Right. This is for when I get home. http://www.tonos.com/app2/articles/business_of_music/jsp/foster_in_studio.jsp. Firewall at work doesn't allow most RealMedia streaming.

I would like to write a review on 'A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum' that I watched yesterday afternoon but my friend accidentally took my programme. So, with no names to rave or critic on and no song list to guide me, I can't. I'll probably be able to get it back tonight and will write the piece when I do. In the meantime, do go watch the show. It's hilarious and highly entertaining. Plus, Chef Wan wasn't that bad in it.

Not bad but not good either.

P.S: This was the musical I auditioned for.

Just submitted my monthly article to Delusion of Adequacy. The Editor sent a mail reminding me of the dateline a few days ago. I didn't know what to write about so I think I submitted quite a useless piece. Click on Dateline--Malaysia at http://www.adequacy.net/columns.shtml. I don't think I'm cut out for this article writing thing. Just don't know what to write about. Feeling the pressure and this is only my second piece. :={

Affaire Française

The coronation was a non-event ... at least for me. Did they indeed install a new King that day? I guess they did from the front page picture on most of the newspapers around. But for me, it was just another day off. Didn't glue myself to the television watching this event happen live from Bukit Jalil. Had instead a nice family outing.

Started the day with a nice brunch at a chicken rice shop at Jalan Gasing. Yummy rice, very small amount of chicken and quite expensive as well (it's kampung chicken that's why). That was nice, would have been even better if my parents were able to answer my questions directly (about why the shop's location is) instead of trying to tell me where to go.

You see, I have been to the shop before it's just that I forget how far into Jalan Gasing the shop's located. Therefore, I need to know where to turn in from the road parallel (the one which passes Amcorp Mall) to Jalan Gasing (I can't go straight into Jalan Gasing from Federal Highway!). Why can't they just tell me if it's at the beginning or the middle or at the end of that road? They always want to tell me what to do. Shit! Just answer the question!

Oh yes, that and my grandma keep asking if her precious grandson know's that we are here and if he'll be joining us. We just saw him get all dressed up for work and walk out the door prior to departure. Gosh! Focus! Now, that's bad of me. She is quite old. I should just indulge her and tell her he has to work and being the goody too shoe that I am, told her that her precious has gone to work, albeit sarcasm was dripping like liquid honey.

Next went home and just sat for awhile before heading out to Bangsar with Stef. She wanted to get her belly pierced. It cost a heck of a lot! RM100 just for the piercing and another RM80 for a normal stud with no gem or RM90 for a stud with one gem and RM120(?) for a stud with two gems. She only brought RM150 so she didn't have enough cash then. Besides, it was expensive and I advised her to go check out the pricing in other places. So, we went down and into a clothing store just next door. Her still torturing herself thinking whether or not to just get it done cause she's been wanting to do it forever and me being absolutely non-supportive. My reason being she hasn't checked out other places. They might be cheaper! Me the el cheapo. Hah!

Anyway, she finally decided to have it done anyway and I spotted her the extra dough she needed. Her belly is well and truly maimed now. Looks alright. The stud's kinda plain though. Saw some cool looking ones at the shop which made me think if I should get my belly maimed as well then I get to use one of those fancy belly studs for my latin competitions. Would look très cool doncha think?

Then it's off to Midvalley we go. It's off to MidValley we go. Hey ho the derry oh, it's off to MidValley we go.

Got my movie tickets - Meilleur Espoir Feminin and The Count of Monte Cristo. The French flick was good. Saw a similarity between the daughter-father relationship with that of my sis and papa. Stef and I joked that we should get them to watch the movie and see if they see it as well. Better yet, make them come watch it together! That should be interesting.

Count of Monte Cristo was lavish. Good as well for someone who has not read the Alexandre Dumas classic. I had heard from someone that the movie wasn't so good but that person has read the book. Maybe the book was better? Sort of how I feel about Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone I guess. Lots of scenes chopped off from the book.

So, Thursday was good. Yesterday was boring. Work and then dance practise. *Yawn*

Argh! Christ! I knew I shouldn't have made that coffee or at least shouldn't have drunk(? - excuse me if that's the wrong tense, my tenses are quite weak but I am not going to invest anytime to improve that) it. Now my stomach's churning. Will have to get home and to the loo quick before it explodes!

Tomorrow's a holiday. Yay! Coronation for the new Agong (King).

This will give me a chance to go watch 'Meilleur Espoir Feminin'. Have been wanting to watch it since it first started showing but never had the chance. More so now that it's showing only once a day in the afternoon when I am at work. Pm's seen it and she wants to watch it again so it should be good, no? As for tonight, ballroom class and after that latin practise (SM called during lunch asking if I could practise after class). Then if I feel like it, maybe, Spiral with Az.

Eyes red and dry, I finally finished porting the app. Minor modifications made and repairation to stuff that I missed out earlier. Time to say goodbye to this project and continue with the next.

Urgh! I dread starting that other project. Don't know where to begin. To just code? Or to design first? Obvious and ideal answer would be to design right but that's such a drag. But I will have to since I have to break it apart so that I can assign it to others in the team to help me with it. Ah well, this my first project (well, first big one anyway) that I'll be heading. I just hope I don't screw it up too much.

Righto ... lets talk about what I did the past couple of days.

Club nite on Saturday was a success (my opinion anyway, others might have thought it a complete bore). Almost everyone who confirmed their attendance actually attended. The food was really good (I well and truly stuffed myself). However, my singing that night was atrocious. Atrocious doesn't even come close to describing it. I was too soft when duetting (unpractised) with Cris on 'I Know Him So Well' and started too low when I did 'On My Own'.

So embarrassing!

But it was lots of fun. Better towards the end when a few of us gathered around the piano and belted our hearts out. Then Suzan and I did 'I Still Believe'. I actually sounded quite ok. I should practise this song more often. It seems to be within my range, whatever my range is.

It was about 12am Sunday morning when I got to Avanti for Soon's little birthday gathering. Danced some but not a lot cause they closed at 1am. During one song, 2 of the waiters went on the dance floor and started dancing - they weren't any good, whoever gave them the idea that they were must have been intoxicated. One of the waiters, not the two on the dance floor, told me to join them cause, his words, ' ...[I] dance well'. Ermm ... gee thanks. Compared to those two, I probably do. Haha ... good stuff for my ego. Should visit this establishment more often. :)

The next morning, had to wake up early for dance practise at 9.30am. Bleargh! Didn't practise too hard that day cause SM was trying to figure out some steps. After that, SM and I had our lesson. First one ever after my competition debut; which was slightly more than a month ago. Wow! That's really long. We did the basic, which I have never learned, technically correct version of cha-cha and spins. I still can't seem to get the shoulder thing right. So frustrating. It feels odd. Not natural. Like I'm just doing it cause Mr. L tells me to. Need to practise more I suppose.

*Sigh* Next competition's in July. Hope I get enough practise before that.

Well, I tried to installing the app but ran into some problems.

Firstly, it seems that the PHP on windows is more sensitive to unset variables ie. just referring to $aVar without assigning it first will print out an ugly error message in your view page. Yucks! Or maybe that has to do with Apache on windows. I don't know. Either one, I will now have to go through my codes and do an isset() on places that might involve unset variables.

Secondly, my colleague who set up Apache and PHP on that machine forgot to install the mhash function. So I can't get pass the login page cause all following pages requires that. Ah well, left him a message on his mobile. Hopefully he hasn't gone back to Malacca this weekend and would be able to come in tomorrow or something to install it. I'd do it myself except I have never installed PHP before and installing that function might require some sort of compilation. I don't want to screw up whatever that's already working.

Now I must go home and collect the stuff needed for tonight's club nite and head over to Ivy's and await the caterers.

Woo hoo! Tis done. All files transferred.

On another note ... Craps! Have to come back to the office tomorrow to install my, just finished, application in the client's machine. Must have that ready by Monday. The boss wants it.

After this, it's back to Java and CRM.

Now that my home computer have speakers, I think it's about time I take all the mp3 files that I have managed to download over the office's speedy lines. There are almost 200 files there; more or less. I wanted to do this earlier on but I thought that since I don't have speakers to listen to them, what would be the point? Plus my dad didn't have his laptop then so, how was I to transfer all those files home? I don't have a zip drive nor do I have a burner at the office.

Wow! The transfer's pretty fast over the network. I hooked up the laptop to one of the network ports around. Lots of them around now since everyone's gone home.

Might take me ages to transfer it to my PC when I get home using a parallel port. No network card at home. Again. No point in having one.

Hmmm ... not done yet.

Hey! I think they've switched off the air-conditioning! Getting warmer in here.

Of friends and sushi

Yesterday while having lunch with Jen, I noticed that we don't really seem to talk to each other. We got to Genkhi Sushi and sat around the sushi belt. Ordered our green tea and then just sat and checked out the offerrings on the belt. Picked some plates and started eating.

I felt a bit weird so I tried to make conversations; I haven't seen her for a few weeks, close to a month.

"So, anything new?" I asked.

"Nah! Not really. How bout you?" came the reply.

"Nothing here either."

Then silence and more eating.

Is it normal for people who've been friends to have nothing to say to each other? Nothing to talk about? Nothing that they'd like to share when they meet? Y'know, to catch up on the week(s)/month(s). Do friends tend to have the same conversations over and over again? Questions like "Anything new?", "When will you be quitting?", "I thought you wanted to quit?", "Have you seen [movie name]?"

I don't know. It just felt weird.

My friends and I usually go out and do something - movies, pool, bowling, eat (all time favourite) - and even if we don't go out and just hang out in P's place, we'd watch a movie. All activities not requiring minimal communication skills. When we do find ourselves in situations where we actually have to speak to each other, the topic usually centers around work (boring) or if I'm talking to P, what shows/musicals would we like to go for next.

Hmmm ... I'll have to pay more attention to whether this is true for every occassion our clique meet up.

Maybe it was just yesterday. A one time thing.

Maybe it was the sushi ...

Bad me. Scolded papa earlier cause he said he couldn't get the USB to Serial converter driver installed. Turns out it wasn't his fault. The driver for Windows XP wasn't included in the CD and the one for the other Windows version doesn't work. Luckily their site is well updated. Managed to download and install the latest version; no problem.

Sooooo, sorry pa.

On a totally different note, went for my first ballroom class at 9pm earlier. It was alright. Still manage to catch up even though they were in their fourth class. I seem to be having the same problem most latin dancers suffer as well, the heel-toe instead of toe-heel thing. Keep lifting my feet off the ground as well. Was told by Soong that I'm not suppose to do that; she taught me the basics so that I could catch up with the rest of the class. Pretty fun but have to wait in turn for guys to be available to practise the steps. As usual, the class is desperately lacking in guys. Well, not so much but it's a ratio of about 3:1. So, the guys should get pretty great in no time huh, since they're getting so much practise. :)

Right. Nitey nite.

Note to self: Remember to make calls to the Immigration Department (passport renewal) and Banana Cafe (increase number of heads for Club Nite) tomorrow!

The personality test

BUSINESSMAN
(Dominant Extrovert Concrete Thinker )

Like just 3% of the population you are a BUSINESSMAN (DECT). Hide the children and protect the bunnies, basically. In ancient times you would be a deadly barbarian. These days, you're perfect for Wall Street. You prefer concrete thinking to a more creative style, and your direct modes of thought and action help you succeed in whatever you may try to accomplish.

Your forceful and outgoing personality can make you seem like a hothead, but because your mind ultimately rules your heart you rarely let your emotions get in the way of your goals. By the way, think of Genghis Kahn buying seven million pork bellies on the trading market, and then eating half of them, and you have yourself. Good luck.

Congratulations, you're Elizabeth Bathory!

Hailing from sunny Transylvania, your first blood-related incident was when you stabbed a servant girl in the face with a pair of scissors for underperforming. Some of the red spray landed on your hands, and as you washed it off, you noticed that it left your skin fresh and young looking. From then on you were convinced that the blood of young girls was the secret to eternal youth.

Rather than killing girls outright by stabbing them or slitting their throats, you enjoy torturing them for weeks on end by pricking them with needles or prodding with sharp spikes - all to bathe in their blood. You've killed over six hundred women, all without raising a peep from the authorities.

If you wish, you can proudly tell the world that you bathe in virgin juice with the following fine graphic:


Which Evil Criminal are You?

La ... soon as one problem's solved, another one pops up. My computer is now audible. I've taken the ATP3 out of it's box and connected the components together. Sounds terrific.

Once done, I was gonna dial-up to post this happy event. Only to find that the power LED of my modem is off. Oh no!

I unplugged the USB and plugged it into the other USB port. Still no lights. Next got pappa's laptop to check if it works with it. No luck.

The modem's probably fried. I wonder if there's a warranty card lying somewhere for this modem. If I can find it, maybe I can send it back to the manufacturer to have them check it out. Maybe they'll replace it? I have heard however that most manufacturers don't replace modems spoiled by lightning strike.

But first ... have to find that warranty card. Now where did I place that modem's box?

Peer to Peer Review

I got reviewed by Mizerable/Zuleikha. It's all part of the peer-to-peer review project by two guys, Rasmus and Beau.

She says I don't blog regularly. :D I know. I know. Just can't seem to get myself to write in it day in and day out as I did when I first started out. I guess lure of a new toy's gone now. I will try and get myself to blog more often. There have been several things that happened the past two weeks that I should have written down so that I remember that those event actually happened. Lets see if I have the strength after choir tonight.

Confession time. I didn't do my review. I received the email for my assigned review blog but it just came at a period when was swamped. Am still kinda busy right now but not as much. So, I didn't do the review and the deadline's came and gone. Should I still do it?

I'll just place a plug to my assigned blog. Maybe I'll review it later ... if I can get myself to do it.

Indulgence

Made my first non-essential peripheral purchase yesterday at PC Fair. I bought myself an Altec Lansing ATP3. Have been telling myself that I need to get speakers forever and I finally did.

The drive to the fair was almost dangerous. Started out with cloudy skies, then a little drizzle, then full blown storm where I can't even see the car in front of me had they not turned on their lights. The storm lasted about 20 minutes, I think. Halfway though it, I was wondering if I should go on to the city or just make a detour to MidValley Mega Mall where my friends said they were gonna be bowling. But, I presevered through the storm and made it to the fair in one piece.

I wasn't sure what to get when I made myself go to the fair. Should I just get an el cheapo set with just two satelites with no subwoofer or pay more to get something that sounds at least halfway decent?

Walked about the fair (which was quite small, I wonder if there's another section that I've missed!). Getting bumped and pushed by the crowd, I looked around to check out the options. How is anyone suppose to look at things in this crowd is quite beyond me but I tried my best to get to the stalls that carried speakers/sound systems. Quite easy to spot those. Just follow the sound of the blarring music. Did this for about an hour before returning to the first stall that I visited.

They had speakers by Altec Lansing and microlab. Playing around with both brand of speakers, I finally decided on the Altec Lansing ATP3. The microlab ones were cheaper and I was really thinking of getting those. However, the sound of from those sound a little frayed and more so as I turn the treble knob higher and higher. Since I listen to stuff that has more treble than the booming bass, I thought I should take this into consideration. So, I decided on the ATP3 as it sounded more solid.

The packaging for the speakers was huge. I didn't expect it to be so big. Had to drag that all by my little ol self to my car across the street. Heavy but not overly so, I managed.

So, yay. I have speakers for my PC. Now I wonder when I'll get my procrastinating butt to open the packaging and put it together.

Cor blimey, I taste like Tea. I am a subtle flavour, quiet and polite, gentle, almost ambient. My presence in crowds will often go unnoticed. Best not to spill me on your clothes though, I can leave a nasty stain. What Flavour Are You?

My other flavour is lemon. Which I think sounds more like me.

Mmm, I am Lemon Flavoured. I am bitter and twisted. Expect from me acerbic humour and sharp commentary. While I may seem nasty at first, I'm actually quite good company if I like you, so long as you don't mind a bit of cutting to the chase. What Flavour Are You?

take free enneagram test

My complete test scores.

type	score	summary
1	22	Ones are idealistic and strive for perfection. Morals and ethics drive them. They live with an overbearing internal critic that never rests. They are always comparing themselves to others and are overly concerned with external criticism. They can be very judgmental and others perceive them as too uptight.
7	20	Sevens are optimistic thrill seekers that see life as an adventure. They are always thinking of new possibilities and adventures. This constant zest for life can become escapism. Once things lose there fun they are no longer interested, so many projects go unfinished. Essentially, they avoid the difficulties of life because they fear being overwhelmed by them.
5	19	Fives are basically on some level estranged from the rest of the world, consequently, their mind is usually their best friend. They like to analyze things and make sense of them (that is their anchor), this makes for great inventors, philosophers, and visionaries. The immense inner world of fives can cause them to lose touch or interest in reality.
4	15	Fours are all about being unique and creating their own distinct culture. They experience the highs and lows of life more intensely than other types. This makes them great creative forces (artists, writers, filmmakers). Fours often feel like misplaced children, and they long for a sense of real family.
3	14	Threes derive self worth from success in the external world. They are highly skilled at adapting themselves in whatever way necessary to achieve success. This external success driven image often comes at a price of having a personal identity and they often are uncertain of who they really are.
8	14	Eights are natural leaders. They are straight forward, direct, large personalities, that are unlikely to back down to adversity. They have a talent for motivating others. They have a strong sense of justice and are often protectors of the weak. However, they also have short fuses and can become domineering tyrants.
9	12	Nines are calm, laid-back, and optimistic. They are able to see everyone's point of view, and have a natural desire for making peace. Consequently, they are effective mediators. Fearful of conflict and separation from others, they can be too accommodating and unassertive.
2	7	Twos are defined by their empathy of other people. They are uniquely gifted at tuning in on the feelings of others. This makes them great networkers, but being too caught up with other people can cause them to lose track of their own personal well being. Two charity is really a projection of how they want others to care for them.
6	5	Sixes are overly alert and anxious. They are skeptical of the statis quo but are also fearful of being on their own. They satisfy their need for security and belonging by establishing strong friendships and/or loyally backing a cause.

Keep getting a NullPointerException! What the heck is wrong?

Update [5:39pm]: Couldn't even get this crummy text only post up!
Update [10:18pm, April 13]: Now it works! But I didn't do anything. What happened blogger?

I find it frightening sometimes seeing how much some of my friends/school mates have changed since we were last in school. Not physically of course, but the way the were then and they way they are now seems to be completely 'transmogified' (hmmm ... am I spelling that correctly? Calvin & Hobbes fans?).

Two most obvious ones were one prefects in our school, even though they weren't exactly boring nerds at school, they were just not the wild child that they have turned out to be; heavy drinking, chain smoking, promiscuous little bitches (or at least that's their boast)! Seems like their sojourn to UK/America really changed them and I'm not entirely sure if I envy them their free careless ways. However, they're my friends (thank god!) wouldn't want to be this other girls, also an ex-schoolmate, that they're forever bitching about. I actually thought that girl was actually a pretty close friend of theirs! Man! Was I wrong.

Another thing I notice during last Saturday's BBQ was that these people are not my crowd when I was in school. Of sure, we nod and say hi and have short little conversations but we were not close; not even what I'd call friends, just school mates. It's weird that I hang out more with these people now than with my close friends from school. I haven't seen my 'close friends' for some years! minus the chance meetings in a restaurant/mall/market. Must call these people up one day.

Also noted was, I was almost the only Chinese among all the Malays. Maybe it's a race thing. These friends that I hang out with (tee hee ... 'hang out' that sounds so teenagery) are all Malays. I used to hang out with a crowd with a large Chinese majority. I'm Chinese and I'm bad with calling up friends and meeting up with people. Others would usually take the initiative to call me up for a meet but I would usually meet up unless I had a prior engagement. So, maybe my friends are like me. They say, 'birds of a feather flocks together'. Except we can't really flock together if we don't meet up now can we?

Hmmm ... a totally haphazard rambling. I'll have to read this entry later to see if it makes any sense. My minds travelling in a million and one direction and I'm not sure what was written down and what's in my head.

Talking to Stef last night just reminded me of what an absolute geek/nerd I am. She was feeling a little guilty after lying to mum about a stomach ache so that she could ditch school. Thinking that she has food poisoning (due to some things that she lied about), mum was super nice to her.

Me ... I have never done anything like that to skip school. The only time I did was after I got to school, only a handful of us actually came for class and the teachers didn't even bother to come in anymore. This was the period approaching the final exam of secondary school, SPM. My friend and I got sick staring at the four walls of the room and left school after a few hours and went to her place.

That was the only true ditching that I did. Pretty pathetic huh?

Other attempts were school related. Inter-school cross-country at some rural school, inter-school squash competition that we managed to pester a teacher to enter us in (mainly cause most of the state players were in my school, yours truly included), choir competition and other stuff that I can't recall right now.

I wonder why a shining example like me has had absolutely no impact on the behaviours of my two younger sibs? A bit of a bore of course following rules and doing what you're suppose to when you're suppose to ... but, if you're suppose to do it. Why wouldn't I? I didn't have a life.

a depressed server. please go and console it.

thanks rednax for the adorable link.

Made my debut in the world of latin american dance competition last Friday. A pretty successful debut I must say. Didn't win but I did manage to scrape my way into the semi-finals.

I was pretty calm when the time came for us (my partner and I) to go on the dance floor. I didn't think I'd be, calm that is, cause from my experience, whenever I have something important coming up, piano exams, ballet exams, exams in general, whenever it's time for me to perform and be judged, I'd get the jitters when I'm suppose to perform. Not even during preparation would I be nervous but only at that exact moment when I'm seated on the chair or standing next to the bar, I'd suddenly blank out, cold sweat starts forming, fingers cold as ice, my mind going a million directions trying to search my brains for what I was suppose to be doing ... but not this time.

It felt like just another practise. When I was on the floor that arvo, I just did whatever I did when I was practising ... trying not to fall off the slippery floor and getting all the steps in.

I think this has a lot to do with the lack of pressure. We knew that we'd not be winning anything although if we did it would be a plus but to me, I had it in my mind that hey! it's my first time. I'm not expected to win, right? So, I guess that explains why I wasn't nervous. I didn't care too much what the result would be. Unlike exams when there's pressure to pass as well as get the venerable distinction.

I had fun and was totally awed by the competitors in the amature category, especially by couple number 12, Darren Bennett and Lilia Kopylova. They caught my eyes during their heats and I barely looked at other couples whenever they were on the floor. I'm just so wowed! If I was fortunate enough to get half as good as them, I'd be a happy puppy.

P.S: Jason, if you're reading this, sorry I wasn't looking out for you cause I didn't know you were gonna be there. I've only just read your posting. Sorry mate. Maybe the next competition alright?