This is so funny/odd. Last night, I stayed up watching a slew of Sex & the City episodes till the wee hours of this morning. I think it was about 2.30am when I finally went to sleep. Astro was having a Marathon Sex & the City thang prior to airing the new season ... or at least I hope they're gonna air the new season. Aidan is so sweet. Such a perfect boyfriend. Yum.

Anyway the weird thing is that I usually dread waking up and will postpone waking for almost an hour after my alarm rings. But this morning, I didn't mind. Felt like I had enough sleep but I actually had less. My usual sleep hour is about 12.30am. Why's that? Was yesterday's weather more condusive for deeper sleep and therefore resulting in me feeling more refreshed this morning? Or is my required hours of sleep less than the norm?

I have heard/read that each person have their own amount of hours that they require for a good sleep. Too much and you'd feel groggy and too little, ... well, sleepy.

So, should I start experimenting sleeping later and getting up earlier?

Oh, on Saturday, I shifted the furniture a little. I've moved my be so that the side of the bed is against the wall instead of the headboard. Ever since that day (which is two days ago), I haven't woken up on time. I almost missed dance practise on Saturday and work today, if it hadn't been for my mom. Maybe the change was bad feng shui. Or something cause this morning I woke up feeling sickly.

Slight throbbing in the head, achy shoulders. Felt like skipping work actually but didn't think I was sick enough. Skipped choir practice though. Spent the extra hours watching Malena. It's great. I'm convinced that any film of the Giusseppe Tornatore and Ennio Morricone collaboration is good.

Saturday: Spent the whole day in KLCC. It's the monthly credit card paying outing. Every month, I'd go pay my credit card in the city. After dropping in the fast cash deposit envelop (this takes about 5 seconds), I'd take the 10 minutes walk to KLCC. Then hang around there till about 6/7pm when it's time to go home for dinner.

This trip was pretty good. I managed to get some design work done; not much but better than nothing. Sad, isn't it? Working at a shopping mall? I meant, when you're suppose to be there to enjoy the shopping experience, not when you're hired to work in the shops. But I think it's great. Away from the distraction of the telly and internet, I managed to get things done. Plus, I don't look so stupid sitting at Dome's alone waiting for my ordersto arrive and starring at people all around. Actually, I love people watching. However, I'd like to watch from a corner, where nobody know's I'm watching. People watching is great fun.

Okay, besides working, I actually got myself a pair of heels from Vincci; a black strappy concoction of about 3 inches high. Have been looking to buy a pair of heels forever. Something with ankle holds so that I don't have to worry about my shoes flying when I go dancing. Then, forked out RM62 buck for the April and May copy of Wired.

Watched Blade 2 on VCD. What a let down! I absolutely enjoyed Blade but Blade 2 was a dissappointment. Not much of a storyline just a lot of slashing. Bleargh!

Sunday: Dance practise and class as usual in the morning. Minor change to the cha-cha routine. Changed from a Natural Top and hip twist to lots of spins. Minor stuff. Nicer I think. I never did like Natural Tops.

Watched Vatel on DVD in the afternoon. My DVD copy's kinda screwed! Lips and sound does not synchronise. Quite distracting actually. That aside, it was a pretty nice movie. Amazing what they go through just to gain the favours of the King. My favourite actor, Tim Roth, didn't get enough screen time but that's mostly cause his role is just that, small. Very much like his other villainny roles which he seems to excel at. He's deliciously bad.

Later in the afternoon, watched the Keanu Reeves film 'Hardball'. Feel good movie, sad ending and wooden acting by Mr. Cool Breeze. The kids were great though and Keanu's got a great smile when he so chooses to display it.

Gilmore Girls @ 10pm. This is the episode where Rory's dad Christopher came back for a visit. The guy playing Christopher reminds me a lot of Cameron Daddo, who I first saw as a photographer in Aaron Spelling's Model's Inc. Cute. As usual, lots of laugh in this episode, thoroughly enjoyable.

Possible Breakdown

Near miss on Tuesday; almost knocked down a motorcyclist when he was coming out of a junction. This happened when I was on my way home, just a few more meters away from my house. I stand firm that this incident is in no way my fault. I had the right of way. It was clearly my road. I was going straight. He was coming out of a junction. He didn't seem to be watching where he was going, seemed to be staring up the hill on his left. He didn't even pause at the junction!

Fortunately for him, I saw him nearing the junction. I was going 30km/per. I managed to break in time. I saw him put up his hand in apology. Had he not done this, I might have wound down my window and screamed and yelled at him like a fisherman's wife (no offence to all the fisherman's spouses, tis just a common phrase I've seen used).

Labour Day today is depressing.

Met up with Shawn for lunch. Haven't seen him for quite awhile now. Last time I talked to him, he was working in Singapore. He's back for good now. New job. Now here's the depressing part, at least for me. They are going to pay him RM5500 a month! That's almost double my salary. I've worked almost the same amount of years and I'm earning chicken feed. Is the pay for a Software Developer and a consultant so vastly different?

Plus, I just realised that I'm close to having a breakdown with regards to my work. I don't know what I'm doing, I have to develop a product, I have to lead a project as well as design and code the bloody thing and I find that I don't have time to do all this at the same time and keep up my schedule of dancing and singing.

I'm not, however, prepared to give up those leisure activities cause if I do, I think I'd go mad. I know me and if I don't do those, I'd just be sitting in front of the telly and not doing any work anyway.

I need to focus more on work I think. Put more importance on what I have to do and not just doing it for the pay. Need more passion for work.

Therein lies the problem. I just can't seem to feel passionate for it.

P&P said that I should take time to think about what I want to do. Do you want to continue in the computing line? Do you have something else you'd rather be doing? Do you have any idea what I want to do? Should you pursue your interested in dance & song?

I don't know. Nothing that I know of at this moment. No. No cause I know that I'm not extremely talented in those and those things just can't support my lifestyle.

What do I want? If I quit the computing line, I can't think of anything else that I am capable of doing.

First step - Tomorrow (or in a few hours time), I plan to lock myself in the meeting room and think up the design for the project. I hope that this will at least map out what there is to do for the project so that I can distribute parts of the development to the others. Maybe after that, I won't feel like it's such a big thing.

Then, I can see if I can make time to extend the email module that TL's been pestering me about. If I feel that I can't, I will just have to tell him that I can't at the moment but if he needs it, he can always look into Java Mail and do it himself. I wrote the bloody module a year ago so I'd probably have to relook the Java Mail APIs again anyway.

Hope this works. My plans never seem to work. Most probably cause I tend to postpone anything serious and unpleasant eg. actual work.

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.