Still Too Busy

The title says it all.

Yesterday, I was off from work and today I'm back at work again. Had only one day off. Very tired. We've had a grueling few days here and everyone's on edge. Sadly, there will be extra work until the end of February when we will finally get our replacement.

Still can't think of anything worth writing about but the urge to post is there. So what does one talk about when there's nothing to talk about?

Well... The weather is very hot today. Extremely hot. The planet is getting hotter, that's a fact. Just now I was outside and suddenly a memory from a long, long time ago appeared in my head. I was 5 years old and still living in our old house. I remember very clearly frolicking outside with various animals in our yard.

It wasn't this hot at 10.00am 30 years ago.

Maybe I should do my part and get a car that doesn't fail emissions tests? Unfortunately, this won't make much sense from the financial point of view. I can only buy a new car four years from now. Which is a damn shame because there are at least two new cars that I really fancy and can actually afford, provided I get rid of mine now. Which is a lot easier said then done.

In the same wanting-to-buy-stuff-but-can't vein, I really want my own notebook. Unfortunately, I can't justify buying it at the moment. I've thought long and hard and can't come up with a good reason for getting one other than the peer pressure. Nearly everyone I know has either got one or in the process of getting one. In fact, a colleague received his notebook a few days ago.

Ach.

Anyway, I'm definitely getting one this year. I just need to square away a few things first. Maybe I'll get one as a reward for all this extra work I've been doing.

So far 2008 has been a busy year. Which is a lot better than many previous years up to this point.

I haven't written about women and relationships in a long, long, long time eh? Don't know why. I want to and in fact I have many things to discuss. I get a lot of self-help dating tips in my mail and many of those tips will make really good things to discuss.

I think the fact that I'm not really into anyone right now may have something to do with my not posting about it. My current situation is rather boring. I have this urge to go and meet new people again despite my better judgment.

Why I'm not doing anything about it is another blog post all by itself.

One last thing, the other day I was managing my haloscan account when I noticed many comments offering help from people who claim to know me or claim to be my friend. While I'm touched by the gesture, I do wish these people would either identify themselves or just mail me.

I remember one particular comment offering to introduce someone to me. This is great except that I found that comment buried in an old post months after it was posted...

Wouldn't it be nice if I knew who it was who posted that. I would like to have responded timely to that offer.

So some ID would help. Or if you would like to keep yourself secret, just mail me. My email is available in my blogger profile.

Ok then, I must go now. Must figure out what to do for lunch because the ATM machine is down and I only have 4 bucks...

Saying of The Week

"Change is inevitable... except from a vending machine.."

Busy. No time to blog. Nothing to write about anyway.

Later.

Me?

True or not?

The intelligence part is quite true. I like computers and clever gadgets. I am rather logical and I do like the maths quite a bit. And science! Anyone who's ever seen my mp3/cd/cassette collection knows how much I love music. I'm also quite fascinated by languages.

The personality part, I don't know. I mean, me a craftsman? A creator? Unless "craftsman" also means "guy who fixes broken things (usually computers)", this assessment is a wee bit off...

I would like to invite everyone to take this test. Let's compare notes.

In other news, the new Proton Saga (formerly known as the Proton BLM) is out. It looks absolutely gorgeous! The specs are quite competitive and so is the price.

I want one dammit!

Five Minute Post

I have 5 minutes to post. In the office now. Nobody here yet.

Checked out The Spring over the last few days. Big. Impressive. Different. It's about time we get something like this around here.

However...

I personally think that the standards of many of the stores are just a little too high for your average Kuchingite to afford (although I could be wrong about this actually). Some of the boutiques are so high end it's scary... Then again, I'm not exactly a connoisseur so obviously I can't say much..

Hopefully, the place will survive and prosper. I do like it a lot and it's a nice place to hang out. The Food Court is quite nice. I was at my friend's house yesterday delivering his PC and he told me that he absolutely loves Kluang Station. Must check it out soon.

MPH bookstores still not open yet. Really looking forward to it. The supermarket (Ta Kiong) totally rules. FOS is pretty ok too.

Yes, I'm quite cheap. Very cheap actually. Especially when it comes to clothes.

Talking about clothes, I recently realized that my so-called wardrobe is non-existent. I have like 4 pants and 5 shirts...

So I went out yesterday and bought this really good pair of pants for a extremely reasonable 70% discounted price of 29.95! Yes, I'm cheap. I need more polo shirts too. I need them for work. I'll probably go next Monday to shop for them. Cheap, functional ones that aren't too garish.

I also need new glasses.

I must make it a point to be less cheap with attire yes? After all, I'm not cheap at all when it comes to computers. Or eating out. Or booze. To be honest, I haven't really done a good job minding my appearance.

Must try harder.

In other news, I watched Elizabeth: The Golden Age. It was great! Cate Blanchett was totally awesome as The Virgin Queen. The sets, the costumes... sumptuous would be a good word to use when describing them.

I want to watch this again.

Ok, must end now. I hear people coming...

Springtime

Tsk. At work now and feeling very lazy. Forgot to bring my handphone just now too.

Also, I got pissed off at a user just now. See, some people use computers to do their work but can't be bothered to learn more about how to use a computer because IT people are around. This attitude sucks and really gets my goat. If something is important to your work shouldn't you be more attentive and motivated when people are teaching you how to use it? Just because support is around doesn't mean you can ask us to do everything. Like delete old stuff. And organize your info for you. Some people, too damn lazy/dumb for their own good.

Teaching isn't even an official part of my job for crying out loud.

Anyway.

It's an interesting day for Kuching because the giant mall The Spring opened. I usually don't really care but when I discovered that they actually have a website my interest peaked a bit. Looks very impressive from what I can gather from the website. From what I can see, it'll resemble one of those malls in the Peninsular.

Starbucks is there so at least we don't have to drive all the way to the airport anymore although the airport one has a certain quality about it. We usually go there at night and usually there are no crowds. I hope the one at The Spring will be ok too. Of course, there's free WiFi so that's cool.

MPH will also open a bookstore there. Really looking forward to that. We need more quality bookstores in Kuching. Maybe it will help push prices down. I love reading but I've been put off by book prices recently. These days I do 98% of my recreational reading online. Thank God for the internet and free information.

The current list of tenants at the Spring are quite impressive. I hope to see the rest of the available lots taken.

As curious as I am, I'm thinking of staying away at least until the crowds ease off. This weekend, everyone and his mother will be there. I can imagine the parking horror.

I'm thinking 11.00 am this Monday would be a good time to check out the Spring. I don't think too many people will be at a mall on Monday morning. Hopefully.

In other news, I finally pried myself from my games and watched some DVDs after a long, long time.

I'm not a huge fan of musicals but Dreamgirls was awesome. A must for RnB fans and those who enjoy the Motown Sound. I was very surprised by Eddie Murphy's perfomance. He was excellent. Jamie Foxx was great too. Entertaining film for sure. And Beyonce was nice to look at, as usual... Her acting wasn't bad either...

I also watched Gridiron Gang. That Dwayne Johnson is not a bad actor at all. He's supposed to be an "action hero" but some of his stuff is quite different from the stuff other "action heroes" appear in. Unlike most "action heroes" the guy has real charm and can even be funny.

Looking forward to more great stuff from The Rock in the future.

Hopefully this week goes by quickly and without drama. This is January and time feels like it's dragging its feet...

Twelve Inch

Computers and computer stuff are getting cheaper and cheaper and cheaper...

Small notebook computers are very, very expensive aren't they? They usually are. 12" notebooks are usually very, very expensive.

Except now you can get one for as low as RM1999/-

I came home from work this morning to find a Dell pamphlet on my table about their new 12.1" Vostro 1200!

Twelve inch only! That's so cool. And not expensive at all. An Intel Core 2 Duo shod Vostro will cost about RM2200/- which is very competitive for a ultralight.

I can actually afford that. Shit. If only there was an available with a dedicated graphics card.

I'm sure it will be available in one or two months.

Ok, I'm off to check out other notebook brands. I wonder if HP has anything similar to this...

PS: I found a useful guide to Finding The Right Notebook.

PPS: Been through other manufacturer's websites and forums and stuff. For ultralights (12" notebooks) Vostro 1200 has the best bang for buck at the moment.

Clash With The Titans!

Something interesting just occurred to me just a moment ago.

I've been playing Titan Quest : Immortal Throne over the last week. The week before that I was playing God of War 2 on my PS2.

It occurred to me that both games begin in Greece and uses Greek Mythology as a backdrop, namely the conflict between the Greek pantheon and the Titans. Interesting coincidence no?

Anyway, today I'm going to write about Titan Quest. God of War 2 is so famous and so excellent there's not much need to discuss it.

I've never even heard of TitanQuest and the expansion Immortal Throne until one of my friends told me to try it out. It is an hack and slash action RPG. Which means that its a Diablo ripoff, which means lots of combat with monsters which also means lots of mouse clicking. Gameplay? It's a Diablo clone. Lots of clicking...

So what's so good about a Diablo clone and how does it compare to the original? Usually clones of popular games are never really as good as the original. But not Titan Quest for it is a good Diablo clone. I'm sure many gamers have fond memories of all those hours spent clicking away in Diablo/Diablo2. Play Titan Quest and prepare to get nostalgic . In a good way.

In fact I'm starting to think maybe it's better than Diablo and Diablo 2. Not only from the technological point of view where it obviously is superior. Titan Quest's got some really neat features.

I remember in Diablo you could pick between three types of characters. In Diablo 2, you can pick from five. In Titan Quest and it's expansion, you can pick from many, many classes. I really do mean lots.

I also like how they made loot more "believable". It's a "what you see is what you get" kind of system.

If you kill a boar you won't get weapons and armour, for instance. Instead, you might get a boar hide trinket which you can use to enchant your stuff. Same goes with other animals. If you take out an archer, you will get a bow (obviously). If you see an archer using a bow that looks different from the weapons of his/her other bow using colleagues, it's a special item and you can pick it up if you kill the archer. Whatever weapon and equipment your enemy is using is exactly what will drop when you kill it.

I like this loot system. It's a small feature but I really, really like it.

If you install Immortal Throne, there's a feature which enables you to swap items with your other single player characters. Very cool feature.

The graphics? Excellent textures and lighting. The physics? Nice ragdoll effects.

Conclusion? Diablo ripoff. But a good one. So I'm recommending this to any Diablo fan.

__________________________________

In other news, there was a bit of news from a colleague about this very attractive engineer here. Her current boyfriend is apparently going out with someone else behind her back. Poor girl, she is actually very, very nice.

I'm suddenly tempted to "make things interesting"so to speak.

Actually, I'm not really serious with the idea because this urge will go away in the morning . Probably...

Better not, it's not a good idea and I'll probably fail anyway.

So how's your weekend?

A Lighter Post

Monopoly Mania: 25 of the Most Awesome Monopoly Boards Ever

I found this really cool post while blind surfing. Really cool. I want to play the Transformers one. I also like the Electronic Banking version.

In other news, the new Saga is available for booking. From what little I've seen of it so far, it looks great. Best of all, it costs about the same as my current car when I first got it. I'm going for a test drive if I can.

All of a sudden, I'm wondering how much my current car is worth and how much extra money I need to cough up to get it...

Some Crap

There was an newspaper article the other day about the Public Service Department and their intentions to hire more non-Malays into the public sector. I also read another article where the PSD boss claimed that most non-Malay people aren't interested in working for the government.
Then there was another one stating that the PSD doesn't factor race when processing applications.

I laughed. And laughed some more.

The truth is, race DOES factor when it comes to appointments in the public sector. Everyone and his dog knows this, as evident in these two letters in The Star.

I have my own stories to tell. One of my friends was unemployed a few months back. I asked her how come she didn't apply for the various government vacancies available at the time. She said she won't bother because "only Malays get it".

Then I have other friends who come out of colleges and universities and go straight to the private sector to look for work. They didn't bother applying for government jobs either.

By the way, in the examples above those friends of mine are Iban and Bidayuh. You'd think that being classified Bumiputera might help them in this case but actually not really.

I'm not surprised by this attitude.

It's not true that "only Malays get it". Other people do get it. Sometimes. Once in a while. Occasionally. But more often than not, you know I know lah. More often than not a Malay person will get it regardless of other things like qualification and expertise.

But here's the shocker. I'm not going to blame the government or the boss of the PSD. It might not be their fault as far as implementation goes.

Remember the fuss about Little Napoleons some time ago? (For those who don't get it, a Little Napoleon is a megalomaniac government officer who enjoys exercising his powers a little too much). Here lies the problem. The government or the PM or the minister of whatever portfolio may issue whatever directives but by the time it gets down to middle management, the whole thing goes to hell.

This happens quite a bit around here. In this case, the PSD might actually mean it when they say that they want more non-Malay people to join the public service. I'm certain the instructions and the memos and other documents have been issued.

So how come no change? Well, the middle management, the head of departments, the deans, the HR people, they might have other ideas...

I used to work for the government once too. I can tell you that some heads of departments are EXTREMELY influential and VERY "flexible" when it comes to "following" Ministry directives. Some of these people are also VERY, VERY racist. Seriously. Since they are head of department, they can conjure up all kinds of official sounding reasons why so-and-so got promoted and why so-and-so got appointed to whatever position.

I know this kind of manipulation. It happened to me. In the end, they made me leave which was a good thing in the long run. I could write the whole story but it's really, really wrong. That same story is also why I personally would NEVER work for the government again, at least not until they change the working the culture.

This sort of shit happens a lot. I'm not the only non-Malay person I know who left a "cushy" government job. So how to change this? How do you investigate this kind of happenings? How do you nail a head of department who knows this Datuk and that Datuk and so on so forth?

The PSD could try to investigate if they want to but let me tell you, unless they go covert and plant spies the info they get will NOT be the correct picture.

I guess this is just a small part of the "Little Napoleon" problem with the public and civil service. It's a sickness and I don't see how anyone can change it.

Having said all this I must say that occasionally, things aren't this bad. I also have other non-Malay friends who do work for the government who are treated equally and have even gotten promoted.

It's so unfortunate that the word "ocassionally" crops up in that last paragraph...

So if the PSD really wants to do something about this please do so. There are many, many non-Malay people who are willing and able to serve and do it well. Heck, some of these people are even available right this minute what with them not being employed and all that...

The thing I'd like to see is how the PSD is going to do it..

Another Year...

I didn't do a thing for New Years' Eve. I was at home playing GTA: San Andreas. It was rainy and I had to go to sleep early.

At work now.

I was reading last year's New Year entry just now. I was at work then as well. At that time, little did I know just how significant the year 2007 was to become.

It was a significant year. In fact, it was a pivotal year. A year of a new beginning for me personally.

I read some blogs this morning and some of them had lists of resolutions for the new year.

Mine is very simple and very doable. 2008 will be the first full year I'll have without being depressed, barring any relapses of course.

I'm going to live and live fully unhindered by the beast that is clinical depression. It's so good to be free. I can be normal again and it feels pretty good.

I'll continue to pick up pieces, repair the fallout caused by my sickness and continue to normalize my life.

I hope more good will come this year and I hope I'll be able to make things happen in my personal life. After all, I'm not getting any younger and I don't have much time left.

Here's hoping to a successful New Year for myself and everyone out there. May we have good fortune, happiness, hope and strength of spirit.

Happy New Year everyone.

I Forgot!

.. to wish all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

I had a quiet Christmas. That would be because on the 23rd one of our relatives suddenly passed away. So no festivities this year.

Still, I did go visiting and it was ok on the whole.

I do like what I got myself for Christmas though. I went out and got myself an AMD64 X2 4800 and a GeForce 8600 GT. Brilliant. I can actually play Crysis and it runs at a respectable detail level at a good framerate. I can play some of my older games at full detail with anti aliasing on.

I've finally got myself a dual CPU PC. It's interesting. I'm sure there's a lot I must learn about multi processor machines. The extra power means exploring stuff that I used to play on low detail and see how it looks like on high detail. The dual processor also helps with FM2008. It's noticeably faster now. The downside to all this extra power is that my computer's temperature has gone up.

My next two home computing projects are:-

1. Dual channel RAM
2. Dual hard disk stripe RAID

These ones are for next year I guess. For some of you, I guess all this techno talk is rather dull. You have my apologies.

No girl trouble this year unfortunately, so no emo posts. Yet.

So I've been keeping myself occupied. I've also been offline for the pass 4 days so it was a complete and much needed time off from... well, everything.

I'll be quite busy in January and will continue to be busy as long as we remain short handed.

I hope the last few days of the year will be good for all of us.

Test Upload using Flickr

A bit tricky this one, took a bit longer than Facebook but the delay was caused by Flickr not Flock. The quick upload feature isn't too bad. Just make sure your photo sharing accounts are logged in before using it to avoid problems. The "web clipboard" is quite useful too.

The problem is the initial setup might be a little too much for some users.

Hopefully in the future, Flock will support more image sharing sites like Picasa.

My conclusion is Flock is an ideal browser for the avid blogger\social website user.

Will do more testing. Yes, I don't have much to do this morning at the office...

Blogged with Flock

Upload to Facebook test

The picture is cool no?

Blogged with Flock

Test Post from Flock

Yo.

Can you see this? So far, Flock's pretty neat as far as support for social stuff. Am still getting used to everything.

It has one weakness so far. No integration for Picasa. If you want to use the built in editor and upload images, it's only doable if you have Flickr or Photobucket or a Flock account apparently.

Anyway, more testing in progress.

Meanwhile, on the left is a screencap with all the social websites supported.

Blogged with Flock

Flock!

I was browsing random stuff on the web when I discovered this really neat post from Mahalo about a browser called Flock. According to the Mahalo post, this browser integrates social networking stuff like Facebook, Twitter, Flickr etc. It apparently comes with a blog post editor. Very cool indeed.

I'm downloading it right now to try out. I use Firefox but we'll soon see how this one stacks up. Anyway, if you're a heavy social website user this should be a very useful browser.

Anyway..

I'm at work today and will be at work tomorrow. Christmas is next week. I have some time off. I won't be having any wild parties. I'll just hang out and rest. It's been a tiring couple of months.

I reinstalled GTA: San Andreas again and playing it with the graphics settings totally maxed out. It's excellent. It's also a little bit easier than I remembered. Probably because the game doesn't lag at all this time. That's what I'll be doing if I'm not going out.

Boy, I'm feeling really tired these days. I feel like going on holiday. Unfortunately, due to the circumstances at work that won't be possible well into next year...

Tired or not, overall it's been a good year like I mentioned in my last post. Hopefully the last week of the year will be just as good.

After that, we'll have January. The month of Mondays....

The Long Road Ahead

This morning the air was very, very clear. It was quite a pleasant drive home, despite the senseless yakking of Mix FM DJs coming from my speakers. Oh yeah, that He Says She Says segment on Mix is a terrible idea and completely not funny. These days we are supposed to promote understanding between men and women, not split them apart by playing the blame game. It doesn't help at all and it's a really stupid idea, in my opinion. Anyway...

It struck me how close we are to the end of what is turning out to be a pretty good year. It is the year I got myself back after so many previous years of being burdened by dysthymia. No, life hasn't gotten any better or easier than it used to be actually. There are still things that suck balls in this life.

The difference is that I no longer feel like wanting the ground to open and swallow me up. Even with all the crap that's happening and the strife of daily existence, at least I don't feel helpless anymore. Like I can make some kind of difference. Whether I can or not is a completely different story though.

I do realize some things can't be changed, certain actions can't be taken back and certain mistakes are terminal and that you will spend your whole life paying for them. I was thinking this morning maybe life is fair after all in the long run. Maybe the reason why I can't get certain things to happen in my life is because I'm just not up to standard.

It's like sports. You can try hard but if you're simply not good enough you can't win no matter how hard you try.

The difference these days is that truths like that no longer plunge me into a dark place. It's the truth after all. Accept it and no need to get upset over it.

Anyway, for me 2007 is a year of drastic change and freedom from the personal prison that I've been in. It is a year to be grateful for and to be pleased about. Christmas is next week and I'm on leave as usual this time of year. I hope to relax and be happy with people who are important to me.

Next year? I hope 2008 is the year I make up for lost time. Despite my own feelings about it, I hope it's not too late to salvage some of those lost plans. It will be a long road again. Only this time, I'm really looking forward to it. This time there is no demon trying to trip me up.

It's nice to not be depressed anymore.

A Documentary Hosted by Jeremy Clarkson...

... only he's not talking about cars this time.




A excellent documentary about the commando raid on St. Nazaire in the 2nd World War.

Impotent Rage...

... is a most unsettling feeling.

More Distractions

I don't have much time to blog these days. Not when I have games like Hellgate London to play.

Produced by the same team responsible for games like Diablo 2, the game is bloody brilliant. It works like Diablo 2 too. Diablo 2 was a simple but oddly addictive game that can be played over and over and over again. Now imagine the same thing but in 3d and in 3rd/1st person perspective.

Just like Diablo2 the object of the game is quite simple; kill demons and save the world.

I'm playing a Marksman character at the moment. No magic, just guns. I love the idea of using guns against demons from Hell. Kinda makes me feel like Blade hehe..

I also like the how the game is set in London.

Anyway for those of you who loved Diablo and Diablo 2, this game will be right up your alley. I'm actually thinking about getting this game original. The thought of playing this thing multiplayer makes me drool.

It'll have to wait though. I have Christmas shopping to do first. Or maybe I could integrate this with the rest of my shopping? Hehehe..

I got this game on Sunday. I also got Crysis. Looks pretty cool too. No rush to play it though, Hellgate will keep me busy for at least a month. I'll probably install it when I change my graphics card, which will happen when my check clears. Which is taking too long to be honest. Must call admin and chase after this, I need my dual core CPU and 8600GT fast!

In other news, I haven't done much lately aside from playing games and drooling over other people's notebooks. Not that I don't enjoy it of course.

Even during my off days I'm kinda tired. Ever since that colleague of ours quite, I've had to come back to work for a good number of days. Tiring. So, I plan to buy something kool with the extra money that I'll be getting.

The question is: What eh?

Ok, must get back to work now...

PS: I've read some very bad reviews about the multiplayer part of Hellgate. So I guess I won't be playing it multiplayer then.

Enemies

http://www.darnmalaysia.com/2007/11/23/morons-of-parliament-demolish-christian-statues-destroy-the-crosses/

I'm an ex-Thomian. Many of my friends, including many Muslims, are ex-mission kids as well. So, obviously this kind of bullshit makes me want to tear my hair out. I'm very certain that many of my former schoolmates aren't happy to hear about this either, regardless of race and creed.

How am I supposed to react to this kind of thing?

How on earth is this kind of talk tolerated in Parliament? No wait, I know why. These people are UMNO stooges. No way is anyone going to do anything about it. If you are an UMNO stooge, everyone and his dog knows that means you can say whatever the fuck you want. Especially when you talk about people who are not UMNO members. Especially Chinese people.

Many people wrote blog posts calling for some kind of action against the two MPs who brought this up. *Snort* You know and I know nothing will be done about this. UMNO bah... If you read all the stuff about this, you will also note that they are not the least bit concerned about people's reaction.

Even more sad is when I think of those people who would actually agree with these two. Poor uncle Max, he tries so hard to create programs to increase racial integration in this country.

Sorry uncle, not if people like these two keep getting voted into office.

If you were to look deeper into the matter, this is just a symptom of an even bigger problem. There are people in this country (specifically those people who vote racist, bigoted idiots like these into office) who hate the fact that they are so many non-Muslims around. I know, I've met them.

We must prevent these people from gaining too much power. The question is, will the sane half of the country prevail? Or will the country split down the middle just like some countries in the Balkans back in the 90s?

To be honest, if it did happen I wouldn't mind at all. At least I won't have to call UMNO bastards my fellow countrymen anymore if that were to happen...

By the way, I know that the Deputy Education Minister already quashed this motion. That's not the point of this post. The point of this post and my unhappiness is the fact that this matter was brought up in the first place...

Truly, this is evidence that brains are optional if you want to be a Member of Parliament.

Finally, I want to say one last thing. UMNO people often say that they know amuk and other violent stuff like that if they are challenged. So I guess if they "amuk" other people just sit still and let them do it? Is that what they think?

Well, I would like to tell UMNO that you people aren't the only ones who can get violent and people are not just going to sit there and do nothing.

Try lah.