Tuesday, March 26, 2002

Note to self: The next time you have your form submitted although the javascript function returns a false, check whether you've passed in the correct parameter(s) for that function. Exceptions can't be caught like in java and values other than a false returned would successfully submit the form. Silly empress! Another waste of a few hours wondering what the heck happened.

Saturday, March 23, 2002

I've got my license. My real license. Bye bye probation license. Bye bye 'P' sticker. I was really surprised at JPJ's efficiency though. Thought I'd take me more than an hour to get the whole application done but it only took about half an hour; including the wait for my number to pop up on the prompter. The actual processing and making of the license took only 5 minutes. Silly me wasted half a day's leave to get this done. Doh!

Thursday, March 21, 2002

new record: After months and months of trying, I finally beat my old Minesweeper record. New record now is 118 seconds for the expert level. Need to shave off 19 more seconds to get into the world record!

Wednesday, March 20, 2002

VisualStudio Launch
Note to self: Watch "The Screen Savers" Wednesday, March 20, at 7 p.m (US time). Story regarding Stay-At-Home Secretary.

Monday, March 18, 2002

sun, speed and babes

A half an hour drive, a detour to purchase a $50 parking sticker and a bus ride later, I was finally at gate K2. The entrace to what hopefully would turn out to be an exciting, thrilling race.

It was only half past 10 when Stef and I got in but the place was already packed. We immediately made our way down the slope searching for a comfortable spot with a good view of the track. Good view was easy enough to find as the whole area overlooks the 2nd and 3rd corner leading to the 2nd straight stretch.

Comfort, however, was hard to come by. The slope was bumpy but we made do as best as we could.

Batik cloth spread, hats on head and sunglasses firmly on, we proceeded with the next best thing to do while waiting for the race that was scheduled to begin at 3.15pm; get a tan. So off goes my spaghetti top (I had on sports top ... of course!) and on goes the globs of sunscreen. 'Bad Girls Guide to the Open Road' in hand, I proceeded getting comfy and looking cool reading my pink vinyl covered book. Smilling intermittedly at the witty words of Miss Cameron Tuttle. Probably looking like and idiot doing that but hey! Who's watching? Concentration should be on the track right?

Several minutes later, a bunch of loud, non-stop talking quartet of thirtysomethings parked their asses next to our spot. Blocking my view of a totally cool looking guy sitting a few feet away. But that's fine. They were really funny and friendly. Had some laughs. Good fun.

Later, as I was coming up the slope back to my seat, I went closer to the fence, closer to the track to get some pictures of the driver's procession (I'm expecting the pictures to turn out badly. They were too far away and I don't have a zoom camera.), I heard someone say my name and lo! and behold! I saw my ex-schoolmates. They were putting up a shade/tent thing. (Now why didn't I think of that? I forgot even to bring an umbrella!) Said 'hi' and everything and continued back up the slope to my spot.

The atmosphere was really great. People everywhere lazing on the grass. Talking, laughing, drinking eating, sunbathing, whatever. All out having fun. Most of them decked out with their favourite teams colours, painted or worn. Large flags (mostly the reds of the Ferraris and grey Mercedes) flying and flapping. Perfect race day weather.

After a tediously long and boring traditional performance (mostly due to the fact that nobody on my hill can see it) and the lackluster air show performance by the RMAF, the race begins.

The race itself was quite boring actually. Nothing happened at this end of corner. No crashes. No swerving off the track. No smoke coming out of the back tail. Just some passing and over taking at the turns. I was cherring for our local boy Alex Yoong in the Minardi. Not for him to win, I have to be realistic, but just to at least finish the race in front of his Aussie teammate Mark Webber. There's a whole bunch of people cheering for Michael Schumacher and he has been having a nice long winning streak so I don't think he need anymore support! He did have to pit after the first lap though, he lost his front wing when he collided with Montoya's Williams in the first corner.

I guess I will say that the best part of the race was towards the end when Michael Schumacher overtook Jenson Button's Renault. The poor boy must have felt the thrill of his life thinking that he'll have his first podium finish before it was dashed at the last minute by the incredible Schumacher.

You have to give credit where credit is due. Schumacher really is amazing. To come back up all the way to a podium finish from 12th placing halfway into the race with 3 pit-stops must surely be an incredible feat. It's no wonder he's been winning so much!

Wow! A very enjoyable day. I've never been a big fan of F1 racing but I can see now how it appeals to the masses. It is rather thrilling.

Stef and I am thinking of going again next year. The next time, must remember to bring large umbrella, several litters of water, camera with zoom, binoculars with larger zoom to see the large screen display, food, ...

Thursday, March 14, 2002

To go or not to go ... that is the question

The Malaysian Grand Prix 2002 will start tomorrow and I have tickets. Well, actually my dad has tickets cause he's on a project for KLIA. He gave the tickets to me though, I did ask for them. He's not interested in going. I wanted to see what it's like, the race ... live.

Except ...

I didn't want to go alone. I was hoping that they'd give him more than one ticket, so that I could at least go with my sis, and that the ticket was for the final race day not the first day practise session.

So, now, I'm not sure if I'm still going. It's a good ticket though, corporate suite. Expensive. But still, alone. I'm not sure yet.

Tuesday, March 12, 2002

I'm listening to Virgin Radio and they just had an experiment to prove a survey that Neil Francis found which says that only 20% of women knows how to change tyres compared to 97% of men. Well, it was close as the 6th caller managed to get it right. Would have proven the statistics right if it had been the 5th caller but one caller difference is not too bad, me thinks. Now here's the good part. The caller who got it right, she's a computer person. I couldn't really hear what exactly in computers but yeah, she's a computer person. She was spot on. Yay! Computer gals knows how to change tyres. I do as well and I was looking for a chatroom at Virgin Radio's site, before the 6th caller came through, to see if I could type in the answer but there isn't one.

Hmmm ... maybe they should do another study to find out the percentage of computer women who knows how to change tyres.
Found this from EvHead's blog. Isn't this gorgeous? Check out the review at kicksology.


Too bad they don't sell And 1 shoes here. I might just buy this. Have been looking to buy a pair of sneakers for a long time. Haven't found one that I like just yet. It's probably cause I want the shoe to look good as well as function as my general excersize shoes, not that I excersize much these days but I like to have a pair of shoes for the times that I do. Of course, I'd like it to be cheap or at least affordable. Don't want to pay mega bucks just for a pair of shoes.

Speaking of shoes, Irene from Superdances just called to say that my new gold dancing shoes are ready. Hurrah! And it only took them eight days to finish my shoe. Hope it fits. I tried on a size 6 when I was at her place but I really needed a size 6(B/wide), since I have wide forefoot. Took a chance and ordered 6(B) without trying. Have to look for a studio with unwaxed floor to try out my spanking new shoes.

So excited. New shoes. Whee!

Monday, March 11, 2002

woo hoo! I'm Storm!



Which Star-Crossed Marvel Lover Are You?

I got a tie. Talk about multiple personality disorder!

See which Greek Goddess you are.



See which Greek Goddess you are.

Read this article in the papers back in March 5th. I don't read the news in the newspapers only lifestyle, sports section, comics, movie listing and the tv guide. And usually just breeze through those as well but this article caught my eyes.

At a time where everyone is putting in mucho hours, making things happen fast, making money fast, these people come up with "Slow Cities". A spin-off from the slow food movement, the main objective 'slow cities' is to get us to enjoy life. Quality life.

The idea sounds wonderful but I do wonder if someone like me would be able to fit in a city such as that. Someone who's restless. Someone who gets bored easily. Someone who need something to do, to move, to jump and prance ... okay, maybe not jump and prance exactly. Someone who after 8 hours of work seeks other activities/classes to fill up time between after office hours and bedtime.

I mean, what would you do if you went straight home after work?

Dinner and shower? Sure. Fine. But how long do you need for that? One hour max. What next? Plop in front of the telly? Read? Good and fine as well but that's just so boring! Plus, not extremely good for your health. Lack of movement/exercise. A body needs movement.

Even if I could stand having minimal activities, you need beaucoup bucks to enjoy good food, good clothes, good homes, even good/clean air! Only thing that would be free would be good friends. People to enjoy it with.

Would be ideal if I didn't have to worry about money. Then yeah! I'd definitely live in a "slow city".

In fact, I try to have a slow city at least once a year. It's in a city called Penang. It's an Island really but it's a small island. All I do when I'm there is eat, sleep, eat, sleep, watch the telly, read, and laze on the beach or on the pool (if I'm staying at a seaside hotel).

Slow island, anyone?

Saturday, March 09, 2002

A glove that allows you to touch things virtually. Not an extremely new idea. TechTV's story yesterday 'Computers Get Touchy-Feely' reminded me of Johnny Mnemonic. That futuristic movie starring Keanu 'cool breeze over the mountain' Reeves which I thought was a total flop ... so did thousands in the world. But, in that movie, I remember a part when Johnny puts on these VR goggles and glove and starts doing things like taking things, openning boxes and typing on a keyboard without those things there physically. I thought that was cool. Hopefully things will go far for "virtual touch" and more people, besides USC's Integrated Media Systems Center will look into haptics technology, the technology behind "virtual touch".

I still look forward to the day when wearable computing will be possible and I think the "virtual touch" would be a great tool for it.

Thursday, March 07, 2002

To Where You Are

Who can say for certain
Maybe you're still here
I feel you all around me
Your memories so clear
Deep in the stillness
I can hear you speak
Your still an inspiration
Can it be

That you are mine
Forever love
And you are watching over me from up above
Fly me up to where you are
Beyond the distant star
I wish upon tonight
To see you smile
If only for awhile to know your there
A breath away's not far
To where you are

Are you gently sleeping
Here inside my dream
And isn't faith believing
All power can't be seen
As my heart holds you
Just one beat away
I cherish all you gave me
Everyday

Cause you are mine
Forever love
Watching me from up above
And I believe
That angels breathe
And that love will live on and never leave

Fly me up to where you are
Beyond the distant star
I wish upon tonight
To see you smile
If only for awhile
To know you're there

A breath away's not far
To where you are

I know you're there
A breath aways not far
To where you are


i lifted this lyric from ellen's site. the site's all in chinese, i think. all i see is weird symbols but you can see things that are written in english. i followed those and voila! i've got the lyric.

doesn't it just sound sad and beautiful? i remember the first time i heard/saw josh groban sang this song. saw it in a tiny little window in media player sitting in front of my computer at work. managed to find it from one of josh's micro site over at welovesarah.com. it was a snippet from the christmas episode in ally mcbeal; season 5 episode 7 entitled 'Nine One One' to be percise.

i remember sitting there, listening to the song and as the song goes on, my eyes started tear-ing. so sad. i think i've written about this before but i don't care. after so many time of listening to it (i have the cd now and am listening to it even as i write), it sometimes still make me a little teary.
musn't make it too much of a habit. have been turning off my phone alarm and not waking up when i should. only woke up at 8 this morning which left me with 30 minutes to shower, dress and drive to work. an impossible feat and therefore not worth rushing.

and so, i took my own sweet time. had a bowl of cereal, drove my neighbour who was going to school for her library duty and got to work at nine. only half an hour late. not too bad.

should really try going to bed earlier so as to be able to wake up when i'm suppose to. even if it was to get to work and do more testing and debugging on that bleeding trigger module which is slowly driving me insane.

somehow, some of the things i've tested a few weeks back didn't seem to work today. it's completely mystifying. received a 'value conflict occurs' error. supposedly, this error occurs if the method used is not supported by the database driver, in this case the oracle jdbc driver. if anyone has ever encountered this error, please tell me how to fix it. i don't know how. if it is the driver, then why did it work the first time i tested the function weeks ago and not today? i've asked around and everyone says that nobody's done any tweaking or updating to the database nor the driver. so, i'm puzzled as to why this error should occur now.

these are the relevant lines which triggered the error:
resultset.updateString(column, data);
resultset.updateRow();

updateString() didn't cause any error. updateRow() is the culprit here.

calling all java guru, please help empress in her dillemma.

alright, after work, got home and before i even sat down for a little rest. my dad goes on again that i should go get his serial-usb converter for him ASAP. "oh and while you're there, get a new colour catridge as well."

so after dinner, i trod (trodded?) along to pyramid's IT center to get the stuff. got my dad to give me the dough before i came. thought that the RM300 that he gave me would be more than enough for that two item but i was wrong. it wasn't more that enough. it was just enough. the converter costed RM130 (although it said RM150 on the price tag) and the catridge costed RM120 (again the price tag read RM135, if i'm not mistaken). i wondered what the point of placing the price tag there if you're not going to sell it for the price that was printed but ... hey! i'm not complaining. i got the goods at a lower price and low price is always good. why pay more?

when i got home, my dad had another job for me. installing software. i've practically installed his software on both the machines that's in our house and now he wants it on his laptop as well. hopefully once he starts uses the laptop then he'll leave my pc alone. then i can delete all his files and programs and regain disk space. then find out why i can't open a large *.jpg file without my computer saying that i don't have enough disk space. there was over 500MB of space when i tried opening that file. a colleague says that it has something to do with my swap file. ok. fine. "so, what do i have to do to my swap file to make it work?", i asked. "i don't remember." was the reply.

installed the software, made sure internet was setup for my dad and then off to bed.

Tuesday, March 05, 2002

hey, check this out. my picture's being used as a background of one of my uni's tour page. Ain't it cool? :)
i've got free banner free web hosting at empress.digitalrice.com

... wait! wait! wait! ... before you start clicking on to the new site, i have to tell you that there is absolutely nothing there as yet. i'm thinking of maybe using greymatter or MT for this site. are there any greymatter or MT users reading this? if so, what do you recommend?

besides that, i'm thinking that i should really come up with a theme for a design before publishing that site. i've been saying that i need to design a look for this blog forever but i've never gotten to it. so, before the new site comes, i really want to have a design up. problem is, i don't have much idea on what i want. sugesstions please?

basically this blog is a call for recommendation and suggestions ... so start blogging back! i need feedback.
how cool is this!


Which Angelina Are You?



not sure how cool this winona result is as i haven't seen the movie. the description sound okay i suppose. not as cool as the angelina result! ... I AM LARA CROFT! HEAR ME ROAR!!!


Which Winona Are You?




YELLOW



You are very perceptive and smart. You are clear and to the point and have a great sense of humor. You are always learning and searching for understanding.




Find out your color at Stvlive.com!


Monday, March 04, 2002

it's official

come 29th march, i'll be competing in the malaysia millennium 2002 competition.

i have three costumes to choose from. two of them are of the same style; it's a simple dress, one shouldered and short (not that short for me cause i have short legs). one's pink glittered and the other is black with gold glitters. the other costume is a two piece yellow concoction. the top has gold sequins (the top itches) and the skirt is short and tasseled.

of those three, i think i look best in the yellow costume. the other two seems to make me look really big; especially the pink costume plus that shade of pink just doesn't seem to go with my skin colour. my partner loves that costume though. keeps pressing me to wear it for the competition.

haha ... not a chance. not going to listen to his opinion on this matter. his fashion taste is simply ... how should i put this nicely? ... not good. closer to terrible if not horrendous.

it's either the black or the yellow. everyone, except my partner, seems to agree that i should wear the yellow. so, maybe i'll be wearing the yellow.

i've placed a last minute order for a new pair of dancing shoes yesterday. simple design, all gold in a material called 'madonna glitter'. i've also ordered it a half inch higher than my usual practise shoes. i hope that won't affect my dancing too much ... if it does, preferably for the better and not for the worse.

right! so, from now until friday the 29th, must squeeze in as many practises as possible. will be having practise later tonight after choir practise. hope i still have energy after a long day at work and two hours of singing to dance.

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