Posts

BRK-B

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Kenanga Originally uploaded by williamnyk . Berkshire Hathaway Holdings' stock is up to USD3,060.00 today. Yikes. But this pales in comparison to its price in the 90s-- a whopping USD80,000.00 . One can scarcely believe. Warren Buffet. Bukan manusia ke?

New Toilet

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Photo-0045 Originally uploaded by williamnyk . Aeon Seri Kembangan openend on Thursday after much anticipation. It is the first decent shopping mall in Bandar Putra Permai. I knew it would be a nightmare to go there on the opening day , but you know what, I went anyway. It's not like I have never been to Jaya Jusco before. It's not like there aren't better malls around. It's not like I didn't know that the roads are jammed and the parking would be hell. My sister, mum and I braved the crowds anyway. We parked nearly 1km away and walked in. You can see how bad the jam was yesterdays night through the picture I snapped. A snail's pace. I can't believe we walked that far. A serious case of sua-ku-ness . Or norak as they say in Indonesia. But I must say that Aeon Seri Kembangan has a bright future ahead of it. It's quite nice really, reminiscent of Alamanda Putrajaya. Most of the tenants are from the established franchises and it does not have the

Keratin Basil

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Keratin Basil Originally uploaded by williamnyk . My colleagues and I had lunch at Bangkok Expresso the other day. From the same chain as Amarin . Pricey stuff and the service was so-so. But the Hot Basil Chicken Rice that my colleague ate took the cake. Just look hard enough in the photo and you can see the hair in the midst of the hot basil leaves (they look like tea leaves here). Even more shocking is my colleagues response to it. No need to replace la. They'll most probably just remove the hair and give me the same thing. Is service *that* bad that we won't even bother?

Cheated

I have been cheated. I have no say in my future direction. Secrecy prevails...

Abuzz

My company is abuzz with talks of organizational changes. Everyone is worried about how they will fit in into the new structure. Instant messages are flying back and forth, pouring in from many channels. Rumours aplenty. I'm going back for a meeting tomorrow morning. D-Day. Opportunity is knocking. What's the buzz, tell me what's happening, What's the buzz, tell me what's happening, What's the buzz, tell me what's happening... -- excerpt from Jesus Christ, Superstar

Piracy

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Photo-0030dvd Originally uploaded by williamnyk . DBKL officer: Ei, Lanun, dilarang menjual VCD/CD cetak rompak! Pirate: OK lor. I jual DVD cetak rompak. In anticipation of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest .

Licin-Licin

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Photo-0026licin Originally uploaded by williamnyk . You have someone you don't like living with you? Just get a bottle of Licin-Licin from your neighbourhood grocery store and mix one cap-full into half a pail of water. Mop the intended area throughly. Let it dry. Then place a rug over it. Stay clear of the area, or you might just slip and break your neck. Disclaimer: The contents of this post are for entertainment reasons and do not expressly represent the opinions of the author. Have fun!

Ice Breakers

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Photo-0039 Originally uploaded by williamnyk . Another gem from my Saturday trip to Sungei Wang Plaza. Hidden between travel agencies. An introduction agency. A marriage broker. Aptly named ICE BREAKERS . I love their tagline of "Why Stay Single!" . Like it's a choice we all actively make. It claims to be the the nation's biggest professional multiracial introduction agency . Source unknown. Here are several reasons to use their services: 1) Our co. is working towards ISO9000 - I'm only aware of ISO9001:2000. At least you'll rest assured that they'll not mess up your profile and pair you with a babboon. 2) More than 20 yrs in introduction service - Backed by a long history! 3)Choice of friendship, companionship, marriage and language exchange - friendship = one night stand? companionship = live-in partner? language exchange = can anyone enlighten me? 4) We are affordable - 'Affordable' for desperate people most probably equals big bucks 5)

KTV

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Saturday marked the second KTV session of my life's history. I marked the first one at RedBox Ria, Sogo. Interestingly, it coincided with my official 3rd anniversary at my company. Yeah, It's my first job and I'm still there, and people wonder why I've not left. But that's for another post. Back to the present. RedBox, Sungei Wang Paza had the honour of being my second. FK, SK, Soon, CK, MY and I flocked there by 11:00 am to enjoy the lunch special. Just pay for the lunch and you get to sing free for 3 hours. Standard RedBox premises, but the room reeked of stale ciggies and citrus deodarant. Blech. Our playlist was quite diverse, ranging from dangdut to Chinese oldies to the ubiquotous Chinese pop. Sad as it may seem, but the highlight of the whole session was the threesome, rousing rendition of Theresa Teng's "Don't Pick the Roadside Wild Flowers"! I had a blast introducing them to Inul Daratista's "Goyang Inul" and other classics

Deja Vu

This post was triggered after reading Zemien's post . It's all very strange. I noticed that I keep having the same conversation over the span of a couple of years. It's always the same flow. A message will come out of the blue from Yahoo! IM (my alternate profile, for, eh-hem, 'forays' into chat rooms). It goes a little something like this. XXX : Hi, my name XXX. XXX : Are you there? I guess you're not there. nvm. Me : Yeah, I'm here. XXX : a/s/l Me : 25/M/Malaysia XXX : I'm shy to ask you this. (blushing emoticon) Me : ? XXX : I'm horny. You mind cybering with me? Me : Uhhh. I'm at the office. Some other time perhaps. XXX : Oh, come on... Me : Really, no. XXX : Well, your loss. XXX : If you change your mind, check out my profile at YYY ( And of course the profile has some link to some questionable porn site. ) I think I've had this conversation at least thrice. With some minor variations of course.

100

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100 Days 100 Roids Originally uploaded by roidrage . My blog has reached the milestone of 100 hits. Yay! I'm pathetic. Gawd. The next milestone is 900 hits away... Minasan! Kite kite . Don't shy, shy. Come see, see. Your patronage is much appreciated.

$25 MILLION USD DOLLARS (sic)

This is the first time I've received such crap. I'm sooooo tempted to help out Afshin. The grammatical errors add a pinch of realism to the e-mail. Smooth.... ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- IRAN OIL INDUSTRY MANAGER ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF IRAN www.nioc.org SALAM, REQUEST FOR URGENT CONFIDENTIAL BUSINESS RELATIONSHIP AND INVESTMENT IN RESPECT OF THE TRANSFER OF $25 MILLION USD DOLLARS. I know that this letter through which I may be seeking for your fund transfer and investment assistance abroad will be read with great surprise, Please don't be because I have just made up my mind to keep searching till I find the best personnel for my proposal, Actually we might have not known each other but I am trying to believe in research and negotiations to finally get things in shape for my family. My name is Afshin Reza from Iran working here in Ministry of Petroleum, I am writing you today due to the great danger in which is looming eve

10 of Life's Simple Pleasures

Zemien tagged me. Its his way of 'thanking' me for loyally commenting on his blog. This is the first time, so I'll layan it. :D. In no particular order: 1) Receiving 'real' e-mail. Or better yet, receiving 'real' snail mail. 2) Having some 'me' time. 3) Walking barefoot on grass or sand 4) Running my hands through a soft, comfy blanket 5) Smelling wet grass after an afternoon shower 6) Taking a loooong piss after holding it for too long. :P. 7) Reading a good book. 8) Gossipping over a frappucino. 9) Having good company. 10) Receiving a sincere compliment. Since I practically don't know much other bloggers who read my blog, I tag Shaz . Amazing that we have keep in touch for so long after just a chance meeting on the Putraline bus. Cheers.

Depression

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IMG_1077 Originally uploaded by williamnyk . Have you ever been in a rut? Why do we dig deeper and deeper into our problems? Why are we so pig-headed and blind at times? I have chosen silence. I have chosen to watch from afar. I have chosen to let nature take its course. We all have our own crosses to carry. Is it the right choice? Only God knows. Some lessons are harder to learn than others. Currently listening to Karunesh's Solitude. In Urdu, about despair. How apt.

Bollywood

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Photo-0031bollystairmirror Originally uploaded by williamnyk . Took this picture at a friend's place in Seri Petaling. I edited the original to add a mirror image. It's not perfect, I know. I'm no Adobe Photshop expert, OK? Putting that aside, the stairway reminded me of those old Hindi movies where one of the main characters live an big 'ol mansion with those big double stairways near the main entrance. At the ending sequence, the hero's mother would run kena belasah and roll a long way down those steps to protect her son. She would end up half dead at the bottom, living long enough to just whisper some sordid family secret into the hero's ear... Luke..... I'm your ....... father.... Wrong movie.

Awkward

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Photo-0033goldfishmem Originally uploaded by williamnyk . I dropped a bomb on a good friend the other day. I could have kept quiet. I could have filtered out the negative vibes. But it was not to be. I dropped the bomb. She was devastated. A repeat for her. I can only guess what she's going through. Even though we talked it over, I still sense some kind of awkwardness and avoidance. Some things aren't so easy to iron out. Sometimes don't you wish that you have the memory span of a goldfish...

Various Fried

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I had dinner at this hawker stall @ OUG the other day whilst waiting for my mother to arrive home from Cameron Highlands. Thank goodness I had plenty of time to kill. The stall is marked as Various Fried (!!).   I ordered a plate of Hokkien Mee and it took them ages. I seriously contemplated leaving. I was so bored that I took a photo of my foot. However, it did make me notice the colourful mosaic tiles on the floor. Those tiny mosaic tiles are such a rare sight these days. I used to see it on pillars back in Kuantan. So Byzantine. Oh well, the plate of noodles eventually came, and it sucked. Normally, when you're extra hungry, mediocre food tastes extra good, so you can imagine the standard.

Nadia

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Attended a housewarming of an ex-schoolmate on Sunday afternoon. She bought an apartment at Bandar Manjalara for MYR260k. You'd have to fork out an extra half a mil for a landed property there. She just renovated it for MYR20k and you know what, she's not gonna stay there. She's gonna leave for Singapore to work by the end of this week.       Great buying power. I wonder why I'm not making half as much as her. Oh yeah, I'm a lazy underachiever. Her ex-coursemates at the party were an interesting bunch. But the best was Sam. She was recounting her whole slimming experience. One jab here, instant slimming. One jab there, shapely thighs. No side effects! Chilli Diet. Slim Wrap. You name it, she's tried it. Scary. I left after a while. Didn't quite fit in. www. flick r .com    More of williamnyk's photos tagged with Nadia

Clowns & Chapati

Headed over to MidValley with Mel on Saturday. Started early to avoid the anticipated YDPA B'day + School Holiday crowd. We just managed to enjoy 5 minutes of congestion-free parking bay hunting. The cars started pouring outta nowhere. Mel actually did some shopping this time. She actually bought something (unlike the whole X'mas shopping fiasco 3 years back when we actually walked all the floors without buying a thing). We wanted to watch a movie, but the queue... impossible. Had lunch Anna Lakshmi. Nice South Indian vegetarian fare. Each as much as you like, pay as much as you like. We paid MYR20.00, then the cashier asked us for MYR1.00 extra. He pointed to the counter. Emblazoned on it was a GST notice from the Malaysian Customs. It didn't occur to me then, but I should have said that I'm paying MYR19.05, and MYR20.00 is already inclusive of GST. Over at Centre Court, some Over the Hedge promotional junket was going on with clowns and all. Children were singing alo

Late Nights

Friday was kinda an eventful prelude to the long weekend (I took Monday off as a replacement for YDPA's Birthday, wohooo). Mum went off gallavanting to Cameron and I was left to my own devices. Met up with SK, HP, and I met up with FK for a nice Teo Chew porridge dinner at Peng Hwa @ Old Klang Road. Had FK order the dishes. She was liek a drill sergeant. A nice spread of stewed pork intestines (with a borderline high cholesterol level, I didn't touch those. Anyways, HP couldn't bear looking at them and squirmed when FK put one in her mouth), stewed mui choi , braised peanuts, baby pak choy , ikan masak , stir-fried aubergines, stewed tofu and eggs. Too bad, no photos. FK was kinda worked up that night, much steam to let off about work. We politely obliged. After dinner, I went off to meet another bunch of friends from uni. KK was bugging me to get yum cha session going and I managed to set one up that was up to his "standards" ("at least 4 participants, and

Being Civil

"So the same problem happen again to our few customer. Please make sure the same thing will not be happen again next time." So sue me. That's what I get for being nice. B*tch .

Stuck between a rock and a hard place

Question: When is a platonic relationship considered 'bad'? Sienz. As the Cantonese saying goes, your palm is flesh, and the back of your hand is also flesh .

Shipwrecked

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Shipwrecked Originally uploaded by williamnyk . I've been frequenting Endah Parade, Seri Petaling for 6 years now and never once have I ventured higher than the 2nd floor as the place is just plain lame and dull and would have closed down years ago if it wasn't for Carrefour. Here's a rough guide: LG & G - Carrefour G - Fast food, Pharmacy and Electrical 1 - Hiong Kong Express (!!!), Hairdressers 2 - Loads of foot reflexology (!!!) 3 - A shipwreck Yes, boys and girls, it's time for a quiz again. Name me the ship in the photo: a) Noah's Ark b) General Cheng Ho's ship c) The Puritans' Mayflower d) Captain Jack Sparrow's Black Pearl e) Spanish galleon sesat

Safe

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Safe Originally uploaded by williamnyk . Today's post is sponsored by the Malaysian Safe Safety Association (a mounthful, ain't it?). Safe Safety Tip #273: Don't out of convenience unlock your safe and cellotape the dials to keep the combination. It defeats the purpose of getting a safe in the first place. Suggestion: Locking the safe and then putting the combination on a post-it note on the door is safer, as the burglars attempting to steal your belongings might be illiterate.

VCD-like DVDs

Even though the DVD has come to replace the near-obsolete VCD, I've noticed that I've retained my VCD-watching habits even with the DVD. What I mean is that I tend to watch a movie over the span of two days. With VCD, one movie equalled two discs. If the movie is boring, we can always stop at disc 1, and revisit disc 2 tomorrow. No need to remember the time where we stopped. However, with the DVD, one movie is just one disc, but I find myself still needing 2 days to finish one. However, now I have to remember where I stopped (the scene function isn't very helpful at times), or rely on the player's memory (sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't). I can't even finish one movie in one sitting, I'm wondering how some people can finish one whole TVB series in a weekend. Anyway, I finished watching two movies yesterday. Firstly, Date Movie . I found it very entertaining. Very good use of music. The use of Kelis' "Milkshake" at the opening dance seq

Unprepared

I have come to the office unprepared today. Things took a different turn than I would have expected. There is unfinished business and I have a feeling it will come back to bite me in the keister. Why is it that when I go to site A, there will be nothing going on, but when I go to site B, people from site A will call and I have to do things via "remote control", which I hate. Ugh. My telephone etiquette is lacking. Or more accurately, my patience is lacking.

Pig Cage Enter Water

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Pitcher Plant Originally uploaded by williamnyk . While I was at my neigbourhood landscaping one-stop shop (read kedai jual pasu, jual bunga ) the other day, I saw this pot of pitcher plants. It was selling for MYR26.00 per pot. It's called Pig Cage Enter Water in Chinese, I think, and thus has some Feng Shui application. Its supposed to bring luck, wealth, yadda, yadda, yadda because the plant retains water (Read $$$). Ditto for the price. "26" is supposed to mean "easy business" or something or rather And there was a guy who sedang borong 5 pots. Very typical. Say that something brings luck, people will buy truckloads of it.

Snow White

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Snow White Originally uploaded by williamnyk . I recently finished reading Neil Gaiman's "Smoke and Mirrors" . A collection of short stories in his signature style. One of the stories that I really liked was the one about Snow White, entitled "Snow, Glass, Apples". It's told from the view point of the Queen. In this version, the Queen is the good one, whereas Snow White is a blood-sucking little monstrosity who practically sucked the life out of her father, the King. The story is basically the same, with all the salient plot points, like the Queen's "magic mirror", cutting out Snow White's heart, the 7 dwarfs, the prince, and finally the Queen's demise. It's a refreshing change to the classic. I learnt something new too. "Ballock Sack" == "Scrotum" . Kewl. Do read it. Since I'm on the subject of fairytales and such, Hoodwinked is also a good rewriting of the classic "Little Red Riding Hood"

Grafitti Genius

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Watashiwa Tensai Desu Originally uploaded by williamnyk . Took this photo on the Star LRT. Some kid scribbled it on the advertising board with artliner.

Bottled Holiness

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Purchase this bottle of "Holy Water" for RM10. It claims to have 1001 uses. Can be used internally (say a little prayer before ingesting) and externally. What will they think of next?

Izo

The last movie from Takashi Miike (he's the guy from Istana Takeshi ) I watched was Zatoichi and I liked it. So the moment I saw Izo , I immediately bought it. The movie is confusing. I can't really put it in words. Here's a poor attempt at it: Kill; Kill; Kill; Kill; Kill; Weird guitar solo; Kill; Kill; Kill; Kill; Sex with a lady with bad makeup; Kill; Kill; Kill; Kill; Weird guitar solo; Kill; Kill; Kill; Kill; Kill; Kill; Sex with "Mother Nature"; Kill; Kill; Kill; Warning: Spoiler ahead! ; Kill; Kill; Kill; Kill; Kill; Kill; Kill; Weird guitar solo. The scenes are all messed up, ancient characters, modern settings; and vice versa. It got tiresome after a while. Memorable quotes: "We made love once, doesn't it mean anything to you?", "My penis stroked your hole and it felt good, nothing more".

994

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Called to another site to solve a production problem which I know nothing about ( selamatkan api of sorts). But I guess, it's important for the company to have somebody there to "show face". Finally the author found a little bug in the code -- turns out that the code employs a double infinite loop (cringe-worthy is it not?) and the re-initialization of certain objects are unreachable. Took me a while to simulate the problem. The system was rolled-back and I think I will take much more testing before the clients dares to migrate again. Lunch was on YS today. A nice Vegetarian Thali from Buharry @ Asian Heritage Row. A posh area with restaurant like "Co Chine" and "Ye Chine". See the pattern? The set was great, not so overpowering like the one I had at Sangeetha @ Lebuh Ampang (also compliments of YS, :)). Standard stuff, dhal , yoghurt, dessert, curried chickpeas, etc. The service was good and organized. They use the billing and ordering system simila

A Breath of Fresh Air

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Had chapati for lunch again today. Tarmesh @ Jalan Berangan. My colleague from Hyderabad says its quite authentic. I don't know about it being authentic or not, but the food is good. The thing that caught my attention was a cup of spices at the cashier. It looked like some strange mini alien pods. Ugh. My colleague told me to try it. Apparently it's a breath freshener. You put a spoonful on your palm, then you dump it all in your mouth. Then chew slowly. You know what? It tastes exactly like Hacks . After some googling, I found out that the spice is called fennel . Not bad, not bad at all.

World Cup Fever

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World Cup Fever Originally uploaded by williamnyk . I took this photo at Brickfields, near Crescent Court. The flag of Italy and Brazil. I wonder if they're as zealous putting up the Jalur Gemilang during National Day celebration month. Another sign of the impending World Cup (in addtion to the Joga Bonito dome in BB). I couldn't care less about the World Cup. But I'm keeping my eye on the MyTeam Vs Malaysia match in Bukit Jalil on the 28th of May. With the stupid Lanter Festival using a big chunk of parking real estate and my previous experiences of soccer matches in Bukit Jalil (a story which involves a Swiss girl from Lucerne, money and the police, I'll tell it next time, heh), the traffic will hell with too many cars and road closures, the LRT will be congested and crowd will be like locusts. I'm gonna hide at home on that Sunday. ------------------------------------------- Update on 29/05/2006: MyTeam lost 2:1. Number of spectators: 70k.

Patience

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PUJ Nights Originally uploaded by williamnyk . I reached home yesterday at 11:30pm. Mum tertidur at the sofa waiting up for me. I promised that I would eat a bit, so I had a quick supper with her. Work started late at about 8:20pm. Lotsa problems accessing the servers. Remote here, then remote there. A confusing arrangement. I was getting pretty restless by 9:30pm. Have you felt irritated looking at somebody do something that you could much faster? I felt like grabbing the mouse from the guy's hands. But I didn't. By 10:00pm, I'd pretty much resigned to my fate that it was gonna be a loooooong night. I was guiding the guy at the side, and I found that my voice had lost its vitality. I was in no hurry anymore. No more gritting of teeth. Luckily, the whole fiasco ended by 10:45pm. Quickly rushed to catch the train back. Luckily the parking lot at Bukit Jalil was well-lit. A stupid Lantern Festival caused a large section of the nearest parking lot to be closed. Had

The Waiting Game

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IMG_1333 Originally uploaded by williamnyk . I'm working late today. Hence the post at this hour. I came in at 09:00 today with nothing much on my plate. Waited around till 17:30. I have to wait another 1.5 hours for the system to close before I can do anything. Turns out that the activities can only start at 20:00 to accomodate dinner time and dusk prayers. Oh well. So I went off to have nasi lemak sambal sotong next door. Fantastic. However, It's already 20:15 and I still can't begin my work.... Argghhh.

Atrocious

Sorry for the atrocious formatting of my last post. I couldn't get the "valign=top" working properly for the table. And as to why the table is so narrow, I can't explain that either. I suck at HTML. So difficult to blog through blogger. Have to resort to Flickr or through e-mail.

Misi: XX-Ray

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wells-invisible-man Originally uploaded by williamnyk . TV3's cheesy cerekarama never fail to impress me in terms of sheer entertainment value. I caught just one episode of Misi: X-Ray and I'm totally hooked. Here's a transcript: (Danial drives up to Marissa's place, she meets him at the porch Marissa : Eh, Danial. Masuklah rumah. Danial : Tak. You beritahu I , betul you tak cintakan budak Aidel tu. You masih cintakan I kan? Marissa : Cinta?! Kalau maksud cinta you adalah seperti mana you cintakan ke-ego-anmu, maksudnya I cintakan you (What!?) . Sudahlah Danial, itu hal saya. (Marissa walks away, annoyed) Danial : Hei, kamu ikut saya! (Danial pushes Marissa into his car) Marissa : Eh, kamu gila ke! Ikut kamu ke mana! (Marissa gets out of the car) Danial : Kita ke hotel! Saya tunjukkan betapa saya cinta kepada awak! Kamu tu hak saya! (Sweet!) Marissa : Hak kamu! Hidup I adalah hak I sendiri! (Marissa walks away again) Danial : MARISSA! Kamu nampak batu

New Lifestyle, New Mobility... Yeah, right!

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New Lifestyle : Lotsa standing around and waiting. Wondering why the trains going the opposite direction are always empty and much more frequent. Lotsa jostling and pushing into already packed spaces. The design of the monorail is just screwed up. Much real estate is taken up by the seats in the middle of the train (to cover up the giant tyre below) and a lot of people who take the monorail just aren't very considerate. They just won't file in to make more way for the other passengers and won't file out to make way for those alighting. They like to block the doors and block the area towards the middle of the train. The problem is so bad that the monorail staff have to herd us in. I once overheard a British tourist remark, "I feel like a cow..." (a word of advice, tourists should stay away from the monorail during rush hour). Yeah, the only thing missing is a cattle prod. New Mobility : They really shouldn't connect the monorail to the LRT lines if the monor

SGH-N620 VS SGH-X700

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SGH-N620 VS SGH-X700 Originally uploaded by williamnyk . I'm sorry people, but gonna jemur nyawa a little here. A finally changed my phone!! Compliments of of SK and JM. Kind of an early birthday present of sorts. Love you guys! Now the only thing's that's left is the PSP... haha. Anyways, I've never actually "bought" a cellphone before. It takes me ages to actually decide to buy anything. Call it fickleness (I'm a Libra), call it kiam siap-ness . It took me a year (one year of nagging from SK and JM) to buy my Canon A80. I was convinced after being told that my phone looks like crap (secondary concern), the buttons starting acting up (way annoying) and the other part supposedly can't hear me (I have yet to confirm this, but I'll take SK's word). Here's my cellphone chronology: 1) Nokia 6150 - Compliments of my brother. Still in my drawer. It needs a rubber band to keep it alive. 2) Nokia 3210 - Compliments of my brother-in-law.

Red

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Red Originally uploaded by williamnyk . The newest addition to my street: a) A Taoist temple b) Balai Bomba c) The Stadhyust (relocated from Melaka) As you can see from the pic, the whole colour scheme of my street is *really* screwed up. A little sky blue, a little pale yellow, a little white, and whole big chunk of red. Welcome to Kindergartenland.

Called Home to the Lord

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IMG_1089 Originally uploaded by williamnyk . I just found out that my colleague passed away last night. She just discovered her illness last week and it was too late for her. She did not survive the surgery. Kýrie, eléison Christe, eléison May her soul rest in peace...

Quidditch

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quidditch Originally uploaded by williamnyk . In yesterday's newspaper: The German Quidditch team preparing for the Quidditch World Cup. PS: Read the caption to learn the truth

Idle

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IMG_1472 Originally uploaded by williamnyk . 2 years ago in Jakarta, I found this in my post-dinner fortune cookie: "Idleness is the holiday of fools" . I still have it in my wallet. Do I look at it. Nope . Do listen to the wisdom its trying to impart on me? Nope . After bouts of frantic rushing and meeting deadlines, I have begun to savour the times when there is nothing much to do. But sometimes, the hours just go by so slowly... Perhaps I should stop procrastinating and update that document...

Inserted & Deleted

Warning. Boring stuff ahead. You have an MSSQL server table with text, ntext or image columns. You wanna apply triggers on it that employ the use of the inserted and deleted logical tables. You're soooo screwed.

Recycling

While having breakfast on Wesak Day, one guy came up to table asking me to show my support for a recycling campaign. Apparently, they go around asking people to sponsor recycling-awareness books for primary school students. Their target is 50,000 books. One book costs RM8.50. You do the math. The guy showed me a sample. It was quite thin, with glossy paper and full-colour printing. I bet the books will just end up in the landfill, unread, leaching its multi-coloured inks, dyes and bleaches into water table. If you want to promote recycling, by all means use recycled paper (even WWF pandai enough to do so). It's an educational book, not some fancy product launch booklet. Goodness. I told him to shove off, nicely.

Tanuki

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I've finally gotten around to trying out the food at Nippon Yatai Mura, the restaurant with the Tanuki (Japanese raccoon-dog, can also be seen on Kameya near Federal Hotel) as its logo. A quick Mother's Day lunch. The food's really quite good. The soup bases are very good. Had Kyushu Ramen , Kimuchi Nabe and a soft shelled crab temaki . The crab was a tad too oily. Strangely, they don't serve Tanuki Ramen . Still, I would like to try out the other ramen on their menu. I kinda miss Jakarta's Ajisen Ramen. But then, not quite enough to wanna go back there... Overall a very nice dining experience except for the fact that there was this little girl sitting 2 booths away from us who kept on playing peek-a-boo with me and yelling "UNCLE" at the top of her lungs to get my attention. She was so cute with a big mop of hair on her head, but not cute enough to make me not cringe at the call of "Uncle". C'mere, I'll wring your little neck. Heh.

P.O.L.

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tai-chi Originally uploaded by williamnyk . What you see here is a poor attempt of trying to write down the lyrics to the theme song of Tai-Chi Master (a 2 in 1 DVD related to my previous post ). This is what I get for skipping P.O.L. (People's Own Language) classes on Saturdays during my primary school days. Always ending up at my classmates house nearby playing "Bare Knuckle", "Sonic the Hedgehog" and "De-Cap-Attack" on his Sega Genesis. All the strokes are wrong, and the characters are just... I remember having to write my Chinese name on the blackboard and the teacher remarked, "Are you writing or are you drawing grass!". The idiot. I hated that guy.

Makang Lemang

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My brother found this in Endah Parade, Seri Petaling. Really had a hankering for lemang since raya . The rendang tok was wicked too. Too bad the palas was a let down. I gotta haul my ass back to the East coast for some decent Malay food. It's been 6 years...

I *can't* drink to that...

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There's this guy at the office who carries around a bottle of Bombay Sapphire Gin as his water bottle. I know it's not good to use mineral water bottles, but hasn't this guy ever heard of Tupperware ?! It's so freaky.

Revenge of the Pod People

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IMG_1470 Originally uploaded by williamnyk . This has been growing out of a palm tree in my garden. It looks freaky. It's most probably seeds, but who knows, maybe I'll get some Thumbelina variant.

Snatched!

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My mother was invited to the launch of an "anti-snatch theft handbag" a few months back and this really piqued her interest. So, my sister recently bought her one for her birthday. This "innovative" handbag features a detachable strap. So if some guy comes along and grabs the strap, he'll only get strap while the bag falls to the ground. No points for guessing that the design is useless if the guy snatches the bag and not the strap. But that's besides the point. As one can guess, the bag must be designed so that the strap is strong enough to withstand everyday use, and on the other hand must be weak enough to detach when snatched. Unfortunately, this is a another case of "good design, bad material". After less than one week of normal usage, the strap is now perpetually in "snatch-theft" mode. It comes off every now and then (unless perhaps it's a orang halimunan snatch thief that we are not aware of). After inspecting the stupid thin

Food High

Dinner compliments of SK and HP yesterday. A celebration of sorts since they've both finished their Master's Degree viva . I think I know more than friends with a Master's degree or in the process of getting one. But no feelings of being left out, just wondering what I'm doing to go forward. Back to the glorious food. Some establishment by the side of Old Klang Road near the Taman Desa turning. Everytime I pass by that stretch of road I would curse the people who park their cars and hog the road (OKR is a highway now, no less). But as fate would have it, I had to park there as well. Oh well. Had a nice dinner of steamed chicken, sweet & sour pork, kailan and steamed egg (way too salty). For some reason, my tummy was not content, so we headed over to Sri Petaling for mamak food. Another round of cow's milk pulled tea, milo, ABC, thosai and naan . Fantastic. Oh yeah, and SK got "molested" by the Indian waiter after asking if the bananas on the table we

Grumpy

I've noticed that I'm getting grumpier and grumpier. I snapped at an elderly classmate yesterday. And I didn't even notice. I really should tone down the sarcasm a bit. I resolved to be calmer starting from yesterday evening, and yet, first thing this morning, I was grilled in the office regarding some UAT logs. Hated the guys insinuation that I didn't do any unit tests before handing over to the users. I smiled the whole way, but my words were dripping poison. Heck, I could feel my lips quivering. Arggghhh! I help out testers by doing a workaround and 'jalan pintu belakang' and they thank me reporting it to the management and sending out e-mails... Kena makan belimbing and celery to reduce my blood pressure.

404

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IMG_1080 Originally uploaded by williamnyk . Can someone tell me what's wrong with Blogger?! Can't post through their interface, but it works fine through Flickr! I'm getting sick of "404 Page not found".

TGIF

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IMG_1432 Originally uploaded by williamnyk . Mum's birthday bash started off at Amarin Heavenly Thai, MidValley Megamall. The big SIX ZERO . When we were young, we often think of aging as a distant process that doesn't really affect us. But recently, I've recently admitted that I'm really relatively "old" and with this fact, my mum would definitely be "older". She has really aged, but gracefully. Really should spend more quality time with her. Back to the food review. Amarin's a nice place. Never crowded. Lotsa wood, ambient lighting. Simple decor. Managed by S.E.A Cuisine Sdn Bhd . They operate more than 10 different Thai restaurants around town. Had a shock when I looked at their business card. I for one over-ordered. The waiter wasn't very helpful in telling me that we had ordered too much. But then, it was a table of six and there were four guys. Apparently we all had small appetites. We forgot to factor in the mixed appetizer pl

Belated (Blogger going nuts on me)

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IMG_1314 Originally uploaded by williamnyk . Labour Day : Spent the day watching Flight Plan and some episodes of Gantz . Flight Plan is OK, but Jodie Foster has really aged. After watching 3 consecutive episodes of Gantz, I have found that it is starting to annoy the hell outta me. Not even heaving chests and gratuitous violence could save it. Too little happens and the script is fluff and repetitions. Lotsa screaming at each other. Lotsa standing around. ?!?!. Dinner : Ate at Jogoya . Compliments of SK. Celebration dinner. RM88++ per pax. Ouch. Found on the back of the moist towelette -- Jo - A place to go; Go - A place where the king goes; Ya - Shop. One has to pay up front. Pengz. After paying, then only one can expect to hear greetings from the staff. As one is ushered into the dining area, you can see a giant projected clock on the carpeted floor. Probably a time slot reminder. Lots of wood, dark, marble-like materials. The floor is cement. The food counters are all spr

123456

So, what did you do to commemorate 01:02:03 04/05/06? Well, I had three choices: a) Sleep b) Sleep c) Sleep As you can see, it's a tough choice. But then, I went out of my way and chose option d) Sleep. How about you?