Archive for the ‘Blog’ Category
Monday, August 18th, 2008 |
I had the weirdest midterm test today. The lecturer Mr. Sia decided to give us 21 fill-in-the-blank questions with 62 answers to choose from. He even arranged to have us sit far from each other. There were only 5 of us, so we each sat in one corner with the remaining one sitting right in the middle of the room.
Despite efforts to make sure zero cheating, he left the room twice to go to the toilet and listen to a phone call. This not only gave us an opportunity to fling answers around the room, but also flip through our lecture notes for answers. I didn’t bring mine, so I had to rely on memory to answer the questions. Good thing the questions weren’t too difficult.
To be honest, I didn’t start study until yesterday. I am supposed to have a group presentation tomorrow about the network infrastructure in MITC, but the report wasn’t done yet. Although there were 6 of us in the group, none of them contributed to the report. I was the one who went to meet the IT consultant and wrote the report. I even made presentation slides! So I decided to let the remaining 5 guys do the presentation. 4 of them will attempt to read from the slides, while the last guy will assist me in the Q & A session.
Having said that, I will be waking up pretty early to attend the presentation. I think I’ll just appear in semi-formal attire, which is safe for both casual and formal events. I’m not sure if the lecturer requires us to dress in formal attire. Since it’s already late night the day before presentation, I guess I’ll just appear in checkered shirt and long pants, just like how I did for my FYP.
Wish me luck.
Posted in Blog | No Comments »
Thursday, July 24th, 2008 |
When I first moved into this new crib, I was delighted to see a 14″ Panasonic television and a Faber DVD Player sitting quietly in the living room. Almost immediately I wanted to go back to Batu Pahat and grab the PlayStation 2 off my brother’s hands. I knew it would be great to have a PlayStation 2 at home. This reminds me of my old Atari days when I had so much fun with 8-bit games.
Well, it didn’t happen until a few weeks after I moved in, because I had errands to run and going home needs some early scheduling. Besides, at that time I had a few TVB series to watch, so the Hong Kong dramas kept me busy until I had time to raid for the PlayStation 2.
When the deed was finally done, I could only bring back a handful of games. Not every game is playable, due to the bad conditions of the DVDs. But it is already an improvement. Having a PlayStation 2 right now beats not having one by miles. I now enjoy the luxury of playing console games and flip channels while waiting for the game to load.
Soon after, I decided to connect my 22″ Viewsonic widescreen monitor to the PlayStation 2. I was puzzled at first, because the plugs needed a converter as the PlayStation 2 does not directly support monitors. I went around to ask about such a converter, and the best a local electrician can say is that I can look for a RCA-to-VGA converter that costs relatively cheaper than getting a new TV. I extended my inquiries to the Lowyat forums, but the forummers just didn’t want to reply me.
So I took Google to the challenge, and a simple search revealed several websites that served me well. I browsed through the websites, and decided that a TV Box could do what I specifically needed. I shopped around for a TV Box. Believe me, it was quite difficult to shop around as the shops are situated very far from each other. I had to go from shopping mall to shopping mall just to ask if they actually sell the device.
Most of them don’t sell a TV Box, and I was about to give up. Then I decided to make that last search at Hang Tuah plaza for there used to be a shop selling game merchandise and console games. I asked the salesgirl about the TV Box, and she said there was only one unit left. After some negotiation of prices, I snapped up the last TV Box and quickly went home.
The TV Box was great! I was so excited to see my games loading in 22″ Widescreen format. To top it off, I unplugged my Sonic Gear speakers from my laptop for use with the PlayStation 2. Though the monitor has integrated speakers, I highly doubt that it could satisfy the hardcore console gamer like me. So I brought them out from the room, dusted them a little bit and plugged the necessary plugs into the Audio Out port of the TV Box. The subwoofer was absolute madness. I haven’t had the chance to test on any racing games, but the movie clips on several RPGs that I play certainly blew me sky high.
Jo decided that we should get a rack for the PlayStation 2, TV Box and speakers as the wires that are scattered all over the floor makes it hard to sweep and mop. We hopped down to Jusco and bought some parts, then built a pre-designed rack. The experience was awesome. We began to place the devices on the rack one by one. It took only a matter of minutes to finish arranging everything on the rack.
On days when I get pretty bored, I turned on both the PlayStation 2 and the TV. It feels damn good to play on the PlayStation 2 while watching television. It doesn’t matter what was showing on TV. Be it Martha Stewart, Rachel Ray or that weird Ape Ape Saja show on early mornings/late nights. If only I have some TVBs to watch while playing the games, that would be so awesome.
At the end of the day… I must keep reminding myself to not indulge into it too much. I have promises to keep and responsibilities to take care of. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy, but all play and no work makes Jack a total wreck.
Posted in Blog | 10 Comments »
Wednesday, July 23rd, 2008 |
Posted in Blog | Enter your password to view comments
Tuesday, July 15th, 2008 |
Watched Harold and Kumar 2 last night. In the last bit of the movie, Kumar recited this poem by David Feinberg. Why didn’t they teach this back in secondary school?
I fear that I will always be
A lonely number like root three
The three is all that’s good and right,
Why must my three kept out of sight
Beneath the vicious square root sign,
I wish instead I were a nine
For nine could thwart this evil trick,
with just some quick arithmetic
I know I’ll never see the sun, as 1.7321
Such is my reality, a sad irrationality
When hark! What is this I see,
Another square root of a three
Has quietly come waltzing by,
Together now we multiply
To form a number we prefer,
Rejoicing as an integer
We break free from our mortal bonds
With the wave of magic wands
Our square root signs become unglued
Your love for me has been renewed
Posted in Blog | No Comments »
Tuesday, July 8th, 2008 |
At 3am I was on the bed trying to sleep, but some meowing outside my window woke me up. It sounded like a kitten, so I quickly peeked outside. I was right. A fat kitten was meowing outside my window, looking for food and a place to sleep.
I opened the gates to allow the kitten to walk in by itself, but it was too afraid to do so. Well, if a giant approaches me, my first instinct would be to stay as far away as possible. So I opened up the last pack of Whiskas, and tried to lure the kitten in. Sorry Shoebox, you didn’t come back to claim your food so I donated it to the next kitten on my doorstep.
After some inspection, I named the cat Aretha after Aretha Louise Franklin. Aretha the kitten is so fat, I can’t even feel her bones when I stroked its back. It is also so loud, that when I was pampering the kitten it let out very loud purrs, and it woke up Jo who was sleeping in the next room.
I noticed its ears were too dry to the point that it could be rotten. It looked like there were lots of craters on its ear lobes. Maybe the kitten was sick, or it could just be dehydrated. I can’t find any information about this online, so I just let it be.
It had a blue collar around its neck. There was a small bell attached to the collar. It looked a bit like the type Doraemon wears. My guess is that Aretha got lost while looking for food, and ended up at my floor. It probably jumped out of the gates or something.
The kitten slept for a bit, while I kept watch. It woke up and started to meow again. I figured it was time to let it go, so I opened the gates and waited for it to walk out on its own. It did, but when I closed the gates it just sat outside my window staring at me. I couldn’t help it, so I decided to hold the kitten in my arms and take a short walk around the area to see if I can locate the owners.
It was 5am, and I still couldn’t locate a unit that has some kind of pet accessories that might be Aretha’s home. So I walked further a little bit. When I walked to the adjacent block, I saw an orange-striped adult cat licking itself by the drain. I thought it could be the mother because the last time I saw the orange-striped, it was pregnant. I held the kitten by its excess skin behind its neck real near to the orange-striped. The orange-striped took a sniff at the kitten, and then ran a few steps away. I managed to give chase, and tried again. It didn’t work, so I continued walking.
I walked across a field, but it didn’t bother me much because I thought it could be some exercise. It was great to breathe in a whole lot of fresh air! When I walked past a garbage dump, a gray cat jumped out of the dumpster and ran straight under a parked car. Aretha saw the cat and started to struggle a bit. When Aretha started to scratch, I placed it on the ground. Both cats ran towards each other. Then the gray cat gave a loud purr. Thinking that the gray could probably be its mother, I walked away and never looked back.
It was fun to have a kitten to play around with, but the responsibilities are just too much for me to handle. It could be alright if I have the time to toilet-train it or let it roam around the house, but things are just not right to have a pet at home right now. Besides, having a pet around the house will increase expenditure, which is very unfavorable at the moment.
My only regret would probably be that I didn’t take any pictures of it before letting it go.
Posted in Blog | 3 Comments »
