July 2006

Pretty much spent the weekend recovering from flu. Started out about 2 hours into the gang’s gaming session on Friday night with a terrible sore throat after drinking 2 Cokes at McDs. The pain only occurs when I swallow, and it was really sharp, and only on the right side. :O

The night did not come easy. Every swallow kept me awake, and drifting in and out of sleep I was till 6am, when I had to get up to catch a bus to Bangi. Being almost sick, I was hoping that a fever would break out so that I didn’t have to attend this event, but it didn’t.

So off I went. I decided to drive there instead, since my wish might come late and force me to retire early. Our business division’s Technical Day was being held that Saturday morning. It’s basically sports day, but with events disguised as technical sports. Only one rang true to its name, which was ‘Get Online’, but the rest were pretty much the usual fun stuff. 🙂

During this time, my nose started leaking. It didn’t leak much, but due to the lack of available tissue paper, I had to sacrifice my red Nike shirt to stifle it. It would’ve looked weird with me carrying an extra red shirt around, but fortunately our House color was red, and it looked more ‘patriotic’ than odd. I took part in the water event, and the aching calves I got after the relay race didn’t help my condition at all.

The whole thing finished at around 4.30pm, our House had won and we’d just finished raping the hampers for our share of the spoils of war. I quickly drove back home for a quick rest before having to leave the house again that night.

It was a wedding that my mom refuses to skip. The groom’s mom was a high school classmate, and there she’ll meet many others whom she haven’t met in a long time. The venue was at Felda’s Dewan Perdana, pretty deep in KL but not hard to get to. It was fun seeing the ladies catch up. One of them even brought some black and white photos to share with the rest. Now I’ve got one of my mom dressed up as a cop in a costume party. Cute 🙂 While they were having fun I would’ve died of boredom, but fortunately one of them brought a daughter whom I had a good time talking to. Too bad she’s engaged tho.

The whole thing left me going through 18 pieces of tissue. I’ve also started sneezing sneezes that somehow want to pull something out of my lungs. Needless to say, I was out for the count the following day, staying in bed and having porridge meals. Was supposed to go to Masjid India to get stuff for the Singapore folk too, but it couldn’t happen with my condition. The flu and the sports event have left me aching all over, and I found it hard to walk properly. I definitely need to visit the condo pool more often.

And today comes Monday, and I was planning to take the day off when my boss reminds me that I need to set my Technical & Functional competencies for the next performance year. Bleh. It was he who told me to wait for the bigger boss’ email, which only got mailed out Friday night. Note to self: don’t always listen to the boss. 😛

you know those credit card signature slips that have the TIP and TOTAL lines blank? i always assumed that if i write in an amount, it’ll get charged.

but apparently not so. logically, how will they bill me the extra when they’ve already returned my credit card?

so i was with my mom at la bodega last night when i did that. she had a laughing fit in the car on the way home. 😛

well, at least it was good to see her laugh like that after such a long time.

so i’m back with my xchat client, downloading volumes of manga that i’ve missed for the past few months. 3 vols of Bleach, 2 vols of Air Gear, and a few others i have queued for viewing tonight. i just lup my download server. think i’ll give it more RAM as a present.

back at work this week. but not really. have to facilitate some discussion in UNITEN. so the real work is still pending.

i’ve added photos of the bon-odori to the gallery. check them out via the corresponding bon-odori post. i know i owe you guys more photos for some of the previous posts.. might just upload them later, since my upload plugins seem to work now. [edit: uploaded to this entry] 🙂

it’s been a few days since i picked up my oakleys from Reliance. been having a distorted view, and since then i’ve been making a few trips back there just to see if there’s anything that can be done. on my last trip, one of the girls said that it was due to a change from a straight frame to a curved one, and that many others have experienced it as well. she then did a little straightening to ease the transition, but i feel it’ll take a long while more before i can get used to this. my depth perception is all whacked, and i find myself almost missing steps and tripping over things.

still, it seems to be improving.

the colleague whom i sold the phone to seems to have some complaints about it. bleh.

just got back from the KL bon-odori festival. it wasn’t quite as i expected.

i was thinking more of slow walks through streets of stalls with food and games to play. then fireworks and all that.

in this event, we had the food stalls. no games. next to them was a stadium field with a raised platform in the middle. we (myself, my colleague Mai, her friend Ain and her sis Muni) were there quite early, so there wasn’t much happening and i thought it wouldn’t be exciting. boy, was i wrong. the crowd hasn’t thickened yet, so we just got ourselves some seats at the stadium’s grandstand and waited. from 5pm to 7pm.

still, while we waited, it was nice to look at the crowd starting to pour in. there were girls in yukatas, girls in goth, girls in pyjamas and pacifiers. it was quite interesting. 😛

when the event actually started, they nicely kept the speeches short and went straight on to the bon-odori dance! basically, on the platforms the drummers will play a beat, accompanied by music from the PA system, with a ring of ‘dancers’ around them. beyond the platform, visitors are also encouraged to form circles around the platform and follow the dancers’ steps as they moved along.

the first round showed that many were still shy, and it took a while to get everyone into the groove of things. i myself had to wait for people to join Mai before i got into the mood. but once it started, it felt exhilirating. the steps in the dances were also very cute, and you can’t help being amused by the throngs of people dancing to them.

the bon-odori performance was repeated 3 times this evening. each performance contained the same 4 songs, each with their different rhythms and steps. each song was repeated twice. my gang and i went down for all performances, and we pretty much memorized the moves at the last one.

in between performances, guest dancers did their thing: the first time was a cultural japanese dance, and the second was a local group dancing our tradisional malay dance to some song about selangor. needless to say, we skipped the second.

at the end of everything, everyone was sweaty and exhausted. the crowd then joined the huge queue of cars trying to leave the area. i’d say everyone was eager to get home, since we saw two pileups along the federal highway involving the patrons (we could tell from the yukatas). the festival was held in shah alam, by the way.

next year, i’ll be more prepared. maybe even rent a yukata. 🙂

i wanna go download:-

FuhQuake, Quakeworld client – relive the ol’ Quaking days with this free quake client. I assume it includes the engine itself to enable a plethora of Quake mod remakes. Works on Windows XP too. 🙂

here, i was going to mention Ur-Quan Masters as well, but they’ve yet to develop network play for the SuperMelee mode. shucks. and there are rumors of a new StarCon sequel too – make it happen by signing a petition.

anyway, last night the gang caught Dead Man’s Chest on screen last night. it was a blast! not as good the original, but it was riveting enough and it had it’s many moments. can’t wait for the sequel. 😉

the old man and the little sis takes the honda to Batu Laut (near Morib) to pick up a Laser-class dinghy/boat/yacht. they’re able to do so thanks to the roof racks on the car. the car starts overheating on the way to Port Klang, which when recounted back to me seemed usual, altho this time it seemed more accelerated and frequent. and i’d just refilled the water quite recently.

then, adding to that a sound is produced. a constant bumping sound. i think it was at this point that my dad, being an automotive engineer, suspects that the gasket is gone. they try driving with the radiator cap off to relieve pressure, but it didn’t do much good.

as they pass by Klang town to return home, the car is unable to maintain power.. and slowly stops to a halt at the top of a 2-lane flyover. he didn’t even bother restarting the car since he knew what the problem is and started sourcing for a tow truck. then some guys came by and tried to fix the problem, but all they ended up with is a radiator fountain.

anyway, they used an old main sheet (a particularly large rope used while sailing) to get the car towed to a workshop in Klang. looks like the car will stay there for 10 days or so while the engine gets overhauled and all that. think my dad wants to sell the car too.

at least i still have my sister’s Kelisa.

thing is, the last time i refilled the water while the engine was on, the radiator seemed to reject the water i was giving it. that might’ve been an early sign. but i wouldn’t have known anyways. perhaps i won’t be doing a transplant after all.

anyway, just read an article on IT Screen Goddesses. no… it just doesn’t work.

last weekend i sooooo wanted to stay home and not do anything and indirectly save me some money. but it was not to be.

friday it was. my dear colleague S loses her ciplak Samsung phone. she asks me whether i’ll sell mine. after some haggling, she accepted it for rm400. but i’d need a new phone to replace mine. so what else can be just as functional but affordable as a nokia 6230i?

so that was the plan. i’d have enlisted Merv’s help to pick one up for me when he goes to town like he usually does.

but no. lil bro breaks his rimless glasses for a second time this month. the first time it was a shuttle cock smash, and this time it was a soccer ball.

saturday comes. i’m supposed to take him to the optician to get another pair of glasses. thought i’d just go there, get him hooked up with the cheapest frames and lenses available (which i did). instead, we were there for about two hours, trying to cater to his ‘fashion sense’. and while that happened, i picked up a pair for myself as well.

dark bronze thread 2.0 oakley frames with RX lenses. rm980. 😛

then damdam calls, says he lost his phone in a ‘post-drinking accident’. so we both went out to town to scout for phones. to summarise things, i think decisions are harder to make as you grow older. 😛 not referring to myself of course.

new nokia 6230i. yay. and some coolermaster chipset coolers.

and that was saturday, marking the end of the splurge-fest brunt. on sunday, went out with my mom for lunch and grocery shopping, and then a wedding in the evening. it was Bedah’s wedding, a friend from SKBD and SMBB. it was my mom who was invited, and i just tagged along, so needless to say a lot of people were surprised to see me there. 😀 well, she asked the bunch of us to stay for pictures, but it was late and we couldn’t stay. there were a lot of people i haven’t met for a while too: Geok Lii, Izad, Norida, Maya, Sue, Leslie, Fairuz, Gerald. and some seniors whom i recognised but didn’t bother talking to. very nostalgic. 🙂

so the wedding card cost me a bit. and that marks the end of the weekend.

today, i’m in town for more SAP training. hopefully i won’t be bothered by the office much.

don’t know what to rant about besides the usual work gripe. my life’s been pretty messy these days. i haven’t cleaned out the computer parts from the previous mobo switch. my desks are a mess. i’ve misplaced my 1G thumb drive.

work provides no sanctuary. so many concurrent tasks that sometimes i’m at a loss as to which one to do first.

maybe i should make use of that pool table after all.

at least, i’m covered in the entertainment sector. watched Ong Bak, Infernal Affairs 3, The Usual Suspects, Avalon, Failed to Launch. using Media Portal as my main media player now, and it’s working very well with my cordless mouse. except for dvd playback. will definitely need to get one MCE remote from oz. started playing WoW again, with all my graphics settings at maximum. 😀 some instability problems with BF2 tho, but i’ll figure it out.

anyways, the artifacting problem is actually attributed to the Intel 865PE northbridge not being able to compensate the different speeds at work when the computer is overclocked. so i actually got the same problems with this current motherboard at the same overclocked speed. but fortunately, someone on the net pointed out a very old and long thread about it, and i managed to fix it using a little utility that tweaks the DRAM Latency Timer on the chipset.

so i think i might actually have a lot of spare computer parts lying around. thankfully, the market for AGP-based products are still in demand on lowyat.net.

perhaps it would’ve been better to make the jump to pci-express after all.

picked up a 2nd hand ASUS P4P800 today. works splendidly at default speeds. no artifacts too. 🙂 so that leaves me with a working spare 9800 pro. was thinking of passing it to fish… then maybe get him to try a flash to make it a 9800 xt. it does have an rv360 core, which means it can do much better. memory speed will be a limiting factor though.

so tomorrow it’s back to benchmarking and overclocking. 🙂 and it’s also nice to see CPU temperatures below 45 C instead of the usual 60+. maybe the dunking of the heatsink in some water really did the trick.