There's been a rise in cases of Kangaroo's attacking people recently in Australia. I'm sure someone will point out the correlation between humans trespassing on wildlife habitats and the other way around.
It got us (as in we, the people at work) to thinking of a news article where a man managed to fend off a kangaroo (I have no idea why I spelt the earlier kangaroo with a capital "K") by punching it in the family jewels.
The only true local animal we have to boast that's not available in any other country (well, not in a bottle, a pill or powder for health) would be the Malaysian Tapir. All phear the tapir!
[Edit: Too many people asked me what a Tapir was, so I've included a wiki link! Pwn!]
It was a public holiday yesterday, so today is Tuesday and its the first week of work. Well, some people might say the first day of the week is Sunday, and I agree with them, which is why I said 'first day of work'.
Since Monday missed its chance to cause havoc and destruction, its taken over Tuesday. So today is Tuesday pretending to be Monday. Or Monday, in a Tuesday suit.
I'm not a fan of airports. Not at all. In fact, I'm no fan of planes either. But I grit my teeth and go along, cause, well, you can't really drive to some of the places you visit.
This time around, I had it worse then usual.
I read the flight time wrongly. Of course, I read it forward, so I wasn't late or anything. Just early. Very early. 4 and a half hours early. I usually add on 2 hours to my flight time. My flight was around 6pm, so I added it up to 4pm. The day I was going to fly, something made me think my flight time was at 4pm, so I added another 2 hours to that, and made it to the airport at 2pm. I got to the airport, and waited for my gate to open, took another look at my e-ticket, and realised my mistake. Early, no biggy. Much better then being late eh?
So, baggage in hand, laptop ready, I went off to look for a spot to sit down and get on-line.
Did I ever get on line? This rant is too long as it is, Part 2 to come
Well, over the weekend, I thought it would be a good idea to fire up my copy of Counter Strike 1.6 (CS).
Why?
Was I drunk? No, I just thought it would be a good game I'd reminisce about. That is, until I was forced to wait hours while server's dumped ton's of files that I didn't need.
Worst. Wait. Ever!
I don't understand why people create custom mods, mp3's and wad files for their server's. I don't. At all. Really.
Brb, going to go wait for that screen to finish loading.
Has anyone out there (besides me, of course) ever used that little mouse / touchpad replacement on an IBM laptop that looks like a red dot, feels like a bit of eraser on the top of your pencil?
How did they come up with this? This thing must have been designed by the Devil HIMSELF.
Its true. I had a loaned laptop, and it was an IBM. Being away from my normal desk, I didn't have a mouse. No problem I thought, lets just use the touch pad. WHERE, pray tell, is the touch pad? *gasp*
No touch pad.
Just the left and right mouse / laptop buttons.
I used it for 20 minutes. 20, amazingly long, finger numbing minutes. I think I have a permanent finger cramp now. Or even some form of obscure CRT.
I hate you Red Dot ™
Dav out
"I came across a saying in Arad Doman. 'The more women there are about, the softer a wise man steps.' "
I've had to explain in brief a few items on my list to a friend, namely:
Learn more VB or basic programming.
Build a killer robot.
Build a normal robot.
Attend social gatherings (but not too many, cant have the case of family-itits)
Learn more VB or basic programming He's told me off on my choice of programming language. Well in my defence I did say "VB or some basic programming" which would include (but not something I'd want to look at seriously) .Net, ASP and maybe PHP. Aless is recommending that I take a look at Python and Ruby. Now, usually, I'll stay away from hippy non-windows stuff, but Python does run on Windows, so I'll take a look at it when I have the time.
Build a killer robot. Build a normal robot. Aless has a wonderful idea on how I can incorporate both robot ideas! As you can see above, I've had to strike out the killer robot plan. But now, thanks to Aless, I can accomplish both.
In his words: (Or as close as I can remember them)
You need to build both robots. Then you'll have a robot that kills, and the second robot made as a perfect replica of the killed person, to replace the person.
One word. PERFECT!
All I'll have to do is pick a target, and then build a robot, and make it look like my target. Then, build a killer robot (should be easy), send the killer robot on its way, and when the job's done, send the masquerading robot to take his / her place.
Attend social gatherings I'm an IT Geek, as so he's kindly pointed out. We don't like going out and dealing with people. But I like food and I like some good drinks and all that warmth that comes with a good night out with people you feel at home with. To sum it up:
X "hey lets go to that party" D "will there be people there?" X "well, sure, its a party remember?" D "will there be food and drink there? Free?" X "um, sure?" D "I'm SO there!"
I hope, that my list can now beat your list Mr. Aless. Never mind the fact that he's a lazy person and never updates his blog any more!
I've just half way recuperated from a murder attempt involving a sore throat, the sniffles and one A/C unit set to stun 16° Celsius. If this was Cluedo, it would be in the hall, with the A/C, by the butler.
It strikes me that if you know someone well enough, you could come up with at least 5 ways to kill them. 10 ways if you use them twice!
Stay with me on this one.
Lets say you know someone has an allergy to almonds, you could maybe try:
Buy some almond extract, and make some Almond Cookies. Serve. Wait. Dead!
Buy some hand wash or shampoo that contains almond extract. Wash. Wait. Dead!
Make a gun that shoots almonds. Shoot. Dead!
Trick said person into eating almonds. "What, these? Nah these aren't almonds, these are.... Prunus dulcis!" Serve. Eat. Dead!
Get bitter almonds, process its oils, take out the old chemistry set, and WHAMMO bitter almonds may yield from 4–9mg of hydrogen cyanide per almond. Buy. Mix. Insert weird chemical process here. Serve. Wait. Dead!
Of course, this is just if you were trying to go out and um, fix someone for leaving the A/C on till you developed pneumonia like symptoms.
Dav out
The skilful employer of men will employ the wise man, the brave man, the covetous man, and the stupid man.
I've taken steps to post my 2009 list because that 0.2% of extra effort requires I do so!
Said list:
Learn more VB or basic programing.
Breed Koi / Japanese carp.
Take a few road trips.
Swim. Swim more then I do now.
Work out more. This would be in tandem with the 'swim' above.
Make use of that microwave. Hot water and instant noodles don't count.
Weed, fertilize and spruce up garden.
Build a killer robot.
Build a normal robot.
Go fishing.
More woodworking and electronics at home.
Try my hand at welding.
Work with metal.
Build a portable metal charcoal BBQ (you should have seen this one coming!)
Maybe, just maybe, build that gaming PC.
Attend social gatherings (but not too many, cant have the case of family-itits)
Fix that leak in the wet kitchen roof / wall.
Bake more.
Cook more.
Bake more.
Hug people.
Sample more foreign beers.
Get my hands on some real brewing yeast.
Learn to brew beer / liquor.
Brew mead. Been there, done that. Need real yeast.
Take more picturesque photos.
Paintball. Got to have paint ball in 2009.
Learn to paint with oils.
Take over the world
So far, that's about all I can come up with. Its late, I've only slept for 4 hours in the past two days. Time to crash. But maybe a few pages of that book before bed!
In comparison to 2007, the year 2008 was a wicked, wicked year.
And not that kind of wicked either. The bad kind.
People passed away. Friends moved on. Funds dried up. The list goes on and on.
I aim to make 2009 a much better year. How, pray tell, will I make it a better year?
Well, with plenty of good cheer, health and family. That translates into: "Plenty of booze". I don't believe in New Year resolutions, mainly because I know I'll break them 2 hours later. What I do believe in is making a list of items you'd like to work on, and applying 0.2% more effort to them.
I upload quite a few photos to the interwebs, and sometimes, I find the same photo being posted into forums and other sites. Sure, I get a kick out of it, seeing my photos being discussed and stuff. But sometimes, you just want people to know where that photo came from.
Code to prevent someone from copying your images off a website just wont work. Disable right click? God, please.
Two words, 'Black widow'. Don't ask, don't tell. Or something cryptic like that.
So in line with the topic, I've started to use a sweet free software called Picture Shark that helps you watermark your images with a stamp or logo. And its free.
Enjoy a picture of some geo-rock (and my hand) with a watermark here.
That's right, now you too, for a limited time only (and a whole lot of wood working skill) can end the year with a world ending machine! If I was in the army, I'd come up with a cool acronym, like WEM, but after WMD caught on, I'll pass on acronyms. For now.
This PDF gives you detailed step by step instruction on how to create your very own WEM .... er... ending.. machine thinggy.
The Day the Earth Stood Still . . .it would suck to be a sundial salesman. Having one half the Earth in daylight for half the year while the other side in darkness and then it would be reversed for the second part of the year would take a huge chunk out of sales!
Back to the movie. I caught The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008) over the weekend, and I must admit, I enjoyed it. Of course, I am biased towards Sci-Fi of any kind, and Keanu Reeves, of course.
I am ashamed to say I've watched the original movie that was made sometime in the 50's, and there's something to say about a movie made way back then.
I wont compare if they've captured the essence of the old version with the 2008 movie, but there's enough there to get a good idea of what's going on. The intro where we see how Keanu Reeves' character has his DNA stolen might be confusing to take in but that's just me nitpicking.
Speaking of nits and picking, I would have rather seen a kick-ass poster like the one way back when, instead of what they've put up for the current movie.
Compare the bland 'new' poster:
To the alien-grabbed-my-woman-like-king-kong-did poster for the original movie:
I don't drink premium coffee. I try to stay away from coffee in general, but this post isn't about me being a tea person, its about premium coffee lids / covers.
That's right! Lids and covers. Someone bought me some coffee, and it was nice, yeah sure. Except I found out the hard way that when your coffee sloshes around the top, it seals off the two holes punctured in the top.
What then occurs is that no matter how much you sip from that small opening in the lid, nothing comes out. I call it 'coffee negative gravity'. You can call it varying pressure (outside the cup and inside the cup) or a vacuum forming, that's OK with me. I'm not biased. Not by much.
The instructables hack? Poke more holes, or clear out the existing holes to balance out the pressure.
What does it say about you when you end up spending 20 minutes reviewing a coffee lid and then blogging about it?
As usual, as the year comes to the end, and Christmas comes closer, everyone runs over to their local store to get some Julmust.
If you don't live in Sweden, your local store wont have Julmust, so the next best place to get it would be Ikea.
I've had it for 3 years running, its an acquired taste yes, and it bears SOME resemblance to beer, but that varies from person to person.
Tasty goodness from our friends up north. Of course, this year, I found the prices of Julmust a little more steep then usual, so I rationed myself to one bottle. But quite a bottle it was!
Well the template I'm using is from this site. Its pretty neat, and I seem to have something for Green / Blue coloured pages these days, or it could be a 2009 thing.
There's been some nifty edits, and I've really started to grow on it.
I love using Google Analytics to keep tabs on what's going on with the blog. Once the realm of hardcore network people / webadmins, this site now allows anyone who owns a website to track and gather info on visitors.
Recently looking at the results, I noticed a spike in page views:
Looking at the pageviews closer, I notice something odd, as there's a huge jump in views for a page that I've posted a while back. Its common for the latest few posts on a blog to get higher page views, but this post was from way back in 2007.
Someone, or something (guessing Google here) has started to link back to the original Photo Blog post and if you do a quick search using the phrase "worlds largest carrot" you'll see the same results. Apparently its showing up as # 1 on Google Image search and something like #4 or so on Google Search.
Here's a shot of the image that seems to be the search result of a few searches.
... when I have a great phrase and no where to use it. I'll try to speak to some of my Aussie friends and see if I can work it into one of our conversations.
Well, I've had to fire up Photoshop to look at the correct colour swatches to rework the Adsense boxes, since the standard colour schemes were standing out too much.
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
