Friday, October 28, 2005

island tales #70

there was a farewell yesterday for one of my colleagues, who's leaving for (hopefully) greener pastures. he's been a real nice guy (actually, everyone's been really nice to me. i still wonder why), so it's kinda sad to have him go off halfway through my internship. regardless, all the best to him!! :)

anyway. the farewell dinner thing was held at this place called bukit genting, which apparently is located at the far south of the island. i was pretty surprised when the road started winding round and round, and the town just faded away on the sides of the road. pretty soon we were driving up a hilly road (kinda like the initial d roads, but erm a lot smaller), and the last km was practically a first-gear journey.

the view from the top of the hill was pretty breathtaking, but what really took my breath away (literally) was the extremely cold wind at the top (plus the fact that it had just rained). the food was pretty ok, lots of hot and spicy stuff, and by the end of it we were definitely not cold anymore... :P

the downhill trip was the most fun. not recommended for the weak of heart. weeee.. try it one day and you'll know why!

* * * * *

there's been lots of interesting events at work, but i won't talk about it. :P i'll be working tomorrow, and monday to wednesday, with sunday tentatively hanging in mid air, in order to make sure that the work gets done. it's a busier week than normal, but the good news is, the young lady (hehe: i added young this time!!) who works with me is coming back on monday! yay... now i dont have to do the stuff alone. :P

(ouch my muscles just twanged. had badminton today.)

ahhhh raya is coming. happy puasaing to all my muslim friends!!! :) and happy raya next week! :P and also, happy deepavali to everyone who's celebrating it... phew, it's great living in this country. so many festivals!

*festive mood*



Wednesday, October 26, 2005

island tales #69

i first heard about it while reading strizzt's rantglass.

it sounded interesting enough to be filed into the 'keep in mind' folder in my head. 50,000 words in a month? sounds do-able... didnt i use to churn out 500 word essays in an under hour back in secondary school? quick calculation: 500 words an hour, would mean a hundred hours of writing. which equals roughly 25 hours a week. 2 hours a day on weekdays, 7 hours and then some on weekends.

then i read about it again in the papers. and again in 5xmum's blog.

so yes! count me in! check out the guy carrying the pencil on the left if you have no idea what im talking about. click on that pic to find out more.

* * * * *

as for the whole indecision thing... i guess it has been resolved for now. :) sometimes life is like a ship: long periods of calm weather, and then a storm comes along and you crash headon with it. i've heard once that it's always best to sail directly towards a storm rather than try to outrun it, and hope for the best. hm.

current weather: drizzling!



Monday, October 24, 2005

island tales #68

sometimes, the road of life turns into a big t-junction.

im standing at one now, and im swimming in the indecision... there doesnt seem to be anymore right or wrong decision, just a choice between right and left. right? left? or neither? sigh.

i think i'll spend some time in my sphere of peace and quiet. or spend the time playing games... games are so simple. :)

right? or left.



Sunday, October 23, 2005

island tales #67

oh joy! i bought 2 games over the weekend: F.E.A.R. and age of empires III. both of them actually caused the new comp to lag (wat the heck...), but after lots of tweaking, i upped the details and lowered the resolution, and now it's working fine (more or less. not fast, but definitely playable).

F.E.A.R. is great. with all (or almost all, anyway) the details on, it's pretty creepy, too. and playing at 640x480 (ugh) gives it a grainy video look that makes it even creepier. go play it if you can: it's good fun!!! age of empires is more or less the polar opposite: sunny, bright, and no creepy effects.

phrase of the month: shader effects. i suppose it refers to pixel shading, and HOOBOY it makes a lot of difference in the games. instantly lower frame rates, for example... :P

back to the games... and oh i saw petertan this morning, at church. obviously he doesnt know me at all.. but kinda cool to see someone in real life after reading the stuff he writes about. :D



Wednesday, October 19, 2005

island tales #66

hm. the last few days have been strangely boring... after the flurry of activities for the past weeks, this period of strange calmness seems rather weird. feels kinda like sitting in a really quiet room.

*listening to the intense silence..*

but then again, i've always preferred quietness to noise (even though, ahaha, i can be real noisy sometimes).

* * * * *

i want to make a game! actually i've always wanted to make a game, and i've actually gone and done it a few times, but i've never actually made one that i wanted to play after it was completed. rats... but in this case, i want to make yet another game, and this time, i'm planning to make one that has a pretty much impossible purpose: it has to appeal to guys and girls...

if there was such a thing as a complete and utter opposite of the phrase "expert on girls", it would be a very good way to describe me. with my extensively collected experience in the female pysche, the game would need to include:

i) shopping
ii) many colours
iii) fashion
iv) a bit of extremely complex thinking
v) the ability to predict accurately what the user wants
vi) more colours
vii) occasional pampering
ix) not too much non-stop action

i think im gonna fail...



Monday, October 17, 2005

island tales #65

greetings, readers~

i got to work later than usual today, darn it. hmmm.. inexplicably, the alarm on the phone didnt go off, but im bunking in chen's room for the weekend so i get to sleep in a subartic environment for a few days! haha...

the houseowner and the family dropped by for a visit (and probably for an inspection as well.. lol), so it's been yet another weekend screaming by with a loud whooshing sound. among the things that happened:

i) had a gathering/mini-party thingie at my colleague's place: initially expected to last until midnight, but it went on until well past 2, so i guess i caused a few more white hairs to sprout on my mum's head, since she always worries when i go into nocturnal mode... heehee. the thing itself was kinda fun, and we had supper afterwards, so i reached home at almost 4. hmm. there were a bunch of illegal bike racers on the way back, so i was driving in extra-alert mode.

ii) played diablo2: lots and lots of it! chen too. im (quite literally) blazing through with a 100% fire-based sorceress, switching to ice as a secondary skill halfway through nightmare mode (curses, you fire-immune creatures~~). fun......

iii) had dinner with the family in farlim. nice, but i got really full after that. another bite and i would have burst right open like a squeezed orange. or maybe not.

* * * * *

mondays are the best days of the week! too early to wish it was the weekends, and too late to, erm, wish it was still the weekends.



Thursday, October 13, 2005

island tales #64

"now that she's back in the atmosphere
with drops of jupiter in her head...

she acts like summer and walks like rain
reminds me that there's time to change...

since the return from her stay on the moon
she listens like spring and she talks like june...

but tell me.. did you sail across the sun?
did you make it to the milky way to see the lights all faded?
and that heaven is overrated?

tell me.. did you fall for a shooting star?
one without a permanent scar and
did you miss me while you're looking for yourself out there..."

that's 'drops of jupiter' by train. a very apt song, for me.

* * * * *

carol left this morning, on an 8.20 flight. quietly woke up at dawn and drove north to pick her up, quietly put her bags in my car, quietly drove to the airport, we had a nice quiet breakfast there, and she quietly left.

and i guess she's becoming more cunning than i am... after she left, i found a card addressed to me in my glove compartment, with a cute little monkey attached. :) shall put it on my monitor to as a little souvenir of her visit to penang.

and now, life goes on.



Sunday, October 09, 2005

island tales #63

it's been a really good weekend. :) spent a lot of time with carol, which is rare, and i've never driven so MUCH of penang until now! i am most definitely a creature of habit, and the sudden departure from my usual weekend (sleep eat sleep play sleep, repeat day two) left me feeling rather odd, and also a bit tired.

but it was most definitely worth every moment spent!

i've always thought of the people in my life as belonging to distinctly separate spheres. there's the familiar and comfortable family sphere, the wild and wacky university mates sphere, the now-dusty-but-nostalgic ex-schoolmates sphere, and the just-created work colleagues sphere... and of course, for the purpose of this discussion, the girlfriend sphere. heh.

it's kinda cool: usually these are kept separate, with the occasional references to one another, but this weekend the spheres collided for a brief moment, and it was good. :) brought carol to the company barbecue (which was pretty eventful to me, incidentally: more on that later) and she spent a lot of time with my housemate (who falls firmly under the wild and wacky category).

sure there were some hiccups (sorry carol!), mostly due to the fact that a guy and a girl's brains operate at totally different frequencies... and the fact that sometimes us guys are a LITTTLEEEE bit dense. ;) ergh, dont ask. i'd say everything went great overall though, and regretably i'd better concentrate on work (and recovering) for the next few days. definitely going to send her off on thursday! :)

* * * * *

memories are a funny thing.

memories...

...of being able to drive someone you care about here and there, and back again, and here and there again and again...

...of not minding how much that costs, coz some things are always going to be more important than money...

...of the shopping cart (ahaha!!)...

...of never ever EVER being able to understand what is so fun about shopping (and tagging along anyway in the hope of finding out, and failing again)...

...of a nice meal, lots of walking around, a funny movie with a cute girl and a cute guy, and of buying a book on the spur of the moment...

...of early mornings and a different church...

...of gurney drive, umbrellas, the long way around and one really hot sun...

...of a 'proper' shopping trip, at last, and of not being able to find what you wanted...

...of searching for the shop, and of finding our way (and a lesson learned)...

...of us, and me, and you! and of baboons and ostriches, and assorted farm animals. of hellos and goodbyes. of goodnights and good mornings. memories of everything and anything, and nothing in particular, and memories of the two of us which i fully intend to file away under the category of... "Happy Memories". :)

* * * * *

p/s the picture is a forever friends bear. if you don't know why, then you don't need to know why, and you are not encouraged to wonder... too much. :P

* * * * *

oh yes, and the barbecue was eventful coz i had to drive back after it was over. lost my wallet, you see. but to my utter embarassment, it turned out it had fell out in my car. whoops. but im glad it turned out ok... probably one of the BigGuy's little tests. phew.

another week has come and gone!



Thursday, October 06, 2005

island tales #62

The Ostrich has landed!

hehe. for me (personal opinion, your experiences may vary), when you're in a medium distance relationship (is there such a thing?? i consider mine medium distance anyway), no matter how many hiccups or problems there was, there's ALWAYS that Perfect Moment when you get to meet again after a long time apart. :)

there's nothing quite like waiting at the airport arrival hall, nose pressed against the glass, scanning the people inside, looking patiently for my own carrot-coloured ostrich.

nor is there anything quite like finally spotting her, breaking into a big smile, then being able to play the "Hi I Am Your Macho Boyfriend" role by carrying her big bags to the car.

and nothing really compares to quietly laughing at her silliness, occasionally squeaky voice, or the greedy little look she has when she gets her cheesecake and chocolate.

or the silent pride of listening to her piano playing, the astonishment at her limitless patience when surfing the net to read blogs and fan fiction, and the irony of her total impatience when playing sims 2 on my new comp.

we got lost looking for her friend's place, yet it was the most fun getting-lost-adventure i ever had. haha. big thanks to chen for accompanying me.. else i would have ended up elsewhere on the island on the way back! and big thanks to mum&dad for worrying, but things turned out ok. ;)

* * * * *

came to work in a mini-storm, my favourite kind of weather. there was the usual bunch of crazy drivers doing in excess of 100km/h, hazard lights blinking furiously, weaving in and out of traffic in the blinding rain and cutting on the left AND right, but hey, this is penang, after all. hehe.

current mood: excellent. :)



Monday, October 03, 2005

island tales #61

it's the rainy season here in penang! been raining constantly for a few weeks now, quite unlike when i first arrived... back then the weather was kinda hot, and rain was really rare. probably an island-weather thingie.

i went church yesterday for some silver jubilee celebration, and i think i saw 5xmum from chanlilian.net... (woohoo! celebrity sighting. haha.) she was one of a large group of *ahem* lenglui and lengchai choir members draped in grey, red and white robes. there was some kinda buffet after the service, but i skipped it since my housemate was still waiting at home. hehe.

the weekend was wasted playing diablo2... a true oldie but goldie. nothing like mindlessly cleaving through wave after wave of enemies with a buddy... *chop! chop!* we blitzed through the first three acts of the game over the weekend, using a paladin-druid duo. i took a lot of naps over the weekend too, due to the rainy weather and the brain-strain resulting from too much diablo-ing. :D

2 days until carol arrives! and work is piling up again...

i wish i had my own doraemon. :P



 

since: 21 may 1984
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