Friday, October 26, 2007

Almost excited


The package for the skins arrived at the hotel today. A friend and I shared the order, I ordered a skin for my laptop and one for my iPod while she ordered six iPod skins. That nutzoid! It's a buy-3-free-1 so she got two skins for free.

Anyway, was happily tearing up the package ...

But why was there only 5 items in it? I see my laptop skin and I see four iPod skins.
Where was my iPod skin?

Bloody hell!

I looked into the package again wondering if I might have been temporarily blinded in the dim lighting of my hotel room.

Nothing. Craps!

Hurriedly, I went to my MSN ... damnit! She's not online. How can she not be online on such an important occasion? Plus, during business hours on a Friday? Hello?

As I waited and waited, hoping that I'll be able to catch her, I started measuring up the laptop skin against my laptop.

Urgh! Too narrow and a tad too long. At least I can do something about the length, but there's nothing I can do about the width. *sniff*

It's late and I still have to get up and go to work tomorrow. Hope my friend contacts gelaskins tomorrow about the missing orders.

Sunday, September 09, 2007

Stressed

I have probably taken on more that I can chew this time. The hearts been palpitating overtime and I worry all the time. Stress! Stress! Stress! What is there to do but to soldier on as best as I can. To JUST DO IT instead of thinking about it. If kena marah, so be it.

This would also be the first time that I've rejected a gig from Gerald. I'd usually say yes unless I have a prior engagement. *sigh* I don't even know why I'm doing the gigs. Must be cause it's dance and this is my small bit of professional dancing. Cause the money sure isn't anything to shout about!

So, due to the massive workload, I have not gone for a single dance practise for the pasts 2 and a half weeks, ie. since the last competition. Finally had one practise yesterday and must say, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. However, that's not to say that it was good either. There are a few more weeks before the next competition on Oct 7. Must try to make more time for some classes and practises before then.

I did take some time out to watch Sumi Jo tonight at Dewan Philharmonic Petronas. She was excellent! So so so excellent! If I could sing a quarter as well as she does, I would be a happy puppy. But that day will probably come later. Will need to actually take some singing lessons ... one fine day! Maybe after I get dumped by my dance partner again. :P

Friday, July 27, 2007

SongFest Singing Competition 2007 - Registration now open!

Come show your vocal prowess at this year's SongFest Singing Competition organised by The Philharmonic Society of Selangor, and you might just win some cash prizes and trophies!

There are plenty of categories to choose from - from classical to contemporary to groups.

Do visit the website of the Selangor Phil at http://www.thephil.org.my or blog at http://selangorphil.blogspot.com for more info and to download the Entry Form.

Monday, July 02, 2007

Pictures from the Viennese Opera Ball 2007




www.flickr.com




Saturday, June 02, 2007

My maroon costume

This post is especially for Lai Ling cause she asked for it.

Front view:
http://rsrc5.bubbleshare.com/media/00/57/08/3c/be5892eaa3e21442af74ea2c9a66620df44b4355/580x435/DSC-5609_580x435.jpg

Side view:
http://rsrc2.bubbleshare.com/media/00/57/09/29/a9f02c3d3e3cdf1fe9a9c2b44471b769446e146a/580x435/DSC-5669_580x435.jpg

Back view:
http://rsrc8.bubbleshare.com/media/00/57/08/2f/1fbb5ea59e2f1e44e9ac249f1041c8189f165ead/580x435/DSC-5604_580x435.jpg

So whaddya think?

Farewell chabo



www.flickr.com




Friday, June 01, 2007

To be business minded

"Do what you can to help them."

Next thing I know ...

"Why are you doing that for them? It's not within your scope."

I guess I am too used to the do-everything approach more than the complete role segregation approach. Definitely will have to learn more on how to do that. The new HR does that; she won't do anything else other than HR even if it means a 5 minutes phone call.

So, something learned today. If it's not within your role, let the client if you have the resources available that can and quote them. It's up to them to decide whether to pay for the extra. Just because you might have some spare time and can do it, do not offer your services because it's not your job. Charge on any and all extras!

My mom would probably call that selfishness; but business is business. :)

Saturday, May 12, 2007

Getting MyDVD to Work (Part 2) ... almost!

I was going to write the second part of my attempt to get MyDVD to work. When I posted Part 1, I had already got MyDVD to work ... finally! ... OR SO I THOUGHT!

What I didn't know was that images in the burnt DVDs came up upside down. Yup! Image and subtitles all upside down. I was thinking of just flipping the TV upside down but it's flipped image and the subs are going from right-to-left. Unfortunately, the subs in English and not Arabic/Jawi, so it makes no sense.

So that's eight pieces of DVDs headed for the bin.

Note to self: Check the first disk after burning!

Here are my earlier notes that I've made for this post. I don't think I'm going to rewrite this. I'm not sure if I will be tinkering with MyDVD anymore to try and get it working. It's too much hassle and I've got my Vista recently. So everything will be wiped. I heard that there is a DVD burning software that comes with Vista. I will have to find out more on that.

Notes:
- Needed the latest XviD 1.1.2 decoder
- Downloaded ... not working
- Uninstalled DJBCP installed in Part 1

XviD Mpge-4 video decoder

Able to view in WMP
- thumbnail reappears in MyDVD

Direct Sound Device
Support decoding of Generic MPEG-4 video

GSpot

divxdec.ax
xvid.ax

RegSvr32 /u DivXDec.ax

Installed Dump Direct Show Filter from latest DJBCP

No problem with MyDVD LE ... subtitles not showing.

Reinstalled VobSub ... still not working

Installed DirectVobSub (VSFilter) 2.37

Works!

GSpot check - using VSFilter.dll

Monday, April 30, 2007

Competition results

We did reasonably well in the competition. Finishing 3rd in Grade D and semi finals in Grade C. That's one placing better in Grade D compared to our first outing back in December so I guess, it is an improvement, albeit, we were competing with a different group of dancers.

Am I happy with the results? Well ... I'm quite ambivalent about the results. Finishing 3rd and semis in not a bad thing but I was, a little bit, hoping that we could at least get into the finals of Grade C. Guess we'll just have to practise harder.

A friend and adjudicator advised on a change of costume. The maroon dress I have is apparently too dull and not outstanding on the floor, causing me not to be seen. She suggested orange, yellow or green. More striking colours. On top of that, the design of my dress is not quite flattering for my body type. The loose cutting makes it more apparent that I'm not ... ahem ... slim. A few other friends have mentioned exactly the same thing.

So, it's time to suss out for a new costume.

Either



or this purple one on the Dancing With The Stars site.



Which is nicer?

Monday, April 16, 2007

Getting MyDVD LE to work (Part 1)

Finally managed to get MyDVD LE (I have version 6.1.6) which came with the DELL laptop to work.

My first attempt at burning DVD came quickly to a stop with the following error:
Could not make a thumbnail. Make sure you have the appropriate decoder installed. -47010


After much searching through various forums, including Roxio's own forums, the decoder(s) that got it to successfully add a file to the project was the DJBCP Codec Pack 2.1 Light.

During installation, I believe I have only installed the following:
* Decoder 5.1,
* XviD-1.0.1 Final,
* DivX 3.11 Alpha, and
* AC3 Filter 0.7b.

After many successful disks, I also installed the VobSub 2.3 to enable burning (hardsub) and viewing of subtitles.

A whole series later ... it stopped working.

Friday, April 13, 2007

What is my number?

Quick tip I learnt from the friendly Telekom guy who came by to check out the problem with one of my office's phone line. Dial 13183 to find out the number for that line hooked to your phone. Especially useful when you don't have your mobile phone or if caller ID is has been suppressed for that line.

Monday, February 26, 2007

Back to paper

I was chatting with a friend of mine on messenger regarding a meeting that we were to attend for a society which we were both part of the committee. It was going to be held in a couple of days at her place and I asked why the event was not in the calendar that I have setup for the committee?

Thinking that we need a collaboration tool to keep each other informed of events that are coming up for the society, I had a google calendar setup and shared amongst the members of the committee. Little do I know that I will end up being the only person using the calendar.

It got me thinking that I spend quite a lot of time updating all sort of tools online that was suppose to help me organize myself and become more productive. It seems to me that all this time that I've been using to update these tools is actually taking me away from the act of actually doing the things itself. Hence, actually becoming less productive.

Recently, I have decided to go back to good old pen and paper.

Bill Westerman commented on this post of David Seah's about his method of GTD called the GSD. It's a basic to-do list which I have found to be simple and sorta effective. I am currently trying this purely for work now and haven't mixed it with personal to-dos. Bill does a transfer of his unfinished items on a daily basis, which I find to be quite bothersome after three days. After transferring an item of low priority which I will only do after I have completed all the tasks that requires more immediate attention, I've decided that I will only bring over unfinished items on a weekly basis.

What I also do is, to pop items into the current day's list as soon as it pops into my head. Whether or not that task will be done the same day is another matter. The next day, on top of starting the list with things that I've thought of to do that day, I'll pick two or three items from the previous days list to be completed today.

Come Monday morning, I'll gather all the unfinished items from the previous week and start all over again.

I believe that with this to-do list and not trying to multitask is slowly helping me become more effective. At the very least, I get a sense of what I have completed at the end of the work day and how many more check boxes there are to be completed, which feels better compared to having to wreck my brains thinking what I have or have not completed.

Wednesday, January 03, 2007

My first ebay listing


My friend wanted to sell off her pair of latin shoes. What better way to test out ebay than to list that for her eh?

Anyone for a pair of latin shoes?

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