One essay = hundred days

I've been having writing an essay and it already took me more than a hundred days. the truth is i do not what to write, how to write my mind out and what i gathered, my past self is better than my current self at the moment. i have forgotten so many words that i am beginning to stumble upon words i used to know. it has been a while since i truly converse in English, I mean truly speaking in English, not counting the times i am speaking English with words other than English being in my English sentence. i have this habit of not speaking in English truly or rather seriously if the person i know i am speaking with is known to be able to understand Malay. i know that all Malaysian know how to speak Malay thus if i am going to stay forever in this country, i would not be able to speak English seriously and seriously i am beginning to believe that one day i will not be able to speak English at all. i am already scared that i will only be able to converse in English through writing and writing is never the same as speaking in English because when speaking i have to come with words and vocabulary instantly unlike writing where i can always depend on the computer to give me synonyms or translate whatever i want to say into perfect sense. oh how i wish i will be getting a free ticket out of the country so just i can explore the world and meet just everyone that i do not know and them not knowing how to speak Malay that i am force to speak correct English with them or else they will not understand whatever i am trying to converse with them. oh how awesome will it be if i ever be getting a golden leg that can kick so strong and run so fast i will never be needing a car to go anywhere anymore. however this is absurd and I KNOW.

Sony Ericsson C510- My Review

About a month ago, I bought a new phone, a Sony Ericsson C510. Today,  I am not using it because I have to send it to repair. The phone failed to fully recharge even after charging it overnight While charging, the phone showed the animation of the battery being charged. However, after an overnight recharged, the battery was only at around 20-5O% Then I took the phone out of the charger and the phone can only last for about so minutes. lwas annoying and feeling disappointed, I went to my dealer and requested for new battery. the gave me new battery but the problem still lingered. So I have no other choice but to agree to let the dealer sent the phone for repair. I asked for a new phone but all he can do is trying to repair it first. 

Prior to this problem, the phone was working great. It takes great photos and I can send pictures and update facebook / blog to the web.

Lunch time

It's about time for lunch, therefore save my work and prepare for hibernation. Bosses are out thus i am having peace at the office.

Desa Bestari

To complete soon

an Hour for Earth - Earth Hour

tonight is the night when earth finally gets its one hour of .... what i don't know - please ask the organizer for the answer. from 8:30 to 9:30 tonight, those who are in support of the earth hour will switch off their lights and most of their electrical equipments. i am in support.? i am not sure. i feel indifferent. but my company is. the billboards and signboards and the building lights will be turned off tonight at the mentioned time above. i wonder how many megawatt of electricity will be reduced in that one hour. why won't earth hour be expanded to nnot driving any cars or even not burning anything including smoking. for all we know earth hour is about showing support of the environment. one hour of turning off the light might reduced the amount of coal and gas burn to produce electricty so that the air will be less polluted in that one hour. what about cars? buses? trucks and smokers? they should stop too. if earth hour covers the wider horizon i am in full support. i hope that tonight i can breathe in cleaner air for one hour.

Limiting access to your blog(s)

i guess blog-reading is not opened to just everyone anymore. as i was trying to go blog-hopping-slash-reading today i came across a blog which cannot be read unless i am invited. that is strange and creating mysteries, building intense and curiosity. is there some sort of confidential matters in that blog. or is the blog becoming too personal i.e. like reading someone's diary. a diary is usually kept to oneself with no intention of letting others know the writings inside until one day when the owner of the diary forgets, keep the diary lying around, or when someone goes through your things looking for something and then found the diary and then read it. and so now i know that blogger has a feature to limit access to your blogs just like facebook or friendster, etc. 

Mobile Blogging

My last two blog posting was done over the phone. It was something new to me. I realized that mobile blogging can be quite interesting, because sometimes i just have the urge to put something on my blog. Then the urge fades away once i get on with my computer and an internet connection. Most of the time i end up not writing anything on the net.

So why bother sharing by blogging. Sometimes, it is just for my own advantage. I may want to cherish something and to do that i would write something about it. Then why not own a diary which i can take anywhere? well a diary is not practical because i won't be bringing a book all the time. furthermore, i like to walk with nothing to carry. just me and myself and my essentials which can fit in my pockets i.e keys, wallet and cellphone.

therefore, mobile blogging is an answer. i can cherish a moment with my phone anytime as long as there is a line. it does not have to be a 3G line while 3G line can mean a faster connection, but with an ordinary line i can always get GPRS anytime. 

then what ignite the interrest in mobile blogging? it is my new phone. i bought a new cellphone earlier this month i.e. a Sony Ericsson C510 and there's jst a lot of features i can be utilizing. my first step was to activate my GPRS setting on my network so that i can fully utilized the many things i can do with this phone such as checking emails and surfing the web. and it goes without saying that mobile blogging is one of the many features offered by the new C510. 

My space

Little Thai at Ampang Point

Green chicken curry - full of flavor and creamy.

Renewing Malaysian Passport

Why do we need a passport?

To get out of the country. And to get in the country.

Renewing a passport is not hard these days and will only take few hours if you manage to pay the renewing fee before 2.30 pm at any working day. Honestly, I have had the slightest idea of renewing a passport until I googled and read a couple sites.

1) http://www.imi.gov.my/eng/perkhidmatan/im_PasportMsia.asp

2) http://www.lifeinkl.com/2008/05/10/how-to-renew-your-passport/

nowadays everything can be googled and i wonder how large is the server for google? so far google is the best search engine and never failed to deliver.

so back to the real topic, the following are what I needed to get my passport done.

• a photostat copy of myKad
• myKad
• 2 photographs of applicant measuring 3.5 cm X 5.0 cm
• cash (50 or 100 ringgit notes)
• old passport (if any)

since I have an old passport, they insisted that I go to KIPPAS (kios pembaharuan passport), a machine which I was reluctant because machine is a machine and I can't talk with machines. But they insisted and so I gave in. Luckily the machine was not being hard on me. Everything was done in about 15 minutes. Here's what i vaguely remember on the machine's request.

1. select your language
2. insert your old passport in the slot and press continue
3. insert your myKad
4. place your right thumb on the scanner
5. select 300 or 600 pages of passport
6. insert your cash one at a time
7. enter you height in cm
8. enter your phone number
9. insert the following in the provided envelope (enter your particulars on the envelope):
   - a photocopy of myKad
   - a passport photo of yourself (blue background and recent)
   - old passport
10. insert the envelope in the slot
11. please take the receipt
    - the receipt tells when and where to collect your passport
    - if the receipt is printed after 2.30pm, then your collection time will be the following day after 9 am
    - if the receipt is printed before 2.30 pm, then it is possible to collect the new passport on the same day
    - therefore, the following information from the imigration website is misleading:

It is a promise to deliver a new passport in 2 hours time if the payment is received before 3.30pm. I believe the promise is not applicable for processes made through the Kiosk but true only for application made through the counter. This is because your application from the Kiosk will only be collected by the respective staff at an interval. Additionally, the counter is at the 2nd floor while the kiosk is at the 1st floor.

So i received the receipt from the kiosk telling me to come and collect my new passport the next day. The following day i went straight to 2nd floor and approached counter 16, i gave my receipt and got a number eventhough i am the only one waiting. So I sat and waited. i saw that the guy behind the counter typed something and went to the next room to get something which i suspected was my passport. So after about 10 minutes my number was called and i was told to sign on several places and scanned my right thumb on the scanner. After signing behind my new passport, voila! i was set to go.

i was happy of course, if only i did not missed my exit to the Pusat Bandar Damansara or PBD lane i could have gotten back much earlier. but nevertheless, it's so trivial and need not to over react.

Paid Holiday and Adventure

Yesterday, I joined a treasure hunt organized by one of our company's sudsidiary, TCI, from bangi to Port Dickson, Started early morning at 7:15 am, I arrived at the starting point. There were about 70+ cars consisting of four person per car. This was a new experience to me, joining Some friends from work. Our first few destinations were around the Bangi area. We were playing for fun and So were the other teams. No pressure.

Surprisingly, we won. We came in first. We won $1600. Divided by 4, each got $400. The winning prize covers the registration fee $300 and one night stay at the resort as well as the traveling cost i.e. gas and toll. In fact we felt that we were paid to have fun and enjoy the weekend.

I didn't type my blog entry!

The previous post was not typed but was handwritten. How awesome is that? And so is this entry.

ANENT

ANENT Stands for Asian Network for education in nuclear studies. I am spending two weeks to be involved in this project. Our first task is to learn on how to use MESSAGE through e-learning interactive classroom. Several countries are involved in this e-learning project i.e. Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, China, India, Korea, Pakistan and Philippines. We are very excited but at times, there are frustrations due to slow internet connection. Is it just us in Malaysia or global slowdown in internet connection? Because other countries are also complaining that they couldn't get online Whatever it is, by next week we have to start building the national case study. And today supposedly, we should be very comfortable with MESSAGE. I hope everything will go on smoothly.

The Death of My Laptop

I spent about 7k in February alone. I wonder, why?

1) 2k++ to goddamned mechanics who persuaded that I should changed the rims and suspensions of my old car.

2) My beloved IBM laptop died of heart failure (the motherboard). Time of death: 8.30 pm 16th February 2009 (Monday). I had a technician analyzed my laptop (Tuesday) and he said that nothing could be done (Wednesday). Once the motherboard is out, it is better to find a new laptop. So on that fine Wedenesday I went to Lowyatt and fell in love with an HP Pavilion tx2500 Entertainment Notebook PC.

Why I like my New HP Pavilion?
It is bloody entertaining and flexible. I can do handwriting and make everything finger print secure. Lalala~ and it can sing better than my old IBM, being equipped with Altec Lansing speakers.

My 3 Paintball Events

Here are the three paintball events i had gone through recently.

1. Advertlets Blogger Paintball Tournament
(17 January 2009 - Saturday) This was the first time I ever played paintball in my life. I registered for the RM10 Advertlets event and was paired up with 4 total strangers, namely Marcus, Evo, Celine and Uncle Zahari and we called our team "Team Yakuza". Except for Marcus and Evo, the rest of us were first timers. Surprisingly after playing the 4 rounds of preliminary games, we advanced to semifinal and then final. We emerged first runner up amongst the ~20 teams consisting of 5 person each that took part in this event. And so, we were promised a free entry to join the National Paintball League (NPL) tournament in Division 4, worth RM300.

2. Paintball Practice
(8 February 2009 - Sunday) In view of the upcoming NPL tournament, Marcus had organized a training season with his old buddy, Simon who is in the Division 3 of the NPL. We went to Astaka which is the home of MY-NPL to practice. We learnt a lot from Simon on the techniques, rules and practice of playing paintball. Prior to that, we had watched the videos on Youtube on the subject of paintball. We learnt a lot from the videos and lots more while practising with Simon. At Astaka, we had to pay each Rm100 consisting of RM20 for renting the house marker, RM20 for renting the house mask, RM20 for using the field and RM40 for the paintball pellets (we bought a box of 1000 pellets at RM200, divided by 5, each will carry 200 pellets thus costing RM40 for each person). At this moment one of our team mate, Celine had pulled out and replaced by Josh from the Advertlets. Thanks Simon for being our SIFU.

3. MY-NPL Paintball Tournament
(14 February 2009 - Saturday) This was the real event and we were excited and ready to shoot. Alas, we learnt that due to some technical issues, we had to pay for the registration fee which is RM300 for the whole team. Josh being the Advertlets liason, had arranged for the NPL people to give us 1000 pellets free of charge. Anyway, we had to buy a box of 2000 pellets to be used in the tournament. The preliminary round were held on Saturday and we had to play against 6 teams. We won 3 and we lost 3. In the end, we ranked 13 out of the 28 teams. Therefore we had to come the next day play for the semi final which we taunted as the Super Sweet Sixteen of the division 4 where top 16 team advances to the next round.

(15 February 2009 - Sunday) We came early for the semi final but the event only started after 10 am because they had to finish the premilinary rounds of Division 2 and 3 which failed to wrap up on Saturday. We bought another box of 2000 pellets for the event today. Team Yakuza (our team) had to face Team Infidelz. We were playing for the best of 3 games. In other words, the team must win 2 rounds in order to advanced further in the game. Team Infidelz ranked 4th in preliminary round (but I later learnt that they actually came out 2nd place in the prelim. but due to miscalc by the organizer they were ranked 4th). Anyhow, we lost the two games. The Infidelz were good, they played very quiet and only shoot whenever necessary. First game I was sniped out of nowhere and the pellet burst on my shoulder. Second game, I advanced to middle of the playing games thinking that no one was looking but then the fella came infront of me and shot me to elimination. My other teammates faced similar fate. It was a good game and we just had to accept our defeat.

What I like about paintball?
The adrenaline rush when shooting at your opponent and experiencing a whole new environment and meeting new people.

What I don't like about paintball?
The gears we have to put on before the game i.e. face mask, and other protective garments such as long sleeve and pads because once you get hit, the hit really stings if you are hit at places other than your face mask and marker. Honestly, I hate wearing the face mask bacause it is just uncomfortable and makes breathing a bit hard and your view is kind of limited. I also dislike shouting because i don't have loud voice and with the face mask, it is even harder to shout loudly. Finally, it is rather costly to play this game and i am not a millionaire.

Pictures?
I have none because I did bring any camera and my phone won't even take a decent picture of anything. Perhaps may other teammates have post some pictures in their blogs:
Uncle Z - http://xperienceoflife.blogspot.com/
Marcus - http://gyakudo.blogspot.com
Evo - http://euveng.blogspot.com/
Josh - http://josh.my/

Conclusion
Since I have more dislikes than likes, I am thinking that I will not be playing this game in the near future. I have made other commitments which is cheaper and more comfortable than paintball.

Defragmenter Could Not Start

For weeks I have been trying to find the solution on why my windows defragmenter would not start. At last after reading lots of comments on tech forums, i downloaded a malware removal program: malwarebytes and did a dull scan. The program found several malwares including trojan and removed it from my computer. Then my computer is running OK again.

Malwarebytes is a freeware. You only have to pay US$29.99 if you want to do a real-time protection and schedule update. The free stuff just work like magic removing the bad bad things from your system.

However, if the problem is not cause by malware, the following might be the solution:

QUOTE (mph @ Jan 17 2008, 07:31 PM)

check the page file

control panel,open system,click advanced tab,click "settings" under performance,click advanced tab,click "change" under virtual memory,make sure no paging file isn't selected


also dont forget what patio said,open the command prompt,copy and paste in

chkdsk /r

press enter

type in y and press enter when asked if you want it to run the next time the computer is started


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http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm

291. Restore Defrag Snap-In


use internet explorer to download the reg file as some other browsers aren't suitable


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


i dont know if any files that defrag.exe might use are covered by sfc /scannow

but it's always worth trying


http://www.updatexp.com/scannow-sfc.html

-------------------------

this i have copied from http://www.theeldergeek.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=28251

A Good Guy (AGG)

Yesterday my sis called to say that she smelled something faulty while driving her car. It was the smell of rubber melting, so i told her to stop her car and peek outside to see what's wrong. It turned out that her right front tyre burst. Luckily she stopped or else her car would suffer serious damage.

So this is the time that i think i should get out of the office and go help my sis. While i was starting my car engine, a motorcyclist stopped and tried to help my sis but alas he did not have the right spanner. And so we waited for me, with my sis for about 35 minutes. I was surprised that he was such a gentleman, when i arrived he helped change the tyre while i stood at the side giving caution sign to the traffic. Since the car was in the middle of MRR2, the traffic was beastly, with huge lorries coming by i have to give hand signals so that the driver would see that somebody was fixing the tyre.

i was greatly grateful to the guy, so did my sis, furthermore as he refused to accept anything from us. i shall keep his kind deed embedded in my heart and i pray that he will get the best out of everything he chooses to have. amin.

Tiramisu - I can't sleep

Happy Chinese New Year Everyone! It's the year of the OX. OX can also mean hugs and kisses. Well, I just could not sleep right now at this moment. It is 3 am and I don't feel like sleeping or feel sleepy. Instead, I am feeling so wary and conscious. It is like my mind is working with all its might, why? I think because I drank a whole mug of tiramisu ice blend when having a late night snack at midnight in commemoration of the Chinese new year!

Just now, I went to the top of bukit ampang at the looking out point to see the panoramic view of Kuala Lumpur at night. The sky was showered with fireworks especially as time approaches midnight. It was cold and raining a litlle bit for quite sometimes while we were eating at the restaurant. And so i thought I would be coming home feeling exhausted but hell yeah i just went to bed. but after couple hours trying to sleep and i still could not. my mind is awake and so i am writing on this blog.

tiramisu main ingredient is expresso coffee and i just could not drink coffee then sleep. i used to drink coffee while in college so that i can finish my assignments at night. but never to drink coffee and then expecting to sleep. it just would not do.

so i love tiramisu, especially in the cake form. but i will never consumed it at night when tomorrow is work. luckily, tomorrow is holiday in respect of the Chinese New Year. So i don't mind consuming it tonight. actually, i mind, because i am supposed to be sleeping right now. maybe surfing the web can make my mind tired and then i can go to sleep.

or maybe it is fate that i drank the tiramisu blend tonight because i need to send my sister to the airport at 5 am. In order to avoid missing the flight, i should not be sleeping, so that when the time comes i can wake her up. maybe that is waht is meant for me. for life always has is reason for happening in some ways that we never think about.

i believe in fate and always let fate decides the outcomes of my decisions. that i should never be too-regretful of anything because things happen for a particular reason. it is just ways to make us experience and learn the vauable lessons in life. because one day we will die and we want to die leaving behind some things that others will remember us for.

Change is coming, really?

In less than 5 hours, Barrack Obama will be the 44th President of the United States of America. Right here right now I can not foresee what will happen once Obama become the President. Will change really happen? Especially, will the war in the middle stop once and for all? We never know, only time will tell.

Nevertheless, once Obama takes the oath as the new president, change has already been written in the history the world. The first black man to become the US president. Can he stay for at least 4 years? Only time will tell.


Bush : I hate to leave this place man..
Obama : It is time for change!
Bush : It is so cosy and secure, you know what I mean.. I really feel at home.
Obama : It is time for change!
Bush : I just hope you don't paint the white house any other color than white, you know it is called the white house.
Obama : It is time for change!
Bush : Oh please! Stop with the change. What can you do really. When you are in my shoes you will know what i mean. My hands are tied most of the time.
Obama : It is time for change!
Bush : Screw you and your changes.
Obama : It is time for change!
Bush : Ok, I am not talking to you no more..
Obama : It is time for change!
Bush : Shuu..
Obama : It is time for change!
Bush left the room with disgust while thinking 'Huh change change change, maybe he got no spare change!'

Saturday Morning : Paintball

This picture was taken from a member of my fellow paintball teammate, a blogger at xperienceoflife.blogspot.com. Yesterday was not like any other saturday where i had to wake up as early as usual when i had to go to work. but it was worth it. i was going to play paintball for the very first time!

i signed up as individual for ten ringgit only and was put into a team of five consisting 4 other people that i had never met. the picture above shows all the team member of Yakuza, a newbie team with little or no experience at all. i think only two out of the five members have ever played paintball before excluding me. 4 males and a young lady. and guess what? one of the 4 males is a senior man with kid.

firstly, we played for 4 timess in the preliminary round against various teams. we won 3 out of 4 where two wins are because of disqualification of the opposing teams which some the opposing the team members took out their face mask while still in the playing field which resulted in instantaneous disqualification. the last win is when I and another team member became the last men standing and my team member grabbed the flag from the opposing side while i kept him safe from uninvited paintball pellets.

so surprisingly, we were qualified into the semi final, and guess what? we won yet another round. same tactic as before and i again became one of the two last men standing after eliminating the opposing team members who were trying to grab our flag. and yet again i kept my team mate safe while he grabbed the opponent's flag for the victory. unexpectedly we approached the final round to determine the first and second place. we were given about 7 minutes break.

the final round was tough. we were against a semi pro team that was playing carefully with strategies. we were sticking with the same tactic; wait in our sides until the opposing team finished their pellets. but that did not happen this time. the opposing team was very quick like the SWAT team in the television. they approached us from both sides and quickly eliminating my other team members. i was the last one to be still in the game because i kept hiding at the very back bunker. suddenly, three shots were fired from two sides. 2 shots hit my legs and the other one hit my back. i fell to the ground unconciously bleeding to death - haha, it never happened. i was stunned and raised my hand in defeat.

our team never expect to go this far. the team was only formed just before the game started. and the team members never know each other (only two of the team member know eact other).

all in all, it was really a very exciting experience for only ten ringgit. i could not ask for more. thank you Advertlets.