Sands of time...

Shocking...i'm in a naughty mood today

Thu, 02 Mar 2006 05:54:57 GMT

You guys know what a bra is right? I bet few of you understands your bra. If you have big boobies, here's a great resource you should be looking at. :D

Aaaaaaaand.........random image of the day! (scroll down and keep scrolling)

Lorem Ipsum

Wed, 22 Feb 2006 15:37:25 GMT

Now, before you go "whaaaaaaaaaat??" believe me when I say that approximately 98% of people reading this will probably have the same reaction as you did. And, if you happen to be one of those 2%, feel free to leave comments and let the world know how knowledgable you are.

So what in the holy name of Paris Hilton is Lorem Ipsum?? If you've seen the text somewhere before, I congratulate you on your excellent memory. To see Lorem Ipsum, open Microsoft Powerpoint. Click on New... then click on the Design Templates tab. Preview any of the files listed and ay caramba! Lorem Ipsum!

"'Lorem ipsum' is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. It has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s. It has been popularised 'recently' with desktop publishing software and in the 1960s with the release of Letraset sheets containing 'lorem ipsum' passages."

Nice. This text has been used for more than 500 years. But whose idea was it? Which language?

"Lorem ipsum' is not simply random text. It is actually over 2000 years old and it has roots in a piece of classical Latin literature from 45 BC. 'Lorem ipsum' comes from sections 1.10.32 and 1.10.33 of "de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum" (The Extremes of Good and Evil) written in 45 BC by Marcus Tullius Cicero. The first line of 'lorem ipsum', "Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet...", can be read out of a line from section 1.10.32. This book was very popular during the Renaissance and it is a treatise on the theory of ethics."

That's a shocker. Anyone knows why we use this particular text?

"It is a long established fact that a reader will be distracted by the readable content of a page when looking at its layout. The point of using 'lorem ipsum' is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution of letters, as opposed to using 'This here is content' or 'Osama Bin Laden wanted dead or alive', making it look like readable text and there also has been many examples what has happened if someone has forgotten to change the dummy text for the final copywrite text.
In Finland there was couple of years ago this one bookshop banner in public internet with 'Buying a book is as easy as hitting a child' text in it."

In a less technical manner, we use lorem ipsum to simulate 'text' in a template. As you know, people are interested in how a template looks like, but they also need to know how they look like with text in it. Lorem Ipsum text has the standard distribution of letters like most other texts, as opposed to just typing

lajfoijeamflkasjirdjelaijriejkoakt;oek;roae,rpaopo

or

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

or

This is content. This is content. This is content. This is content. This is content.

which are rather irritating and distracting. Interesting, no?

I think I will name my daughter Lorem. Such a sweetie. *smile*

Time, or the lack of it

Mon, 13 Feb 2006 16:48:16 GMT

The last two weeks have been really hectic for me. I could barely find space to breathe. Let's see. I've registered two new domain names, that I've been looking at and around for at least a month. Also setup a webhosting plan. Parted with US$130 for those.

But I like the new domain name. It's short and memorable. And I got it at a discounted price too. The other domain's parked; which simply means I reserved that domain but am not using it.

Then I received an email from U of M telling me that, "based on the strength of your application, you are being considered for the LSA Honors Admission Program...which is a program in which admission is by invitation only...". I was elated, naturally. But the catch is that I need to submit another 1000-word essay in support of my candidacy. *grumbles* Haven't I had enough essays to write already? Deadline: 20th February.

Adding to that, I have my language exam this Friday. Good ol' language exam that just couldn't find a better time to slot itself into my schedule. Date: 17th February.

And then there's the new site I'm working on. The first batch of pages needs to be up by the 15th (my self-imposed deadline), thankfully they're already up. But a couple of glitches and I still haven't figured a way to fix them yet. More busy. Deadline: 15th February.

Tommorrow's Valentine's. And I have an...um....obligation to carry out on that day (probably the first real fun in two weeks). In addition to working, visiting the gym, and a little bit of babysitting, can anyone understand how busy I am?

Citizenship approved!

Thu, 09 Feb 2006 06:08:20 GMT

As of yesterday, I am now a proud ! I suggest you go check them out, and apply for a citizenship too. *smile*

Now, you know I don't normally promote something unless:
1) they paid me.
2) they're really that good.

No. 1 did not apply here, honestly. Hint: Free mystery credits if you apply by Feb 28th! =D

CUE

Fri, 03 Feb 2006 14:24:46 GMT

That's the title of a newly launched student magazine. CUE really stands for College University Edition, so it is aimed at the tertiary student level. They had their maiden edition printed and circulated recently, and I was fortunate to be able to get hold of one of these. So far there's only the Dec '05/Jan '06 issue, which IS the first issue (see left).

I like the concept of this new magazine. I think that - although it is still probably quite early to make a definitive review - this magazine has done rather well in terms of content. The articles are informative and well-written, and there are absolutely no irrelevant articles or items that serve to fill spaces. You know how in some magazines (college yearbooks for example), there will almost always be items that......we just don't know what they are there for? "Survey - Most Used Phrases By College Students", "10 Ways To Freak Your Roommate" and a myriad other stuffs that really don't serve any real purpose at all?

It's okay to have one or two of those for 'entertainment', but student magazines of these type tend to overkill, because of quota set by the editorial board that certain sections need to have so-and-so number of pages. I know because I was in the editorial board before. The results is a magazine that, due to overwhelming load of articles, students tend to skip a lot of the pages and go straight to the photo gallery or the jokes section. Defeats the whole purpose.

CUE doesn't have all these things. In short, it's an information magazine. Even the advertisements are not intrusive. Some advertisements are even intergrated into articles so that they don't look like advertisements. Nice. I have high hopes for future editions of this magazine.

On the second day of CNY...

Mon, 30 Jan 2006 15:53:54 GMT

...three men attempted to scale the wall that leads to the backyard of my house. They managed to climb nearly 30 feet of the wall behind my house before a couple in a passing car spotted them and gave a shout. I was cooking spaghetti at that time, ran out and looked below to see figures running away into the darkness. The couple called the nearby security beat base while I grabbed a stick and tried to go after them. I failed, obviously. They were long gone.

(Oh well, I could've grabbed my .50 calibre instead, but I wasn't too keen on making it to the wanted list)

Security arrived in 3 minutes. The two officers offered to patrol the road around my house for the night. Mom was visibly shaken. Oh well, I am definitely going to hear her whining about crime for the rest of the night.

Perhaps it was the smell of my cooking that lured them. Also because the door to my backyard was wide open. Really, any Tom, Dick and Harry could've seen what was going on inside my house. Hey, it's CNY! You don't expect me to keep the entire house under lock and key, do you?

But it's nice to know my cooking actually smells that good. Bro taught me how to cook, and this is my first time cooking spaghetti. I guessed I passed the test.

Those three won't be coming back in a hurry. I mean, if they, all three of them, ran away after only hearing shouts from alert residents, they can't be that almighty, can't they? Anyway, look above. Can't exactly blame them for wanting to intrude, can't we? *wink*

And for what purpose did we pay taxes?

Wed, 25 Jan 2006 04:07:48 GMT

Sometimes you'd think that people are in authority because they know better, they are wiser, they are more capable, etc. You'd expect them to know what is better for the country, for the people. That's why we have government and councillors.

Now let's take the case of one such 'authority': The infamous Subang Jaya Municipal Council (MPSJ), "God of Summons Tickets". There's a section of roads in SS15 that are just so silly you wonder what they are there for. Well, to begin with, those roads weren't silly initially. Last time they looked like this:

Which was perfectly fine. The green boxes are TWO private colleges, the black boxes are shops and the arrows represent the traffic flow. A week or two ago, MPSJ decided to "make things better" (their synonym for "filling time to look busy so that we won't be accused of slacking"). So today they looked like this:

They changed the traffic flow at those two roads. The upper one becomes a one-way street and the lower one now flows in the opposite direction.

The effects:

Caterpillars now crawl faster than your car in the morning, afternoon, evening and early night.
Birds have more chance to shit on top of your roofs due to immobility.
You get to hear alot more different tunes of car horns...
...and also learn the different languages of cursing and swearing.

Best thing was, there were no prior warnings to the change in traffic flow. One fine morning, vehicles entered via the first purple arrow direction, only to be stopped by MPSJ "enforcement officers". At the same time, at the other end of the road, vehicles entered through the second purple arrow direction. No signboard, no advertisement, no notices, nothing.

Idiotic planning. The road is right in front of TWO private colleges, and what they essentially did was to contribute MORE traffic to that direction. While previously vehicles have a way to 'escape' from the yellow arrow road (using the first purple arrow direction), now they are contributing to congestion.

I haven't even mention the fact that at the outer highway (the road without arrows), vehicles can come IN towards the yellow arrow direction and towards the red arrow direction. There you go. More congestion.

Normally it takes me 15 minutes to reach Subang Jaya and another 5 minutes to reach the college. Now it takes me 15 minutes to reach Subang Jaya and 40 minutes to reach the college. And I'm not the only one who thinks so.

Thanks MPSJ, I really admire the brains your management has. Is it any wonder that I have 7 outstanding summons tickets since April 2004 and you haven't come after me at all?

Support newcomers!

Sat, 21 Jan 2006 03:56:37 GMT

Read this. Support a n00b in the arena.

Today...

Wed, 18 Jan 2006 13:19:12 GMT

...I swallowed a mouthful of dishwashing liquid. It happened to be orange in color, and it so happened to be in the same small bottle where it used to contain orange juice. You know those type of "free sample - not for sale" bottles? What I didn't know was that the bottle had exhausted its contents, so mum reused the bottle and poured dishwashing liquid in it.

Needless to say, I vomitted everything I ate today and now I'm extremely sick to move around. Had to be admitted for outpatient treatment for food poisoning. Happy New Year!

Just something I noticed

Sat, 14 Jan 2006 17:24:32 GMT

I was in a public waiting room today. You see, the thing with me is that I like observing people; what they do, how they dress, the way they speak, etc. Probably that's the reason why I don't mind following someone to shopping.

So anyway, I noticed this pretty lady in front of me. I didn't notice her because she was pretty - after all she had her back against me - but because I caught a whiff of shampoo from her. She told me her name was *something* Yi, didn't quite get that part. And that she shampoos her hair whenever she goes out.

I don't know, probably it's just me, but I always notice that the pretty ones always emanate fragances that are unmistakably shampoo-ish. Carrie Junior, Pantene, Sunsilk, I am not quite sure. Or maybe their skin smells that way. Now whenever my nose sniffs a fruity smell, I walk around to see.

And almost always, I find a pretty girl.

Simply brilliant!

Thu, 12 Jan 2006 05:28:39 GMT

How very clever of the Government! RM10 (approximately US$2.67) for new MyKad registrations!

You probably don't have a clue to what I'm saying, so here's the synopsis: The Malaysian Government created a new chip-based national identification card three years ago. It is offering a waiver for those who apply for the new card by Dec 31st 2005. Malaysians, as usual, waited until the very last week before starting to do a mad rush to apply for the cards. The result? Look at the picture on the left. That is at 3 am, 5 hours before the registration offices are even open. The office, by the way, is not visible in the picture because it's somewhere on the horizon. That's how long the line was.

The Government has made it clear that applicants will be charged a fee from Jan 1st 2006 onwards.

And what was the fee? RM10 (US$2.67). I couldn't help chuckling away when I read that. These folks waited nearly 12 hours on that day to get a waiting number; some waited even longer. All that for RM10.

It serves them right. They had THREE YEARS to apply for a card for free, and they just had to wait till the last week of December to apply. Took a day off, sacrificed sleep and the opportunity to do other things, for the glory of saving RM10. Serves them right.

Read this commentary by a joker who even had the audacity to ultimately put the blame on the Government.

Don't you get it? The fee for the card was not revealed earlier to teach you people a lesson. A lesson you probably will never learn. If it was revealed that it's RM10, do you think they'd go through all the trouble? No they won't. They'll just put it off again until the time when the Government sets an expiry date for applying for the new card. Last minute again.

This RM10 should stay for the time being, as a reminder. Maybe a month or two later, increase the fee five-fold or something. That'll prevent the new ones from doing things at the last minute again.

Simply brilliant.

Due to popular demand...

Thu, 05 Jan 2006 07:47:12 GMT

...I will post some more of those pictures I took during New Year. Note that you won't find any pictures of me in mousse, since my camera was already tucked away safely in my backpack.

In 2006...

Wed, 04 Jan 2006 04:38:00 GMT

I guess that a Happy New Year greeting would seem a little out-of-date now. I must be one of the slowest people to post in this new year. But it's okay, at least I do post.

So we went to the countdown for the new year in The Curve. Pretty much a party atmosphere there; unless you hate being jostled and pushed and risked being trampled on. Oh and having a little baby scream his head off 2 inches away from your ears. How cute.

I stayed there till about 3 am, went to bed at 4 am, and got a headache for the rest of the new year's day as a reward. Great start to the new year, I'd say.

And this....is my pride and joy. You don't have to agree, though.

Scenes from the New Year. Just love the clarity of a night scene taken by an entry-level consumer camera. =)

A short break, unfortunately

Wed, 28 Dec 2005 13:24:54 GMT

Hey everyone. Will be gone for some time since I have some other things to settle first, so I will not be posting for some days, hopefully less than a week. But do check back often! *smile*

Sweet Christmas story

Sun, 25 Dec 2005 14:46:33 GMT

Just wanted to share this story I came across on this joyous day:

On September 21, 1897, the New York Sun published a letter written by Virginia O'Hanlon and its reply by the then editorial writer Francis Pharcellus Church. Initially this letter was just an ordinary letter buried with other letters to the editor, but in time it became one of history's most reprinted editorial.

Dear Editor,
I am 8 years old. Some of my friends say there is no Santa Claus. Papa says, "If you see it in the Sun, it's so." Please tell me the truth. Is there a Santa Claus?

Virginia O'Hanlon
115, West Ninety-Fifth Street.

Dear Virginia,

Your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except what they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men's or children's, are little. In this great universe of ours, man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! How dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus! It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The external light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies. You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if you did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that's no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

You tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world that not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived could tear apart. Only faith, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, Virginia, in all this world there is nothing else more real and abiding.

No Santa Claus! Thank God! He lives and lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay 10 times 10,000 years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

- The Star, December 25th, 2005
Sourced from newseum.org

It put a smile on my face. Such a sweet story, no?

Chancellor in town

Sat, 24 Dec 2005 16:58:04 GMT

First of all, Lara, i'm so so terribly sorry. It was all Blogdrive's fault. I had nothing to do with it. =(

So anyway, the car you see on the right is the (brand) new Proton Chancellor. This car is available to the general public since over two weeks ago, but it was already being used as an official automobile to ferry delegates during the 11th ASEAN Summit in KL. If you drove into KL during that period (God help you if you did; the traffic was terrible), you might've seen the car.

What's new (or different, depending on whose side you're on) about the Chancellor? This car is essentially a stretched Proton Waja; that is, it is built on the Proton Waja chassis, but fitted with a Mitsubishi Eterna 2.0L engine. If you're familiar with the Perdana car, the Perdana Executive is also a stretched version of the original. But the Chancellor car includes new additions like leather seat and DVD player at the back. Proton says that the target market for this car is corporate executives, government heads and business leaders.

Personally I find this car quite okay overall. The interior is comfy, the leather seats are nice (great for people who have trouble sitting on their asses). This car is about the same length as an S320 sedan. My only complain is that why did they have to re-use the Waja chassis? They could've gotten a new bodywork altogether. Not that I have anything against Wajas (after all, I own one), and I think Waja has the nicest bodywork of all Proton cars, aside from the Perdana. But aww...they could have remodeled the chassis. I haven't taken any pictures; maybe next time when I revisit the showroom.

This car retails for RM138 000 OTR (approximately US$36 500 at the time of this writing). That's about twice the price of an average Proton, so I doubt many users, especially those who can afford a car in that price range, will buy it. Proton says they expect to sell about 1000 units of the Chancellor in a year's time. Considering the history of our national carmaker's quality control, it might take more than aggressive marketing to convince the average user.

My birthday dinner: This

Mon, 19 Dec 2005 15:42:16 GMT

And to you all who chia me:

Why the British and Malaysians find it hard to communicate

Thu, 15 Dec 2005 02:48:47 GMT

Actually that sounded a little more racist than intended.

My bro is back. And him being 4 years abroad certainly didn't register well in terms of speech with my mother. My sister and I are IELTS and TOEFL scorers respectively, so we didn't have any trouble communicating with him. It's so funny to see mom trying to understand 10% of what my bro says most of the time. She keeps complaining about how "your brother talks through his nose". It isn't that bad, really. Mom just needs to get very used to it.

I even asked her how could she not understand him when she watches western movies alot.

"I only read the Malay subtitles. I don't listen."

..................................

He says "unchained melodies", she hears "ah cheng buay roti."
He says "eddie murphy", she hears "animal flea".
He says "ricky martin", she hears "licking a bin".

It's been two weeks already, and hearing them talk is like hearing a Briton trying to buy char kuay teow. No one would have ever guessed that we are family. =/

Greetings, blogosphere

Wed, 14 Dec 2005 13:14:10 GMT

Long time no see. I did manage to come back in one piece, though.

Surgery was fine, it went well. They did a reconstructive surgery, which actually sounds a lot more scarier than it is. And no, they weren't "rebuilding my breasts" *glares at someone*. Maybe except for the fact that they tend to overdose you with anaesthetic and syringes bigger than your arm. But anyway, If you count the actual days that they perform the surgery, it's only 3 days. Most of the time I am either in the room watching some Singaporean soap opera or reading John Grisham's works. The nurses were a pretty lot, so boredom was something new to me there. *smile*

I still remember the first surgery I had, more than 13 years ago. At that time I rarely been out of the house, let alone a scary place like the hospital. Mom and Dad had to literally drag me into the operating theatre, and apparently I struggled so much that one of the surgeons had a scratch mark on his cheek. They forced me on the bed (okay, that didn't turn out right), and next thing I know I was back in my room, body aching all over and can't even find enough strength to open the door and yell for help. Now at least I've had pretty nurses to chat with.

Well, I need to get started on my next article. Oh, I'm a freelance writer now. *wink* Pays good, you know.

Failing in love

Thu, 01 Dec 2005 07:16:19 GMT

Just yesterday I received another mail from someone who just broke up with the 'love of his life'. Apparently he is having trouble getting over the break-up, and he thinks that the girl is equally egregrious for pretending as if nothing happened. Well I get quite alot of stories like this one, so I thought maybe I could write about failing in love.

Notice that this is not about falling in love, it's about failing in love. Love is a wonderful feeling; be it between cat and master, or mother and son, or couples, or among friends. But when the inevitable break-up occurs, it hurts more than all of the above not happening. In a break-up, a guy tends to think that just because the girl keeps herself active and responds to communications, she is not as hurt as him. On the other hand, a girl often closes all doors to her heart, thinking that doing so will help her overcome her trauma. My advice to them is: Move on! That is what you have to do in a break-up; get up, brush your feet and move on. It's hard to move on, but it's not impossible.

There are several things you can and should do in order to assist yourself in getting on with life. The first and most difficult part is to blow up all thoughts about the pain, the cries and the fear of missing your love. It's okay to think about it, but don't bind your soul to those thoughts.

Don't resort to drowning in alcohol or smoking heavily. Despite what you hear, neither of those will help you overcome grief. It's plain silly to think that they do. They only cloud your judgments and your ability to think clearly.

Talk to friends, family or someone who is willing to listen. Talk to them about things that you feel good about; your new dress, your best buddy, getting A in school, etc. There will be things that you feel good about; if you say you don't have any, you are again closing your mind. And a closed mind is the worst way to overcome grief.

Dress up neat. Indulge in a new fashion. You need to feel good about yourself. You still need to glow, and looking brave and pretty will increase your self-confidence about yourself. In the end, you don't want people to look upon you as a junk; defeated by just a single obstacle in life.

Smile at people and make them feel good. Don't think that doing this means hiding your problems and that it is wrong. On the other hand, don't go around acting as if nothing happened or that you are very happy with the break-up. I know of someone who went around telling that the break-up was the happiest thing that happened to her. It's stupid. Pretence only serve to remind you that you are not what you really are. You want to appear strong, not a hypocrite.

Don't go around looking for sympathy, either. It doesn't help anyone. Talk to someone if you need to, but don't fish for sympathy votes. "I'm such a loser", "What is wrong with me?", "I thought I was a good person, but apparently not" are all useless talks.

Don't throw to others for any mistakes they have not done. Don't alienate your friends, or act moody towards them after a break-up. They haven't done anything wrong to you. Similarly, when in love, don't ignore your friends thinking that your love is all you need. They are going to be the ones who will be there for you when "all that you need" is no longer there.

Lastly, remember that they are people who still thinks you're important. People who still look up to you. Don't be selfish and think that no one cares about you anymore. Failing in love didn't make you any worse, it only made you stronger. Think about that.