DAYS OF OUR LIFE

Announcement

2007-04-15T07:56:00.000+08:00

New posts on my mirror blog over at Wordpress.
Why? Because I am a sucker for looks.

First ever Hindi post

2007-04-14T12:49:00.000+08:00

थिस इस वहत थिस पोस्ट लुक लिके इन हिंदी. ई थिंक व्रित्तें हिंदी इस सो ग्राफिकाल्ल्य कूल! थैंक्स तो अनुपमा एंड निथिं!

For the lowdown go here.

In the rain

2007-04-11T19:28:00.000+08:00

Yesterday evening I found myself staring at sheets of dark rain, under the porch of a bank. There is something otherworldly about the whole experience. You know that you should and would prefer to be some place else. The sense of displacement is immense and all pervasive. On the cusp of leaving for some hopefully better place and yet tied, against your own free will, to the present plane. And all because of some wetness on the hair and the shoulders. Its not even acid rain for God's sake! Will it kill me to dash to the car? No but still I wait. For what? For the heavens to hand out some charity that will never come. The sky is too big to care for puny mortals.

Tumblr.com

2007-04-08T17:55:00.000+08:00

Just chanced upon this thing called Tumblr. Something like a virtual scrapbook. Check out my scrapblog. Pretty sparse but I just started a couple of minutes ago!

Funny little website

2007-04-08T17:17:00.000+08:00

After a severe reduction in my sleep quota last night my brain is mush. Despite the fact this still brought a smile to my lips. Check it out. A whole new way of self-promotion.

Fairy tales

2007-04-01T06:33:00.000+08:00

What does ‘The Three Little Piggies’, ‘Red Riding Hood’ and ‘Jack and The Beanstalk’ have in common besides being fairy tales for children? They all involve the eating of one or more of the characters and in the case of Jack, the preparation to eat someone. It amazes me that these bloody and violent tales are considered wholesome staple bed time stories. Pigs actually boil and eat wolves for supper and in protest the wolf eats grandma and her pretty little grand-daughter after a game of deception. With the help of the kind hearted orge’s wife, Jack barely escapes being cooked in an oven.

What kind of message are they giving to our future generations? Feeling bored? Stuff your baby sister in the microwave and dinner is served. Its good for a laugh too.

The Mighty Fall

2007-03-24T17:18:00.000+08:00

31 years and counting. Thats how long the Fall have been at it and they are every bit as relevant as the day they were dragged kicking and screaming into the punk scene. While the Rolling Stones turn into the embarrassing grandparents on life support that refuse to die, Mark E Smith and his ever rotating group of musicians stay steadfast to their goal in life; never compromise. They have never and by the sounds of their recently released 26th album "Reformation Post TLC" they never will.

Nothing will prepare the senses for their first meeting with the Fall. The band will force you to unlearn everything you know about music. Forget choruses and verses; they're just details. Its all about ATTITUDE, baby. Stupidity is not an option. There is a laser-sharp wit and intelligence to the whole proceeding centered around the lead singer and only constant, Mark E Smith. He speaks in his own invented code and to get it, you must be similarly endowed with an acrobatic mental faculty.

Here's a dance that is pure hell
Enter at your peril
Take five dead beat steps
Do a stroll
Act like you just got outta jail
You must be repellant
Dance dead beat descendant
(an example from 'Dead Beat Descendant')

The late great John Peel was an important patron and to date they have recorded a total of 24 live radio sessions for him besides performing live on his lawn during his birthday. How cool is that!

Listening to the Fall is like walking down a gray alleyway for the hundredth time and yet finding new and strange things to marvel at. It may be ugly like hell but its still new. Mark E Smith is not a singer in the strictest sense of the word. Rather he growls and barks into the mic barely keeping in time with the instruments raging and tripping over each other. To the uninitiated its all a mess but there is a tangible groove driving each song to its inevitable end only to start all over again on the next track. It should not work but it does, to startling effect. There are no hooks to hang on to, no maps, just blind faith in the genius of Mr. Smith.

A play on perspectives

2007-03-19T17:20:00.000+08:00

In my quest to bring to you, my dear readers, the best artistic output on the web, let me present to you this mind-blowing collection of artwork by Rob Gonsalves.

Simple list of things to do after a Ubuntu fresh intall

2007-03-18T19:06:00.000+08:00

Beryl in action

After about 3 years of using various versions of Ubuntu, I have more or less come up with a gameplan following each fresh install of our favorite friendly neighborhood linux distro. I was bugged for the longest time that I could not get Beryl to run in Edgy Eft (version 6.10 for the uninitiated). I did it with the previous Dapper Drake and knew that my PC could handle it and handle it well. The various threads I found in the Ubuntu forums only made me more confused. Being a lazy Saturday I decided to do a clean install and perhaps finally get to enjoy all the eye candy that Beryl promises. Which brings us nicely to the point of this post. Many newbies to linux or Ubuntu will be largely underwhelmed when first confronted with the far from beautiful brown desktop. Worse still is the fact that the thing is mute and blind too. Due to fear of copyright infringement, Ubuntu has no multimedia capabilities out of the box. This does not mean it can't be done. You just need some simple tweaks.

1. Upgrade the OS - as soon as you log into the desktop an icon on the top panel will inform you that there are upgrades available. Click on it and follow the resultant instructions. A broadband connection to the internet is essential.

2. Multimedia - Being a lazy ass, I decided to give the much touted Automatix a spin this time around and it did not disappoint. Before long Morrissey was singing from within my PC.

3. Graphics card driver - I found this automated script recently and it worked like clockwork. You will need the latest driver for Beryl to work.

4. Beryl - Finally. The best tutorial I have found so far is this one here. Everything but the kitchen sink can be found here. Scroll down to the section on "Eye Candy" and go crazy!

5. Should things not work out do not despair. Hop over to the friendly watering hole that is the Ubuntu forums and you will find people who will go out of their way to help you out.

That's all you need to end up with a dancing, singing Ubuntu desktop environment.

Disclaimer : These things worked for me in version 6.10 codenamed Edgy Eft

Jonathan Yuen

2007-03-17T21:59:00.000+08:00

Another great interactive website here.

Warning : must have Flash enabled in your browser

Saturday morning

2007-03-17T05:36:00.000+08:00

Woke up real early and found that I could not go back to sleep. The thought of 2 open days in front of me just fills me with excitement. Thank god for the weekends!

Everything just seems brighter(even though the outside is pitch black at this unearthly hour) and the world is full of potential again. The steaming cup of coffee beside me augments my sense of well being. Yes people I am happy again!

Surgery is a strange thing

2007-03-13T11:15:00.000+08:00

There is nothing natural about surgery. Everything it stands for, except for the desire to cure, is against existence as we know it. When was the last time you saw a monkey slicing open the abdomen of another monkey when the latter falls ill? Have you ever seen a lion performing brain surgery on a member of its pride? Don't even get me started on all the barbers in ancient times who moonlighted as surgeons and whose idea of anesthesia was plying their patients with alcohol before mutilating their bodies.

I just dropped someone near and dear to me off at the hospital for a surgical procedure. Everyone at home was downplaying the whole thing but it was obvious to me that tension had taken on physical form. It was perceptible in the way everyone was avoiding eating in front of the person since she has been fasting since the night. A few hours before midnight, she was stuffing her face with junk food; something which she rarely does being the health freak that she is. It would have been comical if not for the fact.

At this time she should be wondering the anesthetic-fueled landscape of her mind. I sincerely hope she is as comfortable and pain-free as modern medical science can allow. I hope she finds something good there.

A message to all online criminals of the world

2007-03-11T09:13:00.000+08:00

Can't these online con-men and spammers take a hint? For the past few years I have been inundated with emails telling me that my paypal account needs verification. They have threatened to close the account if I do not validate my information via the provided link. They have indicated that all my monetary transactions will be halted (not that I have so much money to transact with in the first place). The latest email tells me that there is a message of earth-shattering significance in my paypal mailbox. I just need to log into it via the embedded link.

Listen up people; the mail account that you are sending all these threats to is not even the one that I used to sign up with paypal! So please, get a job, a life and f**k off!!

Life goes on

2007-03-05T18:22:00.000+08:00

..... life goes on,
long after the thrill of living is gone.... (excerpt from John Cougar Mellencamp's 'Jack & Diane')

After a particularly taxing day at work the above lines coming out from the car stereo can hit your senses like a steam train. When did I lose the ability to look at things and situations in awe and pure unadulterated wonder? I do not believe that these things do not exist; its just that I have lost the ability to appreciate them for what they are. In the meantime life marches on at its own funereal pace.

Amazing web design

2007-03-04T22:59:00.001+08:00

I just have to share with all you people out there this mind-blowing website.

Shooting the breeze

2007-03-04T17:54:00.000+08:00

Not your average in-the-car-with-nothing-but-empty-road-in-front conversation.

Woman : Do I smell?

Man : Yes you do especially after the gym

Woman (obviously very perturbed) : Shit!

Man : Do I smell?

Woman (more perturbed now that she realizes she is smellier than a man) : .............

Damn you Caffeine!

2007-03-04T12:13:00.000+08:00

The Caffeine molecule

After having my sleeping hours drastically cut back by work commitments for the past one week, I woke up this morning with a superhuman (well, at least for me) determination to make the most of the weekend. I downed a cup of coffee at 6 AM and followed that with another 2 hours later. With my blood singing and my brain cells buzzing I set off for the nearest mall for some retail therapy.

Browsing around I decided to pamper myself and bought an item for RM 98.70 (approx. USD 28). Out of the corner of my eye I spied a poster about a store wide promotion whereby you would get a stamp for every RM 50 on a single receipt. Collecting 5 stamps would make you the proud owner of a RM 30 discount card which you can use at leisure. I walked up to the counter with my purchase and the cashier explained this to me in great detail. She suggested that I look around the store and get myself some small item to make up the RM 100 that would make me eligible for 2 stamps.

I dicked around for a good 5 minutes and felt the boredom descend. My brain was a blank sheet and it quickly made friends with pure laziness. I trudged back to the counter with a sheepish grin and paid up. The girl looked at me as if I was growing horns. "What a pity, sir," she said with a practiced smile on her face, while applying one stamp on my card. That's one, where it could have easily been two.

Driving home, the full horror of the missed opportunity dawned on me, draining every ounce of pleasure that I was suppose to feel from the purchased item. Now it was an albatross around my neck and I couldn't stand the sight of it. What a way to spend the weekend!

Caffeine, I thought you were my friend! What a time to desert me!

DNA of this blog

2007-03-04T05:03:00.000+08:00

This is my blog depicted as DNA sequence courtesy of Web2DNA.

The Aged

2007-02-25T16:09:00.000+08:00

While driving just now I noticed an elderly couple by the side of the road. The man was trying to step up onto the sidewalk from the road. It was just a height of about 4 to 5 inches but it was painfully obvious that he was struggling. His foot kept abutting hopelessly against the side, failing to reach sufficient height to plant itself on the pavement. He would have toppled over if not for his wife who was holding his arm and an umbrella to shed him from the sun while he tried again and again.

When our bodies are able, we take things like stepping onto the sidewalk for granted. For this man the mere few inches may as well have been the tallest mountain in the world. I remember when I was laid up in bed after screwing up my back. The act of getting up from a lying posture was sheer torture. My chronic backache has now become a part of my life, so much so that I am now unable to bend down to reach for that lower drawer or to pick things up from the ground. I have to squat to get at things below waist height. I shudder to think what I would be like when I reach the age of the elderly man I saw today.

Change is over-rated

2007-02-25T11:22:00.000+08:00

Its been too long. Somehow got caught up in real life a bit too much to have time to blog about...err...real life. Writers' block is real and it hangs over me like a ratty curtain. Back to normal programming then.

A few years ago i had a conversation with a close friend and in the course of shooting the breeze he said that he was feeling very restless and felt strongly that he needed a change of environment. A short time later he actually uprooted himself and left for foreign pastures. You will never catch me saying or doing anything like that, not in a million years. Not if hell freezes over.

Why? I live for the stability of my immediate environs. Every time I change, I die a little. I worry that if I change too much there would be nothing left of me in this life. Some may argue that change signifies growth. That's well and good but who wants to grow up anyways?

Forgetfulness - Billy Collins Animated Poetry

2007-02-24T07:51:00.001+08:00

A thought provoking animated poem about a slippery thing called memory.

Lunar New Year

2007-02-18T12:09:00.000+08:00

Every year at this time there is a human exodus, something which i have managed to avoid up until now. Like gaggles of migrating birds, I became a part of a V formation in the sky, resolutely pointing towards warmer climates and the core idea of family; security and familiarity.

After a month of being away from home, I am understandably excited about sleeping once again in my own bed, ruffling the back of my dog and savoring my mother's cooking. Happy to report that my anticipation was met a hundred fold over. To sweeten the deal even further, the light drizzle on Chinese New Year's eve brought pleasant respite to the usual heat and humidity around this time of the year.

After a veritable feast around the dinner table, we uncorked a bottle of red wine and drank to a new beginning and fresh hopes. Here's wishing everyone who reads this a great one ahead!

Machine Love

2007-02-15T23:17:00.000+08:00

There is something about an iPod that just feels right. Its deceivingly simple in design but if there is an embodiment of the x-factor, this little gadget is it. Its no thicker than a deck of cards and weighs slightly more. The 2 external movable parts it has (ie the click wheel and the ‘hold’ button) fits right in to make a solid whole.

In the center is the wheel which many have tried to copy but the pale imitations have never amounted to much. Its genius the way the wheel creates both a tactile and auditory sensation when you run your finger around it in the course of selecting the items in the menu. The feeling is indescribable; you just have to touch it yourself to fully appreciate the ingenuity of design.

My iPod is white although the black version has its legions of fans. The merits of both colors have been the subject of flame wars online largely among people with unhealthy amounts of time. In a fit of trendiness I decided that my iPod must match my all-white iBook laptop. Irrational but undeniable.

The surfaces have a slick finish whether you are talking about the chrome bottom or the plastic top. Its propensity to pick up fingerprints and scratches is the trade off for the metallic smooth feel. A dab of Brasso has always worked wonders for my little friend. I sometimes find myself unknowingly running my fingers along the sides; enjoying the sensation a bit too much to be healthy.

Yes, I am a fanboy. So sue me!

The Man

2007-02-13T17:34:00.000+08:00

Its only right that nature tied child-birth and child bearing to the woman. Its against every instinct in the male genome to actually provide care of any sort to the young. I am not saying that it cannot be done but that its just unnatural, a travesty of human existence.

I am at the airport now and just saw a family with 2 kids. The husband has planted his posterior resolutely onto a chair and his wife is frantically calling out to her missing child. The little rascal has apparently tottered off to god knows where. She is practically hoarse now and all her mate can do is shout at her for not taking better care of their children, all done from the comfort of his chair. The offender is finally found and the man goes back to picking his nose.

This man is the perfect poster boy for a nationwide vasectomy campaign.

Holiday .........NOT

2007-02-13T15:17:00.000+08:00

'Holiday' has got to be one of the most predictable and hackneyed piece of fluff to come out of Hollywood. Yes, I know its a romantic comedy but does it have to be so formulaic? Is it too much to ask for some originality? Its like the writers just sat through an entire weekend watching all the chick flicks ever made and then just regurgitated the whole sorry mess onto paper, hoping that no one would notice.

The dialogue is lazy and the characters one-dimensional. Jude Law looks too good to be real and Jack Black is a fish out of water. He should stick to playing the psycho-clown with a heart of gold and leave the sappy stuff to others.

As a meditation on love, it is mediocre at best. As a piece of entertainment art it fails miserably. Stay away from this turd!

Bloggers Meet in Penang

2007-02-10T17:07:00.000+08:00

Helping out a fellow blogger to promote a meeting of like-minded folks in Penang. More details to be had here. Unfortunately I will not be able to make it as by then I would be back on the chain gang in Kuala Lumpur. Have fun guys and gals!

Help! I am blind on the left side!

2007-02-09T19:10:00.000+08:00

Another month another mishap. After my shoes got spirited away in the dead of night, I woke up this morning to find that one of the side view mirror of my car has been broken by some one who will surely roast in the pits of hell for all eternity come judgment day.

It was either a failed attempt to steal the thing or it was a hit and run. Either way I hereby rain curses on this person and his/her subsequent 7 generations.

Orson Welles - so much to answer for

2007-02-08T19:23:00.001+08:00

Want to hear the original radio broadcast of Orson Welles' "War of the World s"? I know you do.

Love In Time

2007-02-07T21:54:00.000+08:00

Locked in an eternal embrace, this Neolithic couple, found at a dig site in Italy, have sparked great excitement in the Archaeological world.

BIID

2007-02-03T06:51:00.000+08:00

'Body Identity Integrity Disorder'; that's what it stands for. To find out about it, read this harrowing confession by a mother of two.

cool air

2007-02-02T21:51:00.000+08:00

The man on the sidewalk has resurfaced! Due to the exceptionally hot weather, he has taken to sleeping in an air-conned environment. A nearby bank has an after-hours banking alcove where there is a row of ATMs and cheque-deposit machines. In the space between the last machine and the wall, a pair of legs stick out. The cardboard that he previously used to sleep on is now on top as a blanket.

To the people that go in to withdraw cash, he does not exist. Everyone musters an extra ounce of concentration and hunkers down for the task at hand. There is an invisible wall that separates them from him and its impenetrable. To his credit, the man is considerate and stays out of the way. All he wants is his forty winks and the last thing he needs is trouble. Thus the wheels of the world turn and the status quo is maintained.

at the car wash

2007-02-01T09:57:00.000+08:00

Ever had the visual sensation that you are being swallowed whole by a pre-historic giant creature of a science-defying species? Forget about Disneyland (we can scarce afford it anyway). Pay a few measly dollars, drive into the mechanical maws of the local car wash and still your beating heart.

First water is spouted from every direction. Foam covers your car, the salivations of the beast to moisten and juice up the meat. Seconds later there is a lot of rumbling and whooshing like air from a growling stomach. Green giant brushes appear from the sides and the top, inching closer with each passing second. I swear I can hear chomping teeth. The brushes make contact and you start to tremble.

The foam is washed away in waves and finally you can see. Air is blasted against you as if after being partially digested, you are now expelled through the back passages of the beast. A green light indicates that your ordeal is over and being thus humbled you drive out, thanking your lucky stars that you lived to tell the tale.

beautiful objects of art

2007-01-30T22:46:00.000+08:00

If you are into art and zany animations check this link out. Has Microsoft finally got something right?

No, this is NOT a sponsored post.

vitamins for the soul

2007-01-30T20:03:00.000+08:00

"The building doesn't matter. However modern and futuristic it may look, its only sand and bricks. The people working within its walls is what makes it special."

Heard the above from an unexpected quarter this morning. Have a sneaky suspicion that it may not be entirely original but its still a noble concept and should be applauded. Kudos to leaders who are passionately committed to their cause.

i hate music

2007-01-29T18:38:00.000+08:00

Two days in a row, now that's weird. As i was turning a particular corner while driving home from work, the same song came on the radio. This was at the exact spot and almost at the same time. "Who Says You Can't Go Home" by Bon Jovi. Boy, how i hate Bon Jovi. I swear my brain is turning to goo with the rubbish top 40 hits that they play on the local station. Anything to beat the silence in my car.

damien jurado - sad-sack folk rock

2007-01-28T11:31:00.000+08:00

Ang Lee made a mistake with the otherwise flawless 'Brokeback Mountain'. He neglected to commission Damien Jurado to score the soundtrack. In his latest release 'And Now That I Am in Your Shadow' Jurado has created the spiritual equivalent of doomed relationships between individuals born at the wrong time and in the wrong place.

If the breathtaking sceneries in the movie can sing they will sound like this collection of songs, sparse and possessed of a stillness that is overwhelming in its scope.

She has a dad she doesn't know
Who sends her letters with no return address...
"I don't know his name..."
"He don't know my face..."
"I am better off this way..."

You never ever listen to Jurado on speakers. His music is painfully personal and should be listened to only on head phones preferably with the lights turned way down low. Recently Jurado declared himself officially a band by adding 2 permanent members ostensibly to augment his musical vision. Ironically he sounds even more alone than ever.

The melodies are skeletal but speaks of wide open spaces where strangers meet up accidentally and just as suddenly break up and move on. Memories of painful separations permeate the words which say more by saying less. Love goes unrequited giving rise to painful longing which feels so bad that it feels good. Looking for a good hurtin'? Look no further. File under 'very special indeed'.

excess baggage

2007-01-27T10:00:00.000+08:00

During a short lull in activities around the workplace, I was shooting the climate-controlled breeze with a few colleagues.

"So-and-so decided not to pursue his career further because of his aging parents. He has to take care of them at home," said my lady friend who has 3 children of her own, one of them pre-school. She goes home on weekends but stays in a rented apartment during working days.

Baggage; that's all we have to show in life. Being humans we all, understandably, need contact and love. In fact that's what make us humans in the first place. As a consequence we are indelibly linked to others. Some more so than others. Things get messed up when the latter prevents you from realizing your full potential. Inadvertently they drag you into their vortex of crippling neediness and dependence. Like a junkie jonesing for their next fix they will whine and snivel till they get your undivided attention. Against your better judgment you succumb, to the detriment of self. They chip away at your given time of existence and before you know it, an old used-up self stares back at your from the mirror.

"Where did I go?" you ask, desperately trying to rub out the crow's feet around your eyes.

There is an urgent hammering on the door. "Can you drive me to the drug store? My arthritis is acting up again," an all-too-familiar voice says.

blame mother earth

2007-01-24T20:42:00.000+08:00

Well the dateline has come and gone and we are still struggling in snail-paced internet limbo. A day after the Taiwan quake happened we were informed that several ships were on the way to repair the damaged underwater cables which linked major parts of Asia to the rest of the world. A few days later news started appearing that one of the ships broke down and needed repairs itself. Then we were given a deadline of January 23rd for all services to resume. Many eagerly awaited the date only to be disappointed including myself when coming home after work on the 23rd I found that my connection was even worse than what it was a few days prior. A new date has been announced - 29th of January. Dare we dream?

For a long time now my local internet provider has been throttling p2p and torrent traffic. Maybe this time they have found the perfect excuse to completely eradicate high bandwidth usage by customers who pay a premium for broadband. After all broadband should just be used for emails and web surfing, right? Heavens forbid you should use it for anything else.

Irate customer : "Hello, I am calling to lodge a complaint about my slow connection when I am using bittorrent"

Call center : "So sorry the earthquake did it and we are not responsible. Good-bye and have a nice day."

hands free

2007-01-22T20:10:00.000+08:00

When the inventors of hands free earphones came up with the idea, did they give any thought as to how a person would look talking into them while they are all alone? Sitting in front of his dinner plate, a man in long sleeves and a tie suddenly started talking seemingly to himself. Another man who was walking pass did a double take when he saw him, just to make sure the former is not off his head.

Things get even weirder when they start gesticulating and decide to have a heated debate with the party on the other end of the telephone conversation. Its hilarious when a group of them stand in close proximity, each holding a different conversation. some are laughing while others scowl into thin air. i think the scene would not be any different in an asylum for the clinically insane.

the life of pi

2007-01-20T16:01:00.000+08:00

Ever wondered how the mysterious value 3.142 or better known as 'pi' is derived? Click here for an animation and explanation. Why should you care? For the same reason you should care that at the exact moment when we die we weigh 21 grams less than when we were alive. Some say that's how much life weighs.

slow internet - an alternate explanation

2007-01-19T23:21:00.000+08:00

My sister has a theory worth blogging about. She was cursing a few moments ago about how slow the internet is. Her reasoning is that it is the middle of the month and a lot of people are broke for the month having spent all their salary during the first 2 weeks. Since going out entails spending, everyone must be sitting in front of their PCs now and surfing the web seeing how the internet is the cheapest form of entertainment. Thus net congestion. The Taiwan quake be damned.

bloggers unite!

2007-01-19T20:04:00.000+08:00

Malaysian bloggers are under attack. Unite to repel the evil that is censorship. Never be muzzled.

5 minutes to midnight

2007-01-18T18:52:00.000+08:00

Came home to news that mankind is just 5 minutes away from doomsday. The doomsday clock which has been in existence since the mid 40's was pushed 2 minutes forward and now stands at 5 minutes before midnight. The clock is a symbol of how close we are to total meltdown and annihilation as a species.

More interestingly (as if total destruction is any less interesting) browsing the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, there is a timeline of events that propelled the minute hand closer to 12 and those that reversed the progress. Reading between the lines there are certain notable examples of nations who have repeatedly lied to the global community about disarmament only to scale up their nuclear aspirations a few years later. There is an obvious trend and I will leave it to the readers to discern for themselves.

As matters stand, we are all going to hell in a bus with no brakes. Don't sweat the small stuff. Stop and look at the big picture. Time is running out.

shot of the day

2007-01-16T21:54:00.001+08:00

^-HooRaY-^
Originally uploaded by archivista.

My photo of the day.

the story of a pair of leather shoes

2007-01-16T18:46:00.000+08:00

I am a pair of leather shoes. The type designed for those male humans. After being taken off the back of a cow I was put through the indignity of having various yucky types of chemicals poured all over me, stretched every which way and molded to take my present form. I have to admit that the end result is rather impressive and I quickly forgave my creators. The day that the humans actually put me on display in the shoe store I was so proud that i was sure I would burst.

I was eventually bought by a person and put to work. And did this man put me to work. Day in and day out I pounded the ground protecting his precious stinking feet. I swear these so called humans have the most delicate disposition. Its a real wonder that someone actually made them the masters of the world.

Last night after a particularly grueling day I finally was given the chance to rest on my shoe rack. The night air was a pleasant change from the malodorous feet. I breathed a sigh of relief and settled down for the day.

Imagine my surprise when I was picked up roughly by a pair of unfamiliar hands and spirited away at the ungodly hour. After a while I was put onto another pair of feet and I have to tell you that these were even more smelly than my previous master's! Is there no end to my long suffering? Please God make my suffering end. Reduce me to useless scraps so that i do not have to endure any more. Incinerate me and make me into ashes. I am at the end of my tether. Do it now!

Epilogue : just my roundabout way of saying that my leather shoes were stolen right off the rack in front of my door.

the fall of man

2007-01-15T17:56:00.000+08:00

deep dark wells for eyes, full of painful secrets and regret. a backward glance pregnant with longing. looking back at what? a time of innocence and freedom now long gone.

once occupying the top echelon of a local political think-tank, the man you see above is now treated like a common criminal with other undesirables. how the mighty have fallen. read all about it here.

snow

2007-01-14T10:46:00.000+08:00

I have only seen and felt snow once in my entire life. This was in India at the foothills of the Himalayas more than 10 years ago. I still remember some of my fellow travelers scooping the stuff up and putting them into cardboard canisters. Later in the bus a snow ball fight broke out.

Being from a tropical country, snow is foreign and a mystery. I am told that if you look at it under a microscope the crystals have a perfectly symmetrical design and no two snowflake are the same. The creativity of nature is limitless.

I can only imagine what life would be covered in snow. Would my legs sink when i walk on it? How cold would it be if i walk barefoot? Will i be able to get it off my hair? What will it taste of on my tongue? What would it feel like to be surrounded by the stuff?

Lori Twiggs have tried to answer my questions through his oil paintings. Scattered amongst his galleries of oil paintings are numerous ones of desolate snowscapes. One of my favorites can be found at this link. It is devoid of human presence and is more powerful because of it. The silence is palpable, accentuated by the predominantly white backdrop. a breathtaking depiction of beautiful isolation.

For more head over to Oil Paintings by Lori Twiggs

gastronomical adventure

2007-01-14T09:51:00.000+08:00

disclaimer: this is not for the squeamish. children under 12 must get the permission of their parents before proceeding further.

Ok this is just sad. I am sitting in my car in front of a public park in Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia and typing this. At 12.50 in the afternoon on a overcast Saturday. I am waiting for my sister to finish her presentation at a nearby local bank. Off the top of my head I can think of any number of places that I would rather be in. Anyways family comes first and all that shit and its not like I have to save the world today back in Kuala Lumpur.

Almost shat my pants an hour ago and I am not dealing in metaphors here. Started off with a twinge of discomfort way down at my center of gravity. As the seconds ticked off the pressure built up and it felt as if all my insides were shifting downwards. This must what it feels like for a woman in the throes of child labor. At that point in time you could not have distracted me even if you placed a million dollars right in front of me. My senses had shut everything down to divert all available resources to my lower abdomen. All i needed was to expel. The noodles i had last night growled menacingly in the nether regions of my bowels.

i caught sight of a nearby mall and drove into the multi-story carpark. being a weekend the crowd was out in force and i had to circle for a good 15 minutes before i found an empty slot. by this time my senses had gone into overdrive and a thin film of sweat clung to my forehead and upper lip. walking as quickly as i could without bringing attention to the fact that my insides were about to burst, i accosted the first guard on duty at the mall and inquired as to the whereabouts of the nearest loo.

securing an empty stall, my muscles gave way. sweet relief.

the man on the sidewalk

2007-01-13T19:40:00.000+08:00

What is the story behind a man who sleeps on the sidewalk with no roof over his head? How did he end up with just a piece of cardboard to separate his body from the cold hard ground? In this shiny age of the internet what twisted circumstances brought about the abject poverty of this man who wraps a dirty cotton cloth around his head to keep the bright neon lights out?

How did the distribution of wealth become so uneven that Tom Cruise gets paid USD25 million each time he pretends to be somebody he is not in fictional situations and the man on the sidewalk can't even afford a pillow to rest his weary head? The system must be wrong! So is there a real alternative out there? One which will not leave people behind to wallow in the poisonous exhaust of the car called progress?

In 2006 the Norwegian Nobel Committee decided to award the Nobel Peace Prize to one Muhammed Yunus and the bank he founded, Grameen Bank. The latter is one of the few banks around the globe that specializes in microcredit in which small loans are made out to people who are viewed as poor credit risk by the traditional banking world. With this small amount of money, the recipients are expected to make a head start in small cottage industries to lift themselves and their families out of poverty. It brings to the mind the old adage of giving someone a rod to fish rather than giving him just free fish which has finite value.

As with all schemes, this one has its problems. The most obvious one would be people not repaying their loans and thus depriving the bank of its source of revenue to continue helping others. The world is full of shady people who will abuse any system but they are not good enough reason to stop helping others who will honor the loan and improve their lot in life. This aim is too important to be waylaid by those who will forever be crooks.

Would things have been any different for our man on the sidewalk if he knew of microcredit? I will never know. A day after i saw him, the man is no longer there. He has slipped through the cracks again, forever to be hidden in the dark recesses of human existence.

Half-Baked

2007-01-12T19:44:00.000+08:00

Top 10 Reasons why i have not updated my blog for the past the past 48 hours:

1. Could not get into blogger.com 2 nights ago most likely due to the quake in taiwan
2. I am physically and mentally drained at the end of the day
3. Felt it was not fair for my few readers to endure half-baked entries
4. Abducted by aliens
5. Time-traveled back to an age without internet
6. Had a lobotomy
7. Took part in the American Idol audition and was kicked out unceremoniously
8. Decided to commit internet suicide
9. Amnesia
10. A little voice in the head told me not to

Tarzan Boy

2007-01-09T20:42:00.000+08:00

Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh

Jungle life
I'm far away from nowhere
On my own like Tarzan Boy

Hide and seek
I play along while rushing cross the forest
Monkey business on a sunny afternoon

Tarzan Boy
Baltimora

The above is an excerpt of the song that was playing on the car radio on my way home. I do not know how many of you remember it and even if you do, i do not expect you to own up to it. The cheesiness of the words are only equaled by the cheesy synthesized-music that accompanies it. Despite myself it brought a smile to my lips. I also thank the maker that i was alone in the car.

The stupid meaningless piece of fluff actually dredged up a lot of memories. It is inherently tied up with the adolescent rush of seeing and buying the latest issue of the many teen-pop/fashion magazines at the news stand. The joy of hiding in your own room and scouring the glossy pages for bits of inconsequential facts regarding the latest pop sensation with their bizarre hairdos and clothing sense. The pathetic attempts at imitating said fashion just before the annual school ball and never getting it quite right. The sense of exquisite danger dancing for the first time with members of the opposite sex. Discotheques with deafening music and multi colored strobe lights. The first taste of alcohol.

A fact that might not have appeared in the pop magazines though : the singer and songwriter of this song, Baltimora, died of AIDS soon after the huge success of 'Tarzan Boy'.

the rookie and the veteran

2007-01-08T21:13:00.000+08:00

not to complain about work. this is the latest edition to my new year resolutions for 2007. what is the point? nobody will lessen your workload just because you whine about it. in fact it might even play against you should your colleagues and superiors get wind of it.

"i came back from work at 8 pm!" i exclaimed to my sister 2 days ago. she shrugged her shoulders and gave me a bored look. "so?"

it is now 9.11pm and she is still at work. i guess she has made her point.

the truth serum

2007-01-07T09:40:00.000+08:00

Many readers would have doubtless known about the sensational mass murder case currently under investigation in New Delhi, India. A wealthy business man and his man-servant are accused of luring street children into their house and killing them after sexual abuse. The thing that piqued my interest in the media frenzy around this case is the use of truth serum in an attempt to extract confessions from the suspects.

The first thing that came to mind was a drug which miraculously makes one tell the truth. This sounds like something straight out of a Hollywood B-grade movie. However this could not be further from the ........er.......truth (pun intended). The so-called truth serum is nothing more than thiopental sodium (from a group of chemicals called barbiturates) which is a common drug employed by anesthetist to put their patients 'under' before a surgical procedure. To make it even less exotic is the fact that its main function in an interrogation is to make the subject lose his or her inhibition so that he/she may be more forthcoming. This however does not make him or her lose self control. The subject will still be able to chose what they want to tell the interrogator. In the end they may only be very truthful about their lies!

family guy

2007-01-06T12:02:00.000+08:00

never realized my potential for disruption. it started out as a simple statement of me not having breakfast yet. my friend and his wife decided that we must partake in the most important meal of the day together. the shit storm started that very instant. they had to put on the diapers for their new born and 2 year old boy. the latter decided to throw a temper tantrum right there and the father had to spend a good 15 minutes tussling with him. diapers were on and then yanked off just as quickly by naughty little fingers. eyes became red and inflamed. whining and sobbing filled the house. fingers and thighs were rapped which led to more mewling. after a while the small one decided to join in. the whole crying and screaming mass was bundled into the car and off we went.

upon arrival at the eatery, the 2 year old couldn't wait to explore his surroundings and the young parents had to take turns running after him. finishing breakfast as quickly as possible, the children were again put into the car and transported back pronto. more screaming ensued. as i drove away i saw the family in my rear view mirror standing in a huddle around the gate struggling with the lock. i rejoiced in the boxed-in silence of my car.

greetings to old friends

2007-01-06T07:12:00.000+08:00

suddenly found some old friends appearing on the comments section of this blog. glad to hear from you guys and thanks for all the encouraging words. life is all of a sudden very different and i am still reeling from all the new experiences. some are sweet but they are the exceptions. change is always painful and i am in the thick of it right now. still a long way to go but i might just hang in there. i expected it when i made the move down but no amount of mental preparation can overcome the steep learning curve. i may slide down this curve occasionally but i will just have to pick myself up and start the uphill climb again. this is my lot in life and these are the choices i have made.

#4

2007-01-03T21:54:00.000+08:00

disclaimer : for all those who are in the habit of shooting down show-offs and arrogant bastards blowing their own trumpets, proceed with extra caution. really. don't say i did not warn you.

i am putting this up purely for the novelty of it. i am and never will be under the illusion that i have a popular blog that millions around the world flock to daily for pearls of wisdom. this was never the intention of this blog and never will be. it is done purely in the spirit of experimentation and mostly fun. for people who measure the worth of a blog by how much moolah it garners, as of today my total earnings from google adsense is a resounding zilch . i signed up for it under the influence but thats another story.

all these makes it even more implausible when i keyed in the words 'days of our life' in yahoo search and the blog that you are reading came out 4th from a total number of 344, 000, 000 sites that has a reference to the phrase. i do not know how these search engines work but there you have it. the little cogwheels of the universe never fail to amaze me.

the new guy

2007-01-03T18:15:00.000+08:00

'how was your first day at work?' i hope that there is someone out there who care enough to ask that of me. well you know me well enough to know that i will tell you any ways.

hungry and tired. work was especially heavy today most likely due to the backlog over the long holidays. worked right through lunch with no food or water. finished everything at 5 pm and made a beeline for the cafeteria for a very belated lunch of buns and soda. good way to shed some weight. all day people were giving me sideway glances usually reserved for the 'new guy'. guess they were all 'new guy's in the past and are exacting their revenge. no matter. like water off the back of a duck.

tomorrow's another day and i hope to live through it. wish me luck!

the year of the pig

2007-01-02T13:41:00.000+08:00

just wondering how the retailers in town will decorate their outlets this year for the upcoming lunar new year. when even the use of the word 'jesus' is censored on tv, how in hell's name are they going to put up a giant cutout of a pig in their window displays? for those who do not know the pig is considered 'haraam' in Islam.

while driving around Kuala Lumpur a few weeks ago i happened to be in a well known residential area. when i turned into a narrow road i saw a makeshift tent jutting out from a house with total disregard for traffic. as my car pulled up in front of the house i saw the carcass of a headless pig roasting over a pit fire. a thick pall of smoke wafted skywards. no prizes for guessing the ethnicity of the guilty party. i have to wonder what the Muslims in the neighborhood were thinking about at that point.

so how to skirt the sensitivities of the local censorship board? would dressing the pigs up in cartoonish and cutesy costumes appease the powers that be?

i hereby throw down the gauntlet and challenge the retailers' ingenuity. oink oink!

in the city

2007-01-01T14:28:00.000+08:00

i am in like flint! just got into kuala lumpur. decided to come a day earlier so that i have one extra day to explore before reporting for official duty on wednesday. you cannot dream of the amount of cables and wires that come with a desktop pc and all its peripheries (eg. modem, wifi router, speakers etc). anyways got everything setup now and ready to go. the drive was surprisingly stress free without the usual post-holiday mad rush back into the city. i pity all the suckers who have decided to make the pilgrimage back tomorrow.

my current situation reminds me of the childhood story of the town mouse and the country mouse. the country mouse decides one day to visit his cousin who lives in a big city full of bright lights and fancy things. during his stay he is accosted by big ferocious dogs, frightening lawn mowers and other modern monstrosities. at the end of the day he has had enough and runs back to his idyllic life in the sedate but peaceful countryside. in my case i don't have a choice and will have to stick it out here as long as it takes, lawn mowers and all.

graphic description of a hanging

2006-12-31T17:00:00.000+08:00

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.

i am a 100 posts old

2006-12-31T14:10:00.000+08:00

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!

new year resolutions - ad nauseum

2006-12-30T17:57:00.000+08:00

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

the fate of saddam hussein

2006-12-30T11:50:00.000+08:00

its done.

an explanation

2006-12-30T10:55:00.001+08:00

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.

the immigrant

2006-12-29T23:00:00.000+08:00

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.

the divine statesman

2006-12-28T15:00:00.000+08:00

"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.

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i know what you did last christmas

2006-12-27T20:25:00.000+08:00

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.

internet blackout - a time for reflection

2006-12-27T19:33:00.000+08:00

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.

christmas in cameron highlands

2006-12-26T18:05:00.000+08:00

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.

a user-generated compendium of kuala lumpur urban myths

2006-12-26T16:43:00.000+08:00

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!

time person of the year 2006

2006-12-25T22:24:00.000+08:00

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.

i just called to say i love you

2006-12-24T07:51:00.000+08:00

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.

definition of the female anatomy (in hokkien)

2006-12-22T22:18:00.000+08:00

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.

dexter - the best thing that happened to tv

2006-12-21T13:38:00.000+08:00

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.

my best enemies

2006-12-20T14:07:00.000+08:00

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.

things we do for self-preservation

2006-12-19T11:44:00.000+08:00

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.

inducted into the golden years

2006-12-18T18:46:00.000+08:00

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!

how not to pick a car and stick it to the man at the same time!

2006-12-17T10:45:00.000+08:00

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.

free music

2006-12-16T19:12:00.000+08:00

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!

ubuntu edgy eft - another review

2006-12-14T18:13:00.000+08:00

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

2006-12-14T08:12:00.000+08:00

as a response to the squeaky clean christian edition of the popular linux distro, get ready for some satan worship! get it here.

live newborns used for stem cell harvesting

2006-12-13T21:27:00.000+08:00

disturbing news about babies in Ukraine. lets just hope it is not true!

net neutrality

2006-12-13T10:31:00.000+08:00

"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.

take me back to dear ol' blighty pt. 3

2006-12-11T17:58:00.000+08:00

(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.

take me back to dear ol' blighty pt. 2

2006-12-10T14:11:00.000+08:00

(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...

miniaturization

2006-12-10T06:55:00.000+08:00

More popular pictures at Popular-Pics.com

imagine how this 5 MB hard disk (circa 1956) will look in your living room!

take me back to dear ol' blighty pt. 1

2006-12-09T18:37:00.000+08:00

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....

thoroughly modern

2006-12-09T16:03:00.000+08:00

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!!

linux - my os of choice

2006-12-09T15:20:00.000+08:00

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!

baby panda scaring the hell out of mama

2006-12-08T20:38:00.001+08:00

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

2006-12-08T13:10:00.000+08:00

before stringing up those Christmas lights in the office and at home, heed this survey that shows they may jeopardize your wifi signals

beautiful routine

2006-12-07T18:53:00.000+08:00

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.

james kim found dead

2006-12-07T06:28:00.000+08:00

a tragic end to the cnet editor's saga.

photo exhibit

2006-12-07T06:27:00.000+08:00

stunning photo. more to be found here.

update on the missing kim family

2006-12-05T14:24:00.000+08:00

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.

she's lost control again

2006-12-05T06:40:00.000+08:00

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.

Firefox ad

2006-12-04T06:49:00.001+08:00

great firefox ad!

green your pc

2006-12-03T19:45:00.000+08:00

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

2006-12-03T13:37:00.000+08:00

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.

wordpress.com

2006-12-02T16:27:00.000+08:00

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!