G Rock Radio!!

Lately I've been getting my rock music fix by listening to this Internet radio station. Apparently this station is a real station somewhere in New Jersey. Check out http://www.grockradio.com

Wonderful rock music and great DJs! If I'm living somewhere in New Jersey, I'd definitely be going to this Kringle Rock concert they've been advertising lately. C'mon, it's Staind performing LIVE!!

About the only other radio station I listen to these days is FlyFM. The music selection is far superior compared to Hitz and Mix by Astro. Too bad FlyFM broadcast reception is not as good as Hitz and Mix. I get 'blurry' sound sometimes from FlyFM. Maybe it's just the area I'm listening in. Still, the music selection makes tuning in to FlyFM worthwhile! Tune in to 95.8 fm. =)

The Shadow of the Wind

One the habits I have while travelling is stopping at a bookshop in the airport. I find reading to be one of the best ways to spend time while being stuck for hours in a bloody tin-can 30,000 feet up in the air.

I've recently had the fortune to purchase a rather remarkable book titled "The Shadow of the Wind" written by a Spanish author Carlos Ruiz Zafon. The book is about the life of a boy who acquired an obscure book which somehow attracts a lot of attention from other people. While the premise does not seem much, I assure you that the book oozes literary style. Zafon writes with compelling wit and charm. With a masterful style, he brings all the characters in the book to life. I felt I was really walking on the streets of Barcelona during the period after the second world war. The feeling was simply...for the lack of better word, magical. Perhaps I'm being a little melodramatic but I find it rather difficult to find of book of such quality in recent times. Then again, maybe I'm such a book lover! Still, whether it's political intrigue, drama, murder most foul and even romance, you will find it in this book.

No, I haven't finished reading this book but after the first 200 out of 506 pages, I seriously doubt I'm going to be disappointed with it. I know, it's taking me longer than usual for me to finish this book but sometimes, you find books that should be enjoyed like wine, sipped slowly, rather than taking it like vodka shots. Hmm...bad analogy but oh well...

Cheers!

Edit: I've now finished reading the book and I have to say that the conclusion of the book was not a disappointment at all. This book is highly recommended for anyone looking to enjoy a literary adventure!

Back for a bit

Ah...home sweet home! I got touched down in Malaysia on Sunday and man, I'm sure glad to be back! Philippines is a rather nice place but there's no place like home. Besides, Filipinos don't really eat vegetables and they're favorite meat is pork. Kinda hard for me to enjoy my meals there!

Filipinos are rather friendly people but like every bloody ASEAN country, whites get preferential treatmet and better service. Sigh...still in the colonial mindset, I guess. Malaysia's also not immune to this syndrome. I've got nothing against whites. I just would like to receive the same type of service. I pay equal amount of money, I should deserve the same service, right?

Anyway, I think I watched more tv during my stay in Philippines than I did in Malaysia for the past 1 year. Heh, after work I don't really have much to do. Since it's holy month, I didn't go partying at all. Watched a few movies though. I personally think that the cineplex I went to is superior than the one in GSC 1 Utama. It had excellent seats and amazing sound system!

Sad to say, due to work commitments I didn't really manage to visit the countryside. My days were spent in a concrete jungle! On the bright side, with all the fasting and INSANELY bad food in Philippines, I came back home thinner! YES!! Heh heh!

I'll be heading to Ireland after this for some training. Since it's not a holy month, I chose a hotel that's in the center of Dublin. It's well within walking distance to many bars and pubs. =)

Overseas

Yay! I've finally got the green light to head out to Manila. My flight will be tomorrow morning. Heh, I'm rather excited. This is my first official working trip overseas! I'm framing my boarding pass stub.

I won't be in Malaysia for about a month. I'll be back for about 2 days for Aidilfitri but after that I'll be flying straight to Ireland. I should be back in Malaysia 20th November onwards.

Sigh...I'm gonna miss all the Aidilfitri open houses. Still, I heard Irish pubs are pretty decent! Heh heh!

Heaven

Been listening to a lot of music lately, particularly of the alternative genre. Stereophonics, Spoon and Ivy are kinda nice! I'm also rediscovering Garbage.

Y'know, heaven could just be sitting on a comfortable chair, with eyes closed and listening to REALLY excellent music. Cheers! =)

Sigh...

Life is weird. These days I'm actually doing my prayers more regularly. On the other hand, I'm also getting drunk more often!

Been feeling kinda down lately. I'd like to attribute my feelings to the lack of a divine being guiding the universe. The sad fact is that I honestly believe in God. I just think he's a bastard. Do you know how surreal it is to finish praying, then during the doa part say "fuck you" to God?

Preparation is very important!

Let's see...within 12 hours before the first day of fasting month, I've consumed:

1/2 a tin of Pringles (The tall one)
2 mug of Choc-O-Cino (Some VERY rich chocolate drink)
1 plate of rice, chicken with dried chillies, baby kailan in oyster sauce and fried japanese tofu (Lunch)
2 bars of mini Krispy (Chocolate with some rice cereal filling.)
1 bar of some unknown chocolate (Had a pink wrapper.)
2 plates of rice, mango chicken and kangkung belacan (Dinner. Each dish was supposed to be shared between 2 to 3 people but I just finished gym and was famished.)

I guess I'm fully prepared for fasting. =)

Argh and yay!

Argh!! I just spent RM 150 on taxi fares for 3 1-way trips to and from office!

Sigh...coming back from the company team-building event, I actually left my car keys in Bukit Tinggi. I only realised I left it there when the bus stopped at the main gate of Ericsson. Obviously by that time is WAY to late to ask the bus to turn around! To keep the story short, I managed to contact the event organiser and she got the hotel to send my car key to their KL office. To get back home from Cyberjaya, I took a cab. RM 50 gone.

2 days later (didn't go to office the previous day since I got night work at that time), feeling rather happy with my spare car key, I took a cab to work. Another RM 50 gone, but it should be the last! Besides, at least I'm not the sucker driving in the bloody jam on LDP! =)

Come lunch time, I wanted to eat out so I went looking for my car. I even offered to be the driver for 2 of my colleagues. Found the car, unlocked it then sat on the driver's seat. My colleagues were also already seated and buckled up. Then I noticed my steering lock. I looked at my spare key. No steering lock key included in the key chain. Then I remembered. Both steering lock keys are attached with the key I left at Bukit Tinggi. Crap...Suffice to say that my colleagues were laughing like mad at this stage. I'll probably never hear the end of it. I was laughing too, and banging my head against the steerig wheel. Heh! So, I went to lunch on my colleagues car, and spent another RM 50 to go back home later that day. Sigh...

On the bright side, I've got a project in Phillipines! The project should last 1 or 2 weeks. Yay!! I'm now in demand in the South East Asia region! I'll be framing the ticket since that's the first ticket overseas for me that involves work. =D

I'm scheduled to start my work there on 17th October 2005. After spending 1 or 2 weeks there, I'll fly back to Malaysia for Aidilfitri. Then on the second day of Aidilfitri I'll be flying off to Dublin, Ireland for training. Scheduling is a bit tight but it should be fun! I'm gonna miss all the open houses though. Ah well...

Team-Building!

I just got back from my company's team-building event and I have to say that it's actually rather good. It was fun interacting with my colleagues in a non-office manner and I have to admit that it did a good job in diverting my attention towards something more positive. Life still sucks but I feel it's a bit more manageable now. The sad fact is that now I have more names to remember. Heh! I'll manage, I guess.

On a totally unrelated news, James Blunt's album "Back to Bedlam" is actually quite nice. The current hit song from him is "You're Beautiful" but the rest are just as good I think. His style is rather relaxing and his voice can really express the emotion of the song very well. Check out "High" and "Tears and Rain". Cheers!

Things I realized after joining the gym

1. Stretching/warm-up is EXTREMELY important. Skip this part and don't expect your body to function the next day.
2. If you haven't exercised much previously (guilty as charged!), don't be a superhero and push yourself too much. Do this and don't expect your body to function the next day.
3. While jogging, concentrate on your running and not the chick's butt in front of you. Staring too much on butts will just tire yourself faster! Hahahaha!
4. Chicks who wear makeups to gym are not going there for exercise. Well...maybe exercising their eyes! =P
5. Chicks who go to gym with tight clothes play a very vital role in a gym. They motivate guys to go to gyms more often! =P
6. Guys who over-exercise their chests muscles are freaky. They got bigger ones than chicks!! Whoa...
7. The most popular sitting area is the one facing the classes section. The class will have a glass wall. When it's aerobics class, you'll get a huge crowd of guys 'resting' there. Heh!
8. Finally, you know you've got a good workout when your biggest accomplishment after it is shampooing your hair during shower. If you can do it easilly, you're not exercising enough! =)

Video Gateways

Woohoo!! I've got a new responsibility! I'm now in the process of being trained up to be a Video Gateway expert! To date, I'm responsible for Gateway GPRS Support Node (GGSN), Serving GPRS Support Node (SGSN) and now Video Gateway (ViG). I'm also responsible for other stuff such as Netscreen firewalls but these are not considered a major part my responsibility since they're 3rd party products.

Maybe it's just me being such a geek and all but I find working with all these technology to be really fun! The 3 areas I'm responsible for are all core network solutions. They are the area in the network where traffic HAS to flow to provide service to the customers. Essentially, no core network = no service!

Video Gateway is an interesting solution in which they provide a way for customers to access video content such as video streaming and video calls without going through an IP network. In general, when you talk about streaming via the Internet, you receive your streamed content using the TCP/IP protocol stack. For mobile users, this requires you to be attached to a GPRS network to enable you to receive IP content. With the ViG solution, the IP content is translated into a diferent protocol, which will then be used to carry the content to your phone. Instead of using your IP to determine the destination, it uses your phone number. This means that even without GPRS, you can still receive video content. Cool, ain't it? =P

Should any of you be interested, please drop me a message and I'll put you in contact with the sales team, who can probably explain all this to you better, with nice presentation slides and all! Heh!

Traffic strangeness...

This past one week, there seems to be this very odd traffic jam on the way back from Cyberjaya. Most times, it takes me 40 to 50 minutes to drive back from work. This past week though, the time has increased and takes me 60 to 75 minutes! Heh, I have to say that my vocabulary during the drive back is definitely NOT meant for civilized ears! =)

Apparently, the reason for this abnormal traffic behaviour is due to an albino King Cobra which found its way into a Hindu temple and has managed to wrapped itself around a statue of one of the deities. This is seen as a good omen to believers and from reports I've heard, for the first 3 days of this occurence a total of 30,000 people went to visit the temple. Which of course, explains the weird traffic jams along the stretch where none exists perviously. Just my luck to take this road, I guess...

Merdeka!!

Yay!! Independence day!! Ok ok, so I'm a little late in posting this but I guess I was celebrating to much on the eve itself!

For those who are completely clueless, every year Malaysia celebrates its Independence Day on 31st August. This year me and a bunch of my friends celebrated Independence Day in Bar Karma in Hartamas. It was quite fun! It's been a while since we all met up, with us working and stuff. Getting together is insanely difficult lately. Still, it was fun to catch up with the same bunch of suckers who skipped class with me in college. Man! Looking at how we behave in college, it's hard to believe we're now actually respectable professionals!

Let's see, Anand's a consultant (emphasis on the word 'con'!!), Mus is an engineer (whether he's a systems engineer or a network engineer depends on what time you call him), Shah's in management (we all bow down to him but the bastard still hasn't treated us to lunch. Bitch! =P), Jeremy's also another engineer (doing a lot of support work for some pretty nifty security products!) and Niradj is the resident Oracle expert (still no lunch from this guy too!). It's amazing when you consider that each of this suckers I mention are the same jokers who played Dungeon Siege (Niradj the champion with 24 hours of playing continuously...or was it 30?), Counter Strike (Jeremy's deadly with the assault rifles!), C&C Renegade (Shah whooped our arses and it was him vs 3 of us), Ghost Recon (Mus kept killing the bloody hostage!) and Alien vs Predator (I was deadly as the alien! =P). All this cybercafe sessions were obviously done during time when we're supposed to be in class. Heh heh!

I guess books can never be judged by its cover. =)

Fitness First

I've always known that my fitness level is bad. ICT industry doesn't really require a very high level of fitness. Coupled with a sedentary lifestyle that revolves around computer games and diet that consists of a significant portion of junk food, my fitness level isn't amazing. Still, I figured as long as I'm not suffering from any illness, it should be fine.

Then I had my first shock. During a medical checkup, the doctor said I had high blood pressure. Man, was I shocked!! While it turned out to be caused by lack of sleep (was working day and night those 2 weeks), I figured a healthy body should be able to handle such things without reporting high-blood pressure.

My second shock happened when another doctor told me my pulse rate is a bit high during rest. While she said it's not dangerous, it shows that my fitness level is WAY below average and this shouldn't be happening to someone in my age group.

The last straw came when I'm shopping for new pants and my waist measurement is beginning to match my dad's! Heh, sorry dad! I love you but some parts of you, I don't think I want to emulate! =P

When I heard Fitness First was having a Merdeka promotion in which they waived the joining fee (and saving me RM 500), I woke up while it's still daylight on a holiday (*gasp*) and signed up for a Fitness First passport package. 6 months from now, I'll be so fit and buff, Baywatch will be falling over themselves to hire me while my work rate will be better than Davids when I play futsal! Heh heh!

Futsal!!

Argh!! I'm gonna die...I got a futsal match this Friday night and I'm unfit like HELL!! Sigh...ok. You all can stop laughing now. I know, I know. I'm the EXTREMELY lazy sucker cum coach-potato cum insane gaming addict cum anti-social bastard who always stay at home YET I've apparently got a futsal match to participate in. Y'know, it's really not funny. I'm really gonna die!! ARGH!!

*searches for "how to kick a football properly", "how to build stamina in 24 hours" and "futsal do's and don'ts" in google*

Sigh...

Haze, 3G and Beck

Air quality is much better today, thank god. The past 1 week, the haze situation was very bad. In fact, air pollution index was at dangerous and hazardous levels all week until Saturday. This haze thing really pisses me off. If it happens once or twice, it's understandable but this is becoming a yearly event. It is ridiculous! My perception is that the government is not doing anything concrete to handle this problem. Every single message from authority seems either pointless or ridiculous. A ban in open burning and a request for people to cut down on smoking are actions that are born out of desperation, ignorance and incompetency. Saying that schools will be closed and a state of emergency to be declared if the air pollution index reaches 500 is absolutely idiotic when at 300, it is already classified as hazardous to health.

Seems to me that national productivity seems to be a higher priority than national health. Personally, I think that's the wrong approach and it's also morally corrupt. Lately I'm very tempted to vote for the opposition. Sadly, the 3 major opposition groups have serious issues that makes them bad choices. Parti Keadilan is being led by the wife of the former deputy prime minister. The actions of this former deputy prime minister during the last economic crisis leads me to believe that he's been bought over by a foreign power and does not have the nations interest in his heart. It'll be a cold day in hell before I give my vote to that party. Next, we have PAS. Their main focus is bringing an Islamic way of life. Unfortunately, their interpretation of this beautiful religion is rather...'creative' would be the polite term, I believe. Imagine a painting that is an absolute masterpiece. Normally, you'd judge a painting by the picture. Sadly, people from PAS will focus on the frames of the painting. Hence, their viewpoint in the Islamic way of life is rather...bizarre.

Lastly, we have the DAP. Their manifesto seems to be the most sane but I worry about the intelligence behind it. While they have a vision, there are a number of factors against them. Firstly, I'd prefer to have a Muslim to lead this country. It's a personal choice. You're all welcome to disagree as much as you want. Heh! Secondly, while I'm quite supportive to most of their objectives, I'm concerned about the implementation of it if this party ever gets into power. To be blunt, if they ever implement their objectives involving changes in widely held societal values, I'm afraid there would be social upheaval and unrest unless such changes are implemented in a proper manner. I highly doubt they are capable of doing so. Hence, my backup plan. If my disgust with the current party in the government continues to grow, I'd either form my own opposition party (hahahaha!) or migrate to somewhere else and change my citizenship. I hear Canada and New Zealand are wonderful places to live. There's always demand for skilled professionals.

Alright, enough haze bitching and political crap. =)

I just got my 3G phone activated on Saturday. I'm now connected to a third generation mobile network!! That's so cool!! Heh, ok. Maybe it's just me. I know, I'm such a geek...I gave my old phone to my brother. He seems very happy about it! Finally, all members of my family have camera phones. I'm also happy I'm not the only one now using Sony Ericsson. Down with Nokia! Anything that uses Real Player is automatically crap to me. Heh heh! I was tempted to sign-up for the unlimited data usage plan but figured RM120 is too much to pay each month when I won't even be using mobile internet that often. I'd probably activate the unlimited data usage plan if I have to travel a lot though since I'd want the flexibility of having internet access anywhere there's Maxis GPRS coverage. Oh yeah, with 3G I can now get live streaming of cartoon network. Heh, I will never miss an episode of Johnny Bravo again! There's also live streaming of news channels like BBC and CNN but who cares about that, right? It's the cartoons that matter. Heh heh! Another useful live streaming that's available is the live traffic conditions streaming. Then again, I use the LDP for work and it will always be jammed. Who needs live streaming to confirm that, eh? =)

I've finally finished watching Beck about a week ago. I also watched it again just now. What can I say? It's a brilliant anime! It's a story about a boy and how he matures as a musician. The animations is magnificent. The people involved in this anime have an excellent eye for detail. A concert scene in the anime will look, sound and FELL like a concert! The drawings are top-class while the songs are superb! When you watch the anime, check out the Dying Breed concert scene and the Greatful Sound concert scene and you'll understand what I mean. Oh yeah, I'm in love with Maho. Watch the anime and you'll also understand what I mean. =D

A day of rememberance

On 6th August 1945, the a nuclear bomb was dropped over the city of Hiroshima, the first time ever that nuclear energy was ever used in such manner. Incinerating 60,000 people in an instant and causing the death of a further 90,000 people due to radiation, this event is widely acknowledged as the main factor in ending the war. Let is give a moment of silence as a form of respect to those who died then. When wars are fought, sadly it's the innocents that suffer the most. The 150,000 people who died in Hiroshima are generally not soldiers.

There are many views concerning the Hiroshima and Nagasaki incident. Debating them now will be pointless and won't change anything. I myself am divided over the issue. The fact that 150,000 people died, 90,000 of them slowly and painfully horrifies me to no end. The fact that most of them are non-combatants makes things even worse. Yet, it ended the war fast and probably saved more lives than if an invasion of Japan took place.

I hate wars. I think they serve no purpose at all. I think my former Prime Minister Tun Mahathir Muhammad was right. We as a human race should ban wars. As a civilization, we must move beyond our murderous instincts and deal with issues challenging us in a mature manner. Each successive wars only brings more hatred. Right now we have the war on terrorism. What would motivate a bunch of people to blow themselves up just so that they could kill a bunch of other people? I keep wondering about this, yet all I hear is more restrictions being put in place to the community that these suicide bombers belong too. Such measures will only breed discontent and marginalise the very people you need to reach out to.

I'm a Muslim and I'm proud to be one. I strongly believe in my religion, yet I do not force my beliefs onto others. Let each choose their own way in life. Yet with all these events happening worldwide, even in Malaysia I feel a little choked in and defensive. I love UK and London, yet now as a Muslim, I don't think I'll be very welcome there. The entire mass media seems filled with articles who are all anti-Muslim, which is very sad. Islam is a very beautiful religion. Sadly, the followers are not necessarily so. If you talk about living in peace and harmony, it's everywhere in the Koran and Sunnah. If you talk about gender equality and respect for women, it is also there. Yes, Pakistan might have honour-killings (a disgraceful way to use the word honour, I believe) and Saudi Arabia doesn't allow women to drive. Please understand though. No where in the teachings of Islam does it tell followers to do as such. These are cultural values rather than Islamic values.

Perhaps I've deviated from my original subject but to me, war and Islam seems inescapably linked at the moment. I keep hoping that tomorrow will bring a better future for the entire human race but I get more and more discouraged every day. At the moment, I can only pray...

Argh!!

Oh my god! What a way to start the week. First, the 'wonderful' government of Malaysia increases the prices for petrol by 10 sen on Monday. Apparently the subsidy is costing them valuable money that can be put aside for development. Frankly speaking, I think the excuse given is bollocks. Increased petrol prices will mean cost of living will be higher. Even development funds will be affected by this. Of course, the papers published a stupid table comparing the prices of petrol in the region. Some bloody 'genius' then commented that despite the price increase, Malaysian petrol prices were still among the lowest in the region. The wonderful part was that no weighting was done to take into account the average income of the region. Sheesh!

Next, on Tuesday we have 'wonderful' Indonesia doing their annual forest burning. Morning was a beautiful day of clear skies (and traffic jams but that's just my luck). Then around 5.30 pm when I left my office, for a moment I thought I was on a different planet. The haze was SO bad that visibility was probably until 100 m at most. At 50 m, it was already very blurry. Indonesia can burn all the forest they want but for god's sake, DON'T let it affect any other country. Right now, Malaysians are enjoying a lungful of absoulutely crappy air but as far as I know, Malaysia does not get any form of compensation from Indonesia due to this. Sigh...I hope the air clears up by tomorrow!

On a happier note, I've recently finished watching Scrapped Princess, an anime about a girl who's destined to destroy the world. While the storyline was nothing amazing, it was enjoyable enough. The characters in the anime all have rather distinct personalities and the interaction between them was really wonderful! I really liked Raquel's character. She's generally a very blur person yet when her sister becomes threatened, she's a real lioness. The interaction of Shannon and the Scrapped Princess was also really heart-warming, with Shannon being a really protective elder brother who's determined to shield his younger sister from all harm.

Right now I'm in the middle of watching an anime called Beck. It's quite interesting so far. One thing for sure, this anime REALLY makes me wanna get back to being serious with my guitar. I'm saving up money now to buy a good amplifier and a multi-effects board. =)

A new beginning and other stuff

Ladies and gentlemen, as of Friday 22/07/2005 I'm no longer a systems engineer. I'm now a network support engineer in a new company. I leave my previous company with many fond memories and experiences. I'm gonna miss those jokers! =)

As for my new company, I have to confess that I'm slightly overwhelmed. I'm now in a large multi-national company and to make matters even more interesting, apparently I'm the youngest engineer in my department. The second youngest is 4 years older than me. Heh, everyone here is a veteran in the industry. Man...I can't wait until I'm no longer clueless! Still, I'm looking forward to the new challenges I can expect to face in my new role. I'm now in the global arena. That's so freaking cool to me! =P

A while ago, a friend of mine introduced me to the music of Damien Rice. Essentially, she said that 'The Blower's Daughter' is a bloody amazing song. After listening to it, I have to agree. The raw emotion that Damien Rice manages to pour inside the song is absolutely amazing! Such bittersweet feeling when you listen to it. The rest of the album is also quite good. Songs by him that you should also check out are 'Amie' and 'Cold Water'. Anyway, I found out that the song 'The Blower's Daughter' was the theme song for this movie called 'Closer'. I've finally managed to get my hands on it about a week ago. After watching it, I have to say that the movie was amazing. It's a beautifully crafted piece of cinematic masterpiece in which you can actually identify and feel for each of the character in the movie. Natalie Portman's performance in that movie was simply...magnificent. If you ever get the opportunity, please watch it. While your opinion might differ on whether the movie is good or not, you will agree that acting (especially by Natalie Portman) was amazing and this movie, at the very least, is different from the standard Hollywood fare (which are all crap, IMHO) which we are inundated with in our daily lives.

While we're on the topic for movies, 'Garden State' is also another movie in which Natalie Portman acted (and performed beautifully). It is also a debut movie for Zach Braff as a director. While I feel that 'Closer' was the better movie, 'Garden State' is also a decent movie. Maybe I'm just so sick of the usual Hollywood crap that anything that's different is good to me. LOL! Oh yeah, the soundtrack for the movie 'Garden State' is also quite good. I really liked the songs by Frou Frou. I know, I know! Frou Frou is electronica and I'm a rocker. I have to admit though. The blending of Imogen Heap's vocals and Guy Sigsworth's musical arrangement is hypnotic and has an ethereal feel. I guess you could call it a mood music and the music defnitely fit the mood of the movie! Check out 'Let Go' and 'Shh' by Frou Frou for some electronica music which doesn't sound like music for robots. =)

Back to work

The worst part of any holiday is when it ends. Sigh...

Still, the holiday was quite fun. I spent my time constructively in UK by sleeping at least 12 hours each day (sometimes 16!) while in Greece, I took a tour everyday, covering all the nice tourist spots in Athens and nearby areas. Time well spent, I'd say!

London continues to be my favorite city. It's probably the most metropolitan city in the whole world. You can find literally every single major ethnic group in that city. Regardless of where you're from, I'm sure you'll feel right at home once you reach London. My standard activity when I reach London is to buy a few books and enjoy a reading holiday. Heh, I guess I'm an avid reader. For those who are interested, Alistair Reynolds is a BRILLIANT sci-fi writer. He's also British so if you plan to improve your spelling (since Malaysia uses UK English), his books would be a good choice for reading. Check out his book titled "Revelation Space". Brilliant imagery supported with a strong cast of characters.

It is sad that some people feel the need to destroy the soul of London by detonating a series of explosives recently. I weep for the innocents lost, yet wonder what sort of madness would drive a person to do such an unspeakable act. Again, due to this event, fingers will be pointed to the Muslims around the world. I just hope the course of justice is not swayed by propaganda and emotions and the real culprits behind all this are dealt with following the rule of law.

Greece is a unique country of beauty and ugliness. I've travelled quite extensively and have visited many places. I can't remember an uglier city than Athens. The city is rather...worn down is the word, I think. When you look at other modern cities, you see skyscrapers, shining steel-and-concrete buildings and astonishing architectural designs. None of that are present in Athens. Heck, KL looks more modern than Athens. Move beyond Athens though and Greece will showcase a mesmerising vista of beautiful landscapes. From rolling hills and rugged mountains to crystal blue lakes and expansive flatlands. I think Greek islands are amongts the most beautiful in the world. I know for sure I enjoyed the island-hopping cruise the most compared to the other tours I took while in Greece. As for my souvenir, I bought a mini statue of Aphrodite, the goddess of love according to Greek mythology. I now have a 12 inch tall statue of a naked chick in my room. I know, you're all jealous! Hahaha!

The workload after my vacation is madness. I've got pending projects wherever I turn my head. Actually, I even got a few calls while still on vacation about work. Sigh...I didn't think I was THAT important! The 2 weeks after my holiday is the busiest 2 weeks in my entire life. I didn't even have a weekend for that 2 weeks. I'd say my stress level at that time was at an all time high. Still, I'm proud to be associated with those projects. Each successful completion gives me a sense of accomplishment. In fact, when I look back at what I've learnt and achieved for the past 1 year, I myself am amazed. 1 year ago, I'm a clueless fresh grad. Today I'm still clueless but somehow people think that I'm an expert in Solaris, DNS, DHCP, RADIUS, data protection design and implementation, clustering design and implementation, enterprise storage design and implementation, NTP servers, SGSN, GGSN and 3G networks. Go figure!

All this work is cutting into my free time though. I miss my college days where I can go to the cybercafe with a bunch of friends and play Dungeon Siege for 12 hours straight and skip class the next day! Heh heh!

Vacation Time

Woohoo! Time for my holiday!! Ahh....2 weeks of carefree bliss in UK and Greece! I plan to completely waste my trip by grabbing the nearest bed to the heater and snuggling under some pretty thick comforters. I can feel my stress level going down just by imagining this...

Sigh...the crapy part is that I'll be heading for my holiday completely and utterly BROKE! Living expenses has certainly risen since I started work. Petrol charges has gone up quite a bit and I just finished paying for my road tax and car insurance. Bummer...no money to spend. Fortunately, I got VISA, *in a deep, accented voice*, "the world most prefered card". =P

I'm supposed to leave my house at 9 am tomorrow. Sheesh! I'm actually waking before 2 pm on my freaking holiday. That's sacrilege!! I probably have to atone this gravest of sins by sleeping for at least 14 hours and waking up after 5 pm in UK. Heh heh!

Ahh...good 'ole UK. I'm gonna enjoy checking out the bookshops and eating fish and chips by the tube station. What can I say? I'm a man of simple taste. =)

Greece should be interesting though, especially since I've never been there before. Should be fun checking out the architecture of the Ancient Greece scattered throughout the country. I plan to pose next to every single naked women sculpture I can find and get my sister to take my picture. There should be plenty there! Hahaha!

I just had to brag...

I just have to brag to people about this. My freaking handphone now has 23 java games installed! Count 'em baby! TWENTY-THREE!! Yay!! I now officially have no life and spend my free time playing idiotic java games on the tiny screen of my S700i. Some of the more excellent games that I have includes rainbow six 3, splinter cell pandora tomorrow AND chaos theory and midnight pool. Hell, I even have FIFA 2005 and Tiger Woods 2005, which I recently downloaded yesterday. In FIFA, argentina (me) lost to japan 3-0 and in Tiger Woods, I shot 10 above par cause I kept hitting the trees. Not to worry though. Soon, I can show off some spectacular results once I master the controls! =)

Speaking of games though, I'm thinking of getting the PSP. The reviews seems quite positive and the game selection is growing by the day. The PSP should be useful during some projects where I have to be at a site in the middle of the night yet have nothing to do since another section is doing the work. I just wait for them to finish and make sure everything's ok. During that time, I could play games on the PSP and actually unlock a few stuff! =D

On a totally unrelated subject, I just finished reading The Da Vinci Code. Whoa, that's one EXCELLENT story man! The story grips you right till the end. Nice ending too! It gives a good closure. I highly recommend it for an entertaining reading experience. Some Catholics might feel offended over the potrayal of their beliefs in the book though. Some of the themes introduced in there are quite controversial.

Yup...a blog!

'Sup, all! Welcome to the space where I post my weird ramblings and other stuff that goes through my head.

Hmm...what to post...

I'm still busy as hell with work, with 8 projects running concurrently and 2 of them are kinda big. Oh yeah, incidently I'm finally a Veritas Certified Professional in Data Protection. If for some weird reason you have a 100 million bucks worth (or more) of data (your pr0n collection or em-pee-trees) to protect and don't know how to proceed, feel free to contact me. Initial consultation advice is a mamak session if we've known each other for more than 5 years. If not, I'm afraid it'll won't be cheap since my time is precious. Ahahahahahah!

Oh yeah, I got this really cool ESP guitar recently. My parents got it for me when they were in London. They probably felt guilty abandoning me in Malaysia all alone while they and the rest of my siblings were enjoying themselves in UK. Still, it's a cool guitar so I'd sorta forgave them. Hahaha! Anyway, this guitar has a sustainer and an EMG-89 active pickups. This baby is SWEET!! Wonderful clean jazzy sounds AND meaty rock sounds all in one package! The problem is this thing is powered by THREE 9 volt batteries. Sheesh, my previous guitar needed only one 9 volt battery. Now all I need is some free time to go jamming with my band...

Ok, enough crapping for now. I do need to get some work done actually. I'll post more when I'm bored enough again.