Posted by zanglang
Wed, 29 Jun 2005 15:15:00 GMT
Thinks: Oh right, I should blog.
(boot up wbloggar)
(looks at his new Zen Micro next to the laptop)
(oogles at the mp3 player for the 9999-th time)
(fiddles with it and starts playing Gorillaz all over again)
(somehow managed to get tangled in a wirey mess with the earphones)
(spends another 10 minutes untangling self, then plays with the audio settings for another 5)
(gets too engrossed and drools dumbly holding the lil’ gadget for another hour and forgets what he was supposed to do in the first place)
Thinks: .... =D (is in too much bliss to think of anything otherwise)
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Posted by zanglang
Tue, 28 Jun 2005 17:52:00 GMT
All it ever takes is this: while lying half asleep in bed, your mind slowly wanders off, and think of a certain important event. You wonder about the date, and with little effort recall them. Subconsciously you do math on it, and understand that it’s is approx. n days from now. Still, no worries, yet. Then, you think about things before, then, after, and now.
And hell breaks loose.
Oh god, I can’t sleep. Somebody clobber me.
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Posted by zanglang
Tue, 28 Jun 2005 09:25:00 GMT
So I was told from this word test that I:
did so extremely well, even I can’t find a word to describe your excellence! You have the uncommon intelligence necessary to understand things that most people don’t. You have an extensive vocabulary, and you’re not afraid to use it properly! Way to go!
I scored 92% Beginner, 92% Intermediate, 93% Advanced, and 80% Expert
Compared to other people of my age and gender:
You scored higher than 35% on Beginner
You scored higher than 25% on Intermediate
You scored higher than 51% on Advanced
You scored higher than 71% on Expert
But seriously, does it take a genius to answer the questions above? Most of pure common sense, some are just sly word play, and a few are those adverb/adjective/noun rules that’re listed in primary school textbooks. I’m not surprised that I didn’t get full marks though (though a little embarrassing to commit the most novice mistakes, lol), I never paid much attention to grammar rules taught in class. For me, writing is only to toss a handful of alphabets into the brain soup and let the course of nature slow rearrange themselves as they would look best, sentence by sentence, a little like construction blueprints. (Or a little more like asking 1000 monkeys with typemachines to collectively write the Bible.) Call me ignorant, call me defiling the language, call me low and uneducated, but gee, as long as you bring the point across, is it not sufficient enough? Still, that would explain why my style is different than most of other casual writers, and can be a tad confusing at times. Some say I’m damn impressive (am I? never thought so), some say I’d be good in cryptic poems and haiku, while some say I’m good in churning out nonsense.
On the other hand, man, I used to suck at english speaking. Even though as a kid I read a lot, got excellent scores in english written tests, being brought up in in a standard chinese family, educated in a Chinese primary school, where everyone speaks chinese, and in a national secondary school, where 50% speaks chinese and the other 50% malay, obviously didn’t help.
By Form 3
(Edit: or was it 6th Grade? I can’t really remember which one was it =P) some of us would go for
ASEAN Scholarship trials, where the first session would consist of an IQ test, an english essay and maths. I made it to 2nd session, the interview. Now I know the judges were definitely impressed by my essay (As usual, I avoided the discussion topics and chose fiction) and maybe by my IQ results too, but still… my oral sucks. And no talk english good = no suit singapore environment good. Soo, here I am, you probably know the rest of the drill. Non-ASEAN applicant, australian degree under-graduate, with still no apparent indication of succeeding Bill Gates’ in the near future.
And the government is still clueless as to why so many fresh graduates (fyi, at present
90% of unemployed graduates are from local universities, 10% overseas, with most of them being malay), are incapable of finding a job. ‘Race’ part of the discussion aside, let’s just take a quick peek into our uni’s. Lecturer’s nationality: Indonesian. Spoken: Malay. Textbooks: Malay. And since there’s so many malay students, Language where Students Converse Most In: Malay. Hello
menteri-menteri sekalian? Are you still wondering why your students never get to dip their toes, lest survive, in the corporate world?
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Posted by zanglang
Mon, 27 Jun 2005 05:01:00 GMT
I admit, I’m a sucker for no, I’m a whore for features. Whether it’s mere lookit-what-my-program-can-do in softwares and computer games and design, or overpriced gadgets (you know, the ones you see on afternoon TV adverts aiming to convince some mama-san her life isn’t worth living if she doesn’t own a Super-Duper 1000-horsepower Triple-Razor Shredder-Blender-Whatchacallit-Cutter, all for the price of $199.99!), i’ll be the one in all fan-boy mode, slurping up the feature list, plus the ‘ooh-aah’s, minus the drool (We’re a civilized society, so let’s at least be hygienic fanboys). I’d triple-check for new extensions daily for my Mozilla Moongrub / Supermonkey / Spacefrog / Junglecow (generated by none other than Firesomething), I check and download each Azureus CVS build, and I absolutely obsess over each and every new revision of the Aesir project (which I’m not going to post a link here, sorry), tracked by CIA.
One thing that probably sets me apart from the stereotypical example of a homo sapiens male-ous geek-us species (Commonly found prowling the lush grounds of Lowyat, hunting for prey—homo sapiens noob-icious, a defenseless but rapid-breeding species that travels in huge packs) is I just don’t bother about hardware. I mean, triplo-quadro-buffering-core-what? As an IT guy am I expected to be knowing these stuff by heart? I’ve been stuck with a laptop ever since I owned a computer, and you can’t upgrade laptops anyway, so who cares about triplo-quadro-buffering-cores?1 The only gripe I got with my baby is it blatantly refuses to run any games made in this decade… but ah, did someone not say, “Love = Toleration?”
As I continue to write about gadgets some awful thought starts to stir. No, no, my will is strong. I will not give in. But it is too powerful… powers so great its unfathomable by mortal mind… No, no, I have guarded it for a year, and I will continue to…! But just think of its… features... the capabilities it promises… just think of the satisfaction each and every member of the Legion that have embraced it speaks of… yessss… just type it out… there you go… one word at a time… omg I can’t hold it in..! Too late… must write it down…!
ARGHHGODIWAAANTANCREATIVEZENMICRO
YEEARHMUSTTBUYNONOTOOEXPENSIVEMUST
RESISTNOGIVEINTOITSSEDUCTIONLOOKIE5GB
1000MINUTESSOSMALLSOSHINYSOSOHIPSOO
COLOURFULYESIMUSTOOOWNONE…!2
1. Unfortunately, no one still ever believes what I say when I explain in detail why I can’t help him/her with deciding computer components to buy, or what exactly is the difference between Intel and
AMD, or why did I recommend them to buy a dozen
EDO ram sticks and stuff it plastic wrapping and all in their CD-ROM to stand for three days two nights… and three out of four times I get passed off as a selfish bastard who doesn’t want to part with his oh-so-precious knowledge. Oh well. At least they got the doesn’t want to part with knowledge part correct.
2. The author has not been harmed in any way during the production of this blog post, and does not suffer from insanity or other psychological disorders of any kind. Please do not bother to contact if you are a member of the Psychology Club looking for show-and-tell subjects, or a part-time Christian looking forward to trying out exorcism methods in Constantine, or undercover detectives looking for clues to the last Creative mp3 player theft case.
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Posted by zanglang
Sun, 26 Jun 2005 16:34:00 GMT
Just couldn’t manage to shake off the teeny-weeny twang of guilt that I shouldn’t have gone to sleep without writing Sunday’s entry, so here I am, a little red-eyed despite the 5-8pm evening/night nap (Yes, I have extremely irregular sleeping habits. The time I just started playing Warcraft III I would constantly sleep at 8am and wake up at 3pm), just because I promised myself I would write. “Gotta keep the habit, mon!” Some Jamaican fella used to say. And I had to agree, because knowing myself too well, if I missed one day my lame ol’ self would probably jump at it as an excuse for skipping for another day, and another, and another… and before you can spell supercalifragilisticexpialidocious I would’ve dropped the whole idea of writing altogether. Again. Which sucks.
You might want to point out I make no sense whatever in my purpose of blogging. “You don’t write about your daily life (Actually if i did you’d find them awfully boring.), you don’t write about world events (I find them awfully boring, so I don’t.), or philosophy (Have i mentioned awfully boring?) either.” You say. “Is there even any real point in writing all this text crap?” You really want to know? Well, no. I’m sorry to say there’s no point really. I’m just springcleaning my thinking box in fact, stringing up any random thought bubbles I happen to find. Heck, maybe I can make a pretty awesome Picasso-ish collage out of it. Who cares if it is of any value in the present? Picasso’s paintings weren’t worth anything until decades after his death anyway.
Oh, I just watched Batman Begins. It sure was amazing… I was amazed by the fact it actually didn’t turned out cheesy, as most recent comic/game/book-turned-movies tend to be. The visual effects picturing Gotham in all its dark bleak glory was pretty well-done, and so was the acting, but still… Okay, let me be frank and put it this way: If no other Marvel and DC superheroes ever existed, I still wouldn’t prefer Batman. I can’t really put a finger on “why”, but it probably has got to do with wearing tight bodysuits and bikini briefs outside like the Kryptonite guy… (Which reminds me, I wonder what was supposed to be on-scene when the drugged civillians in Narrows were approaching Rachel. Damn the censorship board!)
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Posted by jerry
Sat, 25 Jun 2005 09:40:00 GMT
I remember my dad asking something along the lines of “do you know what is a blog”, and “do you have a blog” not too long ago (Yes after 3 years of keeping this thing I haven’t told my dad about it before. =P), and then he stated calmly, “I think I should start my own blog… you know, posting about politics and things.” My jaw fell. I mean, no offense, but the thought of 54-year-old Dad suddenly going for mere ‘IT-knowledgable’ to ‘almost l33t’ is just… jaw-dropping. What happened to the times you could feel a little ‘special’ because none of the people you’ve met ever blogs, or even heard of blogging? What happened to the times you could laugh at some poor fool who thinks ‘blogging’ is some sort of physical activity that involves… logs in bogs? Ah well, times do move on.
I’ve always wondered how is life like to be a robber/thief/criminal. Do they wake up night after night clutching their blankets breaking cold sweat just as some thug was about to put that insanely huge club right about their head in their dreams? Does guilt ever come to them? Or do they actually desire it, looking forward to the next opportunity like a drug addict to his fix? From the wagon almost reads like a dumbed down hippie-ized version of ‘The Talented Mr. Ripley’ (Okay. I admit, I don’t know other first-person-perspective criminal books other than Ripley =P)... but its just feels too fictitious. Or perhaps its just me being too I’m-too-Holy-to-do-Evil. Oh whatever.
Speaking of blogs, sites like these popping up everywhere are just plain lame. So the world’s greatest search engine does index and provide access to your blog, and there are people as bored as I am to spam the ‘Next Blog’ button and surf through pages and pages of the usual boy-girl-love-hate-relationship postings, the occasional interesting reads and sites that even I can’t make out a word of… but man, is there any real point to adding more spammage to our already bloated internet?
Anyway, (cough) enough pointless ranting, updated the comments Javascript, kudos to Browservulsel, fixed the archives’ cookies script, and let’s see, next on list…. Template. Oh fug, I hate art design.
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Posted by jerry
Fri, 24 Jun 2005 03:53:00 GMT
At this point of writing I could almost picture this cliched scene straight from some mediocre-budget Wild West movie: View panned in on a pair of old worn-out leather boots, going a ‘thud. crack-thud’ on dry sand and scorched gravel, with nothing but a strong breeze grazing sand dunes seen for miles… (Oh wait, there aren’t any sand dunes in the American desert) desert wastelands and cacti and tumbleweeds seen for miles. And a crooken little wooden hut right in the middle of this desolated looking picture. And this, my dear reader/viewer, was once the home of our brave, and once young, male protagonist…
(cough) Sorry, got carried away abit, Literary Mind up there hasn’t had a chance to stretch and move around a bit for awhile it got too excited. :P
Sooo how should this go…
(thunder rolling on a dark night) And so I return to blog. ph34r! (lightning flash! thunder clap!)
Nah, too dramatic. Or shall I quote Jim Carrey in Lemony Snicket’s Series of Unfortunate Events? ... Nah, not that I have the movie script, or even the book, handy at this moment anyway. Perhaps I should just write it in honest, plain words then. Ah, that would be best for the occasion.
And so, dear readers, I have just decided to continue blogging once again.
(Phew. That wasn’t so hard.)
And I haven’t bothered to write for, what, a year or two? Not counting the filler posts of course. My tagboard has expired, the template looks off in Firefox, and the description in ‘who am i’ is also terribly off (At times when I read it I simply can’t help chuckling to my own over-self-inflated internet ego, hah), I don’t even use ICQ any more, and worst, after all these years and lack of practice my writing style has all but deteriorated… /ohnoes!
But then, oh god, now that I think of it, I seriously need to brush up my rusty HTML skills. Not to mention ready my gut for the dreaded 5-step process to fixing the template:
1. Edit HTML. Save.
2. Click Refresh in Browser.
3. Gasp in horror as tables go insanely out of proportion.
4. Go to 1. Rinse and repeat.
That is just so turn-off.
In other news, I’m still waiting for Cyberlynx to give me a call on that darn university letter issue. It’s 3pm already for god’s sake…
3.10pm: At least template doesn’t look sandwhiched now. Yay. =)
3.20pm: Renewing blogrolls. Sorry guys. (eeyean, aewis, paul, teddybwear, lionel, celine, keep in touch! If you still remember me that is. =P)
3.30pm: New flooble. The new pop ups are just terrible. Time to reconsider a tagboard provider.
4.00pm: wbloggar working like a charm. Now that’s what I call out-of-the-box user-friendliness!
9.00pm Added quick-commenting in individual posts, reorganized here and there… and we’re done! The white-and-gray interface is kind of… odd now that I think of it, but meh, I’ll leave that for another day. Now… let’s see, what’s for dinner…
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Posted by jerry
Sun, 25 Apr 2004 08:44:00 GMT
Wow. July 16th. Its been 7 months… Coming back here and looking at my odd rantings, the layout and everything gives me a sour little tinge of nostalgia, like what I feel whenever I drive past that old unoccupied single-storey house I used to live in. Ah, old times, old times.
Wish I could stay, but assignments beckon. Kulwant’s gonna maul me with his turban if I dont finish his papers by tonight. And Sien’s too. Mmm, pure dark thoughts of hate for homework.
Goodbye old blog, i’ll drop by for a visit later.
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Posted by jerry
Tue, 23 Sep 2003 06:07:00 GMT
Testing. 1, 2, 3.
(listens silently)
Ah, me blog is still breathing allright. Just thought i’d drop by to check. ;)
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Posted by jerry
Tue, 15 Jul 2003 14:28:00 GMT
I wonder why the heck I keep forgetting to publish this post after typing in this entry last week in wbloggar. It doesn’t mean much loss to me, but I suppose it means that I slowly dropping out of blogging business. =p Anyways, here goes.
July 9th – They say Life’s a Joke
It is. And while Fate, Future, Knowledge and the rest of the sub-deities have doubled over smirking, smiling, giggling guffawing or whatever way it is to express amusedness on a supposedly funny story, it’s mostly bland, tasteless and hurts horribly to the mortal victim. Personally as the ignorant dude who spends 99% of his time devoted to himself and his grey stuff up there I wouldn’t have given a damn unless the joke’s on my buddy, or worse, on me. And when the latter was realised yeterday i can’t help but sneer and give a birdie to Life, wish it brutally clubbed with a plastic keyboard and chopped into bite size chunks for soup. Without harming the subject which contains said life of course, i’d be behind bloody bars then, and as a well-suppressed law aiding citizen i wouldn’t want that, me got 80 years of future to go.
But back to the topic. Firstly pulled a back muscle when carrying a heavy backpack and a heavier bag on the way to Pudu bus station. Not being to turn backwards to check who’s snuck up on me (maybe with a small kitchen knife with stockings pulled over head for added effect) is no important matter and I can live without doing that, but having the constant pain giving the brain a quick naughty jab every few minutes or so 4am in the morning is the best recipe for extending a fuhged bad day for a second day.
Then, got ripped off on a taxi to the bus station. The bloody meter must be bloody rigged, heck, rush-hour it may be but when I live in a place where I can actually see my destination less than 10km away, How the fuhg could a little taxi trip cost 12 bucks?! Sheesh.. I could travel cross-city, even back and forth 4 times with that much money dagnamit! Ironically first minute in taxi when I saw the driver was chinese I thought, “Oh. Great. Chinese. Gonna get ripped off. Methinks 6 bucks.” Never would I’ve thought my psychic powers were actually both 100% and 50% correct that time. Next time if I see that dude taking his taxi to Bangsar I’d smack that sly grin of his face.
But apparently Life hadn’t finished his joke and reached the punch line yet. Just now, I just lost possession of a few bucks. Later, somehow between exiting the taxi and exiting the bus, I lost my whole goddamned wallet! At least 50 bucks cash, IC, driving licence, college student card, ATM card, cyber cafe membership card, collectible photo cards (Bloody 9 bucks each! With my friends’ faces on them! Sigh), calendars ranging from 2001 to 2003, a dozen shopping receipts (I have a habit of stuffing stuff into my wallet), and (gasp) a blank check signed by my father! By no doubt parental response were nowhere near positive. Now I have to go to the trouble to make a police report, replace the cards, and recover some cash. Ugh. And so much for intending to getting my hands on Frozen Throne today. (sulk)
On the positive side though, I could finally replace my IC and college student card with that terrible looking photo. Uh… now that didn’t feel funny too. =p I wish I stayed, attended the replacement class today on Wednesday, foolishly hoping that perhaps if I didn’t board that damned bus I wouldn’t have been so damned these days. But all done is done, and heck, it’s been a week now, so, in perfectly traditional “My Way” of dealing with it now,
Ah heck. Life goes on.
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