will i am's delayed diary

TemMaPen Originally uploaded by williamnyk . Another fun-filled Sunday. Woke up at 7:00am to get out to Confucian Independent Chinese School for a charity thing. The school was celebrating its 100 year anniversary. More than a hundred students were dressed in Tang Dynasty costumes of officers. Most of them decked out in red, looking resplendent with their matching black headdress, ala God of Prosperity Convention . Instead of gold ingots, they were holding a staff topped off with a long feather (like the Monkey King) and a tasseled flute. The honour guard stood at the side, in green, holding staffs with plastic dragon heads (think the Yang Family Matriarch ), war hammers and etc. After a lengthy speech, they honoured a giant banner of Confucious , performing a little dance and offering flowers, while acompanied by traditional music (something like those tunes you hear at Taoist funerals). The ceremony ended with red crackers and a dragon dance. I'd never thought that at t

Congratulations to Atok K and Makcik Siti on the occassion of their marriage! PS: The happy couple are in no way related to Datuk K and Siti Nurhaliza.

Coincidently, with Venge's parents off for two weeks on a trip to Australia, my mum just came back from a holiday in China. The "7 Day Trip to Wonderland" had her travelling to Jiuzhaigou, Mount Er Mei, Leshan and other scenic places in the vicinity. While she was soaking in China's beauty at thousands of feet above sea level, I was home alone. The weekdays were ueventful. With work leeching much fun out of life these days, I usually only leave the office late. Dinner would usually be a simple affair. However, I had to be more creative on the weekends as my mum stocked up groceries for me, so hafta clear stock. Sometimes, soup in a slow cooker before leaving for work, or have SK and HP do some cooking with my raw materials. The little cooking I did was really weird, I just combined misc stuff that was lying around. Bread with fried fish fillet flakes, with a pumpkin soup on the side. Or instant ramen with tomatoes, seaweed, egg and coral lettuce. Don't flinch, it

Fishie Originally uploaded by grandylion . Progress is slow at the pool. My fourth post. My fourth lesson. And yes, you've guessed it, my fourth instructor. Jordan this time. Seeing my lack of progress, Jordan has advised me to revisit fundamentals. Just focus on the hand portion and getting maximum air intake. It seems that I'm not opening my mouth big enough. Thus, I kinda sink like a rock, midstroke. So, his advice: Open your mouth wide! Just for Vengelyne and Zemien's amusement, I'll venture to say that it sounds like some kind of fellatio lesson. I'm still not getting it right. At the end of the hour, my arms and legs were dead tired. Couldn't get a decent thrust in the water. Stiff as a board the next morning. Is it me or was there just too many double entendres in the last couple of sentences? . I've also noticed that I'm beginning to develop an unsightly tan line. Noticed that my legs were like boiled lobster tails when I came up to sho

HPM-W10496-05y Originally uploaded by williamnyk . The Megasale Carnival is here again and you know what? No bargains have caught my eye yet. I want to get some leather shoes for casual wear, but I haven't found the one yet. Cheap and Pretty. Hah. I was interested in a pair of suede Hush Puppies at first, but upon trying them on, GAWD. Ronald McDonald. Any suggestions? PS: Fikiran jangan melencong on the "cheap and pretty" bit.

receiver Originally uploaded by trudi_ . Years back, I've been told that I sound differently over the phone. Having been told that, I have never verified it myself as I can't very well put two phones over both my ears and make a call. Never thought of leaving a message on a friend's voice mail and then listening to it. This thought resurfaced recently when I made a video recording with my digital camera and it captured my speech. My reaction was: Do I *REALLY* sound like that?! I sound different in my head. Outside, it's kinda....... umm.... nasal?! Having your voice distorted over copper wires is one thing, but to sound differently to what I myself hear is .... I dunno, a bit freaky. It's not like I like to listen to the sound of my own voice, but I imagine that I sound cooler than that. But then, my friend verifies it. "That *IS* your voice" Oh well. At least I don't sound like the BM voice over guys for Doraemon. On the other hand, I'v

kclin Originally uploaded by williamnyk . After loads of inane posts, I'm back to food posts. Back to my roots. Recently had lunch with a bunch of colleagues at Rehoboth Natural Health Land , Kuchai Lama. One among the myriad of organic shops in the Klang Valley. This particular shop is the brainchild of Dr K.C. Lin (a PhD holder, I presume). The premises are full of his books and a whole shelf of paranoid books from CAP-- the ones where you need to throw out everything from your: Medicine cabinet - Watch that paracetamol intake Beauty stash - Beware of the suspected dangers of PG and PEG Pantry - Don't pop that rainbow coloured cereal into your mouth just yet Wardrobe - Guys, throw out that microfibre underwear if you don't want static electricity frying your swimmers Still, I don't know the guy. The story goes that his mother was stricken with cancer, and after eating healthy (the K.C. Lin way), his mother is now a cancer survivor and he would like to share

Nate's new (now DECEASED) frog Originally uploaded by phrenophile . This is my first lesson in a fortnight. I skipped the last one because they were closed on month ends. And this time, I went on Sunday (coz I was zombie-fied on Saturday). The crowd was fantastic. Kids everywhere. A collision course in all directions. Another instructor today-- Vincent. Might conform to Zeemien's requirements. Strict. Ala drill sergeant. Precise movements. Got plenty of corrections and pointers from him. Got flamed as well. If you keep standing around, how am I gonna see how you swim? If you don't see you swim, how can I correct you? Corrected my breathing ( Inhale into your lungs! Not your cheeks! ). Corrected my stroke ( higher! More to the side! can you feel the difference now?! ). Learned to breathe mid-stroke ( face down, blow bubbles, 1, 2, 3, up for air, hands stroke -- I still don't get it. He showed me 10 times! ). But I'm still as coordinated as a drunken juggler

hair Originally uploaded by bunchofpants . A recent series of events have asserted the fact that I'm quite bad with faces. Most of the time, I get a notion of familiarity from the faces I see, but then I'm not quite sure. If the face really registers in my brain, most of the time I forget the name that goes with it. Some time back, I met with an colleague that I had worked with a couple of years back in Bangkok. She looked familiar and I had the guts to ask if she went to the same university as me. Guess what? She remembered me, and even my name. Boy, was I red in the face. Fast forward to a few days back ( this sounds a bit like an oxymoron ), I met a new colleague. I had a tickle in my brain again, but I ignored it. Once again, my forgetfulness got the better of me. Turns out she was my coursemate and also knows my name... Ehehe. I have also met with another coursemate on the LRT, I also forgot his name. And his face even. :P. This reveals a little about my universi

Web 1.0 Summit: My Garage, San Francisco Originally uploaded by merlinmann . I'm back. Went AWOL for days due to lack of "connectivity". My laptop's still not back. I'm tempted to post pictures on the back of milk cartons. WARNING: This post contains geeky content in excess of the FDA's safety limit. Even the pic is hazardous to one's health. The last weekend really had me spinning. On Friday night, I met up with CPK and his financial controller on Friday night to discuss a freelance job. It's basically an enhancement job, but I'm tempted to redo the thing since it has not been in production yet. The prototype they showed me was developed in with Microsoft Access 2000 with VBA. Crude. But it basically covered all the requirements of reporting and data entry. However, it was littered with misc. bugs that I have no idea how to fix. The advantage of working on the prototype is that 90% of the work is done, but I don't know how the "s

Sigh, I'm without my laptop now. When I signed the asset possession form at the office, I filled in a remark that the laptop had a defect when I received it (a dent at the corner, definitely from physical impact-- macam Kancil sendol punggung Wira ). So, the admin staff had a cow. Complained that I should've reported the matter earlier (the laptop was used in a previous training session and wasn't assigned to me after that, so I didn't care), insinuated that I may have damaged it, blah, blah, blah. The whole tai chi scenario. Anyways, they grudgingly took it back for a replacement. And you know what? It will take a week. Woo hoo. If they don't get me a decent workstation soon, tak yah kerjalah

panadol Originally uploaded by williamnyk . I took this photo at the Taman Tun Market . At a famous soya bean stall that has pictures of political figures who have tasted its soya bean. Both our most recent PMs have have their pictures on the wall, but it doesn't mean they liked it. :P. Your mind is more powerful than a Panadol Tell this someone with a history of migraine and they'll give you a bitter laugh. The mind is definitely a powerful tool, but I think most of us lack the mind power and mental capacity to block off pain in an effective way. At best, we are able to distract ourselves from the feeling, but to be completely numb to it, I don't think so. Even analgesics can't work wonders. But there are exceptions to the norm of course. One of my close friends JM, advocate the concept of mind over matter. Most of the time, he shrugs off his illness. He wills himself to be better. Even when he does take Panadol as a last resort, he doesn't swallow them, h

Superboy Originally uploaded by Pablo Latorre . Yeah, yeah, I know the hype of Superman Returns is already over. So last year. So passe. But, I have a bad memory these days. I keep forgetting to post stuff. However, it's still a little relevant as I still see it on TV. If you watch weekend cartoons (I still do, after all these years. Even if I'm reading the papers, I'll turn the idiot box on). There's this one advertisement that really takes the cake of toys these days not leaving anything to children's imaginations anymore: The Superman Inflato-Suit from Mattel Buy it for a tonne of money. Get your kid to wear it. Put in the batteries (batteries not included of course). Turn it on. The fan goes of. Voila, your kid's torso balloons up faster than you can shove steroids down a goose bred for foie gras . In my opinion, this concept would have worked better for Marshmallow Man . However, one can't help but wonder where's the bottom portion of the

Wilted Originally uploaded by Monster. . A gem in my recent keyword activity: can't get it up inexperienced I hope my post actually did some good for somebody. But my usual disclaimers apply of course. :D

:: فن :: Originally uploaded by Ra3ni . Can you believe on blogging from the friggin' office on a sweltering Saturday afternoon?! My stupid system went down for the past two days. The database was acting up. All connections timed out causing a meltdown. I'm now looking at all the logs, but I've come up with nothing significant, except that the database log is a little bloated (thanks to the IT department for changing the scheduled task user password and not notifying, causing my task to be stagnant for months). I've fixed that. Now I'm praying that it'll be good and not cause another fiasco!

bar nun (for slogrl) Originally uploaded by Rakka . Was doing some R&D for work today and came across this. I have to share... Want to get some funny looks in the hallway? Stand around in the hallway near the marketing department with your colleagues and discuss the benefits of using SOAP Bwahahahaha (* Urkel snort *) SOAP: Simple Object Access Protocol Mel's right, I'm slowly and surely going over to the Geek Side. Or I am already there in the first place...

BerrydTreasure Originally uploaded by williamnyk . Tried my second non-coffee ice-blended at Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf (my first was the Malibu thingy) the other day. It was a Berry'd Treasure . Concocted primarily with berries. It wasn't good. Perhaps I should've went with the Sunrise -- every other customer who walked in ordered that (I should know since I sat near the counter for 3 hours that night). In conclusion, don't dig up this berry'd treasure anytime soon. You've been warned. PS: Sorry for the puns. I couldn't help myself.

a a a h h h ! ! ! Originally uploaded by Aelle . My second lesson didn't go too well. This time round, a new instructor, by the name of Gary. Nothing to say about him, except the fact that he ignored after my 45 minutes were up, unlike Roland. So berkira . :P. I was taught the stroke favoured by Kermits everywhere. I started with just the legs. Even then, I couldn't quite get it right. Apparently, my kicks aren't forceful enough to propel me in a decent manner. And when they were hard enough, I tended to move diagonally rather than straight ahead. Pressing his luck, Gary decided to teach me the arm movements as well to see whether I could work it out. But no, I couldn't coordinate myself yet. Haven't quite found my balance. Any tips?

madwoman in the attic Originally uploaded by *raffaella . Having moved to a new project, involving a new system and technology, I have also gotten myself a new project manager. It's widely known that he's not a very popular person in the office, but that's not my complaint.... yet. He irritates me. To be more specific, his overuse of a certain word, *REALLY* irritates me. Let me now unveil that evil word: Per se I for one don't really know what the correct usage of that word is, but something's definitely not right if nearly every single sentence that comes out of his mouth during meetings includes that word. I flinch each time I hear it. If one ringgit is credited into my account each time he says it, I'd be a rich man. Comment a sample sentence. Thanks.

Photo-0084 Originally uploaded by williamnyk . Posted along Jalan Raja Chulan in conjuction with the ASEAN Ministerial Meeting. No idea who these people are-- NLD something. People on the street didn't seem to pay these posters any mind. I wonder if Aung San Suu Kyi will ever be free...

060619-rainbow-fire_big Originally uploaded by ruthvickd . At The curve , some nice people from Sahaja Yoga were operating a booth where they offered to do a five minute meditation exercise for free. The purpose seems to be to free up our chakras and enable ourselves to be the conduit of cosmic energy and thus maintaining health and achieving peace. Some people were having laying of hands, aura cleansing kind of gestures. They were being 'tuned' to feel the energy emanating from themselves. We thought, "What the heck. We'll give it a try". They were really having a hard time explaining the concept to us, but we said we'll just go for the practical anyways. It started like this: Practitioner : Put your right hand over your chest. ( We follow ) Practitioner : Look at Mother Mataji's photo. We affectionately refer to her as Mother. She's the founder. Me : What? Practitioner : Beseech Mother to grant you inner peace. My mother and I : What? ( We

Traffic police Originally uploaded by Wam Mosely . Work is getting shitty lately. A transitional period for me. Trading in my previous tasks for something. Something that I've been doing for three years. Time to move on, I guess. Something cooler. However, the learning curve is quite steep and the timeline is short. Discussions going on every day. Trying to come up to speed. And the new site is at Taman Tun. Horrible place to be if one decides to use public transport. People have already asked why I've not gotten a car. Better mobility, zero savings. A liability in exchange for security? Entahlah . I'll work out something soon. I hope.

IMG_1812 Originally uploaded by williamnyk . I recently received my new gadget from the office, a spanking, new Laptop !!! An Acer Aspire 5540. Here are the specs for you to drool over: - Intel Core Duo Processor T2050 (1.6GHz, 533MHz FSB, 2MB L2 Cache) - 14.1" WXGA CrystalBrite LCD ( boleh bercermin with it) - 2GB DDR2 RAM (!) Luckily it's not too heavy at 2.5kg. I developed a sore shoulder lugging around a previous model. It's supposed to be for work, but I have other plans for it. :P.

Traditional Viagra Originally uploaded by williamnyk . Can't get it up lately? Waning sex drive? Non-existant libido? Distrustful of established pharmaceutical companies? Couldn't care less about double blind tests and FDA approval? Would prefer something more holistic? Well, don't I have the answer for you... UBAT LELAKI KUAT . Just call the number, if you're desparate enough.

mysojamfest Originally uploaded by williamnyk . Lotsa activities at Cineleisure Damansara . Apparently something called the MYSO Jam Fest . A Red Hot Chilli Pepper Wannabe Band Search; Extreme sports; Indoor bball; Rodeo rides ( don't expect the Edie Britt scene from Desperate Housewives, but one plump girl really beat all the others in terms of staying power ); sumo wrestling ( remember when X fought Tim Curry at the pre-Stick Man Fight Party? ); Jousting ( think American Gladiators ) and slipper throwing.

william_quah Originally uploaded by williamnyk . Met William Quah at The Curve as he was doing a promotional junket for Pensonic, AmBank, etc. I've never met him before in person, but I remember him from his early days on TV doing HotTraxx ( or some other music chart show to that effect ). He was really stiff back then. Like a Ken Doll. Later it was on MTV. I remembered he had robotic hand gestures. Like planks had been tied to them. But he's SO MUCH BETTER now. Relaxed. Natural. I expected him to be taller, but he's still taller than me. My friend Mel has seen him hanging around Bangsar and Amcorp Mall, and according to her, dia memang layan adiknya dengan baik . It went something like this: ( The floor was practically devoid of spectators and I was grinning broadly to the side ) William Quah : Blah, Blah, Blah... Would you like to win some prizes from Pensonic? Me : Sure. William Quah : What's your name? Me : William. William Quah : That's a *GOOD* name. Me :

IMG_1798 Originally uploaded by williamnyk . Yet another free dinner ( yes, Zemien, another free dinner ) from SK at Kampachi, Equatorial Hotel Bangi . This time due to her raise and a thank you gesture for helping out in her masters ( which I so don't deserve ). Joined by FK and KLT. Two others lepas kapal terbang . It's so hard to get people together these days. The logistics are a killer. Hotel Equatorial looks nice, with it's own garden, ala IOI Resort. Kampachi was quite small, but luckily SK got us a private room upstairs, away from the hustle and bustle. The spread isn't quite as big as I expected. Quite modest. You have the usual, salad bar, teppanyaki & sukiyaki station, tempura station, sashimi and sushi bar, dessert counter and non-japanese fare. Overall the food is good. Not too salty, the tastes are subtle. The sashimi is fresh. The unagi is perfect. Dessert was so-so, but the serve the all-time DOraemon favourite, Dorayaki. The service is above average

Truly Madly Deeply Originally uploaded by eyecatcher . I finally enrolled for swimming lessons at Bukit Jalil Golf Resort . Cost me MYR294.00 (plus tax, no less) for 12 lessons. Entah kena fleece ke apa , but it's the nearest to my place. I went for the 5:00pm lesson and oh, boy, the sun was blazing. I think I caught too much sun, sore throat the next day. Roland's the name of my instructor-- a really tanned uncle ( I know some of my readers would be sorely disappointed ). I was issued a green plastic card. Green as in inexperienced. Lessons started by asking me standard questions of whether I have any experience, afra id of the water ( in case I struggle mightily and rip his eyeballs out in the process ), yadda, yadda, yadda. Too familiarise me in the water, he started by asking me kneel and submerge my face into the water whilst blowing bubbles of air. First the face, then the ears, then the whole head. I got the hang of that pretty quickly, with just one gulp of water to da

IMG_1715 Originally uploaded by williamnyk . Celebrated HP's birthday yesterday at Bumbu Bali, Bandar Puteri Puchong . Just the three of us. We were given the honour of celebrating with her on the actual date (with the exception of her colleagues) as her other gang of friends have weeekend do planned for her. The place has a nice ambience to it. Cosy, woody. Open-air concept. The food is mainly BBQ, with the choice of Bali and Western style. They use coconut husks for a more fragrant effect. I can vouch for that s the food sometimes contain the fibres (!). Sauces are not really required, as the grilled food by itself is full of taste, but sometimes a little on the salty side. So it's a good idea to pair it with rice or wash it down with something clear. We ordered the Nasi Campur Special and Seafood Platter. Enough for three. The mixed platter consisted of nasi uduk / nasi kuning , grilled dory (recommended), cuttlefish, chicken, prawns, satay lilit (fish paste over serai s

high 5 Originally uploaded by LUVle . Tagged by Zemien again. Drumroll please......... 10 YEARS AGO I WAS : In Form 4. I was back in Kuantan. Together with JM, we were the famous apple polishers and teacher's pet. We had many society's and clubs under our pinkie. The teacher's gave us full trust! We ruled with an iron fist! Those were the days.... 5 YEARS AGO I WAS : In University (1st Year). Moved to KL. A new chapter in life. Had a great clique of friends who would go to MidValley at the slightest break between classes and frequently have Keropok Lekor & Pisang Goreng sessions at the cafeteria. Unfortunately, we have mostly gone our own way now. 1 YEAR AGO I WAS : Working at the same job that I had joined when I first graduated. Many people have asked why I was still staying on. I asked myself the same question. I'm still here and I think I begin to see why. YESTERDAY I WAS : Running between 2 client sites. Crappy work problems. And I just found out that I have

pre-dinner Originally uploaded by williamnyk . Last weekend was a very busy couple of days. The day after the treasure hunt , I had go through another gruelling day at a charity dinner. My mother talked me into helping out. Had to get there by 3:00pm. My sister, bro-in-law, SK and HP also lended their hands. Upon reaching the venue, we found out that there's actually no *REAL* work to be done!? WTF?! Then why call for volunteers? Anyway, it turns out that the logistics were not smoothed out yet, so I bersabar je la . We did a lot of standing around, being given the evil eye by some of the dinner committee members. Then we had some minor work putting brochures and contact forms on the 110 tables. Finished that in no time at all. Nobody gave us any instructions, so more loitering. SK tried to be proactive and got off with a scolding. So much for that. Pissed off, we decided to just lazed around. Finally at 4:00pm, one of more organized of the dinner comittee gave us our ta

sas16 Originally uploaded by bonniegrrl . Before I begin, let me clarify that I'm in no way announcing that I'm into S&M and bondage . But the picture is cute is it not? Well, I'm currently at another project site, and I must say that the internet filtering policy here sucks . Leaving blog comments is prohibited (classifies as "chat", WTF?!) and LJ is completely blocked. Luckily I can still post via other means, but just look at my last post, semua HTML jadi giler . But I'm thankful that I can still read blogger posts. Not being able to leave comments is really getting to me. An itch I can't scratch . In person, I find it hard to keep quiet, on the internet I have to leave my glib remarks! Until I get back a decent internet access I'd just have to bide my time and compile my offline comments onto a CD-ROM. Hmph. PS: Vengelyne, you *had* to to link me as "William and his GBuy", didn't you? :P

IMG_1655 Originally uploaded by williamnyk . City Revival Church organized a Charity Treasure Hunt on Saturday and I was roped in to help out in my sister and Cin's team. SK joined last minute. I tried asking KK earlier, but he gave me some lame ass excuse that he's car sick-prone. Cin was very excited over it and even exclaimed that she's in it to WIN . Wow. No pressure, then (seeing that it's my first time in a motor treasure hunt and all). What about charity?! :P. Truth be told, my only experience in treasure hunts was gained more than 15 years digging paper clues outta cracks in the wall, under bricks and in the bark of old mango trees. We arrived at the starting point, Holiday Villa, Subang Jaya at 7:00am (imagine what ungodly hour I had to wake up) and found that the organizers had just begun to put up shop. Kena tipu, celaka . Seeing that we couldn't register yet, We went off to nearby Taj Curry House for breakfast. The thosai (not to mention service) w

Cosway Originally uploaded by williamnyk . What you see here is the menu of lunch joint in Wisma Cosway . Pasted on the walls like some ancient commandment. The place is always crowded. Stuffy. The food is hot and served by near-perfect efficiency. The crew-- a bunch of old hags who are obviously underpaid and in serious need of a vacation are seen buzzing here and there. They grunt, scream and scowl. Fabulous. The woman who collects the lunch money when the food is served has a military-like air to her. She demands money like you owe her thousands and that's not counting the interest yet. But for some reason, we keep going back week, after week. Defies explanation. Do you have such a place?

IMG_1083 Originally uploaded by williamnyk . Inspired by the French movie Amelie , this post will have my little gnome travelling around the world, seeing the sights. In the movie, Amelie steals her father's garden gnome and takes pictures of it at various famous locations around the world. She then sends the snapshots to her father (how she fakes the postmarks, or why is her father is so dumb if the postmarks are local, is not explored in the movie). As a result, her father decides to stop mourning the death of his wife and go out to see the world. Our first stop, Barcelona . Temple de la Sagrada Familia by the famous Antoni Gaudi (1884 - 1926).