there is video floating around the blogosphere of the last few moments of saddam hussein's life. the quality is probably that of a mobile phone camera. it is taken at a different angle from that of the official sanitized version all the major news network have been airing since yesterday. as usual the images are blurry and the camera man seems to be in the throes of an epileptic fit.
the settings are a long way from those that hollywood would have us believe. the walls are pock-marked and dank. a narrow steel staircase leads up to the hanging platform. the lighting is decidedly drab and gloomy and not very far from those employed in 'the blair witch project'. a group of ski-masked men surround a heavily-coated saddam. they politely nudge him towards the platform all the while explaining to him the steps involved. the man in front of him demonstrates how the noose will go around his neck through a series of hand gestures and indecipherable arabic words (at least to me). in the background there is a voice chanting what sounds like a prayer. it is unclear if it belongs to saddam.
the man at the center of it all is a picture of calm and steadfastness. occasionally his lips move but the words are lost in a sea of shuffling feet, gruff voices and background hiss. whatever you say about him, the man had balls of steel. even in death his conviction is rock solid. a ridiculously big noose appears and is strung around his neck. the view drops momentarily and sways from side to side as the camera man gives in to his own emotions. there is a crash and the next focussed shot is of saddam's face in a horizontal position. his eyes wide open and glassy, still staring straight ahead.
Sunday, December 31, 2006
i am a 100 posts old
my 100th post! and i am doing it in a starbucks. late yesterday afternoon my internet connection at home gave up the ghost and a small part of my world died. called up my internet provider and they told me that due to the new year weekend nobody would be working on my problem. do technicians deserve days off? i guess they do.
anyways my big move is just 18 hours away. plan to start the 4 hour drive tomorrow morning if nothing crops up. finally packed all my personal effects this morning within an hour. must be a record of sorts. somebody notify the malaysian guinness! i might get my 15 minutes of fame yet in between the biggest mooncake and the tallest flagpost.
for the last few days i have been amazed at my calm in the face of the imminent change. my coping mechanism has been impeccable and i even find myself sleeping better than ever before. oh well, only time will tell. the human spirit is well known for its resilience. lets hope this one holds up as well. happy new year people!
anyways my big move is just 18 hours away. plan to start the 4 hour drive tomorrow morning if nothing crops up. finally packed all my personal effects this morning within an hour. must be a record of sorts. somebody notify the malaysian guinness! i might get my 15 minutes of fame yet in between the biggest mooncake and the tallest flagpost.
for the last few days i have been amazed at my calm in the face of the imminent change. my coping mechanism has been impeccable and i even find myself sleeping better than ever before. oh well, only time will tell. the human spirit is well known for its resilience. lets hope this one holds up as well. happy new year people!
Saturday, December 30, 2006
new year resolutions - ad nauseum
do i dare? yes i do.
new year resolutions :
1. not to second guess myself
2. to stick to decisions and go through with it
3. to finish the numerous books that i left unfinished in 2006
4. to be less obsessive with blog stats (que sera sera)
5. to nurture my other blog 'positive'
6. to steel myself against disappointments that are bound to crop up this year
7. to be more receptive and positive towards criticisms
8. to take on responsibilities in a sensible way within my capabilities
9. to be less judgmental of others
10. to do work that i can be proud of at the end of each day
new year resolutions :
1. not to second guess myself
2. to stick to decisions and go through with it
3. to finish the numerous books that i left unfinished in 2006
4. to be less obsessive with blog stats (que sera sera)
5. to nurture my other blog 'positive'
6. to steel myself against disappointments that are bound to crop up this year
7. to be more receptive and positive towards criticisms
8. to take on responsibilities in a sensible way within my capabilities
9. to be less judgmental of others
10. to do work that i can be proud of at the end of each day
an explanation
A few fellow bloggers have recently pointed out to me that I have too long a list of labels. This confirms my own suspicion which has been plaguing me for the longest time. Hence I have decided to do away with the list. You can still see the labels at the end of each entry where they are tucked away unobtrusively. Click on any of them and you will be miraculously transported to similar posts. For the more adventurous, you can expand the monthly archives and scan through the entries one by one. This is tedious but who knows? You may find something that you like. This suggestion stems from the fact that I blog about anything and everything.
I have elected only to present the reader with 10 posts per page and as a result he or she might not find anything of particular interest and move on. Even if I put 20 posts per page, they may not represent all the subject matters that I write about. I am just a few posts away from the big 100 and hence there are a lot to go through should you choose to. I want to thank every single soul that has clapped eyes on this blog and hope that in some small way I have managed to ‘productively’ while away a few minutes of your life.
I have elected only to present the reader with 10 posts per page and as a result he or she might not find anything of particular interest and move on. Even if I put 20 posts per page, they may not represent all the subject matters that I write about. I am just a few posts away from the big 100 and hence there are a lot to go through should you choose to. I want to thank every single soul that has clapped eyes on this blog and hope that in some small way I have managed to ‘productively’ while away a few minutes of your life.
Friday, December 29, 2006
the immigrant
for all the acknowledgment that he gets from the passing crowd he may as well be invisible. he stands in the middle of the tiled corridor dragging a dirty and malodorous mop backwards across the floor. there is a trail of shiny wetness before him. a man walks pass him leaving dirty footprints where he had just cleaned seconds ago. with dead eyes he goes over those spots again and mops them up. minutes later a young couple walks pass leaving more prints. his shoulders sag and drawing a deep breath, he retraces his steps to try to clean the marks away.
a man leaves his home and everything familiar to try to make a decent living in a strange land. a man armed only with a dream to alter the hand that life has given him. at the start of his journey he is a pioneer full of wild energies and improbable hopes. in the end he is a shadow of himself, a sad empty husk, a dried dead leaf floating which ever way the wind blows. the story of the immigrant is one of despair and dashed hopes.
a man leaves his home and everything familiar to try to make a decent living in a strange land. a man armed only with a dream to alter the hand that life has given him. at the start of his journey he is a pioneer full of wild energies and improbable hopes. in the end he is a shadow of himself, a sad empty husk, a dried dead leaf floating which ever way the wind blows. the story of the immigrant is one of despair and dashed hopes.
Thursday, December 28, 2006
the divine statesman
"I sacrifice myself. If God wills it, he will place me among the true men and martyrs"
saddam hussein (from his prison cell)
the above was written by a soon-to-be executed former dictator fallen on hard times. it struck me as a very distinct and infinitely interesting take on life and death. by invoking a higher power, he attempts to justify his past actions to himself and also to others who are still loyal to his cause. i wonder if he really believes it and if he does what kind of thought process he has gone through to arrive at that belief.
if the western media is to be trusted, this man has been party to untold atrocities to the very people that he vowed to protect as leader of his country. lets assume for a moment that the reports are true. how does he look himself in the mirror every morning and how does he sleep at night? he must have stripped the last bit of conscience off his soul in order to do what he does. is he capable of guilt? if not how and why did he lose it? these are some questions that he will likely take to his final resting place.
when he realizes that his end is nigh, he absolves himself of all responsibility by dressing his actions in a coat of divinity. he becomes the victim, a selfless being sent down for the betterment of humankind. is it the last gasp of a political career on life support or the true mindset of a deluded man?
on the other hand if the media has been knowingly vilifying him for their own nefarious ends, and he is indeed the man that he proclaims himself to be, are we losing one of the real heroes of the 21st century? either way he has booked his place in history and will be remembered for as long as there are politicians in this world. he will forever be used as a yardstick by which to measure the integrity and stance of any aspiring statesmen.
<
saddam hussein (from his prison cell)
the above was written by a soon-to-be executed former dictator fallen on hard times. it struck me as a very distinct and infinitely interesting take on life and death. by invoking a higher power, he attempts to justify his past actions to himself and also to others who are still loyal to his cause. i wonder if he really believes it and if he does what kind of thought process he has gone through to arrive at that belief.
if the western media is to be trusted, this man has been party to untold atrocities to the very people that he vowed to protect as leader of his country. lets assume for a moment that the reports are true. how does he look himself in the mirror every morning and how does he sleep at night? he must have stripped the last bit of conscience off his soul in order to do what he does. is he capable of guilt? if not how and why did he lose it? these are some questions that he will likely take to his final resting place.
when he realizes that his end is nigh, he absolves himself of all responsibility by dressing his actions in a coat of divinity. he becomes the victim, a selfless being sent down for the betterment of humankind. is it the last gasp of a political career on life support or the true mindset of a deluded man?
on the other hand if the media has been knowingly vilifying him for their own nefarious ends, and he is indeed the man that he proclaims himself to be, are we losing one of the real heroes of the 21st century? either way he has booked his place in history and will be remembered for as long as there are politicians in this world. he will forever be used as a yardstick by which to measure the integrity and stance of any aspiring statesmen.
<
Wednesday, December 27, 2006
i know what you did last christmas
if you think the recent entry about my holidays in cameron highlands sounded a bit insipid, i would totally agree. thats what holidays do to me. being pulled out of my natural environment and pace i become a bunny frozen in the headlights of an oncoming vehicle. strange sights, smells, temperature and beds all conspire to pull the rug from under my senses.
in my own defense, things did really go down the way i described them. the car did not skid off the road into a ravine where we were left stranded for days subsisting on the surrounding foliage. we were not accosted by a group of bandits from whom we managed to escape using our wits and macgyver-like mechanical ingenuity. our hotel weren't the target of alien abductions and we were not anal-probed in a spaceship. the only thing that happened was real life.
in my own defense, things did really go down the way i described them. the car did not skid off the road into a ravine where we were left stranded for days subsisting on the surrounding foliage. we were not accosted by a group of bandits from whom we managed to escape using our wits and macgyver-like mechanical ingenuity. our hotel weren't the target of alien abductions and we were not anal-probed in a spaceship. the only thing that happened was real life.
internet blackout - a time for reflection
i live in a house of cards. or an island. as of 4 am this morning major internet service providers in different countries in asia experienced major disruptions to their services. this is a result of the earth quake in taiwan late yesterday afternoon. the underwater cables connecting us to the rest of the world sustained damage during the quake.
woke up this morning to snail paced broadband and inability to access certain sites. my initial reaction was to check things on my side. everything was as it should be with ubuntu. since i was running late, i went to the office and ran into the same thing with winxp. well at least it was nothing to do with my pc.
came home and things were the same. tried my backup dial-up account and read about the outage from a local tech forum. suddenly i was thrown unceremoniously back to my pre-broadband days of surfing the web at 5.0 kb/s. worse still was the fact that some sites were just inaccessible. if i was distressed think of what major corporations were up to their necks in. i can't imagine the amount of money they are losing every minute without internet access. this outage will have far-reaching implications that they may take years to recover from.
this brings to light the frailty of this modern age. it only takes one natural hissy fit to bring the world to its knees. a result of living in an accelerated society of quick fixes and instant gratification. we are so obsessed with high speeds that the concepts of longevity and sustainability are left behind on the wayside. when was the last time you took a leisurely stroll through a garden of flowers? when was last time you stopped to listen to the birds sing in the trees? the flowers and birds will probably outlive us all.
woke up this morning to snail paced broadband and inability to access certain sites. my initial reaction was to check things on my side. everything was as it should be with ubuntu. since i was running late, i went to the office and ran into the same thing with winxp. well at least it was nothing to do with my pc.
came home and things were the same. tried my backup dial-up account and read about the outage from a local tech forum. suddenly i was thrown unceremoniously back to my pre-broadband days of surfing the web at 5.0 kb/s. worse still was the fact that some sites were just inaccessible. if i was distressed think of what major corporations were up to their necks in. i can't imagine the amount of money they are losing every minute without internet access. this outage will have far-reaching implications that they may take years to recover from.
this brings to light the frailty of this modern age. it only takes one natural hissy fit to bring the world to its knees. a result of living in an accelerated society of quick fixes and instant gratification. we are so obsessed with high speeds that the concepts of longevity and sustainability are left behind on the wayside. when was the last time you took a leisurely stroll through a garden of flowers? when was last time you stopped to listen to the birds sing in the trees? the flowers and birds will probably outlive us all.
Tuesday, December 26, 2006
christmas in cameron highlands
i am sitting in a wood-panelled room done up to look like an old english reading room that would not look out of place in a dickens story. the shelves are lined with leather bound books and there is a real fireplace with actual burning logs crackling away merrily. if you sidle up to it, the warmth soaks you in a toasty, homey feel. christmas stockings adorn the wooden mantle piece above it. the smell of cigar smoke creeps into everything and takes root. the carolers were here a minute ago and had just trooped out to spread more christmas cheer to some other party. a thinner than usual and suspiciously oriental santa claus makes his rounds with a bell and ho-ho-ho's
all this in cameron highlands, malaysia. it about makes the gruelling 5 hour drive up here worthwhile. the morning started off with trying to organize everyone and everything into the family car. as usual tempers were riled but were just as quickly tamed. nothing like a holiday to soothe the beast. the drive was interrupted by a road accident and we waited in the jam for about 45 minutes. everyone was on edge but the mood lightened considerably when the bottleneck was overcome. the traffic was at standstill a number of times on the way up as a result of out-of-towners parking their vehicles on both shoulders of the narrow winding road and thronging the many retail shops littered along the way. the folks were disillusioned by how commercialized the whole place is compared to 10 years ago.
arrived at the hotel and was pleasantly surprised that our rooms have been upgraded due to some difficulty i had earlier making reservations prior to the trip. apparently the room we got is the most expensive room that they have. ho hum. after some overpriced afternoon tea and snacks in the hotel we decided to take in the sights. the temperature was a pleasant 20 degrees celcius and we drove around the area. traffic was quite chaotic at times. this town is just not ready for big crowds but then which town is?
one thing that crops up again and again are strawberries. farm after farm dot the landscape and the locals do brisk business selling them to the tourists. there is something about the redness of strawberries that defines freshness and rejuvenation. they are always bright and cheery especially the ripe ones. there is also something inherently foreign and hence appealing about it.
coming back to the hotel we tried to make dinner arrangements and was informed that the christmas eve dinner set was a whooping RM 250 ++ per person. with the 5 of us the bill would have eaten into a significant portion of my salary. even if we had wanted to, the place was fully booked. ever mindful of the traffic congestion outside, we opted for the in house japanese restaurant instead and the total bill came up to only a fraction of what we would have spent for the crazy christmas dinner.
and the reason why i am sitting in the mock reading room all alone? free wifi of course. a dash of modernity that seems to throw all attempts at authenticity out the window. dickens would have never imagined groups of people sitting with their laptops in a victorian-era smoking parlor bathed in the unearthly glow of their screens. well dickens never imagined how wildly popular his books would be as well.
went back to the room and found brightly packaged presents sitting on the coffee table and on the beds courtesy of the hotel. nothing expensive (well one can dream) and mainly christmas candies, cakes and fruits. what a nice touch! kudos to the hotel staff. 'the attack of the clones' was playing on tv and we all marveled at the wooden acting and stilted dialog. half way through the movie, the clock struck 12 and we all went to bed amidst the sound of revelers from the streets below.
the next day we woke up real early and went in search of food before the crowds started to stir. nothing to start off christmas morning like a breakfast of 'roti canai' (a leavened indian bread) served with chicken curry. hot and spicy food tastes extra special when the temperature outside is a chilly 14 degress celcius. made our way back to the hotel and packed. checked out and took the long and winding road back down to sea level. it was distressing to see the temperature indicator on the dashboard rising from 14 to 31 in the short span of 2 hours. arrived home and immediately went to sleep dreaming of snow-capped mountains.
all this in cameron highlands, malaysia. it about makes the gruelling 5 hour drive up here worthwhile. the morning started off with trying to organize everyone and everything into the family car. as usual tempers were riled but were just as quickly tamed. nothing like a holiday to soothe the beast. the drive was interrupted by a road accident and we waited in the jam for about 45 minutes. everyone was on edge but the mood lightened considerably when the bottleneck was overcome. the traffic was at standstill a number of times on the way up as a result of out-of-towners parking their vehicles on both shoulders of the narrow winding road and thronging the many retail shops littered along the way. the folks were disillusioned by how commercialized the whole place is compared to 10 years ago.
arrived at the hotel and was pleasantly surprised that our rooms have been upgraded due to some difficulty i had earlier making reservations prior to the trip. apparently the room we got is the most expensive room that they have. ho hum. after some overpriced afternoon tea and snacks in the hotel we decided to take in the sights. the temperature was a pleasant 20 degrees celcius and we drove around the area. traffic was quite chaotic at times. this town is just not ready for big crowds but then which town is?
one thing that crops up again and again are strawberries. farm after farm dot the landscape and the locals do brisk business selling them to the tourists. there is something about the redness of strawberries that defines freshness and rejuvenation. they are always bright and cheery especially the ripe ones. there is also something inherently foreign and hence appealing about it.
coming back to the hotel we tried to make dinner arrangements and was informed that the christmas eve dinner set was a whooping RM 250 ++ per person. with the 5 of us the bill would have eaten into a significant portion of my salary. even if we had wanted to, the place was fully booked. ever mindful of the traffic congestion outside, we opted for the in house japanese restaurant instead and the total bill came up to only a fraction of what we would have spent for the crazy christmas dinner.
and the reason why i am sitting in the mock reading room all alone? free wifi of course. a dash of modernity that seems to throw all attempts at authenticity out the window. dickens would have never imagined groups of people sitting with their laptops in a victorian-era smoking parlor bathed in the unearthly glow of their screens. well dickens never imagined how wildly popular his books would be as well.
went back to the room and found brightly packaged presents sitting on the coffee table and on the beds courtesy of the hotel. nothing expensive (well one can dream) and mainly christmas candies, cakes and fruits. what a nice touch! kudos to the hotel staff. 'the attack of the clones' was playing on tv and we all marveled at the wooden acting and stilted dialog. half way through the movie, the clock struck 12 and we all went to bed amidst the sound of revelers from the streets below.
the next day we woke up real early and went in search of food before the crowds started to stir. nothing to start off christmas morning like a breakfast of 'roti canai' (a leavened indian bread) served with chicken curry. hot and spicy food tastes extra special when the temperature outside is a chilly 14 degress celcius. made our way back to the hotel and packed. checked out and took the long and winding road back down to sea level. it was distressing to see the temperature indicator on the dashboard rising from 14 to 31 in the short span of 2 hours. arrived home and immediately went to sleep dreaming of snow-capped mountains.
a user-generated compendium of kuala lumpur urban myths
since i will be moving down to kuala lumpur (KL) soon, i thought this might be an interesting experiment. do you guys know of any urban myths in and around KL? not necessarily a ghost story but something along the lines of half-truths and hearsay. i would love to hear from you guys in the comments section. to start things off and to give you an example, i got this account from a taxi driver while traveling from KLIA (KL International Airport) to the city. it involves him directly and thus sounds more fascinating. true or false? you be the judge.
"i was robbed recently. not at gunpoint or even knifepoint. i was hypnotized by this foreign couple. they approached me on the streets and asked to break a hundred dollar note. when i opened my wallet, i could see myself giving all the money i had in it to them. i knew that there was more than a hundred but i couldn't stop myself. i saw myself handing them my hard earned cash. i just couldn't stop! a few of my friends have already been cheated in this way. the couple still walks the streets of KL looking for unsuspecting victims."
here's hoping that you keep them coming!
"i was robbed recently. not at gunpoint or even knifepoint. i was hypnotized by this foreign couple. they approached me on the streets and asked to break a hundred dollar note. when i opened my wallet, i could see myself giving all the money i had in it to them. i knew that there was more than a hundred but i couldn't stop myself. i saw myself handing them my hard earned cash. i just couldn't stop! a few of my friends have already been cheated in this way. the couple still walks the streets of KL looking for unsuspecting victims."
here's hoping that you keep them coming!
Monday, December 25, 2006
time person of the year 2006
i have to admit that the only occasion that i ever read 'time' magazine is when it is lying on someone else's coffee table or in waiting rooms. today i actually bought an issue with hard earned cash. reports on the cover story of the 25th december issue started appearing as early as last week in the newspaper. 'you' are the time person of the year 2006. 'you' as in bloggers, vloggers, 'digg'-ers, 'youtube'-rs etc. for the first time in history the masses are deciding on what news we want to read, what videos we want to watch and what thoughts and ideas should be out there on the web. we are privy to the lives of not only your immediate neighbors but of persons half way around the globe. they are only as far as the distance between your finger and the mouse. go on, take your place amongst the likes of adolf hitler, joseph stalin and gandhi. a clever marketing ploy or an intelligent finger on the pulse? you decide. the revenge of the nerds have really started.
Sunday, December 24, 2006
i just called to say i love you
stevie wonder, so much to answer for. i remember a scene from one of my fave movies 'high fidelity' starring john cusack and jack black as hipper-than-thou indie music aficionados running a small-time record store. one day a middle-aged nondescript man walks into the store and asks black if they have stevie wonder's eternally cringeworthy ditty on single which he would like to purchase for his daughter. with contempt in his eyes, black replies, 'why? is she in a coma?' he then proceeds to chase the man away.
yes, you would have to be in a vegetative state to squeeze any modicum of artistic worth out of this dullard of a song. unfortunately for me i was in no way close to being in a coma this morning and when this aural turd floated out of my sister's room, i went into a paroxysm of revulsion. i would rather watch cannibals chew the toes off a barbecued relative than endure the affront to the senses accorded by this piece of sonic lemon. how such a travesty gained so much popularity is beyond me. it speaks of a dangerous laziness in the music buying public, a dependence on easy listening. a lot of people will say that its just entertainment. i agree but entertainment should be done responsibly with a respect for the target audience's intelligence. stevie wonder had just slapped it across the cheek and called it a whore. merry christmas everyone.
yes, you would have to be in a vegetative state to squeeze any modicum of artistic worth out of this dullard of a song. unfortunately for me i was in no way close to being in a coma this morning and when this aural turd floated out of my sister's room, i went into a paroxysm of revulsion. i would rather watch cannibals chew the toes off a barbecued relative than endure the affront to the senses accorded by this piece of sonic lemon. how such a travesty gained so much popularity is beyond me. it speaks of a dangerous laziness in the music buying public, a dependence on easy listening. a lot of people will say that its just entertainment. i agree but entertainment should be done responsibly with a respect for the target audience's intelligence. stevie wonder had just slapped it across the cheek and called it a whore. merry christmas everyone.
Friday, December 22, 2006
definition of the female anatomy (in hokkien)
my brother who is back for the holidays and has too much time on his hands made this discovery on urban dictionary. we laughed....very hard.
disclaimer - please exercise extreme caution when clicking on the link in the presence of children under the age of 12. hokkien is a local chinese dialect spoken in parts of malaysia and singapore.
disclaimer - please exercise extreme caution when clicking on the link in the presence of children under the age of 12. hokkien is a local chinese dialect spoken in parts of malaysia and singapore.
Thursday, December 21, 2006
dexter - the best thing that happened to tv
based on characters in the trio of dexter novels by jeff lindsay comes a television series like no other. really this year has seen a bumper crop of top notch shows rivaling even big screen list A production by moneyed hollywood studios. 'heroes' immediately spring to mind along with the 2nd season of 'my name is earl', 'jericho' and the sixth season of 'the sopranos' just to name a few. out of all the new ones, i think 'dexter' will have the more interesting shelf life.
a serial killer who targets serial killers. thats the concise version of who dexter morgan is. to flesh him out, the writers made him a blood splatter analyst working for the miami police. imagine being at a party and asked by some beautiful stranger what the nature of your job is. its a great pick up line waiting to happen. his job is to scour crime scenes for clues by analyzing the patterns of blood splashed seemingly at random on walls, furniture, floor, mutilated bodies etc. his incredible power of deduction is only equaled by his unhealthy obsession with this bodily fluid. and thats only his day job.
at night and on weekends he prowls the streets of steaming miami picking out his blood-thirsty 'victims' who in and of themselves are perpetrators of some of the most heinous crimes. ostensibly dexter is ridding the world of these murderers so that we may lead safer lives. however his passion for this extracurricular activity is driven by an uncontrollable urge far removed from any altruistic reasoning.
born to a small time coke dealer and user, he witnessed the brutal death of his own parents at a very young age. he was rescued by a cop, harry morgan, who arrived at the scene which resembled a blood-soaked purgatory. raising him as his own, the cop soon realized that dexter possesses a hunger, an urge that must be satisfied at all cost. he constructs the 'code of harry' for his adopted son. this is a set of rules and boundaries within which dexter must operate to do what is in his nature to do.
he is taught how to stalk his victims without being caught. he is schooled in the art of breaking and entering without leaving a trace. the victims must only be murderers themselves. the innocent must be spared at all cost. above all he must act normal and assimilate himself to mainstream society. this last bit is the most difficult for dexter who is pathologically detached from human emotions (perhaps as a subconscious protective mechanism after the horror he witnessed when his mother was cut up with a chainsaw in front of his very eyes). half the fun is watching him trying to become joe public in the face of his blood lust. to makes matters worse he becomes romantically entangled with a single mum who is trying to escape from the shadow her abusive ex-husband. rita falls madly in love with him and he reciprocates in a misguided attempt to appear normal.
the first few episodes builds dexter's character up by showing him at work and at play. harry's own biological daughter, deb, is a detective in the same precinct working a long side a bunch of dysfunctional but reliable agents headed by a lady boss who loves the limelight a bit too much for her own good. deb rubs her the wrong way and is given the runaround. angel batista is the stereotypical hard-nosed cop who is going through a painful separation with his wife. his best friend and resident curator of obscure sexual fetish terminology, vince masuka, is the token wisecracking asian of the show. then there is the ever suspicious sergeant doakes who knows that there is something wrong with dexter but just can't quite put his finger on it. he has made giving dexter a hard time his main purpose in life.
when not working dexter spends an unhealthy amount of time studying and tracking down his victims. with practice comes perfection and he chalks up his kills, preserving the last drop of blood from each victim on glass slides which he keeps hidden behind his air-con unit in his one room apartment. one day he gets a call from his office to a crime scene and when he sees the dismembered body parts, he is struck by the artistry of the kill. in that instance he knows that he has finally met his match. as the season progresses the identity of the so called ice-truck-killer (ITC - for his penchant of draining all the blood from his victim and transporting them around in a refrigerated truck) is alluded to in a subtle interplay of flashbacks and tight storytelling.
ITC represents the arc that holds the entire season together to its shocking conclusion in the finale. the ensemble cast is flawless, complimenting michael c. hall's (he played the gay funeral parlor owner in another hit series 'six feet under') effortless portrayal of dexter; a mixture of laser sharp intelligence and uncontrollable urge. the first season ended just 4 days ago and already fans are clamoring for more. based on the overwhelming response, the second season should be in production soon.
Wednesday, December 20, 2006
my best enemies
just finished a farewell dinner in my honour with colleagues. a fun time, i trust, was had by all. still in a stupor over my transfer to kuala lumpur and don't know what i should be feeling. i have not packed a single item and don't have the slightest inclination to do so. i guess its true what people say about resistance to change, the fear of the unknown and all that stuff.
i have worked in my present position for 9 long years and it has become a part of my genetic makeup. there were a lot of of joy and sadness, disappointments and successes. the single most important aspect of it are the people; not only friends but enemies. i have my share of the latter and i think they are equally relevant if not more so than the former.
they are the antithesis of people that i care about and who care about me. without them i wouldn't know who my friends are. without them i would not be able to appreciate the kindness and generosity of those who always support me. my friends will know who they are but for my enemies i thank you. you are the greatest! may your lives be filled with joy now that i am out of your sight.
i have worked in my present position for 9 long years and it has become a part of my genetic makeup. there were a lot of of joy and sadness, disappointments and successes. the single most important aspect of it are the people; not only friends but enemies. i have my share of the latter and i think they are equally relevant if not more so than the former.
they are the antithesis of people that i care about and who care about me. without them i wouldn't know who my friends are. without them i would not be able to appreciate the kindness and generosity of those who always support me. my friends will know who they are but for my enemies i thank you. you are the greatest! may your lives be filled with joy now that i am out of your sight.
Tuesday, December 19, 2006
things we do for self-preservation
1. you get up from bed and go to work everyday except for sundays - so that you can put food on the table and sustain your's and your family's lives
2. you kowtow to your boss - so that you still have a job to put food on the table
3. you obey traffic rules while driving - so that you do not end up as roadkill
4. you care for your wife - so that she is willing to procreate with you and continue the human lineage
5. you provide education for your children - so that hopefully they will be gainfully employed and financially capable to provide for you when you stop making a living
6. on your deathbed you struggle for the last few breath in a futile attempt to milk life for whatever its worth in the face of the inevitable
7. in short every damn thing that you do you do to avoid ending your life prematurely and even when it is limping painfully on its last legs.
2. you kowtow to your boss - so that you still have a job to put food on the table
3. you obey traffic rules while driving - so that you do not end up as roadkill
4. you care for your wife - so that she is willing to procreate with you and continue the human lineage
5. you provide education for your children - so that hopefully they will be gainfully employed and financially capable to provide for you when you stop making a living
6. on your deathbed you struggle for the last few breath in a futile attempt to milk life for whatever its worth in the face of the inevitable
7. in short every damn thing that you do you do to avoid ending your life prematurely and even when it is limping painfully on its last legs.
Monday, December 18, 2006
inducted into the golden years
woke up this morning and had to look something up in the calender. this was smaller than the regular types and i couldn't make out the small print. i unconsciously lowered my glasses halfway down the bridge of my nose and the words miraculously opened up their meaning to me. seconds later it hit home. i have noticed older people doing the exact same maneuver in order to improve their reading abilities. help! i have officially joined the aged!
Sunday, December 17, 2006
how not to pick a car and stick it to the man at the same time!
had an interesting conversation just now with someone i know. this person is about to plop down some hard-earned cash to buy a new car. he is vacillating between a 1.5 and a 1.6 litre car. there is obviously a significant price difference to add to his general indecisiveness.
'will the 1.5 be able to climb all those steep roads?' the last time i checked we live in a part of the world with a decidedly flat landscape and i asked him, tongue-in-cheek, how many steep roads he planned to climb. 'well, you know, just in case,' he answered with a distant look.
i come across a lot of friends and family who make decisions based on what they think will happen and not what is actually in front of them. i certainly see the advantage in leaving room for mistakes and chance but this attitude reflects a bigger problem with all of us. and i blame capitalism.
every which way we are constantly bombarded by ideas and images of being better than what we are. we are led to believe that our lives are sorry excuses of what we are potentially capable of provided we own this particular something. if we drink this brand of soda we will be the talk of the town and instantly attractive to others. if we eat from a bag of brand x chips we will be promoted at the office. we see this brand of vehicle perched on top of a mountain and we instantly feel like we must have one. perish the thought that we should have a smaller car which will never attain such lofty aspirations.
we contribute to the rat race where everyone wants to outdo the other and the way to do this is to own as much as possible. those things must be the fastest, the shiniest, the latest and most importantly the biggest. in a bank vault somewhere, mr. corporate-man's evil laughter reverberates as he does back flips in a sea of money.
'will the 1.5 be able to climb all those steep roads?' the last time i checked we live in a part of the world with a decidedly flat landscape and i asked him, tongue-in-cheek, how many steep roads he planned to climb. 'well, you know, just in case,' he answered with a distant look.
i come across a lot of friends and family who make decisions based on what they think will happen and not what is actually in front of them. i certainly see the advantage in leaving room for mistakes and chance but this attitude reflects a bigger problem with all of us. and i blame capitalism.
every which way we are constantly bombarded by ideas and images of being better than what we are. we are led to believe that our lives are sorry excuses of what we are potentially capable of provided we own this particular something. if we drink this brand of soda we will be the talk of the town and instantly attractive to others. if we eat from a bag of brand x chips we will be promoted at the office. we see this brand of vehicle perched on top of a mountain and we instantly feel like we must have one. perish the thought that we should have a smaller car which will never attain such lofty aspirations.
we contribute to the rat race where everyone wants to outdo the other and the way to do this is to own as much as possible. those things must be the fastest, the shiniest, the latest and most importantly the biggest. in a bank vault somewhere, mr. corporate-man's evil laughter reverberates as he does back flips in a sea of money.
Saturday, December 16, 2006
free music
they may not be to everybody's taste (but which band that matters actually caters to everybody's taste anyway) but it makes for interesting party conversation at the very least. 50footwave is the side project of evergreen indie rock priestess kristin hersh. she burst onto the generation x music scene of the 80's fronting the band throwing muses. coupled with an edgy and off-kilter stage persona, the music that they made punched big gapping holes in the rock establishment. seen as contemporaries to critic darlings the pixies, they undeservedly petered out while their fellow bostonians were feted by the likes of david bowie.
throughout the years they have amassed a venerable backcatalog of uncompromising music that a lot of bands can only dream about. hersh also has a healthy solo career releasing albums after albums to an adoring and rabid fanbase. perhaps hungering for the chance to trade guitar licks and raise some hell again, she formed 50footwave whose sound is even tougher then throwing muses if that is at all possible.
the reason behind this reassessment of a much beloved band is the release of an ep of 5 songs called 'free music'. they do not minch words. these songs are available for download here and they are free. yes, thats free as in air. lest you should think that these are probably substandard studio throwaways that never made the cut to their proper releases, think again. they are full-fledged rock classics done the way only hersh knows how to. the songs are also free to burn to cd's, distribute, put on torrent sites etc. you know you know you want it!
throughout the years they have amassed a venerable backcatalog of uncompromising music that a lot of bands can only dream about. hersh also has a healthy solo career releasing albums after albums to an adoring and rabid fanbase. perhaps hungering for the chance to trade guitar licks and raise some hell again, she formed 50footwave whose sound is even tougher then throwing muses if that is at all possible.
the reason behind this reassessment of a much beloved band is the release of an ep of 5 songs called 'free music'. they do not minch words. these songs are available for download here and they are free. yes, thats free as in air. lest you should think that these are probably substandard studio throwaways that never made the cut to their proper releases, think again. they are full-fledged rock classics done the way only hersh knows how to. the songs are also free to burn to cd's, distribute, put on torrent sites etc. you know you know you want it!
Thursday, December 14, 2006
ubuntu edgy eft - another review
ok i know it has been roughly one and a half months since the release of ubuntu 6.10 codenamed edgy eft but better late then never. after lurking around the ubuntu forums for the past few weeks and coming across horror stories about installation and inexplicable bugs, i finally decided to see for myself if it could be that bad. on the contrary i found it very stable and slightly faster then my previous install of version 6.06 codenamed dapper drake.
the install itself was smooth as butter. slipped in the cd of the iso and booted into the familiar sea of brown. a minor grouse i know but i wish that the powers that be would change the default background after all this time. making sure that my internet connection was detected by firing up firefox 2.0, i clicked on the install icon and away i went. the options by now are like second nature to me seeing that i have in total installed 3 different versions of ubuntu.
rebooting into the installed os was speedier compared to the previous versions. i have come to expect all multimedia to be crippled with a clean install and they did not disappoint as far as this disappointment was concerned. for any newbie reading this though; do not despair. diving into the rich resource that is the ubuntu web forums, i configured the synaptic package manager to include some proprietary repositories and before you can say 'slap me silly on my behind' i have downloaded all the necessary codecs. minutes later various family members were seen running and screaming out of the house with heavy metal music streaming behind them.
downloading some cool wallpaper from www.deviantart.com, i ended up with the look at the start of this post. the bar at the bottom comes with the package gdesklets and it behaves like the famous mac os x dock. you can also run various widget-like menus with gdesklets which you will notice on the upper right hand corner of the screen. sort of like a konfabulator for linux.
over all it feels very stable and just right. firefox is blazingly fast during net-surfing and after installing the flash player and mplayer plugin, i have yet to come across a media-enriched website that it cannot support it. playing all those movie trailers on the apple website is a cinch.
ubuntu has consistently been topping the list of popular distro on www.distrowatch.com. its there for a reason and edgy eft has proved it yet again.
ubuntu - the satanic version
as a response to the squeaky clean christian edition of the popular linux distro, get ready for some satan worship! get it here.
Wednesday, December 13, 2006
live newborns used for stem cell harvesting
disturbing news about babies in Ukraine. lets just hope it is not true!
net neutrality
"Net Neutrality ensures that all users can access the content or run the applications and devices of their choice. With Net Neutrality, the network's only job is to move data — not choose which data to privilege with higher quality service. Net Neutrality prevents the companies that control the wires from discriminating against content based on its source or ownership."
read up on the issues at stake here. this brings to mind recent reports of streamyx (local broadband provider) throttling bittorrent and P2P traffic . arguing that 13% of subscribers are hogging 73% of their bandwidth, many subcribers have felt the brunt in recent times including yours truly. downloads that use to run at around 100 kb/s are now down by 50% or more. the company seems to be under the unrealistic illusion that people sign up for broadband in order to email and surf the net only. if i had only wanted that i would go back to dial up and not have to pay a premium for broadband access. if anything streamyx is not living up to their end of the bargain which is to provide quality internet access.
read up on the issues at stake here. this brings to mind recent reports of streamyx (local broadband provider) throttling bittorrent and P2P traffic . arguing that 13% of subscribers are hogging 73% of their bandwidth, many subcribers have felt the brunt in recent times including yours truly. downloads that use to run at around 100 kb/s are now down by 50% or more. the company seems to be under the unrealistic illusion that people sign up for broadband in order to email and surf the net only. if i had only wanted that i would go back to dial up and not have to pay a premium for broadband access. if anything streamyx is not living up to their end of the bargain which is to provide quality internet access.
Monday, December 11, 2006
take me back to dear ol' blighty pt. 3
(the story so far. after a tiring 14 hour flight into london, i accidentally got on to the wrong bus and found myself stranded at a highway service station in the middle of nowhere. in my most desperate hour i find my nameless guardian angel. this is the last installment. the first and second can be had by clicking on the links.)
neglecting his other duties, he sat down and listened to my whole saga. he then gave me a few options. i could spend the money and get to london and then fork out another fortune on some overpriced motel seeing that the bus to nottingham had long departed. the other cheaper and more sensible option was to put up in a travelodge just behind the station and early next morning make arrangement for the bus company to pick me up from the nearest assigned bus station in a small nearby town called chippenham (the name is so typically british that i laugh whenever i think about it). the taxi fare from the travelodge to chippenham would only cost me about 10 pounds. there was just no way around it and i agreed.
he then accompanied me to the travelodge and introduced me to another gem of a human being. she was a woman in her fifties who was manning the reception at the small motel that night. she listened to my story and they both agreed that the bus company was not being very straight with me. she then of her own volition picked up the phone and called the hotline that i have tried earlier and retold my story to the operator. it was already midnight by that time and the operator concluded that the bus was not coming tonight. she suggested to the receptionist that i should write in to their hq after all this is over to ask for reimbursement for my motel stay and taxi ride tomorrow morning. she also said that even though i was late by a day my ticket to nottingham was still valid and i did not need buy a new ticket from chippenham to london.
by now only half my brain was working and i gladly took the keys from the nice lady and checked into my room. with all the adrenaline surging in my blood from the night's adventure i found it difficult to really sleep but it felt good just to rest my head on something soft in a horizontal position sans snoring britons. the next morning i rose early and called my friend to tell him what had transpired. he couldn't believe his ears and i nodded sheepishly in agreement.
after a quick breakfast at the deli (the nice young man had already clocked out) the motel called a cab for me and i drove into chippenham. at the bus station, the bus was again late but this time i had other grumbling passengers with me and it was a pleasant albeit cold morning. i fell into conversation with some fellow passengers while waiting. i was too embarrassed by the days' event and cooked up some story about visitng a friend in chippenham. it was not common to see an oriental type in this sleepy hamlet and their curiosity was piqued. before it became only proper for me to tell the truth, the bus arrived. after another bout of explanation to this driver i was allowed to board and after another 3 hours or so i found myself in london.
i got the date of my ticket to nottingham changed and finally arrived at my destination. the sight of my friend nearly brought a tear to my eye and he zipped me home as fast as traffic permitted. his wife cooked up a storm that night and i finally got a decent night 's rest after a 24 hour delay.
returning home a few weeks later, i wrote the bus company a lengthy letter regarding my mishap and after 2 weeks they emailed me to apologize and credited GBP 58.30 to my credit card. i sincerely hope that this will be read by the night manager and the receptionist. they are shining examples of decency and all that is good in humanity. they restore my faith in mankind.
neglecting his other duties, he sat down and listened to my whole saga. he then gave me a few options. i could spend the money and get to london and then fork out another fortune on some overpriced motel seeing that the bus to nottingham had long departed. the other cheaper and more sensible option was to put up in a travelodge just behind the station and early next morning make arrangement for the bus company to pick me up from the nearest assigned bus station in a small nearby town called chippenham (the name is so typically british that i laugh whenever i think about it). the taxi fare from the travelodge to chippenham would only cost me about 10 pounds. there was just no way around it and i agreed.
he then accompanied me to the travelodge and introduced me to another gem of a human being. she was a woman in her fifties who was manning the reception at the small motel that night. she listened to my story and they both agreed that the bus company was not being very straight with me. she then of her own volition picked up the phone and called the hotline that i have tried earlier and retold my story to the operator. it was already midnight by that time and the operator concluded that the bus was not coming tonight. she suggested to the receptionist that i should write in to their hq after all this is over to ask for reimbursement for my motel stay and taxi ride tomorrow morning. she also said that even though i was late by a day my ticket to nottingham was still valid and i did not need buy a new ticket from chippenham to london.
by now only half my brain was working and i gladly took the keys from the nice lady and checked into my room. with all the adrenaline surging in my blood from the night's adventure i found it difficult to really sleep but it felt good just to rest my head on something soft in a horizontal position sans snoring britons. the next morning i rose early and called my friend to tell him what had transpired. he couldn't believe his ears and i nodded sheepishly in agreement.
after a quick breakfast at the deli (the nice young man had already clocked out) the motel called a cab for me and i drove into chippenham. at the bus station, the bus was again late but this time i had other grumbling passengers with me and it was a pleasant albeit cold morning. i fell into conversation with some fellow passengers while waiting. i was too embarrassed by the days' event and cooked up some story about visitng a friend in chippenham. it was not common to see an oriental type in this sleepy hamlet and their curiosity was piqued. before it became only proper for me to tell the truth, the bus arrived. after another bout of explanation to this driver i was allowed to board and after another 3 hours or so i found myself in london.
i got the date of my ticket to nottingham changed and finally arrived at my destination. the sight of my friend nearly brought a tear to my eye and he zipped me home as fast as traffic permitted. his wife cooked up a storm that night and i finally got a decent night 's rest after a 24 hour delay.
returning home a few weeks later, i wrote the bus company a lengthy letter regarding my mishap and after 2 weeks they emailed me to apologize and credited GBP 58.30 to my credit card. i sincerely hope that this will be read by the night manager and the receptionist. they are shining examples of decency and all that is good in humanity. they restore my faith in mankind.
Sunday, December 10, 2006
take me back to dear ol' blighty pt. 2
(in case you don't know this is the second installment of my english saga. the first is found here)
i made my way in the swaying bus to the driver and explained my predicament. being british he maintained his upper lip and proceeded to call hq on his cellphone. after a few tense minutes he informed me, all the while keeping his eyes on the road, that i must get off the bus and make my way to the other side of the highway to a rest station where another bus will take me back into central london.
i thanked him profusely and after another 15 minutes the bus expelled me onto the open, deserted carpark of a service station. the cold wind nearly swept my spirits away. i had to make my way across an overhead bridge to the other side where another station was located. bogged down by my luggage i nevertheless made it over, all the time aware of the speeding highway traffic beneath me.
Leigh Delamere service station. i will never forget the name of this modern oasis surrounded by wide expanses of desolate english countryside. by the time i opened the glass doors of the station, my hands were beginning to numb. with my teeth chattering i waited in the confines of the place all the time keeping an eye out for any sign of the bus which was supposed to pick me up and carry me back to civilization. the driver had promised that i only had to wait for something like 15 minutes but the hour dragged on and still nothing.
battling the cold and hunger i cramped myself into a nearby phone booth on the outside of the building and called the hotline number printed on my e-ticket. a man picked up the phone and after much explanation and checking, he confirmed that a bus was on the way to pick me up. it was now 10 pm and the carpark was empty except for a few late night drivers who had stopped for coffee in the station. i must have been a curious sight to them; a chinese shivering in the cold dragging a huge luggage and obviously very lost. nobody stopped to ask though.
another 30 minutes passed and things were looking grim. i called the hotline again and this time a lady answered. after another round of explanation she again told me to stay put and wait. the gravity of the situation finally got to me and i am ashamed to say that i lost my temper and raised my voice. in a calm and collected tone she pointed out to me that i was the one who got on the wrong bus and she was just trying to help me. recognizing the futility of my anger, i backed off and told her i would continue to wait. another 30 minutes passed and i knew that i was going to have to spend a night in the station.
i made my way into the station where most shops and food stands were already closed for the night. right in the middle though was a 24 hour deli. a few workers were getting ready to go home while some had just reported for the graveyard shift. i was the only customer. i ordered a sandwich and some juice. in a last ditch effort to get back into london i asked them if there were any taxi services operating around this part of the woods. they referred me to their night manager who went to the back of the shop to make some phone calls on my behalf.
after 10 minutes he came back out and told me that it was going to cost me a small fortune to get a cab to drive me to london from these regions. till this day i have a nagging feeling that i did not thank this young man enough although i was very profuse by my own standards that night. contrary to the popular stereotype of the bulky british male, he was rake-thin and walked with a limp. there was something wrong with his face but i could not put my finger on it. the one thing that stood out though was his kind eyes. i knew i had found my guardian angel.
to be continued...
i made my way in the swaying bus to the driver and explained my predicament. being british he maintained his upper lip and proceeded to call hq on his cellphone. after a few tense minutes he informed me, all the while keeping his eyes on the road, that i must get off the bus and make my way to the other side of the highway to a rest station where another bus will take me back into central london.
i thanked him profusely and after another 15 minutes the bus expelled me onto the open, deserted carpark of a service station. the cold wind nearly swept my spirits away. i had to make my way across an overhead bridge to the other side where another station was located. bogged down by my luggage i nevertheless made it over, all the time aware of the speeding highway traffic beneath me.
Leigh Delamere service station. i will never forget the name of this modern oasis surrounded by wide expanses of desolate english countryside. by the time i opened the glass doors of the station, my hands were beginning to numb. with my teeth chattering i waited in the confines of the place all the time keeping an eye out for any sign of the bus which was supposed to pick me up and carry me back to civilization. the driver had promised that i only had to wait for something like 15 minutes but the hour dragged on and still nothing.
battling the cold and hunger i cramped myself into a nearby phone booth on the outside of the building and called the hotline number printed on my e-ticket. a man picked up the phone and after much explanation and checking, he confirmed that a bus was on the way to pick me up. it was now 10 pm and the carpark was empty except for a few late night drivers who had stopped for coffee in the station. i must have been a curious sight to them; a chinese shivering in the cold dragging a huge luggage and obviously very lost. nobody stopped to ask though.
another 30 minutes passed and things were looking grim. i called the hotline again and this time a lady answered. after another round of explanation she again told me to stay put and wait. the gravity of the situation finally got to me and i am ashamed to say that i lost my temper and raised my voice. in a calm and collected tone she pointed out to me that i was the one who got on the wrong bus and she was just trying to help me. recognizing the futility of my anger, i backed off and told her i would continue to wait. another 30 minutes passed and i knew that i was going to have to spend a night in the station.
i made my way into the station where most shops and food stands were already closed for the night. right in the middle though was a 24 hour deli. a few workers were getting ready to go home while some had just reported for the graveyard shift. i was the only customer. i ordered a sandwich and some juice. in a last ditch effort to get back into london i asked them if there were any taxi services operating around this part of the woods. they referred me to their night manager who went to the back of the shop to make some phone calls on my behalf.
after 10 minutes he came back out and told me that it was going to cost me a small fortune to get a cab to drive me to london from these regions. till this day i have a nagging feeling that i did not thank this young man enough although i was very profuse by my own standards that night. contrary to the popular stereotype of the bulky british male, he was rake-thin and walked with a limp. there was something wrong with his face but i could not put my finger on it. the one thing that stood out though was his kind eyes. i knew i had found my guardian angel.
to be continued...
miniaturization
More popular pictures at Popular-Pics.com
imagine how this 5 MB hard disk (circa 1956) will look in your living room!
Saturday, December 09, 2006
take me back to dear ol' blighty pt. 1
this little anecdote actually happened to me at the beginning of 2005 and till today still makes for an interesting reverie whenever i am caught in traffic.
i had just endured a 14 hour flight sitting beside an oversized Briton who did not have any qualms rubbing in the fact that while he slept like a newborn, i was suffering the effects of extreme sleep deprivation. i have never been able to sleep during flights and will probably go to my grave this way. not only was my traveling companion sleeping, he was serenading the whole plane with the loudest snore i have ever heard. the drone of the engines did little to drown it out. of the 14 hours, he was asleep for at least 10, waking up only to stuff his face with insipid airline food.
i got off the plane with a throbbing headache and into the grey surrounds of heathrow airport. i meant to catch a bus to my friend's in nottingham and had already bought a ticket online. this journey was broken into 2 parts; from heathrow to central london where i had to change buses to my final destination and hopefully a good night's rest.
with a heavy suitcase in tow i made my way to the bus station behind the arrival halls and waited in the freezing cold. my bus to central london was numbered 123 (i can't remember the exact number now). the time of arrival for the bus came and went and i was still in the cold. i asked a lady in uniform at the station and she confirmed that the bus was late due to traffic but was arriving soon. i did not think much of this at that time and sat down again. another 20 minutes passed before the 123 pulled into the station and the crowd surged forward. the driver was so preoccupied with loading everyone's luggage into the belly of the bus that he did not even check my ticket. i hopped on and kicked back dreaming of the warm cozy bed waiting for me 4 hours later at my friend's place.
unknown to me at that time, bus 123 did arrive on time that cold wintry evening but it was at a makeshift stop behind the one that i was waiting at. this 123 was bound for central london and not the one that i got on! after one hour i begun to realise that something was not right. instead of the bright lights of london all i could see was mile and miles of highway and dark empty fields. i asked a girl sitting in front of me where we were headed and she said some place that definitely was not london. my heart sunk but for the first time in 18 hours i was fully awake.
to be continued....
i had just endured a 14 hour flight sitting beside an oversized Briton who did not have any qualms rubbing in the fact that while he slept like a newborn, i was suffering the effects of extreme sleep deprivation. i have never been able to sleep during flights and will probably go to my grave this way. not only was my traveling companion sleeping, he was serenading the whole plane with the loudest snore i have ever heard. the drone of the engines did little to drown it out. of the 14 hours, he was asleep for at least 10, waking up only to stuff his face with insipid airline food.
i got off the plane with a throbbing headache and into the grey surrounds of heathrow airport. i meant to catch a bus to my friend's in nottingham and had already bought a ticket online. this journey was broken into 2 parts; from heathrow to central london where i had to change buses to my final destination and hopefully a good night's rest.
with a heavy suitcase in tow i made my way to the bus station behind the arrival halls and waited in the freezing cold. my bus to central london was numbered 123 (i can't remember the exact number now). the time of arrival for the bus came and went and i was still in the cold. i asked a lady in uniform at the station and she confirmed that the bus was late due to traffic but was arriving soon. i did not think much of this at that time and sat down again. another 20 minutes passed before the 123 pulled into the station and the crowd surged forward. the driver was so preoccupied with loading everyone's luggage into the belly of the bus that he did not even check my ticket. i hopped on and kicked back dreaming of the warm cozy bed waiting for me 4 hours later at my friend's place.
unknown to me at that time, bus 123 did arrive on time that cold wintry evening but it was at a makeshift stop behind the one that i was waiting at. this 123 was bound for central london and not the one that i got on! after one hour i begun to realise that something was not right. instead of the bright lights of london all i could see was mile and miles of highway and dark empty fields. i asked a girl sitting in front of me where we were headed and she said some place that definitely was not london. my heart sunk but for the first time in 18 hours i was fully awake.
to be continued....
thoroughly modern
came across a side-splitting sight this morning while out for breakfast. this was one occasion when i literally kicked myself for not having invested in a digicam. a woman likely to be in her 60's got out of her car and started wobbling unsteadily on the road. for a second i worried that she may be in the throes of developing a stroke or fitting uncontrollably. besides dangerous medical conditions it also occurred to me that northern malaysia has finally been declared earthquake country or perhaps she had has a bit too much to drink the night before. moments later i managed to pinpoint the problem. she saw fit to put on her young and no doubt very hot daugther's high heels this morning.
they were completely white in color and painfully trendy. what distinguished them though were the 4-inch-heels that this senior citizen saw fit to perch herself on. to her credit she persisted on across the thankfully empty road all the time calling on her superhuman ability to stay erect. you go girl!!
they were completely white in color and painfully trendy. what distinguished them though were the 4-inch-heels that this senior citizen saw fit to perch herself on. to her credit she persisted on across the thankfully empty road all the time calling on her superhuman ability to stay erect. you go girl!!
linux - my os of choice
over the past few years i can proudly say that i have tried quite a few linux distribution (or distros for short) and i find that they are generally more sophisticated than windows. also nothing beats something which is free and infinitely configurable. virus and adwares? what are those?
if you talk to any diehard windows users about linux the first thing they think about is an ugly text-based interface where obscure commmand lines are typed in at prompt signs. that may have been true 10 years ago but now some linux distros trump even mac os x in the looks department. everything can be done by pointing and clicking on beautiful graphical interfaces. throw in windows managers like beryl or compiz and you end up with a hippie's lysergic-laced wet dream.
having said that i can understand why some people run screaming away from it after a few days of tinkering. and there lies the crux of the matter. you have to be a great tinkerer. you must relish spending hours setting up restricted formats like mp3s and videos files to get everything the way you like it. be prepared to type or cut 'n paste obscure text commands into the terminal. there are tons of howtos, wiki and forums to wade through on the web for each distro. if you just want things to work right out of the box or if you have a dateline to meet, you are best off sticking with windows or better still mac os x but once in the while you just have to take that leap of faith. that last bit is an euphemism for having more time than what is considered normal by the general public.
from the get go you are expected to install the os on your own. how many people actually do that with windows? discounting all the geeks, this is virtually unheard of. there are partitions to be created or formatted. you have to choose between grub and lilo bootloaders (little scripts that are installed on the very first bit of your hard drive so that the os can be booted into on startup). the jargon used during this process may be daunting at first but most of the time it is pretty self explanatory. over the years the programmers have simplified the process even more with the aim that one day even your grandmother can install the os.
after rebooting into your brand new spanking desktop you will find that you are pretty crippled as far as multimedia is concerned. there is a valid reason for this. mp3, avi, mpg, wmv etc. are all proprietary formats and in order to avoid copyright issues they are turned off by default. this does not mean that they will not work in linux. you just have to sweat for it. this is the first crossroad that will differentiate the geeks from the non-geeks. the latter will just throw their arms into the air, delete the linux partition and crawl back to bill gates who will mock you and throw more security holes at you for daring to question his authority.
the geek will immediately fire up firefox and google up the web forums for their particular distro and after a few quick questions, be on their way to tricking out their os. before long you will have a singing and dancing desktop with some cool eyecandy (ie beryl or compiz windows manager) thrown in for good measure.
a common question that windows users ask me is about compatible software applications. for every windows program, there is a 99% chance that it has a linux equivalent. the caveat is that the software is usually organised into repositories, which as the name suggests, are directories of applications or in unix-speak 'packages'. the directories are hosted on servers all over the world and in order to get to them, most distros come with an inbuilt package manager. these are used to not only download packages from the servers but also to install them.
the linux community is born out of a spirit of sharing. right from the programmers to the end-users, every shred of knowledge and knowhow is shared with no fiscal aspirations whatsoever. any question posed in the forums are usually guaranteed a quick and accurate reponse. the community has only one aim and that is ensure that linux is used and enjoyed by as big a global population as possible. there are no leaders or followers. as long as you have something meaningful to contribute to the linux world, the sky's the limit. already whispers and predictions abound that 2007 may be the year that linux finally breaks through and give microsoft a run for its money. the beauty of this is that for linux there is no money involved!
Friday, December 08, 2006
baby panda scaring the hell out of mama
i saw this a few years ago on tv and laughed my head off. i am so glad i have found it again.
santa strikes back
before stringing up those Christmas lights in the office and at home, heed this survey that shows they may jeopardize your wifi signals
Thursday, December 07, 2006
beautiful routine
a huge change is on the horizon for me, the not too distant horizon actually, like the 2nd of january 2007. i just received news that i will be transfered down to kuala lumpur (the capital city of malaysia) for 18 months or thereabouts (the details being sketchy at the moment).
being me, i am now dealing with trepidation laced with excitement and a pinch of happiness. i am extremely resistant to change and hate it with a passion. i am using the word 'hate' here and that is mighty strong in my books. i love routine and this is definitely going to trample it, drag it through the mud and later subject it to a public beheading in front of a blood-thirsty crowd.
i love the routine of getting up to my alarm clock screaming out its insistent cacophony. i relish stumbling into the bathroom and staring stupidly into the mirror and wondering who that person is looking back at me. where did i go?
with the neat 1 cm of toothpaste smeared on top of my battered tooth brush, i proceed to rid my yellowing enamels of the layer of gunk accumulated from yesterday. the foam that runs down my chin is somehow reassuring. with my tongue and mouth tingling with morning freshness i sit on my throne and scan through the local newspaper. it takes only 5 minutes for me to pick out my shirt and pants for the day before i skip down the stairs and make my morning cup of mocha-flavored coffee. feeling the caffeine suffuse my blood stream i bite into the first of 2 slices of buttered and toasted bread.
picking up my valise i hop into my trusty 8 year old car and drive into morning traffic. pulling into my parking space i am greeted by a few of my colleagues after which we part ways for our various assigned work space. the ebb and flow of work washes over me and i am oblivious to time until i sense a gradual loosening of the atmosphere around me. the smiles become broader and people become more civil to each other. ass parts company with cheap imitation leather and i maneuver into evening traffic. zonking out during those long interminable jams i day dream of a better place to be and before i know it i am at home.
i notice with glee how many things i carry on my body during the working day. i empty my shirt pocket of my pen and thumbdrive. i next struggle to fish out the bunch of keys to my office and to the locker from my pants followed by my car keys. i remove the watch from my wrist and pull off the name-tag-on-a-lanyard from around my neck. there is now a sizable pile of knick-knacks on the table. i then remove my socks, shirt and pants. i shower washing away the grime of the day. dinner beckons and a few hours after being on the internet my head hits the soft pillow and i am gone. bye bye day.
being me, i am now dealing with trepidation laced with excitement and a pinch of happiness. i am extremely resistant to change and hate it with a passion. i am using the word 'hate' here and that is mighty strong in my books. i love routine and this is definitely going to trample it, drag it through the mud and later subject it to a public beheading in front of a blood-thirsty crowd.
i love the routine of getting up to my alarm clock screaming out its insistent cacophony. i relish stumbling into the bathroom and staring stupidly into the mirror and wondering who that person is looking back at me. where did i go?
with the neat 1 cm of toothpaste smeared on top of my battered tooth brush, i proceed to rid my yellowing enamels of the layer of gunk accumulated from yesterday. the foam that runs down my chin is somehow reassuring. with my tongue and mouth tingling with morning freshness i sit on my throne and scan through the local newspaper. it takes only 5 minutes for me to pick out my shirt and pants for the day before i skip down the stairs and make my morning cup of mocha-flavored coffee. feeling the caffeine suffuse my blood stream i bite into the first of 2 slices of buttered and toasted bread.
picking up my valise i hop into my trusty 8 year old car and drive into morning traffic. pulling into my parking space i am greeted by a few of my colleagues after which we part ways for our various assigned work space. the ebb and flow of work washes over me and i am oblivious to time until i sense a gradual loosening of the atmosphere around me. the smiles become broader and people become more civil to each other. ass parts company with cheap imitation leather and i maneuver into evening traffic. zonking out during those long interminable jams i day dream of a better place to be and before i know it i am at home.
i notice with glee how many things i carry on my body during the working day. i empty my shirt pocket of my pen and thumbdrive. i next struggle to fish out the bunch of keys to my office and to the locker from my pants followed by my car keys. i remove the watch from my wrist and pull off the name-tag-on-a-lanyard from around my neck. there is now a sizable pile of knick-knacks on the table. i then remove my socks, shirt and pants. i shower washing away the grime of the day. dinner beckons and a few hours after being on the internet my head hits the soft pillow and i am gone. bye bye day.
Tuesday, December 05, 2006
update on the missing kim family
the wife and children of senior cnet editor james kim have been found and airlifted to safety in a nearby hospital. they are reported to be in good health. the family was stranded along a deserted stretch of highway due to inclement weather (link to my previous post)
sadly the editor himself is still missing. apparently he left on foot 48 hours ago to look for help. the search is still on for kim.
sadly the editor himself is still missing. apparently he left on foot 48 hours ago to look for help. the search is still on for kim.
she's lost control again
what makes a control freak tick? are they over compensating for some basic flaw in their genetic makeup? a lot of times the argument about these types of individuals concentrate on the aggressor but spare a thought for the victims of this systematic emasculation of mental and spiritual wellbeing.
there are varying degrees of damage done to the victims and it increases exponentially with the duration of abuse. imagine living with such a freak and having to be subjected to the humiliation day in and day out. the victim becomes burdened by an exaggerated sense of worthlessness bordering on abject hopelessness. if long enough the person will begin to think that his/her failures are of their own doing and that he/she is just born stupid. little do they realize that they have very little to do with all of it and that all their faults lies fully in the freak they are living with.
there is no opportunity to think for themselves and to make decision that they can be happy with. every action and thought is governed wholly by the aggressor and to think other wise is never an option. after a while the victims becomes stunned into a kind of inertia, the spirit dwindling. what is left is an empty shell of a human being, a husk.
there are varying degrees of damage done to the victims and it increases exponentially with the duration of abuse. imagine living with such a freak and having to be subjected to the humiliation day in and day out. the victim becomes burdened by an exaggerated sense of worthlessness bordering on abject hopelessness. if long enough the person will begin to think that his/her failures are of their own doing and that he/she is just born stupid. little do they realize that they have very little to do with all of it and that all their faults lies fully in the freak they are living with.
there is no opportunity to think for themselves and to make decision that they can be happy with. every action and thought is governed wholly by the aggressor and to think other wise is never an option. after a while the victims becomes stunned into a kind of inertia, the spirit dwindling. what is left is an empty shell of a human being, a husk.
Monday, December 04, 2006
Sunday, December 03, 2006
green your pc
have you ever thought about how much CO2 emission can harm the planet that we live in? your pc is only one of the many modern appliances that contribute to this devastating phenomenon and without earth where would be then? check out this link to localcooling for all the nitty gritty and do the right thing now!
possible solutions to beta blogger blues
as a followup to my last post regarding my recent troubles with beta blogger, a fellow sufferer suggested that clearing the browser cache may help. thats what i did a few seconds ago and now the toolbar for the wysiwyg editor is back, so if you are having similiar problems try doing this.
Saturday, December 02, 2006
wordpress.com
i have started a new blog over at wordpress.com seeing that i seem to have lost my wysiwyg editor in beta blogger. a lot of other bloggers are also affected by this since this morning. so far no solutions yet. in the meantime my new blog address is hellfried.wordpress.com. you can click on it in my blogroll over to the right under the heading 'Things I Have Seen' or copy and paste it into the address bar of your favourite browser (damn blogger for not allowing me to insert link!). cheers!
the man himself
after blogging about the trebuchet font and the origin of its name, i got a comment from mr. vincent connare himself. he is the one who came up with the font and he proceeds to explain how he came up with the name. its real cool of him to actually reply to the post. thanks.
Technorati Tags: font, trebuchet, typography
Technorati Tags: font, trebuchet, typography
Friday, December 01, 2006
earthquake in northern sumatra
a 6.6 (on the Richter scale) earthquake occurred around noon today in northern sumatra. reports of tremors felt from penang down to kuala lumpur in malaysia are jamming some local forums. report from the malaysian meteorological department.
link to the map.
link to the map.
an apology
to all the people who clicked on the link to my last post in the penang bloggers aggregator, i am so sorry. i deleted the post only after it was picked up. i was actually browsing digg.com when this story caught my attention. apparently james kim, his wife and 2 daughters took a road trip to seattle from san francisco and never came back. a missing person report has already been filed with the police but as of yet no news.
in case you read the first few lines of the post on penang bloggers, let me explain.
james kim used to have a semi regular segment on 'screensavers' via the techtv channel. i have always enjoyed his asian presence amidst all the other guys like leo laporte and patrick norton. i really hope that he and his family is in good health.
the reason i deleted the post was because i expected something in it which didn't work. i recently installed a blogging add on for firefox called performancing and i used it to blog on the story hoping that there would be a link back to the original article but nothing happened even after filling in the trackback urls menu.
i then tried to use the 'blog it' option in digg.com itself but got an error message, something about 'unable to open socket'. i have already keyed in all the necessary information in digg including my beta blogger password and user id. i hope someone can give me some pointers by commenting. thanks in advance and sorry for the booboo.
in case you read the first few lines of the post on penang bloggers, let me explain.
james kim used to have a semi regular segment on 'screensavers' via the techtv channel. i have always enjoyed his asian presence amidst all the other guys like leo laporte and patrick norton. i really hope that he and his family is in good health.
the reason i deleted the post was because i expected something in it which didn't work. i recently installed a blogging add on for firefox called performancing and i used it to blog on the story hoping that there would be a link back to the original article but nothing happened even after filling in the trackback urls menu.
i then tried to use the 'blog it' option in digg.com itself but got an error message, something about 'unable to open socket'. i have already keyed in all the necessary information in digg including my beta blogger password and user id. i hope someone can give me some pointers by commenting. thanks in advance and sorry for the booboo.
jericho - a new tv series
the past few months i have been following a new tv series amongst others called 'jericho'. the premise is that the united states of america has been attacked by unknown military forces. a few mushroom clouds later it focuses on a small town of 5, 000 and how the folks there deal with being cut off from the rest of america and the world. communication lines are down and so is power supply. tempers and egos clash and everybody is looking out for number one. not only do they have to cope with internal strive they also have to deal with roving mercenaries from out of town looking to milk the disaster for all its worth. season one ended 2 days ago and fans have to wait with bated breath for the next episode which will only appear sometime in february 2007.
i was initially hooked but things turned sour for me 2 episodes ago when mysterious boxes of supplies are parachuted down to the town folks from unidentified airplanes. the mayor of the small town decides against distributing the food to the people fearing that they may be poisoned. reason? all the boxes carry a chinese flag. this reaction is typical of the culture of fear which the bush administration has taken to new heights; something that the writers of the show is obviously not immune to. also during this episode, one of the protagonist rattles off a list of potential culprits for the disaster that have reduced their cosy american lives to rubble. no prizes for guessing who was mentioned in this list of shame.
this is symptomatic of the all-pervasive scaremongering that is riding roughshod over common sense. only a few episodes ago, another character comes across an abandoned goods train outside of town packed to the brim with food. the town had no problems digging into those supplies that time. why? no chinese flags.
i was initially hooked but things turned sour for me 2 episodes ago when mysterious boxes of supplies are parachuted down to the town folks from unidentified airplanes. the mayor of the small town decides against distributing the food to the people fearing that they may be poisoned. reason? all the boxes carry a chinese flag. this reaction is typical of the culture of fear which the bush administration has taken to new heights; something that the writers of the show is obviously not immune to. also during this episode, one of the protagonist rattles off a list of potential culprits for the disaster that have reduced their cosy american lives to rubble. no prizes for guessing who was mentioned in this list of shame.
this is symptomatic of the all-pervasive scaremongering that is riding roughshod over common sense. only a few episodes ago, another character comes across an abandoned goods train outside of town packed to the brim with food. the town had no problems digging into those supplies that time. why? no chinese flags.
fitter happier
Fitter, happier, more productive,
comfortable,
not drinking too much,
regular exercise at the gym
(3 days a week),
getting on better with your associate employee contemporaries,
at ease,
eating well
(no more microwave dinners and saturated fats),
a patient better driver,
a safer car
(baby smiling in back seat),
sleeping well
(no bad dreams),
no paranoia,
careful to all animals
(never washing spiders down the plughole),
keep in contact with old friends
(enjoy a drink now and then),
will frequently check credit at (moral) bank (hole in the wall),
favors for favors,
fond but not in love,
charity standing orders,
on Sundays ring road supermarket
(no killing moths or putting boiling water on the ants),
car wash
(also on Sundays),
no longer afraid of the dark or midday shadows
nothing so ridiculously teenage and desperate,
nothing so childish - at a better pace,
slower and more calculated,
no chance of escape,
now self-employed,
concerned (but powerless),
an empowered and informed member of society
(pragmatism not idealism),
will not cry in public,
less chance of illness,
tyres that grip in the wet
(shot of baby strapped in back seat),
a good memory,
still cries at a good film,
still kisses with saliva,
no longer empty and frantic like a cat tied to a stick,
that's driven into frozen winter shit
(the ability to laugh at weakness),
calm,
fitter,
healthier and more productive
a pig in a cage on antibiotics.
words - thom yorke
music - radiohead
album - ok computer
reading over the words above never fails to creep me out. to actual hear it read by lead singer thom yorke using a voice synthesizer is even more sinister. you would expect sentences like these to crop up in motivational speeches and state-sanctioned campaigns for cleaner and healthier living. below this veneer of normalcy, images of various insects and cats being killed or tortured pop up in unexpected places suggesting that all is not well in utopia.
the one line 'concerned but powerless' sums up the frustration of the modern man; watching helplessly while nature and humanity at large are subjected to all manner of abuse. at the end of the day we are only left with the above litany and the nightmare of repeating them ad nauseum for all eternity.
comfortable,
not drinking too much,
regular exercise at the gym
(3 days a week),
getting on better with your associate employee contemporaries,
at ease,
eating well
(no more microwave dinners and saturated fats),
a patient better driver,
a safer car
(baby smiling in back seat),
sleeping well
(no bad dreams),
no paranoia,
careful to all animals
(never washing spiders down the plughole),
keep in contact with old friends
(enjoy a drink now and then),
will frequently check credit at (moral) bank (hole in the wall),
favors for favors,
fond but not in love,
charity standing orders,
on Sundays ring road supermarket
(no killing moths or putting boiling water on the ants),
car wash
(also on Sundays),
no longer afraid of the dark or midday shadows
nothing so ridiculously teenage and desperate,
nothing so childish - at a better pace,
slower and more calculated,
no chance of escape,
now self-employed,
concerned (but powerless),
an empowered and informed member of society
(pragmatism not idealism),
will not cry in public,
less chance of illness,
tyres that grip in the wet
(shot of baby strapped in back seat),
a good memory,
still cries at a good film,
still kisses with saliva,
no longer empty and frantic like a cat tied to a stick,
that's driven into frozen winter shit
(the ability to laugh at weakness),
calm,
fitter,
healthier and more productive
a pig in a cage on antibiotics.
words - thom yorke
music - radiohead
album - ok computer
reading over the words above never fails to creep me out. to actual hear it read by lead singer thom yorke using a voice synthesizer is even more sinister. you would expect sentences like these to crop up in motivational speeches and state-sanctioned campaigns for cleaner and healthier living. below this veneer of normalcy, images of various insects and cats being killed or tortured pop up in unexpected places suggesting that all is not well in utopia.
the one line 'concerned but powerless' sums up the frustration of the modern man; watching helplessly while nature and humanity at large are subjected to all manner of abuse. at the end of the day we are only left with the above litany and the nightmare of repeating them ad nauseum for all eternity.
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