Merry Christmas To You Too!!!

Merry Christmas everybody!!! In case you’re wondering, that’s my Xmas pressie that i requested from DeeDoo haha me love it! It’s gonna be my wallpaper for this whole festive week =D

I had a smashing time last night, from catching up with old friends to making a fool of myself in Cranium to jamming in Guitar Hero (i found my rock voice…..and its squeeky). I don’t celebrate Xmas officially, but it’s a great excuse to bring people together and that’s good enough for me. I also finally got a Moleskin notebook for Jos (secret santa with the help of Nick) which I thought was a fantastic gift for myself given the price range.

Overall i thought that the secret santa thing was a success as everyone got what they wanted and we had a great time. I’m with nick about having this as an annual thing, but with an increased budget!

Hitchin’ A Ride

One day when i was on my way to Tropicana Mall site, this grasshopper leaped out of nowhere and crashed on to the windscreen and held on to my wiper for a ride. Despite my skillful reckless driving, this little bugger held on as if he was enjoying the thrill. And amazingly after my 2 hr long meeting, it was still clinging on at the same spot, and hitched a ride back home as well.

I’m pretty dodgy at metaphors, but the scene pretty much summed up my year ; it has been a roller coaster ride. I’ve definitely had my ups and downs this year, the ups being that i’ve learned so much, and the people in the team definitely helped make the experience so much more pleasant and enjoyable. But sometimes i feel so helpless at my desk, trying my best to look busy where in actual fact i don’t really have anything to do.

Looking back at when i first started my first task was do a 3d design using a program that wasn’t meant to do 3d. And it took me around 2 months to find out about this. And here i was feeling so stupid that i couldnt cook up a design quick enough to provide that extra hand. Then i was asked to do a month of site defects inspections at Suasana Sentral, which was basically a kuli job that could be given to any Tom, Dick and Harry. I tried to convince myself that i am actually learning something from it all, but i honestly think it was quite minimal. However i am quite grateful that these sessions helped me bond with the people who turned out to be my good friends now in the office. In between these inspections i was told to do some minor design works, for projects that never happened.

Now, after 10 months, I am proudly one of the few people who have mastered the 3d program used in my office. I have been counted on to create 3d models for actual projects and i have been asked to the teach my skills to both my juniors and peers alike. At last i am starting to feel that i am contributing something to the team, which is my primary goal during my short stay. My experience during the site inspections also allowed me to be given the opportunity to chair defects meetings, which was a scary experience at first (when everyone in the room is at least ten years older) but i discovered a lot about the industry. Recently, I also have been working very closely with an architect on a design proposal in Nusajaya which really helped me learn the process of design in real life and how certain decisions are made and why. And to add icing to the cake, our design proposal was accepted and we got the job!

So for the record let me express my greatest gratitude to these people: TJ, Jessie, Wei Liang, Francis, Lai, Ying Ying, Steven, Dona, Wai Ying, Chee Foong, Kent, Ahana, Alvin, Lau, Siang Run, Ling Sin, Ayu, Nurha, Nora, Kak Suzi, & Kak Yati. One day i would like to look back at this post to remember all your names and faces as the people who have had a hand in creating the architect in me.

TJ TEAM 2008

What we do during our free time

Me and deedoo pictochatting. She is extremely talented. See if you can guess which is mine  : )

Chee Weng's Theory of Composite Examination Studying Dynamics

So, I have a midterm tomorrow for Archaeology. There are maybe 150 terms to go over. It's at times like these that I refer back to Chee Weng's Theory of Composite Examination Studying Dynamics.

It's a great technique. It greatly reduces your workload while ensuring that you have sufficient preparation for the exam.
It can be essentially summarized into 4 words:- "Won't come out la".

Lol.
I fully recommend it.

Quoted from the wise and great Nicholas Khaw. I should get a Nobel Prize for this, it worked for me so far.

You should never be purely retarded

Just came back from watching tropic thunder with my colleagues, and i must say i am truly disappointed. It was a cross of 21 and Austin Powers 3, dodgy comparisons but let me explain. They had a perfect premise for LOL and if you didn’t already know, its about three actors (played by three actors) shooting a war film and was accidentally put into a real war scenario. Things started of real fun, and how wouldnt it be with these 3 awesome comedy actors put together? But when the freshness of the premise starts wearing out…it just became mediocre. They couldn’t maintain the momentum throughout the whole 120 minutes (aka 21) and it was disappointing because the first half an hour or so generated a generous ammount of giggles.

Another thing that was completely unnecessary was the huge ammount of cameos. I never knew what was the deal with cameos as they rarely add anything to the movie. I can only recall very few instances where they were pretty good most. On the top of my head i would say recently is Jonah Hill in Forgetting Sarah Marshall and the babes (Elisha Cuthbert, Elizabeth Shannon etc.) in Love Actually. In these cases the actor/actresses actually fit the role or fits into the right context. Really, i am not against cameos but this movie really looks like they concentrated too much into including them rather than improving the script etc. The first movie that pops into mind when mentioning this is obviously AUSTIN POWERS 3. (if you haven’t already guessed it)

The final note is about the lameness about the movie. There’s only so much lameness a comedy can take, and this movie crossed that line. With so many talented actors, i wouldn’t expect lameness to carry this movie but it was what they did (which contributed to the boringness at the second half on the movie). It’s ironic too that **SPOILERS…..kinda….*** in one scene Robert Downey’s character said “You should never act purely retarded in a movie, only mostly retarted” (referring the other chars such as Forrest Gump who won Oscars) because that’s what i would describe how they acted towards the end of the movie – purely retarded.

Anything good in life is either illegal, immoral or fattening

This picture was taken by my bro at Liverpool airport. I personally enjoy no. 4, 7 and 8.

Prod

If you are half the geek i am, you probably recognize this from the Worms series. (unfortunately i couldnt get a screenshot of it in action :P). I seem to have developed some kind of phobia/reflex system towards this weapon of destruction. No matter where i am, ppl seem to enjoy prodding me (probably due to the fact that i have a very sensitive area near the hip) and see me jump a few centimeters off the ground, and the office is no different. There’s this colleague of mine who keeps prodding me every now and then in the office that at one time, when i spotted a shadow lurking behind me, i actually tried to dodge and put up my left arm to try parry the incoming attack. Turns out it wasn’t that colleague, and that person wasn’t even walking towards me…he was just going back to his seat. Then my other colleagues were staring at me weirdly…..

Highlight

Instead of going diary style, like i always do with my holidays trips,i thought i would just talk about the highlight of the trip. When i feel like it, i'll start talking about all the sightseeing stuff in Berlin and Dresden (which was pretty awesome, but it's not gonna top this)

No.7 sending the keeper to the wrong direction

Was there any doubt what else it could be? Being inside the Theatre of Dreams when the stadium erupted when no.7 Christiano Ronaldo scored the most undeserved goal in the world. It didn't matter, the crowd and atmosphere was worth every penny (70 pounds actually) and a cool goal by Wayne Rooney was icing on the cake. From waiting anxiously on the cheap plastic seats for a goal to happen, to attempting to follow the chants of the supported, to jumping and screaming at every near miss or referee whistle....is truly an experience that money can't buy. (70 pounds actually)

I was never a true MU supporter till few years ago, which led to claims by my bro that i only supported the best teams. I don't agree. Sure MU is probably the most supported team in Malaysia, but i truly support them because of their offensive style and individual brilliance. I believe its influenced by my infatuation with NBA basketball, where attacking individual talents are appreciated more. (with exception of Nick who has a good eye for defensive plays)

To prove my point, long time ago, i used to support Liverpool because i thought they were a good offensive team. Looking back at it now, i'm not really sure if i understood football as much as i do now, but as far as i recall it was the Beckham era where MU and Arsenal reign the EPL. In the NBA it was more apparent. I supported the Trailblazers when they had Mighty Mouse and the Sheed even though they never won a championship. I was a die hard fan of Chris Webber's Sacramento Kings when they weren't even championship contenders yet. But they played exciting ball in my opinion, and that's why i watch them.

On a side note, WHY OH WHY DID JASON WILLIAMS RETIRE?????

Arriving 3 hours earlier at Old Trafford

Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep..........

That was the high pitch sound that was ringing in our ears when we drove for dinner. My parents said that they heard the same sound when we drove out in the afternoon so it must be something wrong with the car. I tried switching off the radio....nope not from there. "Hmm's maybe it's the air-con fan, sometimes when it needs greasing it makes noises like these" my dad says. So i turn off the air-con. The sound still persists. "Tomorrow must spray WD40 on every part of the car already lol. I remember last time my old car we took forever to find the source of the noise. In the end there was this gap between the spark plug and (insert) and we didn't know we needed to install metal discs in between until we read the manual. Last time the cars like that one," my dad continued.

So we arrived home. When my dad switched off the engine the sound was still there. "Hmm must be the alarm system short circuit already," my dad says. When we went inside the house we were like "wah even inside can hear man so noisy". Then we went upstairs to watch tv and we can still hear the sound very clearly. So my dad decided the disconnect the main battery of the car so when the backup battery for the alarm system runs out the sound will stop. And it did stop after all.

Suddenly, the sound came back on. This time, to add to the mystery, my dad went down to check and realised, its not coming from the car anymore! "Wah, it seems the neighbour's car also got the same problem ar, its not from the car!" my dad claimed. My mom could not believe it and she went to double check and also found out that it wasn't from the car anymore. And for some reason, the sound is even louder when heard from upstairs....

After going through all the trouble, we came to realise that the sound was actually.....a button stuck on my dad's phone >.< And he hung his pants in his room, so of course can hear in the house and it's louder upstairs la!

Pink Eye

Driving signals

If there's one thing Malaysians lack, its driving courtesy. I mean people here in the UK (and in Aussie too from my experience) almost never fail to stop and give way to other cars or for pedestrians to cross the road. Try crossing the road on a ZEBRA CROSSING in KL and see if the cars stop WITHOUT slamming the horns repeatedly. Hope you don't end up in the hospital.

Interestingly here in the UK, ppl actually flash their lights twice to tell the other car that "hey im slowing down for you so you can cut in front of me". And the other car would say "thank you" by either blinking their harzard lights twice or signal left and right in quick successions (since you can't flash the person behind you). This is stark contrast to our pathetic usage of the 'flash' back home where it means "piss off! you're driving too damn slow!" or "don't cut in front of me yet cause im gonna speed pass you".

I'm gonna try it out when i get back home. Although i'll be expecting more "what the fuck" than "thank you" signals.

Don't you just hate it when this happens?

The last day before leaving for the UK, it was noon and i was all excited and worked up about the trip. But anyways so i thought i would just laze around and tighten up some loose ends of my work when suddenly i was called upon to collect this urgent letter from the client. I look at my clock, its 3pm, and i need to leave the office at 4 to make it back on time with some time to spare before going to the office. One hour to get to sentral and back, seems pretty tight but i should be able to make it. So i packed up everything to be ready so when i get back i can leave right away.

But then theres this tiny little thing. My colleague suddenly said hey since you are going over why don't you pass him this letter? OK, why not. So off i go to sentral taking the monorail and all, and i was starting to rush cause i was trying to make it back on time. Was well on schedule when i arrived at the client's office and he gave me the urgent letter. So i was on my way out when i remembered i was supposed to pass him this other letter so i went back and gave it to him. And guess what, i PUT THE FREAKING URGENT LETTER ON THE TABLE and left it there. Reached back at office empty handed. Fcuk. Guess what time is it then. 4 pm. Double fcuk.

Dont you just hate it when this happens? Well, I do. Considering that if my colleague did not ask me to pass that not-so-urgent letter, i wouldnt forget the urgent one. Still, its totally my fault for being careless and easily distracted, i absolutely hate it.

Breaking

Why is everything breaking down??? I know its partly my fault but first the hard disk.....now i found out that the dvd burner is burnt. How ironic. And also my phone keeps going blank whenever i try to access my inbox or when Nick calls. Money money going down the drain........

Ugly phone in use now!!!

Erasers

08.08.08 : Olympics have finally begun!!! Watched the opening a few hours back, thought it was pretty good although a bit artsy fartsy with the history and stuff. I quite liked some of the performances in particular the chinese characters one (although i have no idea what characters they were), the idea of the footsteps forming the art piece, and skywalking to light up the torch. The fireworks were good but i was disappointed cause someone told me there was gonna be a dragon. There was no dragon!!!! (and probably never will be one sigh )

Actually the games itself don't excite me, except watching the US basketball team play. At least there's something to watch on the tele other than the Korean drama show thats on all the time (my parents love them). As a side note i was quite surprised at how many countries i could name by just looking at their flags thanks to the erasers me and my bro use to collect and play. Those were the days.....

Diablo III confirmed!!!

When this hell of a game (no puns intended) comes out, everyone please upgrade your comps as necessary so we can save mankind together. And after we do that, we save mankind again, and again, and again, till we have multiple heroes equipped with uber items and have mastered all the skills. And please don't play alone when we're not looking. I've given you a warning few years in advance. For now, we'll just have to settle Diablo 2 again (I've lost count to how many times ive played this darn game!)

Korea Trip

 

For those of you who didn't know, i embarked on a trip to Korea recently for 7 days 6 nights with my parents. It was a very good trip, as it was interesting to experience and witness the Korean culture; it was both unique and fascinating. So instead of boring everyone with a day-to-day journal which i always tend to do after every trip, i figured i would just list down a few things i found very unusual and interesting about Korea and Koreans. Pictures are up on facebook for those who want to see how Korea looks like (picture are supposed to tell a thousand words) or wait for me to tell the stories in person.

1. The common one: Koreans eat kimchi everyday, every meal. Its fermented vege and its apparently very very good for your health. I hate it, unfortunately. And apparently you are not meant to finish it, according to Lonely Planet, and they throw away whatever's left behind. And they refill them if you finish them.
2. Koreans almost eat steamboat everyday. The tour guide mentioned that in Korean cooking the sauce and materials are more important than how you cook it. And also they put "ningko" in it (huh???).
3. Koreans eat their meat wrapped in cabbage.
4. Korean ginseng is the best in the world.
5. Koreans eat larva stew.....yup and according the hex it tastes great too. I think i took a glimpse at a stall selling it and instantly grossed out (did i spell that right?)
6. OK enough of food. In Korea, usually only the men work and the women stay behind and do the housework and take care of children. Seems a little unfair right? But wait, there's a catch! Men bring home the money....and gives them straight to the wife! They control the money in the house (bank?)! And we actually saw ppl asking their wife for money to grab some food.
7. Speaking about money. Koreans, both genders, spend 70% of their money on their looks (clothes, shoes, hairgrooming, PLASTIC SURGERRY)
8. Speaking about plastic surgery, it seems about 70% of them do it. And parents give it to them as graduation gifts before starting working life
9. So its no wonder that there are pretty Koreans girls around. But they are really heavily covered with makeup and you never know who has done surgery. You are looked down upon if you can't do makeup. Interestingly, i didn't find any cute f4-like Korean guys (or maybe it just proves how straight i am.
10. The remaining money is probably spent on petrol. Apparently their petrol prices are really really high and their parking rate in Seoul can go up to rm90 per 30 min. That's insane!
11. Dont worry guys, in Jeju island its the other way round. Women do the working and the men stay at home! Paradise!
12. Koreans give out Krispy Kreme for free because its not too popular in Korea. They're too healthy and hate sugar!
13. Korea is known to be a high tech country and its obvious. You can only use 3g in Korea, and free internet is everywhere. They don't even use ADSL anymore, they use VDSL (apparently much faster).
14. However during my 7 days there i failed to find a proper electronic shop except SONY. (Btw Korea's two biggest companies are LG and Samsung)
15. Probably not too surprising, but Koreans go to sauna completely naked.
16. So its obvious they are not too shy about their wee-wee, so toilet doors when opened you can basically directly see the urinals and the cubicals etc (the whole of the toilet). And most public toilets are permanently open.
17. And their hotels only give out small towels. As big as hand towels. Don't even think of wrapping your body with it.
18. The Korean police around the blue house (Korea's white house!) wears sports attire and are on skates!
19. Koreans are really enthusiastic especially in doing their job. In Everland theme park, every employee wave their hands frantically while screaming ANYONG ANYONG!!! when they see anyone. Apparently supposed to be twinkling stars or sumthing.
20. A bit unrelated, but Park Ji Sung is flat footed. Which means its supposed to hurt real bad when you run. He even got exempted for national service because it is considered and handicap. If you live under a shell, he is currently playing for Manchester United and is famous for his tireless running. I have new found respect for him.

That's all i can think about for now. Sorry for the delay!

 

NBA Playoffs 2008

So the NBA Playoffs are back on again, and it really sucks not being able to catch most of it. Things are starting off quite predictably, with most top seeds going through to the next round. There a few slight surprises, most notably the Boston-Atlanta Series which saw the Hawks drag the Celtics into a game 7. When i watched the games that Atlanta won, they really looked like a decent team and i just hope they don't fall into the category of Golden State Warriors. I mean, they pull one of the biggest upsets last year, creating a huge hype of what they could be this year, and now they're having holidays. I like young, energetic, hardworking team but they always seem to get to the first round, and then flop out years after that (look at Chicago Bulls).

Spurs-Suns was another disappointment to me. I never doubted that the Spurs is such a good team, but I was hoping the Shaq trade wouldn't slow the Suns down. But he did. Hopefully we'll see them adjust next year with almost certainly a new coach. Mike d Antoni in Bulls or Knicks would be interesting though. They are a much younger group and will benefit from the former Suns style.

And last but not least, my Houston Rockets. I've been rooting for them for quite some while, but i never saw them going far in the playoffs this year. But, i really think that they have a good group of players now and i hope they can build on that with a healthy Yao Ming next year. And if next year they flop again, its time to let T-Mac go (considering it doesn't happen in the offseason).

Chris Paul is having a break out season, but i think it's going to be the Lakers and Celtics at the summit, with the Lakers coming out on top. They are a whole different team with Pao, which i rate as the best center in the league, and with Kobe around they'll be hard to top.

Anyways, enjoy some of these comics i found. Don't bother reading it if you don't watch basketball.

 

 

Kenny G

Well, all of us know that Kenny G is this famous saxophone artist who has been around for quite some and I'm sure you can recognize most of his songs and not know the titles (since well they dont have lyrics). And we also know that sax sounds can put people to sleep or strip their clothes (they use them in sex scenes don't they?) so obviously i wasn't too excited to hear that my dad got us tickets to watch him perform in Genting. I mean, sure he plays well and all, but it's no rock show.

However, I am surprised and glad that it didn't turn out to be a snooze outing. Far from it actually. This is a guy who made an entrance from the back and walked down the aisle while playing a song (imagine having the cheapest seat in the house but get to be right next to him) and then he set up a box in the middle of the crowd to stand on and finish his song. All this while our Yang Dipertuan Agong is having his mandatory first class seat at the front, facing the opposite direction. It just shows how much respect he has for his fans and how professional he is as both a musician and a performer. His performances were mesmerising throughout and he puts in a nice variety by letting his bandmates steal the show occasionally (he has the best percussionist ever) and he also showed off how long he can hold a note for (he holds the longest record in the world with 47 minutes). In case you havent already figured out, he does it by breathing in through his nose and out through his mouth through the saxophone.

I know you're trying as you read this and failing miserably =P. Oh, and he played "The Moon Represents my Heart" which is the familiar chinese song that goes "ni wen.....wo ai......ni you.......kuo shen........ "

Let There Be Light!

Last Thursday my company was nice enough to organize a trip to Lightcraft for some workshop about....well.... lights. Lightcraft is an established international lighting company that offers consultations about lighting as well as offering a wide variety of high end lamps. If you haven't heard of it, you're probably not rich enough to own any of their products. You'll be lucky to find any lamps that has fewer than three digits on the price tag (not including cents of course!) and that includes those small lamps you hang on the walls or table lamps used for reading. The first hanging lamp we saw as we walked into the store had the price of a Kancil (for those living under the shell, its freaking 32k!!!!!!). It wasn't even a chandelier kinda thing, just a somewhat large modern simple roundish ceiling lamp. We were allowed to test every single lamp in the 5 storey showroom, but we were extra careful not to break anything or we'll have to spend the rest of the year just to pay back the money!

 

But of course, for that kind of money, you are also getting premium lamps. The lady was explaining the difference between buying an expensive lamp and a cheaper one, which is the reflectors which help distribute the light. They demonstrated many types of lights and effects they produce which really was very helpful, and it really shows how much you need to plan in advance during the design stage of architecture if you want to dynamic lighting on the interior and exterior of the building.

Some of the more impressive lamps were the designer wares that were imported from Italy. They all had a very contemporary design and were pushing the limits of light technology. There was a lamp where you could change the color temperature on the go to suit the ambience, a lamp that was like a worm and could be rolled up into a ball, a lamp with a lightbulb not connected through wires, and a table lamp that was so powerful and flexible that it could be switch between a reading light or an uplighter by twisting its head. Some of them were even design by Herzog de Meuron (to non-archi ppl, its the architect who designed some of the impressive Beijing Olympic Stadiums) but they were surprisingly the less impressive one. They should stick to buildings.

Before dinner, they did a nice short powerpoint presentation which was mostly boring stuff about different type of lamps (incandescent, fluorescent, halogen etc. ) but what was interesting was later on when he shows pictures of good and bad lightning. The good lighting that were shown were some streetlights they did which were uplighters, but somehow they were able to illuminate the streets very well. Its hard to describe with words but they created were quite impressive effects. The bad one though, was the highlight of the show. They were pictures of the new Bangkok Airport with some expensive German lamps at the top which emphasized the architecture and structure of the roof very well. Problem was, the airport was for millions of humans to use and the poor humans were trapped in darkness. None of the light fell back down onto them. The funny part was, now they actually "fixed it" by putting reflective wings at the top which helped bring the light back on the ground. So now not only is the architecture not highlighted anymore, the shadows from these lamps created batman signals all over the ceiling and it was just horrendous to look at. So, lesson learnt.

 

All in all, it was a worthy trip (free) and it was both knowledgeable and enjoyable at the same time. I wish i could have snapped more pictures but my phone was running out of battery so i only took some that caught my eye. Enjoy!

New Winamp Player is Out!!!!

I would buy one of these if they came out....just for collection's sake.

Ups and Downs in Basketball

I just came back from my usual Monday night basketball, and today's games were giving me mixed feelings. Our team had a good run in the beginning, we won the first and lost by a point in the second. They were both very good games and i didn't mind losing the second one at all. But after waiting a while we had another game, this time versus a lesser team. At least i thought so. We should have been able to win the match, but we didn't. And it was frustrating, especially when we had the same team that was so wonderful before. So we lost in a matter of minutes and decided to call it a night. I was tired.

Up :
Driving down the baseline and scoring on an impossible angle layup against a center to heads taller than you.
Down :
Missing a wide open three pointer on the next posession.

Up :
Throwing a pin point pass to a cutting teammate along the baseline for an easy hoop.
Down :
Throwing the perfect lob to a running teammate on the fast break only to blunder a wide open layup.

Up :
On an opposing fastbreak, dashing back on defense and managed to stop a wide open layup even though he started running much earlier than you.
Down:
The most frustrating play(s) of the night. On an opposing fastbreak, dashing back on defense and managed to stop a wide open layup. Ball swings to the trailer on the wing and you manage to prevent and open layup too. A shadow runs behind you and you hope its your teammate after you manage to stall the offense for so long, but its not. An easy lob and an easy basket.

You know, it's acceptable when its 3 on 2 during a fastbreak and another defender running back to make it 3-3. Its ok if your opponent scores on you like that. At least your team is hustling back on D. But if its 2 on 1 and the next person running back is still not your teammate, you know things are fucked up. (Also the fact that it was on more than one play and the fast break wasn't really.......fast)

But recently i've been having good runs with good teams these past few weeks...so i guess its ok to have a shitty night once in a while. Last week i was in a team that was unbeaten the whole two hours....that was really special. Well, i'm looking forward to next week!

The Best Dessert Ever (Also Most Sinful)

Haha i've been talking about it to everyone cause its sooooooooooooooo good and equally sinful! What is it? Its a freaking DURIAN CHOCOLATE CAKE!!!!!!!!!! Recommended to everyone who loves durians or ppl who like it just a little (like me!). For those who are wondering the durian is REAL durian with flesh and all plus the chocolate is very dark and rich.....all yours for RM8.90 per piece. Its cupcake size but eat any more and it feels like your nose is gonna bleed. Make sure you go to gym first! I am estimating at least 1000 Calories in this one (not exaggerating!) Its from a place called Just Heavenly Pleasures at Bukit Damansara and there are many more that i am waiting to try including Death by Chocolate and Banana Cream Pie.............but must burn those calories from the previous indulgence first!

Pictures are from Lots of Cravings and you can read the review there and many other places as well. Pretty cool food blog introed by Jooyee.

Striking balance

So now that the blue moon has come and gone as Heng Lean found himself a job and is not laying at home doing nothing..... officially everyone here is a full-time worker (Jy was one at least).

You know, i used to say that working like is tough and that you have less free time yada yada no social life etc. but now that im into my second month, it doesnt seem too bad. Sure, there are times that you will struggle to keep up with time. Example: you go to work from 7am to 7pm and you come home to eat dinner and then you talk to your gf and then you go out with your friends for drinks and that sounds like you've done heaps in a day! BUT then how about the desk that you havent cleaned? How bout that book you aimed to finish in a month? How about fixing the software on your comp that has been bugging you? Not to mention after doing so much without rest during the day you end up bushed the morning despite getting the mandatory 8 hrs sleep?

In the end, you just adapt to it. I used to whine about how i wouldn't be able to keep up with my gaming needs but now id doesn't seem like a priority now. I'd much prefer to see my friends with the little free time i have to just have some kind of social life even though its just sitting and talking for an hour. Now i understand why my cousin can buy a PSP and not use it and borrowed it to me unconditionally. Where is it now? In my drawer.

In the end, it's about striking a balance, between your social life, alone time, work, hobbies, girlfriend.......and eventually you'll adapt to a routine to suit your needs. Just make sure you enjoy your life everyday =)

Joining the workforce

So im back in the office. Woo hoo. Things didn't start off so well, there weren't many jobs assigned to me, mostly very small stuff that's very uninspiring and uninteresting. Other than that, it's trying to look busy while doing nothing at all. How fun. Thankfully things are starting to pick up a bit, got a hang of Microstation which is the program that they are fond off, did some quick photoshopping and designing and doing some overtime and meeting deadlines.... finally feeling like im officially joining the workforce.

The atmosphere in the office this time is pretty good. The average age group has dropped quite significantly since the last time, so mixing around is pretty easy. There are a few ppl who are actually one year younger than me in the team who are technical officers and a few architecture newbies like me who just came in. The technical ppl are a bit hard to mix since they are very chinese speaking, but they are friendly nonetheless. The seniors that were around the last time were mostly still sticking around, and the annoying one is gone. So all is going well, other than the fact that i worked this Saturday but am getting paid no OT.

Cloverfield joins Top Movies List

By now most of you have already watched Cloverfield, and half you liked it and the rest didn't. This is the first movie i have seen people walking out of the cinema just half an hour into the movie. I even heard from HeXiang that her friend puked after watching it. I did, however had a great time watching this unique film, and has officially become my Best Monster Movie of all time, overtaking the likes of Godzilla, King Kong and Jurassic Park (and many others).

For those living under a shell, Cloverfield is a movie about a monster attacking New York. Its as simple as that. Not much explanation was given as to how the monster came about or whether it was killed at the end. It is, however, filmed from the perspective of regular citizens, not heroes who were trying to save the world. It was what made the movie feel so fresh, and it does make a good job making you believe that you could be the one experiencing all this nightmare and running around the city for your lives while getting chased by some giant ass monsters. I found that this made the movie is more like a ride rather than a film, but it was not a bad thing as it was a very enjoyable one.

Unfortunately, many people could not enjoy the film as much as i did and i perfectly understand why. The camera is very shaky (imagine yourself holding a camera and running your ass off) so it can easily cause dizziness especially people who are sitting towards the front. Its like motion sickness, some people get it some people don't. Another common complaint is a lack of a proper ending but i have to disagree with this. It is a very suiting ending to this kind of film. We are not watching a chick flick where its perfectly predictable and there is always a happy ending.

In conclusion, i highly recommend this to any movie lovers who are open-minded and ready to try something new. There is a chance that it may not be your type of flick, but if it is you will be highly rewarded. 9/10 from me.

Top Movies List:

Best Movie: The Matrix
I remember going to this movie initially to watch all the cool fighting scenes but was surprised to discover a deep and interesting plot that tied the whole movie together. And bullet time was awesome back then. Too bad the sequels were watchable at best.

Best Trilogy: Lord Of The Rings
There is no argument here. Lets move on.

Best Sci-fi Flick: Star Wars Episode 3
Could have dethroned LOTR if it wasn't for Episode 1 & 2. The third installment was basically a Star Wars' fan's wet dream. Features the best lightsabre battles to date.

Best Horror Movie: Sixth Sense
Sorry havent watched that many in this genre but this is the best so far. Had a good story and had a few good frights. Very original at that time.

Best Monster Movie: Cloverfield
Read above.

Best 3d Animation: Ratatouiie
All Pixar movies derserve a nomination except Cars. This was the latest and i think its their best so far.

Best 2d Animation: Lilo & Stitch
Very cute and enjoyable. Why don't they make any of these anymore? 2d art is underappreciated. (I heard Pixar's next film is 2d though so i'm keeping my fingers crossed)

Best Romantic Film: Love Actually, A Walk To Remember
Hard to decide because Love Actually was a light comedy and AWTR was pure romance. I loved most of Love Actually's minis-tories except a few, but very enjoyable overall. AWTR was a surprisingly good performance from Mandy Moore and was very touching and sweet.

Best Comedy: Knocked Up, Wedding Crashers, Shrek 2
Too tough to call considering i watch too many of these, plus we get more jokes as we grow older. These are the recent few on the top of my head that i have personally enjoyed.

Best Chick Flick: 10 Things I Hate About You
My first chick flick turned out to be the best so far. Featured great acting (Heath Ledger, Julia Stiles) and a decent plot and most importantly, a very feel good story.

Best Drama: Forrest Gump
Great story about life and Tom Hanks is excellent. Instant classic.

Best Action: Kill Bill Vol. 1
Very cheesey at times but i enjoyed the art and mindless chopping. (Not to mention showers of blood) Honorable mentions include Die Hard 4 and the Bourne Trilogy.

Best Musical: Grease
King of the cheese. But for some reason the songs are stuck in my head. Hairspray is very good too. I like my musicals to be brainless and cheerful.

Phew, got carried away and the list got longer and longer.

Watching Friends on DVD

After all these years i still think that Friends is one of the most addictive and fun comedy around. Maybe because i grew up with it and can connect to each of the characters so well after watching them for so long. Its amazing when you see the consistency in their characters even after 10 seasons; it almost seems like they already grew into those characters. I remember David Schwimmer once saying that he wants ppl to stop calling him "Ross" but i dont think we can help it. If (very big if) I were to bump into any of the stars the first thing that will pop into my mind is their Friends character. I think even they themselves can get out of it when they act in other roles. Just look at the millions of movies that Jennifer Aniston has acted in and she is basically "Rachel" in every single one of them.

As a side note, i have discovered how to burn videos onto DVDs that can be watched on DVD players. I always thought that i could use Nero to burn these easily and never actually tried but i was wrong. It more complicated than that, you have to first encode the video files into a compatible format and then use another program that allows you to burn these type of files onto DVDs. Thankfully i googled around and discovered DVD Flick which is a freeware that easily does all these for you. Why do i even bother? Despite having a nice 19" widescreen LCD on my comp, theres nothing like kicking back on the couch and watching your favourite shows on a HDTV.

On the down side, a video DVD only holds 120 minutes, whereas a data DVD can store a whole season of shows. It also takes a whole hour to burn one of these babies and they chew up your CPU pretty bad so you are only limited to light activities on your computer.

PC gaming is impossible

I dont know whether the person who assembled the computer (one year old) conned my dad or not, but it really isn't up to my standards. I mean, heck, its even more lousy than the computer i bought three years ago in Melbourne. All the parts in the computer are like the cheapest available and i believe my dad had to pay premium price for it (lucky its company money) Its got the cheapest keyboard on the market, the slowest RAM, intergrated sound and graphics card and USB sockets in the front that doesnt even work. Dont be mistaken, I am very grateful to have a new computer but I would've hoped that my father consulted me before getting the computer because its almost like im changing every part inside of itwhereas it would be much cheaper if it was all in the new computer to start with. The more parts i add in the more harder it is for me to request a newer computer when this one gets outdated, which could be really soon.

Since last year, I've added a graphics card, 1gb of RAM, a new power supply unit, a DVD drive (old one broke) and a new cooling system. The only thing i havent touched is the motherboard and decent hard disk to keep up with current standards.

Having said that, even with all those i can't even run a 2 years++ game on this rig. Im sure it has something to do with the fact that the processor is not dual core, the RAM is still slow and not the highest end graphics card, but with all those money spent i expect to at least run an outdated game well. PC gaming really is impossible these days. Kinda sad really because i really want to experience next-gen games and i dont think my dad will ever approve me of getting a PS3 or xbox360. I probably could buy one with my gaji from the next few months, but i think i better save. Better not let greed take over. My cousin also promised to lend me his PSP for a while so i have more than enough gaming on my hands. Still, its not next-gen but i'll live with that for a while.

Tassie

Its a bit late now to blog about my trips and i might forgotten some things i wanted to say about the place but ill try my best to recall my goldfish memory. For those who didn't know my parents came over for half a month to attend my graduation while having an extended holiday. We decided to spend a few days in Hobart and a day tour through the Great Ocean Road and as usual, produced a wealth of pictures of the beautiful sceneries.

Hobart

Upon arriving in Hobart the first thing that strikes your mind is how beautiful the island is. Its really a very nice sight and very contrasting to the city life in Melbourne, it was very quiet and full of scenery and there is water everywhere. The first thing the cab driver told us was that Hobart is a city of fishes and if you don't like fish, you're at the wrong place. Thankfully im alright with fish, but we would end up eating fish every single day.....mostly at the same place too. But we didn't mind that much, that had a good enough variety of cooking style to keep things fresh for the few days that we were there; i ate lots of salmon, a blue-eyed trevalla, some prawns and a little lobster. They were very fresh but it was still pricey for a place where there's plenty of fish....roughly the same prize you would get them in Melbourne. I guess we were hanging out at a tourist place and as usual they will milk every penny out of you. It was not like we had a choice though, as the city is dead after 5 (literally).


Ahhh... The harbour....source of our very fresh fish

Apart from the usual scenery, there was a few interesting places that stood out during our trip. First was Mount Wellington, which provided a summit view of Hobart. It was pretty high up (cant remember exactly how much) that there was no greenery around, just rocks! But what made it memorable for us (for better or worse) was actually how windy it was out there! We could barely walk straight or stand still for pictures! Just look for yourselves.



Thankfully we didn't get blown away. I even needed my glasses to protect my eyes!

The Wildlife Park (cant remember the name...) was also quite fun surprisingly considering that ive seen koalas and kangaroos many times in my life. For the first time we really got to interact with the animals and even feed the kangaroos. Plus, we got to see the infamous Tasmanian Devil (disappointed that it doesnt spin though).


The cute little creatures were the star of the day

Next up was Bruny Island, which was both exciting and disappointing. We were supposed to go on a cruise to see the landscape of the prehistoric island and to spot some seals, dolphins and whales. What surprised us was the the cruise was actually on a speed boat! Travelling at 25 knots!!! It was cool alright, but it was freezing cold out there! I got seasick too but not as bad as my mom, she threw up into the ocean. Too bad we didn't get to see much for most of the trip, as the whales and dolphins season were over. What a shame. At least we got a great tour guide on the cruise.... he makes the lamest joke, LOL! (rival to Kafaii)


Left: Very dodgy tour guide Right: The most beautiful scenery ever....my DD

Every Saturday in Hobart they hold this umm Salamanca Market they call it. Basically its a huge pasar malam only that its during the day. Makes sense? They sold all kinds of stuff ranging from handicrafts and souvenirs to toys and....lotsa other stuff. I mainly went for the food though; had some german sausages, scallop pie, corn dogs (first time!) but I also managed to grab a sick wooden rubber band gun. But its really dangerous i accidentally shot deedoo with it (SORRY SORRY SORRY DEAR DEAR!!!!). I also shot Jack, but that was no accident =P


Salamanca!!! Got a nice ring to it

So yeah that kinda wraps up our Tassie trip. Oh and yeah before i forget, they make fantastic fudge over there. Yumm Yumm FATNESS!!!!