A Bit of Maths...

There are 30 objective questions in an Economics examination paper.

Let X be the number of questions that I scored correct in the paper.
Therefore X~N(30, 0.25)

0.25 is the probability that I will get a question correct.
0.75 is the probability that I will get a question wrong.

If I magically manage to get every single question correct, the probability for that event occuring will be...
P(X=30) = ³⁰C₃₀ (0.25)³⁰ (0.75)⁰ = 0.00000000000000000086736

Let's say that I know only half of the paper. So, I estimate that I'll get 15 questions correct...
P(X=15) = ³⁰C₁₅ (0.25)¹⁵ (0.75)¹⁵ = 0.000000000012445

Then let's say that the gods frown on me, and I shockingly end up with not even a single question correct...
P(X=0) = ³⁰C₀ (0.25)⁰ (0.75)³⁰ = 0.00017858

Hence, the probability of me having no questions correct is definitely higher than me mysteriously scoring all questions correct by random choosing.

I'm so doomed in my Economics.

Mentioned in The Star!

Oh boy, this came as a sudden shock for me. I was browsing and checking my e-mail when I came upon the daily digest from my local Malaysian BookCrossers group. It appears that our band of 200+ BookCrossers have finally gotten recognition in the local press! The local chapter of BookCrossing was one of the many parts in article about Malaysian book habits that was published in The Star two days ago.

Long timers Emily, Taty, Ariel and Betty were interviewed in the article, and Zarina was caught on camera! Even I was mentioned in one paragraph for founding the group!

Meanwhile scrolling a bit downwards on that article, fellow blogger Sharon Bakar was also interviewed! It's really a fantastic article, and special thanks ought go to the journalist who penned this article. Thank you so much!

Windows Media Player 11 released... but the agony!

Just a while ago, a little Gmail web clip led me to this Wired article, which led me to the site where you can download it from, which is Microsoft.

I'm one of those who use Windows Media Player as his main media player, and I love using it. So imagine the disappointment when I downloaded the installer and upon unpacking, I see this notice:

I closed the window and dumped the installer into the Recycle Bin.

I have no choice but to continue using WMP10. I can't install WMP11 because it needs the damn validation, which is impossible because my copy of Windows is not original here!

Arngh, I hate it when things like this occur.


[Update on Nov. 1 afternoon]: Thanks to Earl-ku for providing the .exe file, but still I'm unable to install WMP11 because I don't have Service Pack 2 on my computer! I give up on it. I'm gonna switch to a Mac if I have a chance to do so.


[Sidetrack]: I noticed that Blogger's image uploading feature has gone pear shaped. I can't upload any images onto Blogger without either getting a timed-out notice or a blank white window.

Why can't you just stick to two simple buttons without resorting to Javascript, Blogger? First button to select, the other to confirm upload!


Technorati tags: Microsoft, WMP, Windows Media Player

Brian Eno - Another Day on Earth

There's a good chance that you haven't Brian Eno before, since he deals with non-mainstream music. Though, he's best known for his ambient and minimalist works. This brings me to another point. So far the only Eno albums I've heard are Another Green World (1975), Music for Airports (1978) and Another Day on Earth (2005). His last album is a bit quirky, and I admit that I've just barely scratched the surface of his album (not literally mind you).

Another Day on Earth starts off with 'This', a very cheery and uplifting song complete with Eno's vocals. A friend of mine once commented that it sounds like Depeche Mode lite. 'And Then So Clear' as well as 'Passing Over' evokes a strange futuristic image. Through vocoders, Eno's vocal's were now morphed into the android-like vocals. I'm guessing that the former song was an attempt at an andriod with a soul, trying to prove that humanity exists in his metallic casing, while the latter one has a much harsher sound, a sound of regret and judgement. In between those two songs was 'Long Way Down' and 'Going Unconcious', both are dreamy songs that tend to lurk on the edge of nightmares. Throughout this album, Eno proves his best at various times and places in this album. 'Caught Between' is no exception. Love the gentle guitar riff.

If you felt that songs 3 to 6 have a dreary, dreamy and dark atmosphere, then songs 7 to 10 have the opposite effect. With the backing of a simple guitar strumming, Eno's voice in 'How Many Worlds' is clean and not very altered, and 'Just Another Day' reprises the theme from the first track. From what I think, Eno has gone a long way since Another Green World in terms of lyric-writing. Lines which sound quite silly when sung aloud like "I'll come running to tie your shoes" are a thing of the past now. I suppose through trial and error, Eno's past experience with ambient music and his vocal works resulted in this piece of finely crafted album. Do keep note on the guitar and piano lines that appear quite a lot, and even if you strip off the lyrics I think it could still stand as a very good intrumental ambient album. Even Eno's vocals is something to ought to hear for yourself. I'm one of those who really appreciate vocalists who can really really sing their heart out.

And then there's the very last song of the album, simply titled 'Bone Bomb'. A lone woman recites a poem word by word without any emotion, most likely the emotion has already been drained away from her. You can read the lyrics here. The technique of stretching the first letter is rarely heard, but I like the effect. "B-b-b-b-bone bomb". Then at the very end, it builds up to a buzzing climax... and ends abruptly.

I was left quite puzzled at this song until I came across this article about it. According to an interview with the St. Petersburg Times, Brian Eno was reading the newspapers one day when he came across 2 seperate stories, one about a female Palestinian suicide bomber, and the other about how the bones of suicide bombers can turn into shrapnel when they blow themselves up. This was the inspiration for 'Bone Bomb'.

From now onwards, each time I hear the ending it gives me serious goosebumps. This song is a serious contrast from the rest of the album, when the rest of the songs are titled and themed around 'just another day on earth', touching words and optimistic hopes. In this depressing last song however, it clearly is the woman's last day and last moment on earth! And the fact that Eno chose to create this song from the woman's viewpoint, and for the ending not to be a *BANG* nor a *BOOM* nor a *POOF* but rather the eerie silence that one faces when death occurs, that is just disturbing, especially to someone who has thoughts about his own mortality frequently.

Review score: 4 out of 5 stars.

Technorati tags: Brian Eno, Another Day on Earth

MUET Massacre

Absolute and total massacre is the only thing I could describe my MUET (Malaysia University English Test) oral exams earlier this morning. I was Candidate B during Task A and not only did I stammer quite a lot during the oral exam, but when I hit a brick wall I just stopped talking right at the spot. Nothing came out of my mouth, and I even found myself laughing to calm myself down because I was such a bundle of nerves.

During Task B, it was just slightly better. I had more points written down in my paper, though my attention wasn't really focused on my teammates. I was struggling to come up with more points, and I believe that I had stated the conclusion too soon. I say this because since we found ourselves talking in rotation from A till D, and Candidate C opposed my conclusion just because she hasn't finished mentioning her points. I wonder how much damage hitpoints we received just because of that.

My confidence for this Speaking paper has been seriously shaken, though there's still 3 more papers remaining for MUET. And if I don't score at least a Band 5, I'll try again with next year's examination.

Technorati tags: MUET

The Haze Strikes Back

After a week of continous cold and heavy rain here in Penang, the scenery here has abruptly turned back into a sky full of blurry smog. And yet although the winds are still blowing strong, it's bring in more and more haze to the island.

Dammit, we need more rain here!

Tanggal Tiga Puluh Satu...

Happy 49th Birthday Malaysia!

:D

If You're A Woman Living in JB...

This strange but yet true "joke" that's circulating in Johor is...

"If you're a woman and you live in Johor Bahru,
... then you surely had your purse or bag snatched at least once in your life."

I heard this being mentioned on ntv7's Chinese edition of My Siasat, and it certainly rings a bell to my ears.

The reason?

8 years ago when my family were still living in Johor, my mom fell prey to snatch thieves who rode on a motorbike, and smacked a hand right on her chest and grabbed her gold necklace. Mom was literally shocked and dazed after that. We were just thankful only the necklace got stolen, it could've been a lot worse.

So when this article appeared on yesterday's newspaper, you can't blame me when I said I was happy that another scumbag got nabbed by the public. Score one for the ramming down of the snatch thief, and score another for his capture! I'd be happy too if vigilante justice took hold, and the crowd kicked the shit out of the red-handed thief before handing him over to the police.

Even 8 years ago, snatch thieves were out on their motorcycles, lurking and observing women from a distance before committing the crime. 8 years later, instead of less crime, the security in JB is getting worse day by day. The more and more news articles that I read about victims dying from head injuries or end up paralysed from the neck or waist down, I have less and less sympathy towards the fate of these scumbags.

Alongside that incident in JB, did you know that my mom once encountered a smartly-dressed snatch thief on a motorbike right in Penang? She noticed that the guy was reaching his hand out for her, and so she took her umbrella to shield herself. The guy gave up and pointed an index finger and looked at her sternly as he fled on his bike. This second incident shocked my mom so much till even a motorcycle passing by alongside her is enough to give her a bad jolt.

So, don't ever be afraid to take a few swings of your umbrella at a snatch thief if you ever see a crime in progress, and don't be afraid to ram down a thief's motorbike. Since they brought this upon themselves, these thieves are a legitimate target with a giant bullseye painted on their back and chest.

[Edit]: On a more moderate note here, I'm not advocating that snatch thief victims ought to hang on to their posessions stubbornly. These victims often end up injured or dead in the process of struggling. So it's best to just let go your belongings if you're threatened. No amount of gold, money or jewellery is enough to replace a life.

R.AGE's Spirit of Penang!

Guess who's going to R.AGE's Spirit of Penang competition tomorrow?

It's none other than these four guys!

Left to right: Kah Leong, Kok Leong (me), Bi Cheng, and Edmund!

Yeap! The place's at the old Esplanade (not Gurney Esplanade), tomorrow morning starting from 7:30am. We're Team 4 Factorial! Wish us luck there! :D

2006 Heng Ee High School Concert

Even logging into blogger seems unfamiliar now. Gawd it's been over a month since I last blogged anything about my life here. Fair enough, plenty and I say PLENTY of stuff and events happened during this time period.


June 30, Friday night:
Annual school concert in Dewan Sri Pinang. A week later the event was covered in the North section of The Star. Despite what you read in the news article, the performance was NOT spectacular, and the entire concert was NOT magnificent. In fact the hall sound system was badly tuned and damaged the audience's hearing during the first 30 minutes of the concert, and most of the performances were mediocre. Let's say that for every 2 performances that each group played, only one out of those two were decent performances.

Bad performances: The brass band, harmonica band and Chinese orchestra were out of tune and out of rhythm at times, it ought to be called a practice session rather than a real performance.

Good peformances: The dance troupe and the drama club. The performances of both these two were simply great I can say! The dance troupe had both male and female dancers swinging and jumping wildly to a tribal snake-spirit appleasing ritual (or somesort) while the drama club's performance was simply surreal. The drama's about a group of 20 boys and girls questioning the very definition of the word "art". The entire performance was elaborately planned (about 30 minutes or more in length) with large scale cloth-twirling and even a "glow-in-the-dark" scene involving fluerescent-painted elephants and objects. I'd give them a standing ovation. :)

As for the rest of the performances like poetry recital and choir, I think they're not bad and pretty nice actually, but nothing stunning of course. :P Anyways, me and my mom were the ones who were watching this concert, since last year's concert was so interesting. Who would've thought that this years concert was exceptionally bad compared to last year?

I really pity the journalit from The Star who had to grimace and force himself to write about an "amazing" concert. Y'know, I can easily guess that some of these students who performed less than expectations could be given a dressing down by the seniors.

And by the way, the blurry photos were taken with by old handphone and its external camera. I don't think I can take proper pics with it anymore, since most of the pics nowadays turn out to be too blurry.

[Edit]: One more thing here, I couldn't believe how uncooperative the audience were. The announcers had already requested that the audience to NOT take pictures at the drama club performance because the flashes might affect the performance. Yet, the cameras flashed as much as fireworks in a dark stadium. Good gawd.

An Irony...

"Baldrick, do you know what irony is?"
"Yeah, it's like tinny or brassy, only it's made of iron."

Okay, now let's put that silly Blackadder quote aside.

Y'know, there was one... no, make that THREE ironies while I was at the driving centre last Saturday:
1. The driving instructor giving me a ride to the place had his handphone stuck on his ear for half of the trip there.
2. The lecturer talking about being physiologically exhausted while I was sitting there feeling exhausted, and...
3. The driver taking us back at the end of the course WASN'T wearing his seatbelts!

And oh by the way, I scored 42 out of 50 for the computerised driver's test! Passed barely, but still I passed it! :D

Almost Got Punched!

WTF???

Seriously, have we that many paranoid punks wandering around Penang nowadays? Just barely half an hour ago I was walking back from school and was at the the T-junction near my house when I saw someone sprinting like he was in a hurry or something. I saw the guy and he saw and ran up to me saying something which I didn't manage to hear. Then he pulled back his arm and fist and was looking like he was gonna take a punch AT ME! WTF? At that exact point I stepped backwards quickly and already raising my right arm in case his fist flew at me, I wasn't holding my other schoolbag close to my chest or else I would've use it to block. The guy later then walked away speaking in Hokkien that he'll "let Ah Pui know about this".

Weird weird weird. o__O;;;

I don't know what would happen if the fist landed on my face or stomach. There could be plenty of outcomes, but I'm not gonna think about it any longer. In short, I'm not gonna take that shortcut anymore and stick to the footpath beside the main street. This was tooooo weird.

On The Road To A Driver's Licence...

Has it been that long since I blogged here? Well, sorry guys for the lack of updates. School's just reopened this week and it's made me pretty tired these past few days. And the fact that 3 football World Cup games on the telly nightly isn't helping my case at all. I could only catch the first two games. :P

Anyways, that's not really the point here. The point is that after all of these while, I'm finally moving towards getting a driver's licence! My mom got a driving instructor's phone number last Friday night and the next morning I was scheduled to attend the course about the laws of the road, road safely and such stuff.

So, one bright and glaringly early morning at the very uncomfortable time of 8am, the guy who was the driving instructor appeared downstairs my apartment in a tiny and new Perodua Kancil and fetched me to at the main driving school in Sungai Ara. o.O Reached the spot 45 minutes later and had to wait a little before going into the lecture room. Passed a hundred bucks and IC to the same guy and he handed it to the folks at the counter, by then I had barely enough time to have a slice of bread for breakfast. Too rushing.

So, I got myself into the lecture room which was just beside the small exam room five minutes later. Everyone ranging from 16 year olds who were attending this course on their birthdays to middle-aged folks were there. There was even an Indonesian woman and a Pakistani man at the course too. :P I could say the people in charge inside the room there were pretty rushing too, since the changeover to the computer-chipped MyKad wasn't really proving to be convenient either. The scanner had problems reading the cards most of the times, further adding to the wait. And some of the chips were practically useless, so they had to resort to another kind of chipped card for the applicants. As for me blame it on my parents who haven't picked up the new ICs yet. I'm still stuck with my old one.


I saw too many
roadsigns. @.@ First lecturer was somewhat old Malay middle-aged guy, but he was darn hilarious with the talk. Shooting out Malay words like a machine gun and peppering his speech with antics and witty comments, the 4 hours seemed to pass by pretty fast enough. First break was a 15-minute break at 11 am and second break was a 30-minute break at 1pm. Then it was the turn for the second lecturer, he was an Indian guy but he wasn't as funny as the first one. But still, the little textbook needed to be roughly explained throughout the two lectures nontheless, and we were paying roughly 50 bucks for each lecturer. Checkout again was hampered by the same problems. Am just thankful that it passed soon enough.

So, overall the first lecture started at 9am and the second one ended officially at 3:30pm. A whole 6 and a half hours in that boring place with folks I don't even know at all. And to top it all off, I had to squeeze with 9 other people inside a Toyota Unser on my way back. So damn tired when I got back home.

By the looks of things, I'm gonna make an appointment and head back to the same place this Saturday to take the exams. If things go fast and well, the lecturer mentioned that the lessons and everything could be settled as fast as within a month! Am not gonna keep dragging this on anymore, my relatives are sorta bugging me to get my licence as soon as possible, and besides I keep seeing my classmates taking days off for their driving lessons. It really ought to be my turn now. :P

The Train Station...

So there I was, just stepped into the train station and saw three huge counters. The time was around 12:40pm. The one in front were for tickets, while the one on my left dealt with baggage ticketing and the right was the carpark payment counter. It must've been the holiday season or something, since the lines were long at all three counters.

It was only four minutes before the train arrived, and guess what? Dad had a stomachache right there at that moment.

"Dad, if you go to the toilet right then now we're gonna miss the train!"

He ignored me and walked straight ahead. The place rumbled a bit as a weird-looking service train passed through the station. Our train's not here yet, but I sure as heck know that it's gonna arrive right on the dot.

"Did you even know the car isn't parked properly yet?!?!"

The car was probably parked just outside of the station. And I have no idea where it's gonna end up once we board that train.

Also, we almost couldn't put the baggage in the train yet because everyone snapped up all of the numbers available. The person in charge told me to hold on as they were finding a way to settle this mess. Gawd knows what was wrong with me, I should've squeezed and grabbed a number but instead I stood like a fool as the crowd passed by me.

So many unsettled things, my dad's not helping me a bit, and lastly the train arrives in FOUR minutes. I have no idea how much longer the train will wait before it sets off again.

And then...


...


...my handphone rang, and...


...


...I woke up.


o.O


Turns out I was having a dream since last night. Was in bed thinking about trains, and I ended up dreaming about trains. Weird.

Free Domain Name From Microsoft With a Catch...

If you're in the US and have a credit card and are searching for a domain name for yourself, then read on this blog post. If you're not, then good luck and keep on searching. :P

Apparently Microsoft's now offering one free domain name bundled together with its new Microsoft Office Live Beta. And apart from the restrictions I mentioned a while ago, you also can't change the domain's host to a non-Microsoft one. Or is it so?

“Microsoft is offering to give you a free domain if you signup for Microsoft Office Live Basics Beta (http://officelive.microsoft.com/default.aspx)

...

“The only catch is, there is no technical support once you get a domain. However, I did not know this prior to signing up (and they do not tell you this ANYWHERE in the signup process).

“So, I signed up a domain name for a company I started. however, when I accessed my account, I was horrified to find that I could not change the host from being Microsoft to my own personal hosting provider.

“This seriously troubled me. So, I went through the entire site and NO WHERE does it say how to do this. I instead decided to do some contacting on my own.”

Read the rest of it at Darren's blog. :)


Technorati tags: Microsoft, Office Live Beta, Domain names

Amazon.com Ads

I signed up for Amazon's Associates Program quite a few weeks ago, though process was fast and simple (compared to Google), I've only put up the Amazon.com ads a while ago.

That should be enough ads for now methinks, except for the referral buttons at the bottom of the blog. I should definitely adjust those a bit more. Anyways, any comments? :)

Deep Forest Music Videos

You know, for all of these while I never really like Deep Forest's music. I used to think that the tribal chants were rather weird and that sort of turned me off. It was an entire different cup of tea. During that time I was used to Enigma's songs, and as you may know Enigma and Deep Forest have had their fair share of comparison to each other's works.

And now today, I came accross a music video of "Martha's Song", one of Deep Forest's songs which have made them immensely popular (but still not as popular as Enigma nontheless). The song which I thought to be weird actually fit into the music video. As you can see, some of the videos are pretty surreal and never clear, it takes several times of viewing to sort out the things that you see.



A word about the music though. I think most of you guys would be equally weirded out too, listening to foreign chating that sounds like Indian or gawd knows what language it is, and not even knowing what it means. Well, it can take two, three or even more listens to get the hook of it. It happened to me too. Never ever force yourself to sit through an entire song or album. The main point of music is to just enjoy it and let it entertain you.

And well, if you are able to take down the path of non-mainstream music, only then your ears and your mind will be open. There's already a ton of similar music out there on the market, on the television and also on the radio that keeps on playing the same old songs time after time, and entire music industry that's dedicated to churning out music. Everyone needs a breath of fresh air sometimes, you know?

Anyways, here are other music videos also by Deep Forest worth a watch (and listen!), I've linked them to avoid clogging up the blog post with too many videos.
- Deep Forest
- Sweet Lullabye
- Madazulu


Technorati tags: Deep Forest, Sweet Lullabye, Madazulu, YouTube

Google's Been Generous...

I've found myself fiddling around with several Google tools and services lately, most of them pretty nifty if you ask me. :P Here some of 'em that I joined recently.

Google Hosted
Was checking my e-mail address yesterday when I found out that they my application for Google Hosted was approved, and I had received clearance! Three and a half months, I applied for that darn thing on February 24th and only got to use it yesterday! Though I'm very interested in this service, my local webhosting provider only provided me a faux access to the domain name, and unless I get full access to the domain name, I'm afraid it's currently being wasted. :/

The thing attractive about Google Hosted is that if you own a domain name, it's possible to create e-mail accounts under that domain name, but yet it utilises Gmail as its interface and storage site. E-mail accounts are capped at 2GB though, more than enough I think.


Google Analytics
And today, I just received my Google Analytics invite in my mailbox. Though it seems like it's geared towards AdWords subscribers and looks very profession and polished. AdWords optimisation is the game, but no AdWords for me yet though, so I'm still finding a purpose and looking through the website.


Google Sitemaps
This one doesn't need an invite, but it's still as useful as the two others. Now Google Sitemaps is a information gathering service for your website, not unlike SiteMeter methinks, but I don't think I'll be ditching SiteMeter for Google Sitemaps anytime soon. It's still worth a shot though.


Google AdSense
Now this is something most of us would be really interested in, right? Google's money-making tool for webmasters. Who are we kidding here? A little cash in the pocket would definitely ease the wallet. :P

Wonder if anyone remembers two AdSense-related post I wrote two years ago? Had AdSense on this blog once back in 2004, but a month later turns out I was suspended due to my age. Well, on day that I turned 18 I sent another application to the Google guys and asked them to re-review the website, and finally I'm now accepted. So now that I've ads in this blog, do let me know if the ad placements or layouts could be edited or changed somewhat. :)


Technorati tags: Google, Google Hosted, Google Analytics, Google Sitemap, Google AdSense

Thoughts...

Just now when I was standing on the balcony and looking towards the horizon, I had a strange urge to just drive across the Penang Bridge and perhaps wander around Butterworth even though it's midnight. But then, I haven't even gotten my car license yet. *drops head*

This is making me feel like playing "Neon Lights" (a Kraftwerk song) on Windows Media Player. Feels strange.

Dropping a Subject

I know I can be long-winded here, but please bear with me a bit, will ya? :P

I've been taking three optional subjects and during the past two weeks, I've attened classes for five Form 6 subjects, not including MUET. And I've come down to the conclusion to just drop Malay Language. The subject is pretty neat itself, and the lessons can be useful when the teacher rambles off and turns it into a "brainwashing session", but I don't think I'm that capable of taking five subjects at once. Better to just drop one for now and lessen the burden, four is just fine enough.

And to be honest, I'm sort of thinking twice and thrice about this decision. Though I'll have 2 free periods 4 days a week, it's sort of a pity not to listen to the teacher's ramblings. It can be boring when she teaches, but she's easily prone to teaching 15 minutes and then spending the rest of the hour talking off-topic into stuff regarding general life or university life or even teenage relationships. In short, once she rambles it's gonna be an interesting and witty one, so most of the students in the small class keep their ears peeled. :P

Another guy dropped the subject already, and it looks like it's gonna be me and Edmund's turn. Tak boleh tahan (cannot stand) anymore...

Though over the rest of the year I think the number will still be thinning from its current 16, but the number will probably rise when students find Accountings to be too hard and then switch subjects to Malay Language. From the frying pan and into the fire, if you ask me.


Technorati tags: Form 6

Toxic-Smelling Laundry!

YUCK! YUCK! YUCK!!!

Never in my entire life have I smelt anything such disgusting, noxious, foul-smelling, and even stomach-churning stench before! I was helping doing the laundry for my dad's work clothes, and as I dumped the bucket of soaked clothes out, I was blasted with a smell that will haunt me for eternity. I cringed, and I almost gagged, this is the worst smell that I have ever encounted. Ever.

Sweaty shirt, sweaty pants, sweaty underwear and especially sweaty socks, soaked inside a tub of water for an entire day, it's the perfect ingredient to make a stinkbomb that'll dissipate even the worst unruly crowds. I think it needs an entire bottle of softener to get rid of that rubbish dump and rotted cuttlefish smell.

Now that I just mentioned this to mom too, she's apparently laughing her head off.

I think I just caught a whift of the stench, now please excuse me as I get back to my room and shove a piece of air-freshener up my nose.

Mike Oldfield on BBC Radio 2

I just read a bit of news from the Tubular.net forums that Mike Oldfield is going to appear on BBC's Radio 2 on next Sunday, May 28, 2006 at around between 7 to 9am British time. If you're a rabid fan like me, you know you're gonna try to stick around that time to listen to the live broadcast. :P

The show is Good Morning Sunday, hosted by Aled Jones. I'm gonna guess that in the interview, they're gonna talk a bit about Mike's past so that they won't confuse new listeners. As usual, the mere mention of Light and Shade will be excluded, and they'll be talking about the Platinum Collection, which has been released a few months ago. Hopefully we'll get to know more about his new autobiography and the studio album that he's currently working on. :)

From left to right: Tubular Bells (1973), Hergest Ridge (1974), Ommadawn (1975), Incantations (1978), and Amarok (1990).
Mike's previous interviews were also held in February and March, both also on BBC Radio 2. During the interviews, Mike talked about his previous albums and career, a bit about the book, and some juicy info about the album-in-progress. Last we heard from him in the interview is that he is making a 3-track album as opposed to 2-track album like Tubular Bells, Hergest Ridge and Ommadawn, a single-track album like the masterpiece Amarok, and a 4-track album like the minimalist and instrumental Incantations. Mike's prolly going back to his roots, and a 3-track album will be another splended feather in his cap I hope!


Technorati tags: Music, albums, Mike Oldfield, BBC Radio 2

Slowly Making Me Go Bankrupt...

Yes I'm aware that I can be a cheapskate sometimes, I just can't help but notice how expensive the books are for Form 6. When you're in Form 6, there's no government-assisted textbook lending scheme. That means all books have to be bought, and from what I know it's gonna get even expensive for university books.

I've already paid RM60 for General Studies and Mathematics and gotten both books more or less at the spot. And tomorrow I need another RM70 for Business Studies and MUET (Malaysian University English Test) books. When you add up to the RM150 I've already paid for school fees and MUET fees last week, and even though mom's helping me out a bit with the fees, I'm still gonna be left with little cash to spare. :(

From top to bottom: Mathematics 1, General Studies, Microeconomics, and Macroeconomics.
Every one of them thick, heavy and intimidating, with enough to make your head explode from reading it.

There's still more books to come tomorrow and the day after. The good part is that they're usable for the next year and a half, the bad part is that they're easily worn out and some books smell like they've been dipped in a chlorine solution. x.X

About the books, I'm pretty glad that they're using English for Mathematics, and that the Science stream students are also taking Science and Mathematics lessons fully in English, though some students would find it hard to cope with. And also, if I'm seriously gonna take Malay Language I need to get an additional four more books.

Even though Form 6's much more affordable than college, education still doesn't come cheap indeed.


Technorati tags: Form 6, books

Last.fm

Now this is pretty nifty! Last.fm is a website that lets you track your music and your musical tastes through a plugin in WMP, Winamp or any other music players. Been seeing it around some forums for quite a while, and it was only till recently did I sign up for it.

Apart from forum signatures, I originally wanted this to be placed in my blog's sidebar, but apparently all of the designs are too wide. Not sure placing anywhere else would look nice either, so I'll just paste it in my blog here. :)



Nothing fancy, but this one looks neat. And as you can see, it's no surprise whose music I listen to frequently. :P


Technorati tag: Last.fm

First Week of Form 6

As expected, the first schooling day of Form 6 started with a bang rather than a whimper. :P First day and I was already late when I reached there, and to make things worse I couldn't find the place where the students were supposed to gather. Luckily a bit later a prefect told me to head to the music room (yesh the supposedly same creepy music room). Headcount at the end of the day was roughly 90 students for the science stream students and 70 for the humanities stream students.

I won't ramble that much about the week, but just wanted to say a bit about it. :P Well, the first day everyone was at the music room, it was only on the second day did we shift to the second lecture hall. The science students had the first lecture hall to themselves there. The bad side for the science students is that they're right next to the teacher's room. If they make a too much of a din every teacher will know, but as for us being at the second floor behind the hall's balcony is a good thing I suppose. We make noise all we want and it gets little attention! xD

So, back to normal school life, back to normal canteen food and living a slightly better life than other students in my school I suppose. The only thing out is that we all students are being watched carefully, by Big Brother. The school just installed CCTVs at just around every corridor, stairwell and corner of the school! Tempted to wave at them as we walk by though. o.O

As for the lecture hall, it was originally a small chapel I think. Behind the mini-stage and white board were statues of the Virgin Mary and Jesus on the cross, all behind a glass partition. The place's air conditioned whenever there's lessons, that's a pretty good incentive to be there every time there's class. :P

Unlucky me for me to be seated at the first seat of the first row. The screen for the projector is just three feet away from my table, and it glares badly towards the eyes when turned on. And it makes things worse when you're sleepy and trying to stay awake. But then lucky me to have Edmund seated next to me though! Thanks man! xD

So for the venue, it's just temporary the headmaster and his assistant said. The rest of the school are busy with their exams, and we using the lecture hall, it's just for the moment. We'll most likely be shifted to another classroom at the start of June. Teachers seem to be pretty good at the moment, though I've heard horrible things about the science stream teachers. Not much work to do for the time being apart from reading a bit, lucky for us too.

So, the first week has ended, and the second week is just beginning. Then the two-week holiday arrives! Hope homework won't be too much of a burden there...


Technorati tag: Form 6

Happy Mother's Day!

Well, today is Mother's Day!

My mom, she's been around with the family and taking care of for a very long while, and most of the time she there to be the sensible voice for the family. It's no surprise that she's been appreciated. My sister who's in Butterworth, through my dad she sent mom a small bouquet of flowers and a very large chocolate cake from Secret Recipe, a local chain of cake shops. I still remember last year's cake, it was chocolate and coffee. :P

It's been quite a long while since we've tasted a cake like this. *drools*

Luckily I found out a bit earlier that I could finally use my handphone to snap some pics now. So, why not taking a pic of the creamy chocolate cake before eating it? On a related note, check out my LifeLogger profile, I'm gonna be more active there!

So, mom had the honour for the first slice, then dad had a slice, and I had one too...


Fancy a slice? =9

Turns out the whole cake is made out of dark chocolate and covered with dark chocolate. The chocolate taste was overpowering and the cake was certainly very sweet. I haven't even finished this slice of cake yet actually. Though the cake's very nice, Secret Recipe's cakes have always been always been a delight to try, though it wouldn't hurt them to try out a little variety on an all-chocolate cake.

Earlier in the day, sis phoned and told my mom that she was sending the cake and two currypuffs. She also couldn't make it as she was living in Butterworth and busy with plenty of stuff there. So later on when dad handed me the cake and currypuffs did I notice that the currypuffs were in two boxes. Judging by the looks of the box I mentioned to my mom tbat she probably heard wrong as I assumed she meant two boxes rather than two pieces.

So I open the box and this is what I was greeted with...


This is most possibly the world's largest chicken currypuff. 'Tis sort of scary if you ask me.

Dad had tried it already but I haven't yet, and what I could see inside was chicken stuffing, carrots and some other veggies inside. I haven't tried it yet though and am keeping it for tomorrow. My mom won't try it as she's switched to a semi-vegetarian diet in order to improve her health. The cake she's eating though. And by the looks of even if all of us three eat the cake everyday, it'll only be finished after around two weeks of eating. @.@

wittysquirrel at eBay?

If you ever happen to be browsng at eBay and see the username "wittysquirrel" selling or buying something there, please be aware that the person using that account isn't me at all. I have no idea why did this person just switch his name like that, and his previous nickname "witty3501" yielded no Google results. Was this person's intent on using the same nickname as mine merely an innocent one, or was he jumping on my bandwagon uninvited?

Here's the link to his profile and here's to his account history. If it was really me at eBay, you'd be seeing the username "andylkl" rather than "wittysquirrel" and here's my real profile to back it up. Though I browse eBay most of the time, I'm also mostly inactive when it comes to buying/selling stuff, hence the 0 comments there. If I had a credit card and had full access to a PayPal account, I might not be that idle there. :P

Though it might really be nothing much of an issue here, but I thought it would be best if I could at least blog a bit about this, in case someone could really mistaken this guy for me.

Trigger-Happy TM Net!

The people working at TM Net are really seemingly trigger-happy and efficient when it comes to suspending people's accounts, but when it comes to reactivating the accounts, they just take their own sweet time to do so. The last time it happened, I had to make three to four calls to their hotline, and this time round I had to call them TWICE and waited more than two hours here!

Today the first time it was a guy who took my call. Oh come on, although it's the third month already, this month's bill wasn't even overdue yet, and I received no red-coloured notices in my postbox. I told that to the guy but was replied to check my e-mail inbox, as they'd be sending notices to the e-mail accounts now rather than snail mail. When everything was done I was told it'd take up to two hours for me to get back online, but two hours passed and the situation remained unchanged. It only took a second phone call to TM Net before it was finally back to normal.

I remembered the guy mentioning about the e-mail notices and took a look in my inbox, and I found this piece of mail. Look at the underlined part.


(Name and e-mail address has been censored to protect the innocent. Well... Okay okay, it's for privacy actually. :P)

So, in addition to TM Net technicians who suspend accounts that gleefully, the connection has also been really bad in the past few nights. And now, we have to pay an extra RM10 for unreliable reactivation? You must be kidding me!


Technorati tags: TM Net, Streamyx

Heng Ee High School and Spooky Rumours

I was doing some Google searches about my high school when I found two threads from the Ragnarok Online forums. And though it does unnerve me a little, like any other places Heng Ee High School does emit its own creepyness sometimes. Going back to the school for a sixth and soon seventh year really is making me revisit the "rumours" of spooks and any other supernatural occurance in my school. What can I say? It's a favourite topic of mine! :P

If you're sorta squirmish or sensitive regarding this topic, it's advisable to stop reading at once and turn away from this post!

Snippet from this thread:

"haihz.. at penang "heng ee" skoll... case happen when the maingate(three of them) the last gate count from left to right,open sure got accident 1.. and once it happen on my friends boyfren.. i was sad enough coz i noe the guy.. my friend cry till faint when my friend go seehes bf face.. she said she saw hes bf smiling at him.. then gone ady... hes bf body was separated into 2 parts..

once the heng ee open STUPID GATE!~ got 1 boy let skol buss roll over hes head.. and the brains pop out falls on the drink seller uncle stall.. many ppl say the boy self fall down when hes the 1st person run out using dat gate.. hes juz form 1.. the boy was rakan sebaya member..in science garden many ppl say they saw the kid there playing water!! the headmaster wif all teacher pray him ask him don disturb the students.. until muz call hes mother come say sorry coz on dat day hes mother saw hes son ran out b4 got crush hes mom scold him bad word..he run around the skkol corridor everymorning and play piano in hall.. haiz.. all hes mother fault la.. the kid beh siok revenge!!"

Just for the fact fiders searching for any grains of truth in this rumour. Well, this incident happened in 2000, a year before my batch, and the kid was indeed Form 1 when that unfortunate incident occured. He was run over by a school bus right outside the school gate (third gate or not I don't know).

A bit of info about the third gate here. If you're standing from the outside and facing towards the school, the third gate is on the most right-hand side. Personally I've never seen the gate being open before, but now students park their bikes at the gate now. Really interesting to know that there's a rumour like this revolving around the gate. o.O

And whether or not his spirit really roams throughout the school I also don't know about that. But what I can verify is that teachers and the headmaster have set aside a day where they'll light up joss sticks and burn some "gold paper" in the school garden which is right outside the teacher's office. I've seen it with my own eyes here. Whether or not you choose to associate this with the boy's spirit, it's for you to decide.

Snippet from this thread:

"But got 1 more 4got tell.. Theirmusical room also very geli.. If morning skoll ppl,Some bad luk will saw red colour thing moving around de.. The red thing dissapear when ppl go in the room de.."

There's two music rooms in the school, one on the second floor and one on the third floor, both on the newer block. The one of the second floor keeps all of the musical instruments for the brass band and also the school's Chinese orchestra. When anyone plays in the room it creates a loud din, but when there's no one the rooms are eeriely silent. And not to mention the stairway leading directly to the two rooms is dark and gloomy too. For me I haven't seen anything there at all.

There's also this post and the post underneath it. However I knew neither of the things that this guy wrote there. However the post underneath it indeed mentions a running rumour within the school, a rumour that someone from the school will die every year. That's just plain poppycock in reality though. Though there still were cases of people from the school (including a teacher) passing away in 2003 and 2004, there were none in 2005 as far as I know of, and I definitely hope everyone's safe this year round.

And on a personal note here, my Form 2 Chinese teacher (Mrs. Low) once mentioned in class that she once had a new student who was transferred from another school. Apparently this guy had a "third eye" and could see spirits, and he mentioned to my teacher that he saw "things" everywhere in the school, in the hallways and in the toilets those sorts of places. A month later he was transferred from my school into another one.

In conclusion, keep an open mind and take everything that you've read (including this blog post here) with a grain of salt. I'm a skeptic of most paranormal-related stuff, and even though I enjoy reading about it, it doesn't make me a believer. It's best not to tempt fate, and even I'm gonna touch wood several times for writing this blog post, just to be on the safe side. :P

Monday Form 6 Briefing

Last Monday, on the 8th, I didn't expect to see so many former Form 5 students sitting in my school's lecture hall to listen to the briefing. Heck, even those who didn't plan to head onwards to Form 6 just attended for fun and listen to the briefing.

During the whole two hours there starting from 8:30am (I was only late a few minutes), the whole lecture hall was filled to the brim until extra chairs had to be brought in and folks had not choice but sit on the steps. Even then people were still coming in. Man, who would've thought it would attract such a big crowd here?

So, during the whole course of the briefing, there were two teachers, the assistant headmaster and headmaster himself giving talks in the hall. Stuff like subjects offered by the school, exam papers, MUET, and frequently asked questions about Form 6 were all well covered.

It's confirmed that the Form 6 boys need not have crew cuts, the headmaster received cheers and a round of applause for announcing that. But this got a bad response from the girls, and the boys later retorted that it's the girls who should have crew cuts! Hehe!

So, the subjects offered for the science stream students were:
1. General Studies
2. Mathematics S+T
3. Chemistry
4. Biology or Physics

For the last option there, they couldn't choose both as Biology and Physics students were seperated in two classes.

For humanities students like me, the school only offers:
1. General Studies
2. Economics
3. Mathematics S or Chinese Language
4. Business Studies
5. Accountings or Malay Language

General Studies and Economics were mandatory subjects, but the last five subjects were all optional. The only reason it was grouped like that was because the timetable for choices #3 and #5 would overlap, so they couldn't take two subjects if the schedule conflicts. Overall, my school's not that flexible if you ask me.

Well, there was no History and no Literature in English, so the subjects that I went with were General Studies, Economics, Mathematics S, Business Studies and Malay language as the optional fifth subject. o.o I'm not on good relations with the Malay Language teacher ever since she teached me in Form 3, but I'm willing to see what happens next. No harm done if I drop out of that subject later on. :P

So, the briefing eventually took an extra half-hour and only ended at 10:30am. Met some old buddies, and couldn't even recognise some. Some looked totally fit from their National Service stint, some looked even cooler than before, but a friend of mine really stood out there. If Noodle from the band Gorillaz ever had an elder brother, I'd imagine him to be very similar to my friend here. o.o

An interesting note about that Monday was that it was only six minutes before the briefing start and yet I had to scoop a pair of kittens from the road and place them safely on the sidewalk. Darn lady didn't dare to pick up the kitten underneath her parked car so I had to do the dirty work. Didn't see the kittens on my way back though.

And also, I was wrong about the headmaster transferred to another school. Very wrong. My sincere apologies in case anyone leapt in joy from my original announcement there.



Technorati tags: Form 6

Mystery of the Blinking Lights Solved!

Nope, it has nothing to do with too much power being used, it has nothing to do with my computer, it's not the generators supplying not enough power, it's not our neighbours stealing our electricity, and it's definitely not anything spooky that led to the electricity problems in my house.

You know what was the culprit? Two faulty parts, one part was inside the electric meter and the other part was inside the fuse box. The part in the meter which was directly connected to the in-cable was already burnt black when the house owner and his cousin (an electrician) checked it on Saturday. The other part I'm not sure how do describe it, as I don't know much about electrical components anyways. Both the parts were changed, it took the two of them two hours to fix it, and thankfully the problem's all solved now.

About the burnt part, no wonder the electric meter went fast and made my computer restart here. Really hope my CPU wasn't damaged too bad from that 2-3 weeks of random restarts. =\ I should really get a small power supply unit for the computer some time soon.

Form 6 Preparations

So, it's official.

Form 6 classes starts on May 15th, and on there's a briefing for all of the heading-to-Form 6 students in my school on next Monday. Bring along your SPM results slip, IC and birth certificate (the letter said so, but maybe it's only for students applying for my school but heck, I'll bring 'em anyways).

My half-year holidays are coming to an end, and classes are starting in two weeks. I just only got to knew from the headmaster that mixing and matching subjects is indeed possible in my school, contrary to what I heard from my friends. I'm currently in the Kemanusiaan (Humanities) stream and not the science stream. If I had taken the science stream earlier on, it would be as clear as daylight which subjects I'm gonna choose. So I'm in the other stream, and definitely still undecided yet for the subjects that I'm gonna choose here.

1. Pengajian Am (General Studies)
2. Ekonomi (Economics)
3. Pengajian Perniagaan (Business Studies)
?. Literature in English...?
?. Sejarah (History)...?
?. Mathematics S...?

The subject I'm currently avoiding like the plague is Perakaunan (Accountings). If the school gives me a breather and allows me to skip it, I'll gladly do so. If they force me to take it with Economics then I have no choice sadly. The subject itself is just okay, but I'd like to move on with other subjects now thank you very much.

Text books, reference books, a few long white pants and school shirts, and lastly a new pair of school shoes, these are some of the stuff that I need to get first. No choice but to join in the rush on Wesak Day this Friday. Btw, Mom also reminded me, bottles of milk, Bodhi tree (points for you if know what I mean :)).

So now, any thoughts about the subjects I'm considering here? Which ones should I take? Which ones I shouldn't take?


On a semi-related note, does anybody who read The Star remember reading this piece of article about new school headmasters? Well, although it wasn't mentioned in the article, but Heng Ee High School also has a new headmaster! Hip-hip hurray! :D


Technorati tags: Form 6

Malaysia's Thomas Cup (Mis)adventure

Malaysia's match against Denmark last night, broadcasted live on TV2. It was...

So exciting and thrilling!

So fast-paced and heart pounding!

So proud and happy to see the Malaysian supporters in Japan!

So glad to hear them cheer out loud for the team!


And yet...

So heartbroken when the team lost the tie 2-3.

So disappointed that we could've actually won and gotten into the finals.

So annoyed that the Badminton Association of Malaysia could've fielded a stronger team.


Malaysia's bad streak of its national team in tournaments continues, when and where it'll end no one knows. First the Malaysian men's hockey team failed to qualify for the Hockey World Cup even though they were the bronze medalists of the Melbourne Commonwealth Games. That was a tremendous disappointment seriously.

Then it was the recently concluded (for Malaysia) badminton Thomas Cup championships. Despite boasting one of the largest contingents which included an entire sparring team, physical trainers, a nutritionist, sports analysts, a psychologist and masseurs, which raised the eyebrows of the other teams, we still came back empty handed for the seventh time in a row!

Really am doubtful towards BAM's preparations towards the tournament, were they so confident of their singles lineup that they chose Kuan Beng Hong as the fourth singles shuttler? Including Kuan there was a gamble itself, and sadly it didn't pay off well. No offence intended though. And well, in the second singles Hafiz Hashim could've killed off Kenneth Jonassen after taking a one-set lead, and Malaysia would've likely ended up with a 3-1 scoreline and a ticket to the finals instead of a 2-3 loss. Too bad I missed watching the first singles and doubles matches though. Turned on the TV and it was the Hafiz-Jonassen match already there.

That's enough bashing about the players who lost. To be honest I think Lady Luck just wasn't with the team. Captain Wong Choong Hann's injury to his Achilles tendon was just plain bad luck, and even if the team managed to scrape through last night's match with all of their effort, I'm sort of doubtful if they have enough energy to face China's team.

Well overall, it was still a good effort from the team there. The doubles pairs did well against the odds to beat their Danish opponents, and the singles did their job throughout the tournament. The shuttlecocks were blazing fast and furious, definitely a very quick match in terms of playing.

Next time then Malaysia, and prepare well for 2008 edition! 8th time's the charm!


Technorati tags: Malaysia, badminton, Thomas Cup

18. Finally.

Just a very short blog post here.

On this very day, I turned 18! :D

Hectic Day

Phew! Pretty much a hectic day today. After days and days of postponing (with no help from me and my mom, on alternate days), finally got to settle roughly 90% of the things that needed to be settled.

All in all, managed to pay off the electricity and phone bills at the bank, renew both me and my mom's magazines for the year, and get the housing application forms for the apartment that's currently in construction, all within the space of 3 hours and a kereta sapu with a driver patient enough to wait through it.

Coincidentally at the post office, I saw the old man who works as a fortune teller and living in a flat near the Jelutong municiple wet market. I recognised him but I don't believe he really remembered who I was, or did he? He was picking up a parcel from the post office and walked quite a long while to get to the place.

Anyways, am heading off to bed now. Goodnight everyone. :)

Flickering Lights / Headphones

I have absolutely no idea why the lights in my apartment blink at times. First it was just quick blinks for several hours, everyone including my parents could just shrug it off and ignore it. Then the flickering got worse until the fluorescent lights itself stop working for a few seconds and interrupt the power of my CPU, making it restart by itself.

It came up a few days ago while I was using my computer for several hours, but stuff like these never happened before. I'm guessing that my leaving my computer on to download through BitComet might be a reason for it though, and it uses too much power from a power point. Eh, it's just a guess of mine. Though when I spoke to dad about the lights, his voice lowered and spoke with a whisper and said "it's a ghost". Boy did I enjoy what he managed to tell and spook me when I was a kid, but seriously this can be scientifically explained. I'm a skeptic now, though I see stuff at the edge of my eyes occasionally. I just shrug it off too.

Anyways, have to either cut down the use of the TV and computer though. The worst was these past two nights, but then now the situation seems somewhat okay already.

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

Got myself another pair of Philips headphones last month. It's a pair of closed ear headphones. 40 bucks, it kinda burned a hole in my pockets though. Imagine the pain that I went through when nephew tried to stretch the headphones. Grrrr... Anyways, another week or two after that, I dropped it and the sound quality of the left side declinded big time. It became somewhat muffled but it can be solved crudely by adjusting the balance of the sound.

Strangely, a second accidental drop a week ago fixed that problem but it introduced another problem. Wires seem to be a bit lose, and the sound partly or completely disappears when that happens. Stuffing the base of the wires deep inside helped a bit though. If it was others I think I might've chucked this pair of headphones away, but I definitely wouldn't. I'm gonna get a better pair in the future, and I absolutely will not let it fall into the hands of a kid again!

Chess MSSPP Musings

Y'know, I didn't even knew that the chess MSSPP championship was in progress until a friend of mine told me about it through MSN. Thanks Randy! As usual, the competition was held from 28-30 March and 4-7 April, which is always on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. First one is individual events and second one is team events. My fault for not completely blogging about last year's event though. Kinda lost the mood and motivation to resume blogging about it.

So anyways, I only attended the team events, which is on Tuesday and Wednesday, Thursday is just too early for me to catch it. Besides, it takes a good 20 minutes for me to walk slowly to Penang Free School (the venue again this year), I need the exercise too, considering I don't usually get outside much nowadays. Also tried out having lunch at the McDonalds there! :9

So, I was there and watched the Under-15 boys team of Heng Ee crushing Methodist Boys' School 4-0, the Under-18 team was busy dealing with a Malay secondary school whose name I can't really remember right now. On the second day of the team events both Under-15 and Under-18 teams were up against St. Xavier's Institution, and both teams lost by a score of 1.5-2.5.

I was there to sorta cheer for my high school team, absolutely had no pressure for me cause I wasn't participating this year. :P Can't say the same for next year though, if I head to Form 6. Disappointing sometimes, when I saw some of the players playing against their opponents, the only thing in my mind is "j00 R royally screwed". No kidding there. Just make a mistake there, and you're screwed for real.

About our school's results, my friend got sixth place out of 135 participants in the Under-18 boys category, this is the best ever result that I have ever seen! Didn't manage to blog about it last year, but I got 18th placing with 5.5 points and that was the best result as of then. This year my friend topped up that acheivement with 6.5 points! :D Anyways, looks like we Heng Ee folks are gonna keep up with having the highest unrated players! :P As for team events, Under-18 team finished sixth while Under-15 boys were placed fourth for the second year in a row. Not a bad result I'd say. :) Most of the results can be obtained through the Penang Chess Association's website here.

On a somewhat related note here, I wanted to squeeze in a mention in this blog post about something that happened during last year's competition. I had a very bad encounter with a person. If you happen to come upon this post and know what I'm talking about, I want to let you know that I will not apologise for what I did because you are so 'effing rude! Even until now!

That's all for now. Thank you for reading.


Technorati tags: Chess, MSSPP

Cleanup and Status Update

Just a blog post about well, this blog really. Cleanup and status update. :)

I recently just removed some links to other blogs seeing that it's dead, domain's expired or it's just not worth linking anymore. Did browse most of the blogs in my list and I'll decide whether or not I'll keep them after reading it later on. After all, I think I did miss quite a lot when I was leaving this blog unattended. My principle in exchanging links is that if you link me I'll surely link back to you. Of course, that means I'm also open to link exchanges anytime. :P

And the situation of this very blog, it did cross my mind many times while I wasn't blogging. I thought about closing it straightaway for at least three times here, but I'm hesitant to do so. Thought about moving towards another blogging system, thought about moving to another website, those are really some nice suggestions, but after all home is still home, think that down inside here I'm actually glad that I didn't close it down. I've still not outgrown Blogger yet, trusty old pal. :)

Leggy Woes

Two weeks ago, and just a few days before I was due to collect my SPM results, I felt something wrong with my legs. First it was the left leg, then when my left leg was better it changed to my right leg and vice versa. Pretty strange really, to see my leg taking turns to ache.

So, I think the most likely that's causing my leg to hurt is my err... 8 or 9 year old swivelling computer chair. Noticed that the seat's too low and my legs bending like that for most of the day made it strained out. Could be the nerves under my knees that was affected due to my sitting position.

Anyways, during the four days of pain, I couldn't straighten or bend my knees without wincing. At the end of the fourth day, just plain simple walking was like trotting through HELL. No kidding. I tried to stay in bed or at least on the couch for most of the day, but seeing that I actually had to get up to get some drinks or food, or even heck, going to the toilet for a pee was excruciating.

And when night came and dad was back from work, dad and mom took me to a clinic that my sixth aunt recommended. Now as I mentioned earlier, plain walking was already painful, but yet I had to get dressed, get out of the house, walk down the stairs, getting myself into the carseat as soon as possible (traffic at the back of the car), finding the way to the clinic (turns out that sixth aunt gave us the wrong name of the road), get out of the car quickly (traffic again), made my way to the clinic and sit down yet again to wait for my number. I tell you, it was basically one whole year of pain compacted into four little days. Being greeted in the doctor's office with his cushiony high stool was the only relief of the day, to be honest.

Later it turns out the doctor says I shouldn't go hiking with my condition, I should take more breaks while I'm at the computer, and that I was already running a fever and I didn't realise it. And when I got the perscription, you know how clinics are operated in Malaysia, the nurse at the counter says "take X pills/tablets every Y hours" for each packet, and we don't get to know exactly what the names of those medicine are. Worries me a bit, actually. So, I guess one of those tablets was painkillers, because you just can't imagine the relief I had a few hours after taking a few of those pills. So yeah, it was very much better the day after, and I could manage to walk to school and collect my results slip!


Fastforward to few days ago, the same problem seems to have strucked me again. Though this time, I was sitting a higher chair now, a wooden stool to be precise. My back complains quite a lot since then due to its lack of a backrest actually, but heck as long as my leg doesn't bother me, I'm absolutely fine with it! Back on topic, it was the same problem, but I'm not really sure what is the problem that's making all of these trouble for my legs. Could be due to my chair again, could be my intake of caffeine, and mom suggested to keep my legs dry. And just yesterday, I think I've hurted my right kneecap due to trying some situps at the knee. Took the same tablets and it's much better now, but the pain's not completely gone though. It's still there, hope the problem goes away by itself soon.

Apologies for the long post though. :P

SPM Results

Just before I wrap up my blogging stint here in Blogger, I think I'd better update this blog first. :)

Well, I got my SPM results on the afternoon of March 13, together with Chyi Shen, my friend. Anyways, here's my results:

A1
English (GCE-O A2)
Science
Mathematics

A2
Malay Language
History

B3
Moral Studies
Economics Basics

B4
Additional Maths
Principles of Accounting

C5
Chinese Language

Overall I'm pretty much satisfied with my results, though I should've gotten an A for Economics there. Besides, I never went for tuition anyways. :P After this, am really considering to head onwards to Form 6 back in my high school, later onwards to university. Don't think I can afford the thousands and thousands of ringgit to study at the colleges here.

Well, this is just a short update for the time being! :D

Le Tour de Langkawi is Here!

Another year, another edition of Le Tour de Langkawi! It's definitely a fascinating race to watch, it's just a pity that it's not available live on free-to-air TV, and we have to settle for a summarised show at 7:30pm on TV3. Blargh.

Was hoping that the race would make its way back to Langkawi this time round and hopefully pass through Penang, but I guess closing off the Penang Bridge nearing the Chinese New Year season would be a very very very bad decision. I just hope I can get to participate as a spectator at the finish line though in the future. :P

As for the cyclists, am rooting for the Malaysian national team of course! First noticed Sharulneeza Razali since his silver-medal winning performance in the 1998 KL Commonwealth Games in the road race. Surprised that he's still participating even until now. Jojo Struys of Kopitiam fame is also the presenter for this edition of the race, along with two Westerners behind the screens which I can't remember their names at the moment. For the moment the races seem to be pretty interesting, Genting's gonna pull in the money, crowd and publicity of being the finishing line at one of those stages.

Anyways, I don't know why but I just can't describe the allure of watching bicycle races like this, but heck since Kraftwerk's such a rabid fan of Tour de France, I'm also getting in the groove. That reminds me, I'm also giving Tour de France Soundtracks another spin... err, I meant listen. Review's either coming up soon or it's gonna come up during this year's edition of Tour de France. ;)

By the way, wouldn't a Le Tour de Langkawi Soundtracks album sound good? I'd get it if it exists! :D

External links:
- Official site of Le Tour de Langkawi
- Le Tour de Langkawi at Wikipedia (I need to expand and add more content to the article though)
- Tour de France Soundtracks at Wikipedia

Technorati tag: Le Tour de Langkawi

CNY Update

Originally written on January 28, 2006, 9:02pm:
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If your past week was sorta boring, and you think you had nothing to do, you should know that you're once heck of a lucky person to not be out there doing all of those cleaning and housework. Man, I'm gonna be so relieved that I'm not going to do all of those chores until next year. Cleaning this little apartment is hard enough already.

Anyways, will be scuttering around Penang island and also mainland Butterworth in the next few days to visit family and relatives. Red packet money! Red packet money! Red packet... ahh, sorry about that, was slowly turning myself into money-minded. :P

Bro, his wife and his two kids have arrived at our place here so that we'd have a nice reunion dinner.
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Typed the above post during that time but didn't publish it though. Well, now that I look at my blog post, things have turned out sorta differently. First, up till even now we haven't even had a chance to go visiting yet, due to mom's weak health. She found a Chinese physician but is sorta reluctant to take the medications and herbs that the physician prescribed. She's sorta worried that diagnosis went a bit off course and that taking the medication it might get even worse.

And anyways, big sis' came on the first day of CNY, niece and nephew have grown up much I noticed, he's a bit more mature now but there's still some traces of ADD inside him, and she's starting to wear her mom's old clothes, she still has some traces of BDSM behaviour inside of her, I believe it!

Didn't get to see second sis' kid, cause he was ill before CNY and was at home recovering I think, but anyways am quite disturbed to see that sis and her hubby both wore black clothes when they visited on the third day; and oh this bro-in-law wiped out my cookies and cache while using my comp, but not a peep out of my mouth.

Third sis and her family of her, her hubby, her 16 and 15 year old and also triplets which were all daughters, arrived on the second day. Meh, we weren't that close and I went and hid in myself in my room, reading January's copy of National Geographic. That reminds me, I have to renew my magazine subscription very soon.

Bro, her wife and two kids arrived on New Year's eve, so that sis-in-law could cook up our reunion dinner. Though the food was err... pretty much above average I'd say. Fried prawns, fish meat fried with batter and served with sweet and sour sauce, broccoli, cauliflower and baby sweetcorn stir fried, vegetable soup which had fish flavour, and lastly the roasted chicken and pork that dad ordered earlier. Awww crap, I'm even feeling hungry right now. But anyways, the only thing I'm horrified is how sis-in-law managed to scratch up mom's cookware so badly? She reminds me of big sis' Indonesian maid, they're both cookware killers!

I still have to speak out a bit about my bro's oldest kid, which is 9 years old now. Apparently his hands are very itchy fingers. He just likes to get his little hands onto everything! He can't keep himself from wandering off and he can't hold himself from climbing the railing of my balcony. Worse yet is his mom scolds him just at the wrong frickin' time. Ugh. But I'd be willing to hope that kids like 'em grow out of it by the time they're finished with primary school.


Moving away from talk about my sis and bro's families, mom's health has been weakened in these past few weeks. She tends to be easily out of breath during the afternoon, especially when after she does a bit of housework. Could be the Chinese concept of "wind" that's making her weak like that. But anyways she said she had a flu earlier, that might've already weakened her body.

Dad? All I can say is that he seems to be getting skinner, and that's honestly a bit of a worry for me. He's still very childlike for his age, though I don't quite understand why would be leave his beard and moustache and purposely dress himself more older? Sometimes he doesn't manage to help mom's situation, but worsens it. But anyways, he's my dad after all and he does manage to do his duties in taking care of mom together with me.

As for me I was down with sore throat a few days ago. Must be a viral infection or something but I got it under control with some cough syrup. Even though it has alcohol but heck I'm not taking that nasty thing even if it was for fun. Chilling out with Mike Oldfield and his Tres Lunas II album at the moment, though I saw the first album at Gurney's Popular Book Store outlet. That place there has impressive CD stock I tell you!!

So anyways, it's 2:17am and the whole family has already finished praying the Jade Emperor's birthday at our own home, though for the past 5 years or so we've been doing that at our bro's house. Two hours ago the whole skyline of Penang was flooded with dazzling fireworks, this showing of pyrotechnics was definitely much much much bigger than the one on Chinese New Year that day. Strange thing is, CNY isn't what it used to be anymore. I can feel it.

Anyways, despite the cheerful fireworks everywhere, it really is a solemn night, at least for me. Had some bad news involving the people that I know the most closest, and I'm hoping that things will go nowhere else but up. Dad's supposed to start work on this Tuesday, and I definitely hope that his boss will secure that contract. Or else it's going to be an "extended vacation".

Well, that's all that I've gotta say now. One week's worth of thought blogged out. Man do I feel relieved or what?

External links:
- Jade Emperor's birthday from AllMalaysia.info
- KTemoc explains

Technorati tag: Chinese New Year

Hooked on Stargate Atlantis

Seriously, that sci-fi TV series rocks! :D I've just spent roughly four days downloading the whole of season 1 and watched six episodes just today. Though it's currently airing on TV2 every Thursday night, I happened to miss watching most of the first four episodes, and after watching those I figured "what the heck?" and watched another two shows ahead of its airing on TV2!

The only thing keeping me from continuing on from watching it is that it's currently 4:50am now. Just some info, the copy that I'm watching now is ripped from the US' Sci-Fi channel and it seems that it runs for roughly 42 minutes each episode, and plus commercials are snipped off too! :D

Close Down Blog?

Finally, I'm going to admit this: I don't think I would like to continue blogging here anymore. I can't exactly tell you why, but the feeling has sorta left me all of a sudden. So, it's best I don't leave anybody still reading this blog in a limbo and wonder why aren't I posting weeks on end.

Truth is, I'm ready to move on, though maybe not using the moniker "WittySquirrel" anymore, but I'll still be blogging at another site. :) Though before I decide to close down this blog or not, I still have one outstanding serious blog post that I need to post here on the internet. Nontheless, if I close this blog down, I'll let you all know what the new address is, so don't worry. :P

Blogger to me seems a bit restrictive now, and since I already have a domain name and website (not gonna tell you guys yet), I'm gonna try it out with Wordpress or some other kind of blogging system.

I still have quite a lot of stuff that I want to spill out, so I'm not gonna fully seal my mouth yet. :P

I Need A Road Map

Glancing through Google Maps, and still waiting for clearer satellite pics to turn up, and squinting my eyes at what looks like to be the Penang Turf Club or a gigantic but dry swimming pool, I just realised that I still don't know where my home is if you just give me a general map of Penang island.

After 5 years, still clueless in my home island, sort of.

I need a road map.