Being extremely busy with events lately, there ain't much time for me to read blogs, what more blogging about things I came across. But, this is a very costly expenditure that I have to brag talk about. Credit cards...

Dad have given both me and my younger sister supplimentary card for like 5 years already. It ease our spending quite a lot as we are able to spent some extra money which are not in our pocket. Yet, despite the "luxury", we do not turn wasteful over night. Dad never received any shocking credit card bills in the mailbox (we did not tear the bills away, promise~!). Yet all these while, I'm still not able to do one thing - shopping online.

There are so many gadgets and accesories that you can only see online. The local market is not big enough for retailers to import to justify their risks. There are places like eBay, Amazon and hundreds of websites which I am able to access the products with my own credit card account. And since there are so many victims of online fraud, I still hold back the idea of getting my own card when I can finally qualify for one. But as the desire for stuffs grows faster than the Malaysian market, I finally gave up on tolerating with the gap and get myself a card.

Once I get my card, 1st thing I did was to purchase a Linkin Park Underground membership (still haven't get my stuffs till now). Disapointed as I am, I didn't give up...I continue buying something cheap from eBay. Found a 1st edition hardcopy of Dan Brown's "Da Vinci Code", registered PayPal and the book is shipped to me in less than 3 weeks. (lovely). This grew back my confidence towards online shopping. As Richx introduced me to the hp OLS end of last month, I checked on the site everyday, browsing various brands to finally decide on one which fits into my budget.

It's not an easy task I tell u. Since the beginning of the sales (2nd July), I have sleepless nights, turning my computer off and on again middle of the night, filling in the forms, and being hesitant to press "SEND". After 4 days of running up and down computer shops to look around for a suitable unit, I finally braved myself to click on the SEND button. 3 weeks I waited, and here the computer finally came. This morning I received a call from the delivery man, and they agreed to send it to my company instead of my house address as it's more accessible. Opening up the box, I can see a nice new PC, but need to take some time to set it up. Now it's time to enjoy the fruits of my patience... will let u know more about the laptop later.

Labels: Myself, Tech

Sarawakian musical lovers must the most fortunate people in Malaysia as they had the Rainforest World Music Festival in the heart of the Borneo Jungle for many years now. I've never thought that the Penang state government will be smart enough to bring this event to the Pearl of Orient.

For the first time in Penang, banners were everywhere...



Without ever been to Sarawak for the show, I booked my entire weekend for this magical extravaganza. For RM40/pax/night... I did not hesitate to buy 2 tickets each for Friday and Saturday night. Quarry Gardens is a new garden I believe Penang people never even heard about it. Right beside the Botanical Gardens, they built a rather spacious garden to suppliment the existing path we already have.

I tried to get my frens to come along as well. But their RM40 is bigger than a wheel barrow. So end up, I went there with Irene only. But managed to spot a few people I know from Toastmasters when I was there. It seems like I've asked the wrong crowd...and maybe because I am not really good in publicity.

As we arrive at the car park we parked quite a distant from Botanical Gardens...worrying about the crowd after the event. But it really surprises us when the volunteers asked us to hop into the shuttle bus. The drivers are kind enough to drive us from the car parks right to the doors of music. That's really 1st class service for a World Class event~!!! Totally worth the RM40 we paid.

Dissapointingly, it started raining when we were there....and the rain doesn't stop for half of the event, which I find the only problem with the event. The crowd is huge despite only "few" people know about the event. Eveyone comes prepared with their own grass mat, umbrella, and some even bring their own beer. I didn't manage to get close up to the stage to get good enough pictures without blocking people. So I ended up staying with Irene, and shot a few frames now and then.

The sound system is terrific, and I've never been to a life concert where I can get so up-closed with the performers. The location is also easily accessible. It's an event I'll be looking forward to in the years to come. Pictures? haven't processed them yet... kome kome...

Labels: Entertainment

Linux users out there, here's an article for you. Linux in Hollywood. It's well known that Shrek, Lord of the Rings, and Star Wars are all done on the Linux platform. Too bad all these softwares are hidden and propietary rights held by the individual studios.

Now, if only George Lucas is willing to open source their propietary CompTime, how will the linux world be? Why no one every tot of sending Lucas a mail about that? Hm...

So, what other softwares you want open sourced? Please don't start with OSX or uSoft will do, it'll take a lifetime for that to work.

Labels: Ubuntu

Friday is our company's replacement for the Penang Governor's Birthday on Saturday. As the other sectors are resuming their work as normal, I've fully utilize the time I have in hand to complete as much as I can think of. Here's my schedule for the day, and how much I've completed it.

1. Calling up FlyFM "Wake Up Your Brain"... tried, but cannot get through
2. Met up with the mechanic (Mr Ooi) to repair my car: Brake, Oil leakage, idling speed (which turns out to be mounting problem) and tyre mud guard hissing sound. (turns out costs me a %^&* RM850 ~!)
3. Go to Island Hospital to collect my blood test results (after blood donation)
5. Went to MBF office to pay for Penang World Music Festival tickets ( 1 million tickets sold to date!!! )
6. Went to repair my Nikon SB600, turns out they are off today as well :(
7. Bring CPU to dad's office to install some demo program for evaluation, turns out they don't have the keygen.
End up help revive a laptop for them - replace LCD screen with CRT monitor ( cost savings )
8. Went to the bank to draw out all my savings to pay for Germany trip.
Learnt that PST Travels = Peter Styvesant Travel Services Sdn Bhd :-o
9. Choose, process and develop super backdated photos for Irene's cousin's wedding @ BM Church
10. Bring CPU to BJ to see if there's any solution to my over heating Asus T2.
Turns out there are nothing much I can do. The PIV 3.0GHz chips are known to inherit a high thermal energy.
11. Wanted to leave my car for polish/wax. But as there's too many customers, have to delay it to some other day.
12. Pick my younger sister up from the bus station.

After a tiring day, went straight to bed after reaching home. Dozed off until late evening only wake up to fetch my dad up from the airport as he came back from Hong Kong. He's even crazier than me, yesterday go HK, today already come back. Siao!

And that's how I use up my precious "non-working workday". What holiday I say? I think I'm more worked out this day than any of my normal workdays. What about you? How would you spend your NWWD?

Summer’s here, and it’s holiday for everyone, and it's the time of the year Hollywood comes out with all their great movie. This all happens despite raining and snowing heavily in the Southern Hemisphere. While people in China, Australia and certain parts of Kuala Lumpur is submerged in muddy water, I am having fun in the cinemas for the past month. I visited the cinemas so much that I managed to find popcorns on my bed! Just imagine that… if I’m as fragile as the “Princess and the Pea”, I would have tonnes of sleepless nights.

All the movies are great, but let start one by one. First there is Spiderman 3, which is supposed to be the biggest blockbuster of the year. The green goblin becomes allies with Spidey, and there is the sand man, venom, and appearance of Spidey’s dark side. And of course there is the romance part of the story. All in all, it’s a bit slow at times, but worth the price of the ticket.

Few days after that, we went for Pirates of the Caribbean 3 – At World’s End. In the 2^nd part of the POTC, they show Captain Jack Sparrow being taken away to the world’s end, and this trip, they are going there to bring him back. Full of laughters I shall say, but too bad the editor cuts the movie so short that at times it’s a bit confusing, like how the enormous creature died on the beach, where did the queen of sea went after getting back to her original form.

After strong recommendation by JiaJiun, I just feel like going in to watch Shrek 3 just to see if it’s that good. It doesn’t disappoints me with all the fun I have, so much so that I have 1 finished my big popcorn set and go out again to get another medium box. And it’s following morning that I found the popcorns left in my bed. Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer is all about it’s Computer Graphics, and Sci-Fi which are quite impressive. But I think all the guys are eyeing on Jessica Alba which kills as many (if not more) as Angelina Jolie. There’s a part where “The Torch” is mentioning about burning his new Dolce, but no one laughs except us…English comprehension of Malaysians needs a lot of polishing. The main complain of this show is it’s too damn short! I spent 1 hour in the cinema munching on commercials and only another 75 minutes on the action. Damn, bloody suckers! The GSCs are trying to gain more profit from the adverts these days since people are paying a small price for the tickets (compared to foreign countries).

Then the last second movie I watched lately was the Ocean’s 13. I haven’t watched the prequel, but comprehending it is quite a challenge for most non-English native. But as a banana cocktail, I loved the tricks in it. The actor’s brain twist faster than my fruit blender. All handsome and charming guys all shown in the 2 hours blockbuster. Impressive, amazing…simply Fuuyoh!

And of course – movie of the year 2007 goes to… Transformers by Michael Bay. He really gets my attention with the story of the autobots on earth. My heart is pumping of laughter and excitement from the start to end. There’s no dragging or time wasted. He allocate the time of the movie just nice….not too much contents, but just enough to show Transformers in the big screen for people like me who have been growing up watching the cartoons. Bullet time was used a lot, and the actions are pretty impressive. What I think he can improve on is on the fighting part. The shots are too close up that we can’t differentiate what hits what, but only a pile of metal flying here and there. Another thing that I expect from the 2^nd sequel will be a top-down shot of the autobots when they are transforming. A 3D-shot will also be pretty amazing if it’s possible with the new CGI softwares and higher processing power available.

So there you have it… what I have been doing to get pop-corns on my bed. So what have you been watching? Too bad I missed Ming Ming and Die Hard 4.0. Have to wait for them to get into DVDs before watching.

Labels: Entertainment