but heck) to get a squirrel 4D puzzle for her friend’s birthday. We chose Starbucks over DOME and watched the Hannna-the-MENSA-member struggle with her oh-so-cute-and-yet-elaborate hedgehog puzzle. (Yes the same one Aznin made me get her.)
When I reached home, a letter was waiting. It was from the Malaysian MENSA society, and had a 30 sen stamp on it. Nope, none of the grandeur of a courier mail. What, were they considerate enough to tell me I didn’t get in anyway? *does a Dick Solomon egoistic pose* (Of course, if I got 180, they’d be camping outside my house ready to shake my hand and toss me in a duffel bag for shipping to an underground lair where they would extract my brain and conduct experiments without my consent yes?)
Anyway, back to sounding smart.
It said I got 156 out of 180. Yes I barely passed. That means if you’re thinking I’m bombastic, then you must feel stupid, and if you’re not as smart as I am, you probably wouldn’t pass. (And yes, I was braggartly deliberately complicating my sentences.) Of course, if you’re already in MENSA, then you must be equal or greater in intelligence to me. I bow to you.
The membership application form was attached. You could be a genius and be a lazy procrastinator at the same time, and so I did not rush out in the dark night to a Pos Laju (speedy courier mail) office and send my application. Plus I had no experience with money orders or cheques (despite my father’s attempts at forcing lessons down our throats.)
What would I want with MENSA anyway? To meet brainy chicks? Well, that, and to find some Rubik Cube enthusiasts, perhaps.
You dress like pop superstar turned hottie Justin Timberlake!
Ah, finally a quiz that I can proudly put the results of. I mean, like shopaholic? Girls! Like ewww. :/
Pardon my bombast this time around; I was inspired.
Hoopla with the PUTRA LRT where I got to Kelana Jaya three times trying to get a seat.
Interstellar galactica with the Incubus press conference. They’re not much taller than the average Malaysian! Brandon Boyd the legendary hot one looked skinny and stoned, like his SCIENCE days, with snowcap and hair that promised to burst into dreadlocks soon. Mike was the wit, while Brandon was doing his usual dodgy answer like “Megalomaniac was just about somebody I had something strong against. While it became interpreted as an anti-Bush song, we like how it has taken a life of its own.” He was also asked about songs they hated to play again! “Oh you’ve heard this 5 million times over so let’s play it again!”
We went back to check on the chick queue at the Xfresh TV second season audition. As we were about to leave, Syefri and I found out the hard way that our office digicam had the sucky stamina of its predecessor. (No brand shall be named.) And so, he left, and I waited around for the restaminizing of a branded digicam that was so shamelessly unable to show its battery life until it was dying.
On the bus there, I wrote a list of people I expected to see there. I saw all except Brian and one of my colleagues, Marlina. As I paid a cab handsomely, running down with prizes in hand for contest winners (what a bulk!) I got stopped by the many likes of a pitiful friend-supposed-to-sell-tickets-not-here Jay, the midriff-baring aunty Ledwina, the funky Priya, the clingy Cara (and Xfresh TV host) and many more faces that arouse familiarity. Then came the sardine simulation session! We were already sweaty then.
Thank goodness for media passes. I got a free Hulk ice-cream of questionable flavor. Oh, the view! Urbanite rock-educated chicks! A (mid)riff for a riff!
The place was huge. It was, after all, the Bukit Kiara Equestrian Club. It had high roofs, enough to ventilate without any traces of horse manure. The floor had hollow wooden panels; I didn’t know if it was a platform. The sides were giant cement stairs with plastic bucket seats stuck on.
Pop Shuvit started as the first act, and somebody (face not seen) was being carried out, probably a victim of air or lack thereof. Wow. At least I knew, from above, meeting Aznin, that the platform was sturdy enough to avoid bringing a footstomping crowd to their premanure death.
OAG was next, pronouncing “you all want to see Inchoobers?” to Dide‘s amusement. I stepped out for dinner. At 9:00pm, OAG was done. A bald dude stepped on stage. Was that Ben Kenney? Apparently not; it was a sound engineer.
The time from 9:30pm to 11:30pm shall be spared from this blog and saved for an article later! (I was very impressed by some things I didn’t know the band could do, and their flow from song to song was excellent!) Aye, they did not play Drive. (Scroll up for quote.)
Of course, I’d note the things I wouldn’t write there, like how I was tired of being a headbanging lamppost to Syefri and Aznin and decided to walk about to find people I knew. I found Jayaram (another Xfresh TV host), but he vanished during the ambient drawn-out jazzy solo of Sick Sad Little World (that was technically the last song).
Oh and I finally met up with a flat-footed MW after a day of “are you there yet?” and “meet me at the Bukit Kiara logo side!” MW provided the much needed water from a conveniently thought-out bag. It would be more than coincidental that MW’s friend fainted during Pop Shuvit!
As my mom wanted to avoid the jam at the venue, she asked that I get somewhere else first, and so Syefri offered a ride to Bangsar LRT. Dide also did, and I took the latter since he had to send off Aznin first.
Needless to say, upon getting home, I was happy to have my feet feel the cold marble floor! Oh, how my knees could fold onto the chair. Alas, I wasn’t sleepy, and it was the cause of this enthusiastic get-home-and-blog-about-it blog. (Once again I am stuck for a proper ending.)
I went to KFC today and discovered their latest innovation – boneless chicken.
Well not really. I ordered a set meal that had 2 pieces of chicken, of either wings or drumsticks or both. I couldn’t remember what I had. The first one was rather crispy, and by the time I got to the second one, my colleagues asked me what happened to my other chicken. I told them I ate it!
They then noticed that my plate had no bones. Had I accidentally ate the oh-so-crispy bones? Had the chicken no bones?
I guess I was really hungry, as I finished my meal before the 4 colleagues who ordered before me. I wasn’t a bone eater (and I can’t eat bones anyway) so I’m convinced that yes – I was lucky. I got a boneless chicken! This was even though I didn’t order a fillet/boneless-chicken-style thing.
And no, neither pieces looked like Crispy Strips before I ate them.
Speaking of fillet/boneless-chicken-style things, I don’t know what KFC’s next reincarnation will be, but I hope it’s not wrapped in healthy-tasting salad.
Female colleague, writing testimonial, asks: How come your testimonials all by girls one?
Me: Simple. Don’t approve testimonials by guys!
Of course, it’s not true – guys just don’t write me testimonials for no particular reason.
I wonder, too, if the nosey people walking in my hall (yes, I am related to them and inherit their nosey traits) wonder why whenever I’m on MSN, it’s always in a conversation with somebody with a female MSN display picture.
I calculated the ratio and found that females are more likely to put their real pictures. Yessir, statistical proof on my side that girls are vain! Of course, many things factor in to this, like:
– guys who are anime freaks and put irritating Japanese characters
– guys who are into Korean/Japanese chicks
– guys who put guitars as their pictures
– photography-loving guys
Surprisingly, the factors against girls putting pictures didn’t stop them from winning the vanity contest, like:
– not having the technical knowledge to getting their picture in the computer
– being into anime and putting irritating Japanese characters
– putting cutesy bears, flowers and other horridly adorable imagery
– putting a picture of a handsome footballer
I may not have that many MSN contacts, but let it be assured that I had an almost equal amount of males and females in my contact list when I counted.
Oh yes! Last Saturday I went for Meesh‘s blog meet and hadn’t a clue who was who and what their URLs were. Heck anyway, I still wanted to blog in the category of “teenager” and not “matured adult political musing“. One memorable dude was the owner of not just any major tech enthusiast community. If you’re reading this dude, my dual channel DDR RAM is working after moving the sticks around!
And now for the guitar geek side. I have a cheap Dunlop capo. I cut it using a sharp pair of pliers 25% through, making it a Drop D capo! Since the tubing was now in two parts, the long one could be applied to the 2nd fret (but not covering the low E string). Strumming the 6th, 5th and 4th strings would get a E5 chord. Forming a movable barre G chord on the 6th string would also work!
Okay, that’s not anywhere near layman terms, so I’ll use a diagram.
X Y Z d|-2-2-0 A|-2-2-2 F|-2-2-2 C|-2-2-2 G|-2-2-0 D|-0-2-0
The Drop D capo would effectively fret the X form. The regular capo would fret the Y form. Of course, I could remove the tubing and slide the metal rod through the tubing, so the capo could be 3 different combinations. The shorter tube could be used to fret 3 strings, like the Z form. With this, I could be free to chug a G major chord and do something with my left hand! Of course, I could also fret to the left of the capo where the capo did not press the strings.
Credits go to Johann Pachelbel’s Canon In D, that made me learn the X form. Nifty indeed, being able to play regular tuning forms and yet reach down to the low D!
I’m still looking for the tab for the alleged funktified aggro-palm-muted Michael Hedges version of that song.
Oh yes, what better way to end a blog entry by updating the links in my About Me! page.
Oh gee, where am I going to pee now?
Well hello. I didn’t expect so much attention for being Featured Blog, so hello! Yes so I submitted my site so yeah. “Poet and a prophet” is a line from Red Hot Chili Peppers – Give It Away. No man I’m no Bob Marley but I like telling people to woke smeed. Go figure.
I’d love to write something really long, but hey, I’m just filling up to cover my last posting. I shall attempt a mainstream blog post for now.
The SPM results was a bummer. Most people I know got 6-7 A’s! During my time (SPM 2000) my friends and I got 4-5 A’s. People who took it the next year got 1-2 A’s. Perhaps it’s an unjust observation, but I found it ironic. Maybe I just knew some very unacademic people from SPM 2001. Maybe I just knew some very academic people from SPM 2003.
Does it really matter how many A’s you have when you’re applying for a job?
Would it make a difference whether you get 4A’s or 6A’s? I’d think you’d only make some impact if you waltzed in an interview with 12A’s. Of course, the more A’s, the better the chances of you getting a scholarship, but that’s a very subjective political issue.
Really, I can’t stand the thought that grades are all that matter. I know very successful people who have positions of power not because of grades but because of their excellent people skills. Their ability to convince. Remember Dewey Finn of School Of Rock? He sweet-talked his way into getting his way somewhat. Having that skill will get you… loads of free stuff, and a few contacts that matter. (I even wrote a poem about a very unorthodox method of convincing a reluctant date!)
Oh yeah, what do I think of School Of Rock? I liked it! Rock on! Stick it to the man! I walked in, being a classic rock fan and all, expecting to know every musical reference, but alas! That was not the case. I hadn’t listened to The Doors, The Velvet Underground, The Pixies, The Ramones (though I’ve heard of all of them!) A bit contradictory was how Dewey could like punk and heavy metal at the same time. (Well I only liked British classic heavy metal so yeah.)
Still, I could go around telling people how I know the first song Dewey played to Zack was Black Sabbath – Iron Man and not Deep Purple – Smoke On The Water. Right after watching it I walked with a guitar geek all over town to every guitar store, admiring the lickable Gibson SG. Yes, I have an obsession with butterscotch-colored guitars.
Speaking of food, I wanna go try cheese naan because of all that hype. However I always go eat Indian food with friends so they know what to order. My friend who suggested it however didn’t know what it tasted like though so we’d go jakun together over its flavor! However, nobody really knew (or agreed upon) which way to fold a Banana Leaf Rice banana leaf…
I got myself a DVD burner.
I think the first sentence warns you already. Geek Alert!
Yessir, I got myself one of those newfangled all-formats-supported burners. The LG DVDRAM GSA-4040B, or HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GSA-4040B. (A joint venture between LG and Hitachi.)
I plugged it in on my secondary IDE cable, as the slave to my Sony CRX104E 8x4x32 CD burner. Both drives were set to Cable Select mode. BIOS detection took extra long, and its name was some weird characters. Later I found there was only one drive in Windows XP, and although a CD-ROM was placed in both drives, nothing appeared.
I then swapped it so the DVD burner was master and CD burner slave, with the appropriate manual jumper settings. It worked! Of course, Ahead Nero was already registered to the CD burner only, so I used Pinnacle’s InstantDVD+CD software for the DVD burner.
I burnt one CD-R with the DVD burner, and it worked well. I have yet to buy any blank DVD media. 🙁
As a CD burner it’s rated 24x12x32, reading DVDs at 12x. It writes DVD-RAMs at 3x, DVD+RWs at 2.4x, DVD-RWs at 2x and DVD-Rs and DVD+Rs at 4x. Of course, a DVD’s 4x is different from a CD’s 4x… a DVD’s 1x is 1385 Kilobytes per second, while a CD’s 1x is a mere 150 Kilobytes per second. Hence, burning a DVD-R at 4x would be 5540 Kilobytes per second. Divide that by 150 Kilobytes per second, and it’s equivalent to burning a CD at 37x.
I don’t really have any practical use for a DVD burner… I got it cheap just for the heck of it, and as a status symbol. 🙂 I had a few DVDs to play anyway, and I’d probably back up my huge MP3 collection on two DVD+RWs.
Oh, and I used DVD Region Free to circumvent the possible regional problems related to DVDs. Sweet. However, playing Metallica – St. Anger original DVD had some problems – at quieter parts, the sound would disappear halfway, as if the sound moved to another channel. (I have 2 cheap speakers on a Creative SoundBlaster Live! 5.1 soundcard.) Even choosing stereo Dolby Digital in the menu made no difference.
Why not be happy with my CD burner? Well, a blank DVD-R still costs less than 7 CD-Rs of the same capacity. 🙂
On a side note, my dad’s Relisys 1569 15″ CRT monitor is FANTASTIC. I never knew until I was reinstalling Windows 98 SE on it. It could go 1024×768 at 85 Hertz and 1280×1024 at 60 Hertz, or a maximum of 69 Kilohertz! Such high frequency ratings are only supported on 17″ CRTs! I personally can’t stand anything below 85 Hertz so this was really neat. I wonder if their 17″ and 19″ CRT monitors have high frequencies too. (Anybody know any monitor that can do at least a 102 Kilohertz vertical refresh?)
A long-lost friend of mine called me up.
She: Would you like to make money?
Me: Er… yeah, but that sounds kinda dodgy and shifty.
She: Oh nothing, just if you wanna make some extra income. You free tomorrow?
Me: I guess so.
I walked about Low Yat Plaza first hunting for cheap RAM but didn’t find it. As I walked to the appointed 7:45pm at San Francisco Coffee at Citibank, Ampang Park, where we were supposed to meet, she called up. “I’m stuck in a traffic jam, so can you meet my associate who’s waiting there?”
Associate: Do you want to make money?
Me: Well I want money, but if you put it that way, it sounds so pyramid-schemeish. I want to work! Oh wait, that doesn’t sound right.
She brought me two doors away to Wisma MCA, where there was this group of formal, professional-dressed people with the average age of 40. I even saw DJ Fuzz of the Teh Tarik Crew there!
She then asked if I brought RM6. “What? Well my friend didn’t say anything about that…” She took out her own vouchers and it let us in.
And so the speech began. There are many ways of making money etc. It came to a predictable point when they said of this thing called Network Marketing. “Do not confuse this with Direct Selling”, they said.
A few slides later, the suspect reared its infamous head. Amway. (Yessir they have a legal license to do Direct Selling in Malaysia. 😛 )
They demonstrated their alarm system, with amusing blunders. 🙂
Then came the amusing self-bashing testimonials. “I once got into it when I was young, did it for one year, and swore never to touch it again. Much later my wife got interested and now I am successful and not working for anybody!”
My friend finally came. It ended at 9:30pm. I greeted DJ Fuzz and asked him what he was doing there. “What do you think?” I saw the badge! Well then. He wasn’t a first-timer.
I then ran off to catch the bus. I wasn’t into their product range anyway. At the Ampang Park PUTRA LRT there was already some confusion as some lady was saying the train would stop at only KLCC and go directly to Kelana Jaya after that. Call me busybody but I like controlled chaos.
I got off at KLCC and walked back to Bintang Walk. I ate McDonalds there and took the bus home. That ends my day folks.
