Using dark powers and spells (read: medication and throat gargle chemicals), I managed to beat the vile sore throat (oh its still there, its foul cold fingers clenched around the insides of my throat - but it will soon be gone).
Onwards to the Oktoberfest!
First off, as usual, they had an offer of 1 bottle of Warsteiner beer at RM1 (2 RM0.50 coins). What was not expected however, was the time change from the usual start of 5pm to 7pm. Yes, I am sorry for making the people that came with me wait around the mall for 7pm. My bad.
This year, only 1000 bottles were put on offer for the RM1 redemption, but in another twist, the happy hour timeslot started at 5pm to 7pm. So if someone was there earlier, they could just sit right on down and start drinking. I didn't. I'm cheap.
A shot of the area at 5pm. Notice that there are quite a few people around already, most of them wondering where the hell were the RM1 beers.
See the guys looking at the tent? There are crates of beer behind there.
Ok so here is a shot of the redemption area, before anyone else got in line. I was in the pre-line, to the redemption area actual line. Sort of a line before a line. Its an Asian thing.
I'm in line, and there's no one behind me. Here's a view of the whole boulevard that ends with a stage. Last year, there was an actual German band, playing some folk music and traditional musical instruments. Someone forgot to invite them, so I had to put up with some local rock band.
Here's the same shot, 10 minutes later.
So we finally get in line, and you see another shot here, now closer to the redemption tent and the icy cold beers. German beers!
Here I have my ticket (Number 0022!) and my 2 RM0.50 coins. Its not a clear shot, but hey, I've been in line for almost 40 minutes.
BEER! Here's a shot of the beer I've waited in line for. This will be the ONLY photo of the beer from here on. Why? I'm busy getting in line for another beer.
After 2 beers, we hit the sausages and meat on the grill. As usual, each plate is priced at RM15 (steep) but damn do they taste good. Each plate comes with a helping of mash potatoes and sauerkraut.
Also a nice addition was French mustard and something that looked like honey mustard. Tasted like wasabi though.
Here's a shot from the 'Beer Hall' if you may. By now, I've had a few beers and meat. I'm a happy man.
All in all, I felt that there were a few shortcomings this year around.
There were too few chairs and tables when compared to the past 3 years I've attended the Oktoberfest, and too few RM1 beers. Oh, and the music, got to have the German music guys.
Well, I've tried to brew stuff before at home, but the major stumbling block has always been the yeast. I've tried brewing mead and a bit of apple cider with the aid of baking yeast, but its come out as camel piss (no, I've never tasted camel piss).
So now I hear Fangy from Canada has a beer brewing kit for his birthday, which has enraged me further!
I've come across a brewing guy (I have no idea what his official title is, Master Brewer?) in Singapore, so I hope I can get in touch with him and get info and some support. Here's his blog http://singbrewer.blogspot.com/
I'm thinking I should adopt a new sleep/wake schedule but the main thing that's stopping me (for now) is the fact I don't work flexible hours at the office. Of course there's that thing called the Sun and whatnot, but one thing at a time!
These days I spend most evenings watching tv while doing something or another on the computer, and if required, baking.
Yes, baking! {Hangs head in shame}
Now if anyone's tried the 28 hour day system, let me know.
That's right. Now, thanks to Google Analytics, I'm able to track, review and update the blog with a whole slew of stats that I need. Or maybe I don't quite need.
World Map of Visits
Breakdown of World Map Visits
America Map of Visits
Breakdown of North America Map Visits
So as you can see, I should be focusing on my Swedish and French fans.
Spore seems awesome, don't get me wrong, but not having a working gaming PC sucks. So in order to make up for the void in my gaming life, I've come across this amazing game here --> http://armorgames.com/play/1920/bubble-tanks-2
A few screen shots
The upgrading and the bubble tank shapes look / seem pretty cool to me.
A says: i need to make a Gantt chart. A says: and a spread graph. G says: OK. A says: for how much water we can save from pooping at work. G says: interesting. A says: yeah. A says: it should correlate time and estimated water use A says: i think, and this is just an general estimate: if we poop at home ,we tend to spend more time but less water. A says: because its comfier. A says: but, if we poop at work, we spend less time, but more water. A says: so what i want to do is draw a relation between the time, the water, and the location of pooping. A says: ok? G says: ok A says: yay
I never said I was sane.
dav out
{EDIT}
Thanks to this site, I've been able to actually go ahead and get my graph up. Of course, you can clearly see the results:
Click on the image to get a clear / larger image
Who said those 2 semesters taking Statistics at Uni went to waste?
Well I posted the link to Google's Chrome main page, but it was taken offline last night so there was no way I could download and test it till this morning.
Running Firefox with 3 active tabs and Chrome with the same 3 active tabs, it seems that Google Chrome compares better when it comes to memory / resource usage.
However, I do have a number of active add-on's / plug-in's on my Firefox, and that could be one reason why the resource usage is at the current level. Note also that Firefox has grown from its previous version to the current 3.x version, and as anyone in the industry will know, as you grow, you add more features and functionality and this adds up to code length. Google Chrome, is new, and fresh, and light. I've not test driven it fully, and I intend to over the few weeks.
Soon, we'll be living in a Google-utopia where everything will be Google-tastic.
I'm sure of it.
The recent offering from our lords and masters seems to be a very blue coloured Web Browser. One that is supposed to be light, fast, and doesn't hog your memory.
More on the browser here:
http://www.google.com/chrome
Note that its blue. Like, really blue. And I've not spent enough time to customise the layout of the buttons (cant seem to do that) or amend the colour scheme.
I love Monopoly. I'm not sure why, but it could be the draw of earning loads of money and causing other people to go bankrupt.
The problem is, the bunch I play Monopoly with sometimes come up with very interesting outlook on the rules of Monopoly. Truth to be told, I'm not even sure if the rules I have in my head are the right ones, but enough people agree with me, and that makes it ok (majority!)
If you land on the 'Go' space, and you get paid the $200 right away.
This one is related to #1 above. You roll and get a Chance card. It says, advance to 'Go' but it does not say the usual "Collect $200 if you pass Go". Because of this, you can not collect your $200.
When you land on a property space that's not owned, you can go ahead and buy it (no duh!). When you buy the property, because you're a rich poopy-head, you're allowed to go ahead and build 4 houses and a hotel. No, really.
Free parking - when you land on the space marked as 'Pay tax - $100 ' or 'Income tax - $200' you put the money in the center of the board, and when a player lands on the 'Free Parking' space, he/she gets to take all the money accumulated in the center. Awesome!
Players in jail can not collect rent (oh I vetoed this one right away!).
The "I don't know what you're talking about, I've just rolled the dice so no one owes you any money" rule - when a player lands on someone's property, and that person forgets to look up the fact that they own the property (I blame TV), and another person goes ahead and rolls the dice, then the game goes on. No one pays anyone.
If you roll a double 3 times in a row, you go to jail (two same values 3 times in a row - trust me, it happens)
Well, this is what I have to put up with. I'm not saying all of the above 'house rules' are wrong, but some are!
I've just downloaded two awesome fonts, and I think they are just amazing for graphics or even comics. Since its an auspicious date, I thought I'd cobble together a small banner using these fonts.
These fonts can be located here --> http://www.1001freefonts.com/ Enjoy!
Over the course of two weeks, I've binged out on movies. I 'obtained' them in a batch, and now as I sit back to watch them, I realise maybe I've made a mistake (or 3) with some of the movies.
Biggest Mistakes: Borat BloodRayne 2 (a western? dear god!) Somewhat a mistake: Harold & Kumar go to White Castle BloodRayne Meet the Fockers (I don't know about this one, maybe I wasn't in the right frame of mind) Tomb Raider 2 Oh so not a mistake 40 Year old Virgin (though it started out ok, slowed down a little, then picked up again) Futurama Season 1 - 6 Tenacious D - Pick of destiny The Kingdom Kiss Kiss Bang Bang Balls of Fury Anchorman: Ron Burgundy Moon 44
I'll kill you if you touch my copy Hot Fuzz Hitman Street Kings
I have no idea. Really. None at all. I've been having DIY on my mind all year long. And 2008 is almost half gone! One of the few DIY ideas that have been floating around my head has got to be the BBQ Grill and Mead. I've made the mead. Ok, fine, maybe my mead didn't turn out so well (I only had bread yeast, what did you expect?) but I am set to make that BBQ grill if its the last bit of DIY I ever do!.
Ok maybe that made it sound too final. Eh, anyway. Below are a few amazing sites you can visit for DIY info.
There's a lot of issues going on around the world with people saying they don't trust their Government (that's right! with a capital G) and that they could do a better job at macromanaging a country.
Well, that may be true. You MAY have a bad Government. But you put them in their high seat of power because you felt they could do some good. And in some cases (ok, fine, most cases) its mainly the issue of choosing between 2 lesser evils.
Enough of serious stuff, try your hand with this amazing Civilization kinda game called Via Sol 2 and see how you fare!
I've got the N70 back from the service center. It was the LCD that died, so that put me back around MYR 190. Its an original Nokia LCD, so it doesn't have any Salmon semen in it.
SOCIALISM : You have 2 cows, so you give one to your neighbour.
COMMUNISM : You have 2 cows. The State takes both and gives you some milk.
FASCISM : You have 2 cows. The State takes both and sells you some milk.
NAZISM : You have 2 cows. The State takes both away from you, takes you out behind the chemical shed and shoots you.
TRADITIONAL CAPITALISM : You have two cows. You sell one and buy a bull. Your herd multiplies, and the economy grows. You sell them and retire on the income.
AN AMERICAN CORPORATION : You have two cows. You sell one, and force the other to produce the milk of four cows.Later, you hire a consultant to analyse why the cow has dropped dead.
ENRON VENTURE CAPITALISM : You have two cows. You sell three of them to your publicly listed company, using letters of credit opened by your brother-in-law at the bank, then execute a debt/equity swap with an associated general offer so that you get all four cows back, with a tax exemption for five cows. The milk rights of the six cows are transferred via an intermediary to a Cayman Island Company secretly owned by the majority shareholder who sells the rights to all seven cows back to your listed company. The annual report says the company owns eight cows, with an option on one more. Sell one cow to buy a new president of the United States , leaving you with nine cows. No balance sheet provided with the release. The public buys your bull.
A FRENCH CORPORATION : You have two cows. You go on strike, organise a riot, and block the roads, because you want three cows.
A JAPANESE CORPORATION : You have two cows. You redesign them so they are one-tenth the size of an ordinary cow and produce twenty times the milk. You then create a clever cow cartoon image called 'Cowkimon' and market it worldwide.
A GERMAN CORPORATION : You have two cows. You re-engineer them so they live for 100 years, eat once a month, and milk themselves.
AN ITALIAN CORPORATION : You have two cows, but you don't know where they are. You decide to have lunch.
A RUSSIAN CORPORATION : You have two cows. You count them and learn you have five cows. You count them again and learn you have 42 cows. You count them again and learn you have 2 cows. You stop counting cows because you're sobering up and open another bottle of vodka.
A SWISS CORPORATION : You have 5,000 cows. None of them belong to you. You charge the owners for storing them.
A CHINA CORPORATION : You have two cows. You have 300 people milking them. You claim that you have full employment, and high bovine productivity, and arrest the newsman who reported the real situation.
A BRITISH CORPORATION : You have two cows. Both are mad.
I found this via a chain email. I've always hated chain emails.
Unless you've been living in the mountains (and don't have 3G or something) you would have known by now that the amazing guys at Mozilla have now released Firefox 3.0. Its not beta, its the official launch.
Also, there's a site and a chance to get into the record books with the number of internet downloads of Firefox 3.0, so get in on the action and get a cool PDF certificate as well :)
Well I had to park a few kilometers away and walk but I managed to hand in my phone to the Nokia Care center for them to take a look at the dead phone. On the way to the service center, I dropped by a teleco shop and the guy behind the counter took one look at the phone and said, "MYR160, you need new LCD I give you good price (sic)."
Warranty? "2 weeks. Very good price (sic)" Um, is that the original LCD? "Nooooooooo. No one get original LCD. AP LCD! (sic)"
I ran away, mostly because he didnt really bother to look at the phone much after making up his mind on the LCD, and because of the 2 weeks warranty period.
Nokia should call me soon.
At the same time, I was browsing around and came across HP's new IPAQ with 3G, looking good HP!
Well, my trusty Nokia N70 just upped and died today. When I got home from work, I noticed that the screen was blank but it still had power. I tried to restart it but it didn't seem to work. Pulled the battery, pulled the SIM and the MMC card and left it for a while but it still didn't seem to want to work.
So I'm using my really old Nokia phone and hoping that the hard-format codes I got off the Internet will help me resolve the issue.
Here’s how to hard reset or format your Nokia N70 mobile phone:
1) Switch off your phone 2) Press and hold these 3 keys together: -green dial key -the star key(*) -the number 3 key (Ugh, I wish I had three hands…!!) 3) Power on the phone
Warning: Do not release the keys until you see a formatting screen and even after the phone has started. Wait until the initial sound starts to play and the hand animation is displayed.
Lets wait and see. Hope this doesn't affect the N70 photo blog. Would have to have to rename it to N3310 Photo blog or something :(
Last night the Govt announced that the price of petrol at the pump will go up from MYR 1.97 to MYR 2.70 (roughly by 40%). I was a little taken aback with the announcement because I would have thought the Govt would have pushed the price up a little at a time till it reached a value they were ok with.
If you didn't know, here in Malaysia, the Govt spends a huge chunk of change on subsidising petrol for everyday consumers. They've been able to keep the price low and stable for a long time now, but with the new price hikes and other issues coming in, I think re-organizing the petrol subsidy is a good idea. The new plan to redistribute the subsidy and other changes are shown below, taken from the Malaysian newspaper The Star.
The Changes
Price increase
Petrol – RM0.78/litre Diesel – RM1/litre Electricity: Commercial and industrial – 26% Retailers and small restaurant operators – 18% (for first 200kWh per month) Residential – new pricing structure for users above 200kWh per month
Prices effective today 05/06/2008 (per litre)
Petrol – RM2.70 (previously RM1.92) Diesel – RM2.58 (previously RM1.58)
Rebates
> RM625 per year For private vehicle with engine capacity of 2000cc and below, including private pickup trucks and jeeps with engine capacity of 2500cc and below.
> RM150 per year For each private motorcycle with engine capacity of 250cc and below
> RM200 reduction on road tax For private petrol and diesel vehicles with engine capacity above 2000cc
> RM50 reduction on road tax For private motorcycles with engine capacity above 250cc
> Diesel – RM1.43 per litre (previously RM1 per litre for fishermen and RM1.20 per litre for vessel owners)
> RM200 per month for every owner and employee of Malaysian-owned vessels registered with the Fisheries Department
> 10sen per kilo incentive for every kilogram of fish caught by registered vessels
> 10sen per litre for every litre of diesel used by river transportation operators according to approved quota
Gas subsidies restructure (for Peninsular Malaysia)
> For power producers – from RM6.40 per mmBtu to RM14.31 per mmBtu
> For industrial users (consuming less than 2mmscfd) – from RM9.40 per mmBtu to RM24.54 per mmBtu
> For industrial users (consuming above 2mmscfd) – from RM11.32 per mmBtu to RM32.56 per mmBtu
Electricity tariff restructure
> Households using 200kWh and below every month will not be affected. This covers 59% of households in Peninsular Malaysia with a monthly bill under RM43.60.
> Commercial and industrial users face 26% increase. Small retail and business outlets consuming under 200kWh per month face 18% increase.
Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) and Natural Gas for Vehicle (NGV)
> No change. Prices remain at RM1.75 per kg (LPG) and RM0.635 per litre (NGV)
Oil palm windfall tax
> For Peninsular Malaysia 15% for every tonne of CPO exceeding RM2,000
> Sabah and Sarawak 7.5% for every tonne of CPO exceeding RM2,000 > Abolition of cess tax
Service tax threshold for restaurants and eateries
> Service tax now for restaurants with annual sales of RM3mil (previously RM500,000)
All in all, I think its a positive move by the Govt. Sure, prices are going up, but its not as bad as other countries. We need to buckle down people!
I really blame Gibzon for making me boot up IRC. Really I do!
[Feenix`] man 11:20pm already.... [dav_in] wth [dav_in] dude [dav_in] you need to stay up more [dav_in] MORE [dav_in] TO THE MAX! [dav_in] get a shot of tequila [dav_in] but dont drink it [dav_in] oh no [dav_in] dont drink it just yet [dav_in] thats too easy [dav_in] you ready for this? [dav_in] snort it [dav_in] thats right [dav_in] snort it [Feenix`] snort....tequila.... [Feenix`] omg it burns! [dav_in] yes, thats how you know you're doing it right!
I'm usually stuck on one stretch of road when I drive to work in the mornings. Its a gentle upwards slope that ends with a very wide curve downwards and at the end of this stretch, 2 other major roads join in.
As you'd foresee, its 3 roads, each with 2 lanes, merging into a 3 lane road. Traffic here is insane. Its insane, partly due to the volume of traffic, but I think its mostly due to the crazy drivers all around me that don't seem to understand how to merge into traffic correctly (and safely!).
It drives me MAD.
I sometimes wish every car was equipped with some form of M102 105mm Cannon from the AC-130H. Just the knowledge that the other guy processes such firepower will surely make people drive carefully and be courteous to other drivers on the road.
Hence the term, Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD). Cooked up during the Cold War between the Americans and the Soviets (its always the Soviets!), it was an uneasy way of holding the peace.
Last Monday was a public holiday here, so I didn't go to work. Now, Tuesday, I walk into the office, and as soon as I sit down to work, I get flooded with work and crap. The kind of thing you get on a Monday. Only now, its worse, because its a Monday + Tuesday thing, and somehow, clients seem to know this and get extra bothersome.
My hypothesis is that because Monday felt cheated by not getting people all messed up with the Monday Blues, its enscrolled its good friend Tuesday into being sucky as well.
Gibzon told me to go back to IRC, and I did! I'm just killing some time there, doing nothing important when someone comes into the channel, and this sparks one of the second weirdest IRC chats I've ever had. (Don't ask me what the first weirdest chat I've had, thats for another day)
[@Tenchi] hmm [dav_in]dont you hmm me young man [dav_in] woman [dav_in] person [@Tenchi] excuse me [@Tenchi] i dont no u [dav_in] "i dont no u" ? * Tenchi is now known as DarkDragon [@DarkDragon] u were saying [dav_in] i was saying? [@DarkDragon] im waiting [dav_in] i'm lost [@DarkDragon] ya [@DarkDragon] ill bet [dav_in] i am [dav_in] should i maybe, get on my knees? [dav_in] grovel a little? [@DarkDragon] umm [@DarkDragon] u no [@DarkDragon] i dont like ppl that gravel [@DarkDragon] dislike it [dav_in] i dislike gravel too [dav_in] kinda rough on the knees [@DarkDragon] wee why say it [@DarkDragon] well [dav_in] well i didnt, you did [@DarkDragon] umm [dav_in] aye [@DarkDragon] [dav_in] i am [@DarkDragon] [dav_in] should i maybe, get on my knees? [@DarkDragon] [dav_in] grovel a little? [@DarkDragon] u did say it [dav_in] um, and if i could use my magical copy paste thinggy --] [dav_in] [@DarkDragon] i dont like ppl that gravel [@DarkDragon] umm ya can [@DarkDragon] so [@DarkDragon] i dont [@DarkDragon] but u said u do [dav_in] you dont.. ? what? [@DarkDragon] i dont like ppl that gravel it makes them pathetic [dav_in] you do realise that gravel is a type of rock yeah? [@DarkDragon] um [@DarkDragon] do u reliaze that gravel is when ppl beg on there knees [dav_in] um, no, actually i didnt [@DarkDragon] u do now [dav_in] i thought that was still under 'grovel' [@DarkDragon] dunno [dav_in] well, thank you for clearing that up! [@DarkDragon] ok [dav_in] so um, do any graveling lately? [@DarkDragon] nope [@DarkDragon] i bow to noone [dav_in] ok, fair enough * DarkDragon is now known as Tenchi [dav_in] lol is anyone logging this?
You can draw your own conclusions to IRC and its users!
I spent my weekend doing chores and work stuff, but I managed to spend some time in front of the TV. Of course, it being the weekend and all, there wasn't much on the TV except for game shows and the sort. I kept flipping channels and I came across a movie that was about to start, and the title just caught my attention. Completely!
First, lets start with how many stars I'll give to the movie, even before I discuss it, because I'm l337 like that.
*gasp* Thats right, its a Sci-Fi chan movie, and I'm giving it a 2 star rating. Honestly, unless you were as bored as I was, there would have been no real reason to watch this. When I saw the title I was all "OMGZ Basilisk! Pwn!" (well maybe not really like that!) but as the movie progressed the Kill-Me-Now's crept in. The movie had average effects, and some of it was not bad.
One part had the National Guards come in and, get this, shoot M1A1 rounds into an open sewer manhole. Then proceed to fire a shoulder bazooka into said manhole. Wow. Just, um wow.
All of the characters were 2 Dimensional, except for the goofy sidekick, who had great lines and an amazing screen presence. I mean, look at him! Being held at knife point by a model slash villainess slash anorexic (don't let it fool you boy's and girls, this is a bad thing!)
Of course, everyone knows the Basilisk from MtG, where it is an awesome and fierce creature no person would ever go up against!
Now, I can't fault the stunt men for crashing Bond's car's. Who knows what kinds of gizmo's and widget's he has in there, in fact, I pity the poor sods!
So there, Mr. Bond, drive your own cars for a change!
Well I've diddled around with the layout of the blog a little to include:
Slightly larger text fonts (maybe its just me or age creeping up, but I like to be able to read stuff easily).
Google Adsense advertisements! (gasp!) Yes, I've sold out, and I need the money for that mink coat and pink hat.
Labels. Most posts will carry a label (or two) so you can sort out what you want to read quickly.
A map! Hurrah! A map!
I'll keep on adding stuff like I once did to the old blog layout (the one I had to give up because I moved to the Beta {not anymore!} Blogger template).
Just in case some of you play scrabble or really would like to know where I got the diddle bit you can read more on 'diddling' here and here.
I've never really paid much attention to my daily work ritual but lately I've been having this one image in my mind of a huge spaceship. As I come into work (if I'm the first one that is) I unlock the main grill door, and raise the door shutters. This somehow makes me think of coming out of a deep / cryogenic sleep after a long flight. Once that's done, I move into the inner office and switch on a bank of switches for the lights and a/c units. Again, this feels so much like powering up a ship bridge, watching the lights come on and the soft hum of the water kettle and fridge.
Then of course, since I'm in the bridge, I power on my server, my desktop, and my laptop all one after another. As I settle down into my seat, I swivel my chair from my desktop; logging in, and then launching myself into the internet, warp 3 please.
I thought I'd take a quick look at some great sites for the month of April. Now, I know, these sites might be a tad 'different' but they all come together in the great spirit of April.
Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. announces its long-awaited return to console gaming with World of Warcraft: The Molten Core™, http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/moltencore/ Now, I'm a fan of Blizzard, so I'll post 2 amazing April links from them. The first being the link above. Now, when the site loads, view the trailer as well as the screenshots below that highlight the new monster bosses.
These past few days have been a tad rough. I finally get off my lazy arse and get my desktop to the service center (the PSU was shorting / auto-reboot) and the guy tells me that the PSU warranty only has 5 days remaining on it, since its been almost 1 year from the date of purchase.
I lug the damn machine over to his store, he passes me the PSU to send to the service warranty area which is like in a different building and they tell me the PSU is FINE. Bleah. So they suggest I bring my whole desktop over for them to fiddle with. I do that (2 more trips!) and when I'm done they then tell me there's nothing at ALL wrong with the machine. Maybe some dust induced heat issues.
FTW!?WTF?
On top of that, my laptop sling shoulder strap broke while I was trying to lift it up in the office. Well, not broke. More like kersplody. The clips that attach the strap to the laptop bag just shattered. Go Fujitsu!
Recently I find myself a little number dyslexic when saying numbers out loud. I was watching tv and it had an ad on a movie / drama titled '1492' but when I said it out loud I said "1942".
Normally this wouldn't bother me, but I noticed I did the same thing at a client's office during an IT Audit. They had a report called "RET 1503" but I kept refering to it as RET 5103.
I don't know about you guys out there, but I'm very sure that in the course of a day's work, you'll come across an idiot or two. Now I don't work with customer service or a helpdesk, but at times, due to the nature of my work, I've had to provide tech based support to people that DON'T EVEN PAY ME!
Take for example, yesterday.
X: Hello, I need help! Me: Uh, hey there hows it going? Good to hear from you too! X: Yes yes hello. Look, I need help with something. I cant get my news! OMGZ! (Ok ok so he didn't say 'omgz' he's 45 or something for god's sake!) Me: News? Like BBC or CNN? On the TV? X: No no no who watches TV these days? Online! The interweb! (again, he said internet, I just changed it to interweb) Me: Oh yeah ok cool, so you cant get your news. Why? X: I don't know I keep clicking on it and it just shows the same page! Me: Err, and how am I supposed to help again? X: YOU'RE THE IT GUY! Me: And you're my uncle. X: IT GUY's ALWAYS HELP OUT! Me: Help out uncles? On the phone? At 5pm when I'm having my tea and watching teh tv NEWS? X: YES! Me: Wow, amazing. Anyway, whats the website that doesn't let you get the news from. X: Its Me: Oh ok I don't know about that site, but I'd guess its using RSS. X: Are sass? Me: R. S. S. Google it. X: So how do I fix it. Me: Use firefox
I've come across ceramic knives! I think ceramics are the next big thing to come along since Tupperware! And no, I've not been drinking.
I've long read about Empire shocktroopers and their ceramic body armour, but this is so far the first (at least to me) real-world consumer ceramic product I've seen so far. I like the wikipedia stub on ceramic knives. The first question I had in my head was "Wow , this looks like its going to pose a problem to security all over the world!" But guess they worked that out as well.
Well after years of hunting for that ONE SCI-FI movie thats been stuck in my head (but could never recall what the title was, just that there were some cool-ish space helicopters in them) I have now tracked it down. MOON 44!
Thats right, Moon 44.
I managed to find the movie because I was channel surfing last night and came across the movie Fright Night and the actor Stephen Geoffreys was in that specific scene. I instantly remembered him as the pill popping navigator guy from that sci fi movie I've been looking for, and reversed through all the movies Geoffreys has ever been in to get to Moon 44. Oddly, he's been in alot of gay pornos. Dont ask.
Just a bit of the movie that I've found so far on YouTube.
Sort of really want to get the whole movie, but I've not been able to get a good download of it so far. (Hint Hint!)
Well I hotlinked an image off someone else' site, and they found out, and for a short while they changed the URL of the photo to um, something diffrent.
Just thought I'd provide a quick SITREP on whats going on at the moment. Being killed by the new house, furniture, and electrical appliances. Oh and the costs.
So I'm going to be uber busy the next few weeks till early January 2008. Poop
As I was reading my normal set of bookmarks, I came across something very intresting on the Register's website here. The title of the newspost is Microsoft's sex-obsessed RoboSanta spouts filth at children. Now if that doesn't catch your attention, I don't know what will!
The amazing guys at Penny Arcade are at it again with Child's Play 2007. Its a year long event, cumulating around Christmas. If you're not sure what it is, go ahead, click the pretty banner and have a look.
I've sneaked a copy of The Transformers The Game (PC) and I've also seen the exact game on the PS2 from a cousin in law. I don't understand why game developers make one version of the game, mainly for a console, then port it over to the PC with a huge "PC" logo on it, but in the end its only a port. There doesn't seem to be any new features and functions (LOOK! I HAVE A MOUSE! USE IT!) and the game start splash screens can not be skipped, which sucks.
Also a pain is the very PS2-ish menu. I was half expecting to see the save game message from the PS 2 when you choose the save game profile number. Abit something like this:
"Do not remove memory card while game-save is ongoing! This can render you impotent!"
All in all the game is ok, a 6 out of 10 in my book.
Well over the weekend I caught the movie Beowulf and I must say that there are a few things that hit me when I watched it.
The first thing that came to my mind was the sweet animation work done. Other people would go 'eh, cartoons' but I went 'oooohhh wonder how much processing power went into that!'
Secondly, I must say that the detail to the actors (motion capture as well) was amazing. Really good work done on the face and hair animations.
The movie was ok. Anyone who has some general idea on the original epic poem will have an idea of how the movie would go, its already done, fight mead hall monster, fight monster's mom, then fight dragon.
I loved the dragon. It was awesome. Dragon. Sweet. Yay dragon. If you can, just watch the movie for the dragon. Its a gold dragon! Thats all for now.
Had a pretty blah morning today. The car was stuck in mud, a first for me. Reversing and driving forward just got me stuck even more, and when I got out I noticed that I had dug a gash in the ground and grass about the length of the car.
After 15 minutes I figured I should just reverse the car (there was a big thorn plant behind me!) and I managed to get on the road.
Half way to work, I noticed a scraping sound much like sandpaper on metal coming from the back left wheel. Since I was in the area, I dropped off at the service center, where they went on to remove the wheel, dust and sand the inner brake and put the wheel on again. There wasn't anything wrong with the disc or the brake pad so they didnt change that. All was well!
Well we launch our man into space sometime today (10/10/2007) and I'd just like to wish the team going up good luck. I hear the norm is to stop half way with the bus that takes them to the launch pad and pee on the tires. Awesome!
Well it looks like Halo 3 is doing insanely well on the games front, drawing huge amounts of profit in the first day itself. I cant say that I don't WANT to play it, its just that I don't have the consol to play it on.
I'd just like to extend a very happy birthday wish over to a friend of mine, Mr. Sukovich. He's 28 today. At least thats what he says, you can never trust someone in Sandistan!
I read A LOT. And early on I got hooked on a series called Wheel Of Time. The author, Robert Jordan, has now passed away.
I'm sad but at the same time annoyed that the series may not be finished. He knew about his condition a while back, but even then the books that he kept writing seemed to go into sub-plot after sub-plot. Sad.
What freaks me out even more is that I was there a couple of months ago, and this really makes me worried when think of traveling with budget airlines.
Being out of the loop for a bit (IE: not having time for the PC) I was unaware that an amazing driver has now passed on.
As I was driving to work today the news came on the radio saying that McRae and his son were confirmed dead in a helicopter crash. I confess to not being a huge rally fan, but he's been around for a bit and I did enjoy the Sega game that came out with his endorsement (if I'm not mistaken) and Ford had a good go as well.
Well I was minding my own business today packing stuff and moving them about in my car porch and suddenly this lady walks up with a guy and starts talking to me.
Like talking to me. As if we went to the same school (not possible, since she was a little more my mom's age) and I was like wtf? what is this? After talking to me for about 1 minute on their aim to bring some good back to the neighbourhood, I was convinced that they were some friendly neighbour that I've never seen around before (stranger things have happened!) but then the guy swings out this doctor's bag and slips out some pamphlets. The hammer drops. She goes,"We are also known as Jehovah Witnesses. I dont know if you've heard of us?"
Right about now, alarm bells started going off in my head. Not klaxon's. Oh no. I reserve the klaxons for when someone tells me they're with the Church of Scientology.
So I do what everyone in my position does, I tell both of them politely, "Uhm I'm pretty tied up right now...."
Does this put them off? Heck no! She goes right through, and the guy waves more pamphlets, "Can I speak to someone else in the house then?"
Another point in time where I go WTF?
I tell them no one's home, and I need to go pick up some dry cleaning. She SAYS "Oh I'm sure there's someone else at home we can speak to, we need to spread the word and do good!" Now, I dont know about you guys out there, but when I tell someone that there's no one at home, then they should just get the message or trust me, plain and simple. By now I've had enough and I tell her thank you and walk into the house and close the door, leaving the both of them standing there. I peek out of the window and I see another 4 people come up to the first two at my door and talk to them, each of their partners carrying a similar bag!
OH NO a group of Jehovah Witnesses at my door! A bunch! A squad! A phalanx! I dont know what the official plural form for them, I'm busy freaking out. What if they scale the gate?
After a while they leave. I like religion. I LIKE MY religion. I felt pretty disturbed after that.
What do YOU guys do when they come up to you and dont leave you alone?
From time to time, I tend to come across a webcomic or two thats worthy of a Blog post. Today is one of those times where I've had a chance to read over an amazing webcomic called 'Basic Instructions'.
As the title says, the comic is about Basic Instructions given to the man on the street on how to accomplish tasks.
I visited Ikea over the weekend, and I must say, its an amazing concept. The Ikea here is the largest concept store here in South East Asia, and its great to be able to see how items go together as a whole in a specific room.
Just to keep Hurk and Gibzon happy, I bought a bottle of Elderberry Juice and some Lingonberry jam. Both good. I cant quite describe the juice or the jam, its just one of those things you'll have to taste to figure out.
I've just come across an application for my Nokia N70 that's not only super helpful but also.... FREE!
Yeah, free. Its a clock screensaver but with large fonts. Users of the N70 might know what I'm talking about when I say the clock screensaver on the N70 (default) is not very easy to read as the font size is like 5 or something
In order to not offend anyone, I'll put up a SPOILER warning here. Don't read any further if you've not watched the movie
Now don't get me wrong, the movie was amazing. But amazing because like, say you're stuck in a dry desert and any brackish water would be awesome. That kind of amazing. Only... uh, less dramatic. It was fun!
My main gripe was, dude its an awesome movie, awesome material (the transformers!) and we've got awesome tech to make them come real on the silver screen.
SO WHY DID WE WASTE IT SHOWING SO MANY HUMAN CHARACTERS?
So before I rant at random items, I'll make a list:
1. Not enough transformers 2. Not enough lines for the transformers 3. Not well designed robot mode transformers (except Prime) 4. Poor character development (for the transformers) 5. Not well paced action sequences 6. Easy way the transformers died (ok ok maybe this isn't too big an issue)
1. Well as you know by now, there just isn't enough Transformers in the movie. I mean, its called the Transformers Movie but we're stuck with like roughly 10 transformers (5 on each side). Come ON. Give us MORE.
2. You'll have to wait SO LONG for any of the transformers to speak, and even then, there are so few lines in between. I wanted a long speech on honor and stuff from Prime (like he's known to do) but NOOOOOO you just get "hurry up!" and stuff. Poop.
3. Have you sat down and really looked at the other transformers in robot mode? Like, really looked at them? No? Yes? What robots? Well the only robot (IMO) that's really done well is Prime. Look at Ironhide or Ratchet. Just a bundle of tubes and cables glued together to look like a humanoid robot. Shameful.
4. We just crashed here and we've already downloaded the internet and have developed characters like an urban street talking race car and a trucker. PLEASE. GOD. HELP. ME.
5. Some bits of the movie was slow. Then CRASH BOOM BANG movie gets so 'busy' you don't even know where to look. Well, that bit is Bay at 101% I guess.
6. So we get just a few minutes of the Transformers and then BANG in a short fight some of them are dead. Wow. If I was a 20 foot tall robot I'd want to last a lot longer you know? Thats just me of course.
I enjoyed it (this is for the fanboys out there - heck I'm one of them) but come on give us MORE.
Don't get me started on the wrong name issue between Devastator / Brawl. Someone should read up or get their facts straight.
Well, Stronghold Crusader really is taking up alot of my time, but its all good. Idle hands are the devil's playthings I always say!
Will be posting more pics up on the Photo Blog so look out for that.
I'm just getting more info on this whole "Akon throws kid off stage" and its awesome. How stupid can people get? That goes out to Akon. Yeah sure the kid's stupid too, but hey, he's a kid. I thought someone with a long name like Akon's (Aliaune Damala Bouga Time Puru Nacka Lu Lu Lu Badara Akon Thiam) would be smarter. Looks like I was wrong.
Well I finally got a copy of Stronghold : Crusader, and I must say the game is a BLAST. I loved Stronghold 1, but my copy of Stronghold 2 was a bit buggy (I still cant find a fix to the mini map coming out all garbled) and that kind of put me off the Stronghold games for a bit. But building amazing castles, getting engineers and catapults to knock walls down and lob dying cows into the enemy castle, wow. Like, just wow!
Well since I brought home the new PC, lets just say there's been a slowdown on really good games I've played since. I have Dungeon Siege 2 back up and running, but its such a huge chore to re-play the game to the level I was at before the PC crashed. Lets just say I'm a bit lazy with that.
I've also got my hands on a live key for Dungeon Runners, a neat MMORPG but like all online games, I feel i dont have the time to sit down and really invest in my character.
So I've gone back to Half Life 2 (HL2). I've forgotten how good HL2 looked. Like, really. Good. I was playing FEAR and thats not too bad, but HL2 with its beach and coast views and city fighting, wow. Just wow.
Thats where most of my post-work time is going to by the way.
Greetings, I've gone and put in a little bit of a weather widget to the blog, on the right. Its not as exact as I'd like it (most of the time its hotter here) but it gives you an idea of the general weather over here.
Well its been slow over here. Really slow. I'm not sure if its one part work, one part the weather and one part my busy life bending space and time thus making it slow, but I'm sure its something like that.
I can go on and on.
I did get my bluetooth working again (but its stuck on a 5MB data transfer, nfi why) and you can view the pics here -> N70dav Photo Blog
So my days are now spent: 1. Doing chores. 2. Worrying about work. 3. Chasing the lawyer and bank. 4. Doing more chores. 5. Worrying about work.
Last night showed me winning on Magic the Gathering, but it felt like a huge win for me. Somehow, I managed to get a lure on a thicket basilisks and then also enabled 'Living Lands' (my opponent was also 100% green). So when I used the thicket basilisks with the lure, it drew in all (and I mean ALL) of his cards (even the lands) against the basilisks. I lost the basilisks, but all his cards were destroyed because of the stoning effect.
As mentioned in earlier posts, I'm trying to push myself back into writing (random stuff) because I've started to grow super lazy. Now, in order to not bore the 4 people or so that frequently read my blog, I will have a short post with the Label 'Story' and then paste the actual short story in the comment field. This way, the main post will not end up looking like I had just copied it from the New York Times or something. It also serves to piss people off, because they would have to click the comments link to read. Extra mile, thats what I say!
These story posts will also be followed by the below image:
Dav out
PS: Just FYI, the image was made in Microsoft Visio, and it has an option to save as a GIF which is neat.
Over the years I've gone and added some bits and pieces to the blog and now its hard to just select a different blog template, so what I've gone and done is amend the title banner but I cant find a good colour for the title now.
Lately it feels like the days are going by at the speed of life. You heard me right, the speed of life. Its variable, and sometimes a whole lot faster then the speed of light, but at times its slower then a snail on a bed of salt (go figure). I guess its all relative, and most of the time (for me at least) its relative to the amount of work I have and how much time I get to spend doing the things I love.
Money tends to get in the way of what I want to do though, but thats a whole different issue I guess. I'm aiming at working on my writing, model making, and gaming (with a new PC, which I'll pay with my left kidney, looking at the prices of processors these days!)
Well I'm not one to be speaking about ethics (I've got the ethical equivalent of a sea cucumber) but things like this tend to freak me out. Seems a bit wrong, and the only reason we're getting away with it is because the birds cant fend for them selfs.
Well since the office laptop is always with me (now that I don't really have a pc) I tried to reset the router modem (given to me by the ISP) so I wouldn't need to keep changing ip addresses (the home network and office ones have different segments).
What happened was that: A. I forgot my router modem's password and had to reset it. B. As the router modem was reset, I couldn't get it to reconnect to the internet.
Tried calling the ISP but they gave me some BS about not really knowing about the router settings and all they could do was ask me to switch it on and off and whatnot.
Well I FIXED IT. After a day of tweaking with PPoE Over LLC and whatnot.
Just an update for Hurk who's the only one monitoring my PC status (home PC). Due to a power outage and short, the store has called me up and told me that the items below are shot:
list of stuff that's dead: 1. processor p4 HT 2. Mobo 3. PSU 4. RAM 5. Video graphics card 128mb
:( I'm now left with a black box, 3 dvd drives and a HDD (maybe)
Well I've got this movie stuck in my head and I cant get it out, worst even, I don't even remember the name of the movie so I cant hunt it down.
All I remember is that the movie was a Sci-Fi movie, it had elements like from Aliens (the planet was always dark and cloudy etc), and the main movie revolved around a planet with a base. And in this base was a bunch of pilots and their RIO's (Radar Intercept Officer) / assistants and they flew what (if I remember right) chopped up apache helicopters (but were actually planes) and the RIO's had to assist the pilots from the base. The hero had a RIO that was this huge drug addict and he had a bowl filled with pills of all colour. The movie was also out around Aliens so its a 1980's thing.
Well I caught the movie 'Blood and Chocolate' and I'd first like to say, wth, cant they come up with something that makes sense for a movie's title?
Now on to the movie!
It was ok, but you get the feel that the movie wasn't sure what genre it was, and got confused half way. Was it a horror movie? An action movie, or even a love interest?
Well I'm back home in Malaysia, and chilling away enjoying the fact I no longer need to divide by ten any prices I see.
I've uploaded pictures from the digital camera, and here they are for you to enjoy. I will also be uploading pictures from my phone camera to the phone image blog on and off throughout the week, so watch for it!
Well I've moved all my blogger accounts to the new blogger (used to be blogger beta) and I realised had a few extra accounts that I've never used, so will look into that soon then.
Been busy hunting for a house and we've seen one that seems to be pretty good, hope we work that out and get it before the year end. Fingers crossed!
Well things are going a bit slow on the blogging bit due to the sum of work I need to get out of the way before my trip to Thailand next week.
Also need to speed up my repairs on the home PC (after that small explosion a few months back, I'm a lazy sod) so that I can fire up America's Army and the other normal stuff I do online instead of constantly dragging the laptop home and back.
On top of that, haven't had a chance to blue tooth in new photo's from the cellphone to the photo blog, will work on that as well over the weekend.
Gangsta Bean
