[D]ance [i]n [t]he [M]emories

Another Victory Over The Argies

2005-11-14T11:41:00.000+08:00

Sven-Goran Eriksson's men's performance on last Saturday evening against Argentina sent a strong signal to the rest of the world that England will be one of the major contenders for the World Cup 2006 in Germany. It was a colossal match, both teams putting their finest display, only that the Lady Luck smiled on Michael Owen to deliver the killing blow at stoppage time at the end of the game. With this match, England has once again defeated the mighty Argentina for the second time in a row in an international meeting since their last meeting at the World Cup 2002 in Korea-Japan. While the last meeting was decided by David Beckham's 'revenge' penalty kick, this time it was decided by Owen's header. While almost everyone thought that the match would end up as an entertaining draw, one should never conclude the outcome of the match until the final whistle. Take another example of the Euro 2004 match between England and France and you will know what I mean.

Festive Season

2005-11-02T11:58:00.000+08:00

One can tell that the festive season is already happening with the noisy and distracting but somewhat welcoming waves of fireworks in the night sky. Though they lack the grandeur and intensity of those prior to welcoming the new year or the Merdeka special, it is easy to be mistaken that it is the Chinese New Year celebration instead of the Deeparaya. As we Malaysians live in a multicultural, multiracial society, we tend to share the excitement and the festive mood together even though some of us do not actually celebrate some of the festivals. The irony that fireworks are played during Deepavali and Hari Raya(and even Christmas!) serve one fine example. Anyway, wishing all Hindus in Malaysia a Happy Deepavali and all Muslims in Malaysia Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri..............and now where's the lighter and my pack of Moon Travellers?

Hail King Phillips!

2005-10-18T11:51:00.000+08:00

For the first time in 7 meetings in the English Premier League, Aston Villa have finally defeated their Midlands nemesis, Birmingham City, thanks to a superb Kevin Phillips strike in the 19th minute. It was shown live on Astro SuperSports at 7 pm, which I would have catch it had not been my grandma's birthday dinner at a simple decent Chinese restaurant at the same time. Though football is my passion and especially since the team that I have been supporting since I was 7 would be playing that time in an important derby clash with the Blues, I'd still perform my filial duties first :) By the time the reunion gathered over my aunt's place, the match was over and I could only catch several seconds of the Manchester City-West Ham match. It was only through my brother's GPRS-enabled mobile phone that I got to know that Villa won.

Kevin Phillips, a former England international, has been impressive since donning Villa colours. Past statistics have shown that he's been known to be the match-winner in derby clashes, notably during his days with Sunderland and Southampton. Now with Villa, he has done it again. Hope with this victory, the Villans will start climbing the Premiership ladder and fight for a place in Europe. Many things can happen in the next 29 games!

No More Credit Card Facility at Petrol Kiosks?

2005-10-12T17:19:00.000+08:00

It's being a happening topic lately that the petrol stations will be discontinuing the credit card payment facility due to the decreasing affordability of the stations to bear the service charges levied by the banks. I don't know how this idea popped up but I only knew about it over Mix.FM Morning Breakfast Show by Richard and Shaz couple of mornings ago.

Several members of the public had voiced out their sheer disapproval that it's really gonna be hugely inconvenient for the many lot of us who chose the card to avoid the queue, or saving the cash in hand for other purposes.

I for one is a regular user of the credit card payment facility as my reason is just like anyone else's: convenience. Though it is arguable that fraud is an absolute possibility here, it doesn't make any difference if you were to go shopping at a nearby department store using a credit card, or if you ever were to shop online.

So how? Just put it this way: Banks should place consumer interest first and their profitability second. I understand that banks levy charges on petrol kiosks for providing the credit card payment facility as one of their services. If wouldn't be a surprise if the kiosks owners cringe on seeing a customer swiping her credit card to top up petrol into her car cos they will have to bear the service charges. Banks & the kiosks owners association (can't remember the association's official name) would have to work out something. Discontinuing the card payment facility is one major step backwards on the increasing significance of customer service......................and don't tell me they eventually gonna start thinking of shifting the charges to customers to bear instead! :X

Did Beckham-sama Deserve The Red?

2005-10-09T17:08:00.000+08:00

I watched the England vs Austria World Cup qualifying match last night with enthusiasm and faith that Sven-Goran Eriksson's men will thrash the out-of-sync and managerless Austrian team at Old Trafford, home of David Beckham's former team, Manchester United. Just as what he did in the last two matched with his current club Real Madrid, playing as right flank pounding lethal crosses towards opponent's territory for either Crouch or Owen to pick it up and deliver the goals. It was Mr. Dependable, Frank Lampard who smacked the goal from the penalty spot.

And then the unexpected came. Beckham was judged to have fouled Austrian defender Andreas Ibertsberger in an aerial challenge and was given a yellow card. Then about 30 seconds later, he was controversially sent off after he was judged to have fouled the same player with a last-second restrained challenge, and left Ibertsberger on the ground 'grimacing' in pain. I thought the yellow card was harsh. Beckham jumped with his hands down and tried to head the ball, not the man. Then I thought the red card was even harsher. At the very moment, I knew Beckham knew that it's gonna cost him if he were to stick a leg out to challenge Ibertsberger for the ball, and he didn't. It was just a contact of the Austrian's boot and Beckham's knee.

It is time for video refereeing to be implemented for soccer, at least on such international occassion like the World Cup. Too many controversial decisions had been made, and will be made.

Villans Down In The Dumps

2005-10-07T17:13:00.000+08:00

David O'Leary's men really need to pull their act together and start making positive results ahead after when the World Cup qualifying fixtures come to an end by 13 October. One quick look at their current standings and the past few matches point to one obvious flaw in their ranks: DEFENCE!

It was sad and unfortunate that several key players are out of action for some time, including the stalwart Martin Laursen who had to pull out from duty for the entire season due to a major knee injury. Four players were plagued with knee injury: Laursen, McCann, Hendrie, and Ridgewell. Hughes is down with sports hernia, Baros is out with achilles and Phillips is out with calf injury.

I seriously think that they may not be making it to the European stages next season via the Premiership. Their only hope now lies with the two knockout-competition cups: Carling and the FA. Come on Villa!

Music To My Soul

2005-09-09T14:20:00.000+08:00

It's RETRO 80s for me anytime, and the early 90s CantoPop + contemporary JPOP hits vetted out from the animes and some drama series. Though I do catch up with the latest hits on the weekly top 30s but the 80s music goes deep in my soul.

Notable names such as Police, Tears for Fears, Fine Young Cannibals, A-Ha, Johnny Hates Jazz, Kylie Minogue, Jason Donovan, Rick Astley, Duran Duran, Soft Cell, Madonna, Bryan Adams, Shakin Stevens, & George Michael/WHAM.

...and Jacky Cheung's.

MERDEKA!

2005-08-30T22:29:00.000+08:00

What does Merdeka Day mean to me? A public holiday! ^_^
But it also means to remember that Malaysia achieved its independence from colonial rule on 31st August 1957 (took me a while to recall the exact year). I've been brought up with 11 years of History lessons that how importance a nation that is independent and can rely on its own to grow and prosper, but one can easily forget the dates :P

When I was a kid, I used to wake up early on Merdeka Day to catch the live telecast on tv of the marching ceremony held at Dataran Merdeka. Now I'd rather spend the early morning continuing my slumber! :)

A Fine Sunday

2005-08-25T09:11:00.000+08:00

Sunday could never be better without a sunny and clear blue sky. I woke up, although dazed, but happy to welcome the birds chirping melodiously outside my room windows, as one of them gently flapping its wings towards to my outstretched hand beckoning it to stand on my index finger.....nah, I was just dreaming. :)

What would my typical Sunday be? The entire edition of the Sunday Star (and yes, especially the Sports section), one-fourth of Astro cable tv (who watches all the channels at the same time?!), half a loaf of PS2 (no, it's not one of the ingredients in baking a Danish cake), some Streamyx digital dual-loads, a moment with Julie the small-tailed ebony living being, and washing my car.

Leave It To Me, I'll Deal It Myself

2003-09-02T23:33:00.000+08:00

My minor flu seemed to get better and after a 3-day weekend break, I was back at work, currently working on an internal information system based on Visual Basic 6 language. There was supposed to be an evening badminton session organised by my company's sports club but I decided to pass, as I was still recovering from the flu. As for the sports club, the company has been enthusiastic over promoting healthy exercise and thus the all-year sports among its employees. Members were divided into 4 teams, namely after the four seasonal weather periods. Funny thing was that ever since I joined the company about 2.5 weeks ago, I'm yet to be slotted into a team! :( and it's almost half as good as missing out on the bowling event, *double :( *

When I reached home after going through a 1.5 hour jam, my mum told me about the recent blackout in the northern states of Malaysia. I was surprised, went for the newspapers and ohhh...that was some news. Fortunately, my neighbourhood was not affected or else I would be just feeding the mosquitoes!

My sister wanted to play Ragnarok Online over her notebook but sadly for her, the game couldn't run at its full video capability. Despite the various settings and a check on the version of the video driver, it couldn't be helped. Some chunks of incompatibility here between Ragnarok Online and ATI Radeon graphic display for notebooks...hmmmmmm.

The Other Side Was Here

2003-08-30T23:52:00.000+08:00

Aston Villa had finally won! They outclassed their neighbours Leicester City 3-1, and the poignant outcome of this was that Juan Pablo Angel finally buried his unfruitful 2 previous years with Villa with 2 quick goals, which Villa took the lead in just 20 minutes! Good on him and hopefully he will contribute even more to the team in the future.

My badminton game was not up to mark as I hoped today. Just so many rookie mistakes and my jumping smashes mostly met the net instead of the opposite half of the court. Coincidentally, I had a bit of flu but I would not blame that for my abysmal performance but at the same time I thought that was why I could not play well. Excuse, excuse, excuse :)

After dinner, the four of us went straight to the internet cafe. Since it's Merdeka Night, and Monday is a public holiday, we folks battled out with our 'heroes' in Warcraft III until 1 a.m.! I thought the cafe operator and I misunderstood on the payment but I ended up paying 50 sen less....hoho.

Rainy Day Man

2003-08-27T22:36:00.000+08:00

Raining period was back! It usually came in the evenings and although it made the weather cooler, the peak traffic period in KL were even busier. Today I was lucky to escape from the torrid time as I left my office at my record earliest at around 5:45 pm. As I walked towards my car, it started to drizzle and surprisingly, the traffic at nearby Menara Weld was at its minimum. Soon I reached Jalan Tun Perak and the many traffic junctions were at their usual schedule. A short burst of speed past Mahameru Highway and I found myself at NKVE Highway at last. The sky grew rapidly darker than usual when I arrived at Shah Alam as it was going to rain anytime. Thank goodness as I reached home, and the sky began to unleashed its avalanche.

Henry V

2003-08-09T21:11:00.000+08:00

Badminton session as usual, only 20 minutes arriving at the hall earlier. I have been trying to search for Henry V DVD at the lower ground floor of Wisma Fui Chiu but to no avail. It's a Shakespearean-style war movie set in medieval England & France starring Kenneth Branagh, Emma Thompson, and Robbie Coltrane (Hagrid) but it's a rare find here around Klang Valley. My hunt is still on.

Terminatrix vs T-800

2003-08-07T22:55:00.000+08:00

A fine Thursday! *sniff* Oh, I could smell the warm air around me. If only it rain and makes the environment cooler. I missed the 3rd day of the After life series last night as I went to catch Terminator 3 at the Midvalley Megamall. As for my comments on the movie, I'd say the ending was unexpected but then when I thought back about the subtitle of T3 'Rise of the Machines', it made sense and seems like there is gonna be another Terminator movie in the future, this time in my opinion it's a completely new world and the war between humanity and AI (Artificial Intelligence) is on. What I don't understand was how on earth the T-X got defeated by Arnie's T-800?!? Oh well, a movie has got to be a movie.

The Afterlife

2003-08-05T18:04:00.000+08:00

I told myself I am going to wash my car the next day and hopefully I don't laze over it and postpone it to another day. In the Discovery channel, it's day two on the documentary Afterlife and it showed the Torajan Christians in Indonesia in dealing with their deceased. According to their beliefs, when the person dies, the body will be preserved and kept until the family organised a formal burial ceremony. The 2nd part of tonight's show was about an old Hong Kong woman shopping to prepare for her own afterlife.....yes, that included clothing, photograph, and the search for her niche lot at a temple conumbarium where she wanted to be after she dies. Another section of the Hong Kong part was about a lady getting help from a specialist in organising a funeral for her deceased father. This reminded me of the funeral proceeding for my late grandfather who passed away in April last year. How I really missed him.

Hungry Ghost Festival

2003-08-04T23:01:00.000+08:00

My right eye was a little sore yesterday and I got worried that it looked slightly purplish near my eyelash, but this morning it got better and I was grateful. The day had been relaxed but dull, serene but humid. I was sad to see a dead cat lied rotting at a pavement near a bank which I went to settle some bills and cheques. Just two days ago I saw another dead cat lying on the ground while I was cruising along Damansara-Puchong Highway. *sigh* In conjunction with the Hungry Ghost Festival, the Discovery channel in Astro will be screening a documentary about it called Afterlife. It's a four-day 1-hour series and just tonight I caught the first day of the series and it showed a typical process of the Phor Thor, the exhumation of the deceased from cemetery and a Singaporean family whom their deceased parents were exhumed from the cemetary, which later were moved to a conumbarium to be rested in peace.

First Day of the Month

2003-08-01T21:59:00.000+08:00

A pinch and a punch, on the first day of the month! That's an Aussie saying I heard from my good friend in Adelaide when I was there for my studies. This just means that on the first day of the month like 1 August here, go pinch and punch someone at their shoulder or back while quickly telling them this sentence for good luck ahead. A fine humid day, boy how I miss the rain. I thought of going to the bank to get my ATM card upgraded to their chip-embedded type but I decided to do it this coming Monday and find out some info from my friends about it first. The sports channels have been actively showing the incoming new season of the English Premier League and I just could not wait for the new season to start.....especially in the case of my favourite club since Standard 2 (Year 2 of my junior school); Aston Villa ! Now with David O'Leary at the helm, thrashing Portsmouth in the opening game will spell blessing of a fruitful season ahead.

The Order of the Phoenix

2003-07-21T21:50:00.000+08:00

Finally finished reading the latest Harry Potter book. I must say that it's a much different Harry Potter as himself on his 5th year at Hogwarts. A sign that he's growing up being at the mid-teens, and an intriguing character called Luna Lovegood...hmmm. It was really a good read and after finishing the last chapter, I don't even recall what was on the first few chapters of the book. I'd reread the book soon and I did have a thought lingering in my mind halfway thru the story, on whether this episode will be featured in the movies. Now that Daniel Radcliffe & Co are filming the 3rd chapter of the saga Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban, which is scheduled to be released in mid-2004, it is their final part of the contract that they will be in this show business. Rumours have it that Daniel didn't want to continue after HP:PoA as he wanted to focus on his studies. Is it true? Rumours can just be rumours, not if you played have Persona 2 on the Playstation! :)

Last evening I was invited to a friend's birthday BBQ dinner at Ara Damansara near the old Subang airport. The dinner turned out to be a birthday celebration for three friends!

Grandma's Birthday Dinner

2003-07-19T23:48:00.000+08:00

This day me and my family and relatives (mother's side) celebrated grandma's birthday at Summer Palace restaurant. At the same time, the restaurant was the host for someone's wedding dinner. We had our occassion in one of the private rooms that has a karaoke set. Interestingly, we took the set and sang our hearts for the night to celebrate grandma's birthday, even grandma herself sang a few songs. In the end, it was an enjoyable night.

My 'Pensieve'

2003-07-14T19:47:00.000+08:00

I got so engrossed with the new football management simulation game and the latest adventure of Harry Potter that I almost neglected my weblog! ^__^ True enough, I told myself way earlier before I blogged this that I would write something but I procrastinated (how I hate to use this word) and there I thought I have accidentally shelved my online diary yet again :)

No! I still blog, not for the sake of just blogging but also as my memory of what I did if I were to look back to at my site here someday. Take it as sort of my personal 'Pensieve' ;) 'Scuse me? What? A Pensieve is a magical basin of liquid that keeps a person's thoughts. Only found in the world of Harry Potter, and used by the great wizard Dumbledore. Now speaking of Harry Potter, I just bought the latest edition, Harry Potter and The Order of The Phoenix from Carrefour Subang Jaya. What thought to be a hard-to-get item two weeks ago turned out to be extremely easy as Carrefour had restocked and laid out a stall full of the latest Harry Potter book. Apart from the book, I went to get a new pair of sports shoes at Athelete's World as the previous shoes were worn bad and disposed.

Taken

2003-07-04T16:45:00.000+08:00

It's America's Independence Day! Let's hear the Star Spangled Banner anthem. I just happened to notice the advertisement on Astro satelitte tv about a new sci-fi drama called Taken directed by Steven Spielberg. From the look of the ad, it's highly intriguing and I couldn't wait for it to be screened, which is scheduled to be on this coming Sunday 6 July. In case you don't know what's this drama about, it's about alien beings visiting Earth in late 1940s onwards and was based on the famous Roswell incident in 1947. Stories were centred around a few families whose encounters with humanoid hairless aliens with big black eyes and spindly limbs. More information can be found in this website:
http://www.ilovestarmovies.com/taken .

Shortage of Police Personnel?!

2003-07-03T17:43:00.000+08:00

A recent survey by The Star press revealed a shocking revelation about the police force in the country. We all know that there is a shortage of police personnel in Malaysia but not with a little bit more detail of how short is that shortage until the survey popped up. In Petaling Jaya, one of the most densely populated areas in Malaysia and has the highest number of crime activities around, has a police-resident ratio of 1 for around 3,000 residents! The worst is Subang Jaya, considered medium-to-high class area with a ratio of 1 policeman for every 10,400 residents!! This is scary, and considering the recent spate of crimes, nobody will dare to go for evening walk. I for sure will see that I don't go 'astray' out of the house for no reason but catching fresh air.

Pottermania

2003-06-26T22:05:00.000+08:00

It's Pottermania time and look at how many of its books sold worldwide! Unbelievable, and simply amazing to think about it especially if that person is none other than the author herself, JK Rowling. By just her fifth book out of seven book series of Harry Potter, she is already richer than the Queen of the British Empire! Imagine when book 6 is out. The 5th book was sold out in a matter of moments and one has to wait for about 1.5 weeks before the next batch of stock arrives. My sister has been keeping tabs on it, though it costs a whopping RM89.90, it's still a tad cheaper than those sold in the US and UK. At the time being , I am rereading the Goblet of Fire (Book 4) as to keep up with the story and many details that I had long but 'naturally' forgotten. By the way, the telephone was finally fixed......

Monday Blues

2003-06-23T17:40:00.000+08:00

It's Monday blues but I felt like smelling orchids will keep the blues away...not! It turned out to be a true blue day as my house telephone got wrecked from a heavy mid-afternoon downpour. There weren't any much deafening thunders that time but when a call rang just after the rain, the phone gone berserk upon picking up. Calls could still be received but not answerable. It's time to get Telekom guys to come over and fix it up. Ironically and fortunately, my Internet line (another phone line) wasn't affected at all. Could it be a stray cat got stuck inside the phone cable linking to the exchange outside my house? :P Will only know when the Telekom-men come.

The Harry Potter Quiz?

2003-06-17T20:40:00.000+08:00

Poor Julie has white spots on certain part of her body and I suspect it could be the stray cats around the neighbourhood causing it. She is also prone to scratching, even straight after bath. I could not tell whether she just likes to scratch herself or it's those catprints that she always love to meddle with. Dogs really have a good sense of smell. Eventually I learned that it's her scratching that caused those white spots over her body, especially the area around her ears and neck. She needs more attention.

The day had none been any different from the rest and I was hoping for rain to come but it didn't come, at least for until the time I am blogging here. Now, for the Harry Potter fans out there, try this quiz and see which character you are actually aligned with! I got Harry Potter, and Hermione was close behind :)

Late for LAN Party Sigh

2003-06-12T23:33:00.000+08:00

A boring day and therefore I called up some members of the POGT CS Gang to go 'shooting' at the usual spot. Eager as the restless mongoose, they thought it was a great idea and looked forward to meet me there. As unpredictable as the wind, I ended up 38 minutes late with 1,001 reasons given to my fellow members who quickly put out a 5 out of 5 rating in showing the 'why-are-you-late?' attitude to me. Sorry:) Just when everyone of us had finally thought that time has no place for men at later night did we decide to check out from the shooting ground and go home.

Worst Ever Flood in KL for Years!

2003-06-10T23:57:00.000+08:00

The long heatwave purpotedly ended with a brief spell of rain over Shah Alam. It was a heartfelt welcome and at last I could smell the cool air around me when I walked out from my house interior. What seemed to be a welcome rain for the capital of Selangor turned out to be a nightmare for the capital of Malaysia! A 40-minute downpour left the Kuala Lumpur city centre area with the worst flash flood for many years. At first I did not realise the impact it had done as I received news via SMS from some friends in early evening that they got stuck and could only reach home very late at night. I was to submit my credit card payment bill at Citibank in Jalan Ampang, which I duly went at night.

Why go at night? Reason: no jam, free and ample parking space, and the fun of driving at night. A usual route taken which I drove along Jalan Tun Perak and past Masjid Jamek LRT station before turning over to Jalan Raja Chulan and a few more roads to reach the bank. That was around 10 pm and it was fortunate that the flood receded well enough for motor commuters like me to pass through those affected major roads, otherwise I would have join the unlucky ones in a harrowing wet night. My deepest sympathy for those affected by the flood...

Yesterday At Genting Highlands

2003-06-08T22:12:00.000+08:00

The weekend was slightly unusual as I followed my family and relatives up to Genting Highlands for holiday. An overnight stay at the Resort World Hotel was full of drama. It took my family about 2 hours to get a car park, which was at deep beneath First World Hotel, and fortunately for the cool weather, I could not care less for the heatwave down at the Klang Valley. The jam started way before the Cradle Rock and all three lanes were filled with people and hot running engines. The long queue proved too much a mettle and we went thru the car parks of Theme Park Hotel and Resort World Hotel for a chance parking but to no avail. Finally at First World, I could breathe a sigh of relief, and furthermore it was my first visit to this newest hotel at Genting. It was also my first trip up to Genting with traffic jam upon entering this little Las Vegas!

Both the theme parks were so crowded that I felt some admiration for those people who had to queue up for an hour just to get into one of those fun rides. Then the rain came briefly followed by the chilling mist only to be taken over by the evening sun moments later. I didn't hop into those rides and so were my sister and cousins. Instead I kicked comps' butts in Warcraft III with my cousin over a private peer network. Then the Worms World Party in my cousin's notebook PC was so hilarious that I immediately took the liking of the holy grenade.....a bomb that explodes with 'halelujah' singing in the background.

Back on Sunday afternoon and it's good to be home again.........and the 'sauna' !

...just the other side

2003-06-06T17:25:00.000+08:00

I was awaken by a friend's call whom I have not heard from for a long time. After that I went straight for the newspapers to find that the war against VCD piracy had been somewhat one-sided, and England got thrashed in Futsal indoor soccer world challenge by a country called Iran.

The law enforcement people had been tough and determined in their piracy-busting campaign that one would think that if the piracy menace could finally be eradicated, then now is the time. One could witness at least one law enforcement truck parked beside the new-look Petaling Street almost everyday with several law enforcement officers stationed around and none of the VCD peddlers dared put up their wares under their noses. The same situation has been happening in other places and the pirates have resorted to different tactics in selling their goods, such as parading handphone accessories or blank CDs upfront while hiding their lists of movie/MP3 or software labels in folders that would only be shown to a potential customer when privately requested.

The hot weather had been a nuisance but could not help but face it. The table fan in the living room was showing its wear and tear and I thought to switch it back to the previous lot that has more power but a little faulty as the ventilation blinds got loosed and just kept spinning. The new 'giant' bookshelf bought by my parents at IKEA was finally set up and since my sister had not packed up her old bookshelf yet, I placed it aside in the storeroom. Next will be her new study table, also bought but yet to be assembled.

D-Day & Half-A-Loaf of Warcrafting

2003-06-04T16:16:00.000+08:00

59 years ago, this would be the D-Day in World War II. The Battle of Normandy, the largest ever battle in world history that combined air, sea and ground military units that will be remembered to this day and in the future. A deep tribute to the people who had sacrificed their lives in this war and those who went through.

It's been a while I last played Warcraft III and according to the recent survey conducted by The Star newspaper, the game was voted as the coolest game by Malaysian teenagers by a big margin! Right now I have just started replaying the campaign, only now it's in hard mode. Besides the campaign, I went to the WWW to download several scenario maps created by fans worldwide. I was impressed on how these people came up with ideas in extending the playability of this real-time strategy-cum-role-playing game to the fullest. Kudos to them. The most popular of all was the Aeon-of-Strife style scenarios where three teams pitted against each other and the players control and develop their own heroes and army units while the team's general army units were controlled by AI scripts.

Some Japanese History

2003-05-29T15:39:00.000+08:00

Just this evening, the TVIQ channel under Astro showed the documentary about Shoguns and that immediately got me on the sofa and glued to the tv. A piece of ancient history which I have always loved and admired, and that is the Japanese warlords of old times and this documentary talked about the history of the three famous Shogunates; Kamakura, Ashikaga, and Tokugawa. The history of how Tokugawa was formed was the most spectacular and dramatic in Japanese ancient history. The end of Tokugawa era saw the rise of the Meiji government and now putting history buff aside, this is where the samurai anime Rurouni Kenshin (or Samurai X) was set. Furthermore, as a little announcement here, this period of history will also feature Tom Cruise!! Yeah, there will be a movie coming end of this year with Tom the Top Gun Cruise starring, and the name of the movie is called The Last Samurai! Can't wait for it and now it's only May :(

And I got to finish the Fellowship of the Ring DVD special edition set last night. Two DVDs and you can't imagine how many scenes that were deleted from the theater version! In this edition, it's about 4.5 hours long. My brother happened to borrow the Two Towers DVD from his friend and he recently watched it, now passed to me for my movie night tonite :)

Lord of the Rings DVD

2003-05-27T23:27:00.000+08:00

Two friends and an acquaintance came over to my place in the evening for a visit. It was their first and the big guy Alex was hoping for a nice anime VCD/DVD to borrow, only to discover that his collection is far better than mine. He noticed my Lord of the Rings DVD Special Edition Set and mistook it as being original, which in fact a 'genuine fake' copy. The pirates do know how to make their products look good huh?

When they left, it came to my mind that I should start watching the LOTR special edition and off I went. In this edition, there were heaps of scenes that were not shown on the theaters (the standard edition), such as the extra scenes of Bilbo and Gandalf meeting, catching sight of the Wood Elves by Frodo and Sam, the Hobbits drink and dance, Boromir mistook Aragorn as an elf, and etc. Heck, the special ed came with 4 DVDs.

Everyday is Like Sunday (Again?)

2003-05-25T16:56:00.000+08:00

"Everyday Is Like Sunday", this song came into my mind and what would life be if this is real. Never heard of the song? Don't bother as I don't even know who the singer was. I first heard it when I was in Adelaide back in 1996 for my studies.

My pet dog Julie went through shower and the first thing when she got clean and entered the interior house was to head upstairs to look for me or my sister. If she couldn't find either of us, I thought she would head back downstairs and continue searching. No! She would just stay upstairs and frolicking around. She just loved the upper floor, even let off her pee on the carpet once.

Yesterday, the KL city centre had an unusual event that was called Citrawara Malaysia, which was just cultural dance. Therefore, many major roads were closed in the early evening, and since it's also my weekly badminton game, I had to attend via LRT. It's been some time taking the LRT and so happened that the train that I got on was the train the Yang Di-Pertuan Agong and Raja Permaisuri graced in the opening ceremony back in 5 March 2002.

The Counterstrike game session at the usual spot was switched to a nearby centre this evening as it was temporarily closed. The law enforcement officers had raided that Internet station on Wednesday probably after being tipped-off. Several PCs were loaded into a truck and taken away, and the station operator at that time was even handcuffed and sent to the police station! Something big had happened to them and some said the Internet station did not have valid licence but one guy, who presumed to be close to the station operator, said they have the licence and everything but those officers were just looking for some free coffee. For the first time, that whole shoplot was dark and quiet for days, which was normally noisy, lively and full of people. A new noticed was pasted at its windows recently, announcing that they will reopen on Monday 26th, and even put up there 'Grand Opening' ^o^

Entrepreneur Material?

2003-05-22T15:40:00.000+08:00

This is the day I discovered something new about myself. I am an entrepreneur material! Through self-denial I could not but help myself to discover some truth when I met up with a few guys from a multinational company. Hmmmmmm......still in the thinking process.

Another discovery, and that was from the newspaper. The heatwave is gonna persevere, and too bad there won't be half-time until August this year. Whose fault? Let me say this; you can post your grudges at any Grudges Board you can find off the Web and state the subject as Whose Fault Causing The Heatwave in Malaysia? or bla bla bla you deem it is appropriate. Apparently, the source was from down southwest of the peninsular, and I guess you would have guessed it where and how. As a typical Malaysian will go like this: "No wonder-lah!" :)

The Long Heatwave

2003-05-18T00:27:00.000+08:00

The long heatwave continued to embrace the Klang Valley and perhaps the whole nation here. Only the air conditioner kept my room cool and away from the El Nino effect. As I wrote this, I thought there was rain a few days back but it was just a brief spell and the wet grounds around my neighbourhood were quickly dried up by the scorching sun. It wasn't that bad after all as this is the great time for kids to go out to the park or playground to play in the evening, or soccer or basketball for the youngsters, or a walk in the park for just about anyone, e.g. the lovely park some few minutes walking distance from my home. Like this evening as I followed my family for dinner with relatives, I could see like about 100 over people at that park! If this has been a wet season, things would be so different.

Today was supposed to be a new RIFTS session for my RPG group but the Game Master couldn't make it and thus was postponed to a later date. It would be a Japanese setting for the game, and a Sohei warrior monk and a Tengu are in the drawing board.

On Saturday 17 May, things went on as usual except that since my two cousins Shyu and Yuen stayed over at my place, I took them back en route to my weekly badminton game in KL. One different thing while on my way to badminton, I took a detour hoping to escape the jam at the end of Jalan Syed Putra. To my horror, I got stuck at Jalan Kuching and couldn't take my friends at the bus stop at Jalan Raja Laut to be at the badminton venue on time. Instead, they had to go on their own and I was late 20 minutes! Jalan Kuching was apparently closed for reconstruction work...darn. It was also the lowest turnout of players for badminton, only four of us. Probably due to the long holiday for the week or the long weekend for those who took Friday off where some of them went back home ala balik kampung.

Then the usual evening CS session came and another friend joined us. For more about our CS adventures, check out The POGT CS Gang Coner website. That internet cafe seemed to be doing well and they've just installed another 20 PCs to make their stronghold a total of 80 PCs! We took up the new PCs, not knowing that new area wasn't air-conded and we left the cafe blazing hot for some cold drinks.

Matrix Reloaded & some others...

2003-05-16T02:08:00.000+08:00

The Matrix Reloaded was cool! That was what I could sum up after catching it at The Summit USJ with my sister and two cousins, Shyu and Yuen. Since it's only day 2 for the movie launched nationwide Malaysia, tickets were pretty much full and one could forget about booking via phone as I did. Lot more action and techno-jargons, and a lot more Virtual Adepts too, even an Akashic Brotherhood was in there. Not the whole lot, but the essence behind this superb movie.

My cousins stayed overnight and Yuen brought the Matrix Reloaded PS2 game. Quickly tried it on my PS2 and you can see more stories of Niobe and Ghost and their crew. It's a side-story from the main film and they are the same people. I got to play a round of C & C Generals with Yuen over direct cable. At just 4 Mbps, it was dead slow and that prompted me to get a switch next time.

And try this......................

WHICH ONE PIECE CHARACTER IS YOU?

From the latest anime hit, One Piece. Try out the quiz and discover more of yourself :) I tried it three times and at first I got Luffy but the last two I got Vivi instead and so I think I would be someone like her in the cartoon. Still don't believe who you end up with? You can always try out the Sorting Hat at the Friendship Corner.

What Now?

2003-02-18T12:21:00.000+08:00

Good day, and may the birds sing when you wake up every morning! It's been a while I last update my outstandingly modest blog. I almost didn't want to continue with this as almost gone were my days of enthusiastic blogging and the divine inspiration by looking at the bright white moon up in the dark night sky. But I believe I can still blog while the touch of flame is still there inside me, and so here it is.

Chinese New Year fever has already past and I hate to hear it's over now and to wait for next year. Always been a groovy mood during CNY till the 15th day. So as the festive season is already over, now it's time to get on to my life as a late-20something city lifer but with the knack to enjoy life whenever I could and practice a decent sporty way of life. I could just eat, eat and eat but struggling to gain a single kilo of weight. Chocolates and cookies, cereals and bread, these are my favourite snacks for my late nights, and I tell ya...I could easily make fat people feel jealous of me for this!:)

Two weeks ago I was heads over heels on MMORPGs, and now I am already hacking giant ants and zombies off in Helbreath. Such a modest game design and yet addictive to many players. I was hoping for Ragnarok to be up for international players and not just for Koreans and Japanese:( As for books for bedtime reading, I dug through my sister's collection and found GS Mikami. Now reading it at volume 9 and there's about 9 more books to go. Also rereading Melanie Rawn's The Dragon Prince, which I believe her books are one of the most underrated fiction fantasy novels in the world. Her ideas and theories of magic powers were simply unique! Heard of using magic via sunlight, moonlight and starlight? And one noteworthy thing about her books; they are so hard to find in bookstores these days, perhaps if lucky, just 1 or 2 of her books and that's it.

I happened to catch half a loaf of Extended Play on its website and found out that they gave Guilty Gear XX a perfect 5 out of 5!

MMORPG!?

2003-02-04T11:37:00.000+08:00

Time flew by real fast, and it's already the 4th day of CNY. I got a little hooked on a trend that has been going on for some time, which I was aware but never really took serious about it until lately, the Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Gaming (MMORPG)! This was something I delved into since my college days when they were onced called MUD (Multi-User Domain), and everything was text-based. Now with MMOG, it's all like Diablo-esque hack n slash n even merchandising! I am talking about Ragnarok and particularly Helbreath, which has been making a strong wave in the Internet cafes in Malaysia. Previously free of charge but now it's pay-to-play (P2P). Oh, why I seemed to like something at the wrong time? But after checking out some websites, the fees aren't too expensive anyway if you consider spending RM10 a week to play CS with ur frens at the cafes is reasonable. The P2P concept is around RM40-ish per month of unlimited access for most MMOGs (Ragnarok is RM49).

Chinese New Year 2003 Part 2

2003-02-03T10:40:00.000+08:00

What impression do I have for this year's CNY? Hmm, a kinda mixed feelings of joy and contentment. Haven't witness a lion dance yet or the sound of firecrackers being let off. It seemed like people play more fireworks during Hari Raya Aidilfitri & Deepavali than CNY! Oh, the traditional spirit of CNY is a little dying off ever since the government imposed ban on firecrackers and fireworks, but people still played them and though one couldn't really notice the display of fireworks on sale unless you know where to find them and going thru the proper channel. I dare to say if I were to burn some crackers, I could just feel my instinct driving me to the location to look for them :)

A few friends were supposed to come over to my place for CNY but they were still in kampung or got tied up with things. No worries, I have set this coming Saturday to be 'come to my place for CNY' day. When night fell, so did rain, but it only drizzled around my home unlike KL and PJ where some friends told me it was r aining like cats and dogs. I sms two friends for late night yum cha and Counterstrike but only 1 turned up and since he didn't have transport, I took him up at his Kepong home with my Waja Economy class. And boy my perception of CNY immediately changed the moment I arrived at Jalan Taman Bukit Maluri in Kepong. Rails of Chinese red lanterns (tanglung) hung along the street and some others in a romantic fashion, and as if somebody had known my arrival and let off some loud fireworks off the sky. This is what CNY environment ought to be! Picked up my friend at around 10.40 pm and arrived at Restoran Syed Abu in Damansara Jaya. It's still lotsa people but the big tv mounted at a corner of the restaurant wasn't working, which reminded me of the World Cup quarter-final match between England and Brazil that I watched with my friends at that time. Then, off we went to a nearby Internet cafe for some CS action until our eyes were half-closed, and later took early breakfast at another nearby food outlet before going home.

Chinese New Year 2003 !

2003-01-31T18:01:00.001+08:00

Ho! Ho! Ho! It's Chinese Lunar New Year! Gong Xi Fa Cai! Thank you again for coming to my blog, and wishing you a wonderful, happy, and prosperous new year! I turned cleaner boy for today and the job was to help my parents clean the whole house. This started way before the week coming to CNY, only intensive this day and yesterday (Thursday). Since everyone in the family was in good mood, I had been more eager to bring fresh air into the house and evict dust and dirt out of my home. The 'Gong Xi Fa Cai' spirit has been high, and my mood has been way above groovy, and thanks to the mild rain the whole afternoon, it just helped to keep the weather cooler.

The house-cleaning took longer than expected and my mum had to declare half-time in order for the family to prepare for the reunion dinner. Come evening close to 7 pm, my family and I were on the way. Firstly, we went to 4th aunty's new home in PJ to pick up my grandma and 3rd aunty, who came over from Sydney for CNY. Secondly, we're off to 1st uncle's house for the dinner and to catch things up. It's a once-a-year thingy and the tradition is always here to stay. Thirdly, after taking my grandma and 3rd aunty home, we headed to another uncle's house (mum's side) for a short visit. My cousin-brother wanted a game of Battlefield 1942 with me hosting it via ADSL server (my PC). I agreed and will SMS him when I get back. After that, it's back home to complete the remainder of the house-cleaning work before the clock strikes at 12 midnight. Traditional beliefs have always said that one cannot clean the premise on the first day of Chinese New Year, and luckily the cleaning was done just before midnight. Whew! The tv programmes were there to lighten up but after a short rest, I fired up my PC to host the game I promised to my cousin. Unfortunately, he just couldn't connect and the serial key was him giving the trouble. So the game had to be called off. *sigh* Anyway, there's always next time, and after he sorted out with the problem.

Oh-kay, it's time for bed. A big day ahead! ^__^

The Sixth Sense

2003-01-28T02:08:00.000+08:00

Monday blues had not struck me, despite the humid weather. Didn't know why I could sleep so much today and had a large bowl of Koko Krunch for supper, and yet couldn't put on a pound on my not-so-lean physique. Perhaps maybe I should seek a blood donation fair somewhere to 'refresh' my many pints:) I was in the mood for CS and was hoping to organise a 4 vs 4 game with my frens but none could make it for the evening and it was swiftly cancelled. *Bummer* Then later in the wee hours of the morning, my DVD marathon continued. This time it's Sixth Sense with cutie Haley Joel Osmond, and of course, Bruce 'The Kid' Willis (yeah, I know he's better off with Die Hard series). What a movie! What an ending! The weirdest thing was this movie was on for few years and I hadn't got to get a good watch on it until this very moment. If I had been Mr Adam Sessler to review movies instead of games on Extended Action (instead of Play), I'd give it an enthusiastic 5 out of 5 :P In my humble opinion, ghosts do exist around us, like in a parallel universe, and to some we call this the 'spiritual world'. Ghosts that have unfulfilled wishes would stay around in our physical world and only leave when their wishes are fulfilled. When they linger around, that's where they 'haunt' the place they last been, letting off strong emotions of sorrow or anger wherever they go. Their very presence would turn the area temperature they were in to several degrees lower. It is believed that when the living accidentally passed thru a ghost, he/she'll feel a sudden chill. Have you encountered this before?

Everyday Is Like Sunday

2003-01-26T22:25:00.000+08:00

How nice if everyday is like Sunday. I remembered there's this song by the same name (Everyday is like Sunday) that I used to listen when I was in Adelaide for my studies. Don't know who's the singer but it's plain and sentimental, and it neither sound American nor British.

Just this afternoon I followed my family to Nilai Memorial Park to pay respect to my grandpa for the oncoming Chinese New Year. My relatives were there too. After reaching home, I got so tired that I went straight to bed for a nap. Mum bought a new cabinet for the living room, and things looked better than ever. It's easier to dig the list of DVDs and VCDs now :P

And oh look, Monday is coming! By the way, this is my Guilty Gear XX character after going thru the quiz..well, actually I didn't get Johnny at first. I got Chipp Zanuff! But I went thru 5 times & this was how I got in sequence: Chipp, Johnny, Johnny, Dizzy, & Axl. So, overall ended up with Johnny. Agree?

Manic Saturday

2003-01-25T09:36:00.000+08:00

It's the weekend and another week before 'kung hey fatt choy'! This coming week will be extremely busy for the Chinese people like me. Wash, wipe, rub, scrape, throw, pack, u name it, it's all in the house-cleaning book of encyclopedia. By the look of it, I remembered tat I have to take charge of cleaning up the porch and corridor once again, and if my pet dog isn't careful enough, she might just be taken into the spring-cleaning joyride...muahaha.

It's my usual Saturday. Woke up spectacularly late and then a quick lunch before preparing for badminton game. The journey from Shah Alam to the centre of bustling Kuala Lumpur ain't a comfortable feat. Just as expected, the notorious traffic pile-up at the Motorola intersection of the LDP Highway did just that, and prevented me from reaching at my ex-company's office to join my friends to car pool to the badminton court. So again, I had to go alone, reached the destination and prepared to pay a hefty parking fee when the badminton action was over. *sigh* Will have to leave my home earlier next time...good idea huh? As for the badminton game, it's great to see one of my friends turned up after a long spell of his so-called 'retirement'. Although months have passed, he's still that 'keng'! Hehe.

Later, my friends and I had dinner at the local Chinese restaurant nearby KDU College. Ever since last month, our after-game hangout would be this restaurant for either yum cha or dinner. Then, it's another game time! Who could not have guessed that it's none other than Counterstrike!! Yeah, that police-and-thief shooting game that kids and old boys like me and my friends here seem to enjoy. I tried to persuade my sister to play the game online, but words seemed to fall on deaf ears.

Back home, and came to Saturday Late Night Fever. It's DVD again and last night was REALLY another Tom Hanks's flick. It's Cast Away. Man, I should put my money on him for the Oscars n I think he did win it, rite? Well, tonight it's not Tom anymore but Jude Law and Joseph Fiennes in Enemy at the Gates. Another true story, another war theme. This one you'd get to see snipers in action, yeah snipers...you dun go charge at them with ur guns blazing or else he'll shoot ur head to bits (ok, ok, a tad too much of CS-ism already) ^___^

Weekend Rendezvous

2003-01-24T10:48:00.000+08:00

Weekend is fast approaching yet again and I happened to dig back the list of old DVDs at home again and found The Green Mile. Only seen it once on the theater and so I decided to watch it again. A highly touching story with miracles made by the least unexpected, based on the popular Stephen King novel. Only just last night I watched Saving Private Ryan, and so coincidentally both are Tom Hanks's flicks. Seems like it's gonna be another DVD time and Tom Hanks tonight?

Friday night has been same since Christmas, and one could catch me online at a Mechwarrior 4 Mercenaries server (heck if u know wat it is ^_^ ) with an ex-primary school classmate for some robot bashing fun. Since I'm a typical Game Guy freakozoid, you'd bound to expect my blog mentioning heaps of gaming saliva here and there :D Dun like the idea? Post your grudges at the comments tag and slam...hehe. I dun really mind at all. Hope I am not turning my blog from being a blog into a customer service corner. A simple rule of thumb; people don't make blogs which others don't read them.

Ah, the night is still young. For those who need to work on Saturdays, well..work hard. And oh, it's time for me to join my ex-classmate for robot bashing time (okay, not robots actually...it's called mechs). Tune in for my next blog soon! Take care.