I caught a program on tv(Discovery!) called World's Largest Chinese Restaurant. I'm not all that squirmish, but when they had a chef cook-off, and they made 2 dishes, I was pretty put off.
The first was a snake dish, which was something that looked like simple chopped snake with soy sauce. What got to me was the fact the snake parts were still squirming around on the plate. The second dish was a fish dish, which was prepared in something like 53 seconds. The fish was fried, but in such a way, that the fish head wasn't fried, and was still 'alive'. The fish gills and mouth were gaping for air, even after being fried.
I came across this in the local paper, and I was completely blown away. Its a packet of chemicals that helps treat water so that its safe to drink
One packet, and you get drinkable, clean water. That is just insane stuff. What shocked me further was the cost and how cheap it was to get out into nations that needed it.
This is indeed, an amazing invention, and the scientists working on it should be awarded some kind of prize. A car. No, a BOAT! Well a brick BBQ at least.
I spent, in total, 2 hours looking for a power point in the airport. Two, effing, hours.
Number of power points found: 5 Number of working power points: 0 Number of weird power point locations: 5
I had to squat next to a bathroom entrance, a fast food dumpster area, and in a long walk way, with people rolling over my feet with their trolley / pull bags.
Giving up, I walked 15 minutes to the food court, only to find a BAJILION power points littered around the area. No, really, that many. Plugging into a power point, my hot mocha in hand, I try to browse available Wi-Fi points, and there aren't any. So its either, you have power, or you have the internet, but not both.
I'll tell you what to do. Log on to Twitter and go "zomgs we all dai soon k thx". I'm seeing that happen as we speak! Yes, the H1N1(its what WHO wants us to call it!) flu is an issue but I think we need to look at it as a medical issue and not panic.
Panic =
Either that, or sign up for a new job. Say hello to our new masters:
I find it so weird that we in Asia have adopted the clothing style and in some way, requirements of the corporate world.
Long sleeve shirts and ties. In some cases, suits / coats.
Am I missing something here? I'm pretty sure there's some guy in Europe etc laughing himself silly watching Asians dress for corporate work in these clothes when the temperature outside regularly goes up to 33° - 35°. That's the melting point right there.
If it was me, we'd be doing business in t-shirts and shorts. Nice, presentable shorts of course.
I'm not dead. Not quite at least. The past 2 months have been amazingly draining on me, with work and then getting a viral fever that put me out for almost 6 days.
It thought me something. What that is, I don't know. But I'm sure there's a lesson in there somewhere for me.
I was listening to the radio today and came across a song by Katy Perry called "Thinking of You". At first when the song played, I was thinking to myself "Woah, Alanis Morissette! Ftw!" but when the song ended the radio DJ said it was Katy Perry.
Le Gasp!
What's going on here? Was her break up with Gym Class Heroes front man Travis McCoy that traumatic that she swallowed a jagged little pill?
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.
