Glo Summer Break 2007 - Trip To P.D

I'll be leaving for Port Dickson in 10 minutes with the biggest of headaches. Glo Retreat 2007 at Corus Hotel from today to 2nd May. I hope I'll come back feeling better before classes start at UCSI on Thursday. Hong Liang is ready to go, I'm ready to go... Later days

Fwd Fwd Fwd: Read This Letter If You Are My Friend & A Mac User

To all my fellow Mac using friends,

This is a wonderful application I found that'll ease the whole process of networking when we want to transfer stuff on a regular basis. This will remove the hassle of creating a network, logging into mine, blah blah blah, blah blah blah, blah blah blah....

What the app does is that it'll leave a translucent gray sphere on your desktop and whenever any other users of the same app comes into the same network, they'll automatically show up on the sphere. You can even customize your name just like msn messenger. Then when I show up in your sphere, you can just drag the stuff onto my name and voilá, the transfer will start immediately!

Head on over to this fantastic site and download the application called DropCopy. The latest version is 1.3 just for reference. If everything goes well and Streamyx didn't fail you, install the app and wait for the next time we all sit together and start networking!

Sincerely Yours,
Joshua Chay

p.s. I've got some stuff ready for anyone who's interested in a little bartering. Are you all ready for a bartering bartering you barters??!

[Pist Off Man] Where's The Water??

SYABAS is on my list
This a picture of the water sampling station in front of my suburban home. To the rant! I have had no water on specific times of the day for the pass whole month. There's water early in the morning and late in the night but nothing in between. And because there's no water coming in, the tank is not storing water too. So no water in the other toilet.

All of a sudden you can't do your business anytime you please. You can't bathe just for the heck of it. Hell, you can't even wash the damn toilets too.

The worst part of this is that we have been calling SYABAS to come check, but until today nothing has been done. Calling TMnet to fix your internet took me a month back in December. Digi's coverage is marketed as to follow me right? But I think someone killed my yellow man. And now SYABAS can't even fix this problem without us having to keep reminding them. They must be playing kejar kejar back in main office.




Pajero Drivers
Another thing to share since I'm already on a rant. You see the nice big blue Pajero in the picture. Why can't he just put more initiative and park properly eludes me.

But the more interesting thing about my neighbor is this thing he does when I'm washing my car. Imagine that I just finished washing my car in the front of my house. I'm tired but satisfied with my work. Its just washed, not dried, so the there is still water all over the car.

I get the cloth to wipe down my car and just at that exact moment he decides to move his car and starts the engine. Its a very old jeep and it expels this black smog from the exhaust and covers my entire car from the front to the back! You would not believe me until you see for yourself how much smoke this jeep produces just starting up. All the dirt and grime and smog gets caught in the water and my car goes back to how it started.

Its like finishing your assignment on Word and just before you save, your knee hits the reset button on the PC. Just that its not my knee, its my neighbor's Pajero

Sam's Town

The Killers are just (sentence enhancers here) amazing! I totally had no interest when they released the first single from this album a few months back. But all changed one day when I was trapped working in the store. My friend would put the demo pink iPod mini into one of the speakers and let it play all day, but in a soft enough volume as to not disturb us talking to customers in that tiny store.

I was surfing most of the day and I realized after a while that The Killers were playing and it was actually just going through the whole album. Too lazy to get up to change the music, so just left it as it is.

After an hour of listening to these guys and I promise you, they will grow on you. No doubt about it, I understand now why so many people love them.

The thin, echoed vocals, the catchy guitar riffs coupled with heavy synths and strong beats. Good Stuff.

The Killers' - My Favourite "the" band out there!

You should know that I'm listening to another "the" band - The Sounds

O My Whiny Little Heels

Maybe I should comment about my inadequacy to make people love me for who I am. So not to end up sounding like a whiny bastard, I will try to keep this as straight as possible.

This is not a retaliation, it is a admission.

Everyone is plagued by their own weaknesses. But more often than not, we have, what some guy came up with a long long time ago, an Achilles heel. Well, I will not try to analyze and write a whole thesis on mine, but the fact is that I do have quite a big Achilles heel. And I think that it came up about just 2 years ago. What an eventful year, but thank God, everything is over and dealt with. Hell, everyone is even happier now. But I think I brought along with me some souvenirs from that place.

So it turns out that I have made much much more mistakes than I originally thought I did. Seriously, its like a miscalculation of mistaking 100 for 1. And so the struggle begins. Trying to be the kind of servant that forgave his debtors because his master forgave his first. Its hard when you take into consideration that there are such a thing as rights. Thats where the struggle kicks in. The longer you live with your faith, the longer you realize that we, in actuality, do not have any rights.

Sounds hard to accept, but the bible says something that kind of puts all of this into perspective. Summoning all my wisdom (not alot), the bible tells us that we are saved by what Jesus did on the cross. He died in our place and ended up taking our place to receive the punishment that we so deserved as sinners. So we are saved by accepting Jesus not by our good works (or whatever we could do ), but by the thing that he did on the cross.

Knowing that well in my head, and putting 1 and 1 together, if I would to fight for my rights, I would ultimately deserve hell too. Not something I'm partial for.

After all that paragraphs, it still doesn't explain the main thing thats on my mind. Why is it so hard to make people love you for who you are? Even if you do end up being a shitty person along the way. I do not demand for love because I think I deserve it. I have never dared to think so. But I did wonder why can't I expect unconditional love from people for the times that I do stumble?

The answer is pretty simple. Too simple and cliché for my taste though. But who can deny the truth?

The Price That I'm Willing To Pay For A Genuine Microsoft Vista Business Edition (UPDATEDx2)

RM 5 is the max. And it seems that someone from Microsoft must be reading my mind cause thats exactly what I'm paying for a bona fide Windows Vista Business Edition. How you ask?

I was talking to a friend today, who happened to move in to KDU just when I was leaving, and told me that Microsoft was promoting their new OS at college since Friday. Told me something about Home Basic going for RM 50. That is one hell of a deal considering its retail price is RM 700+

I grabbed the phone and immediately dialed Hana's mobile. We used to be classmates and she's a Microsoft Ambassador now at KDU. So a no-brainer. Picked up the phone, had the customary how are yous which I then swiftly proceeded to ask the question.

"So I heard about the promo at KDU. RM 50 for Vista Home Basic?"
"Ha? No la. It's RM 5 for Business Edition"
*Clank*

Slowly picking up my ears from the floor, I sealed the deal and asked her to book one for me.

The good news was that this promo is for DIMT students (IT School). Bad news was, I just unregistered last 2 weeks. But no biggie, got my good ol' friend (Victoria, if you're reading this, I mean it =P) to let me buy it through her since she's still there. Settled!

Why am I so interested in Vista?
I love shiny new toys. Might not be using it for real work, but I always love installing the latest Windows and just playing around with it. Anyway, it makes you remember why you're using a mac in the first place.

[UPDATE]
I managed to get another friend to let me buy it through him. So I have 2 copies waiting for me now. The Malaysian kiasu side of me is coming out... must.. suppress... it..

[UPDATE2]
Well, its all up to my friends to pick it up for me now that the copies are in KDU. Feel bad for disturbing my friends over there. Honestly, there's no rush since I don't have a computer that could run it anyway.

Screwed Premiers Tonight at KLPAC

Yes, The Oral Stage will be presenting their play at KLPAC tonight. The very one that I promoted a few posts ago. I have no idea how good these guys are yet. Hearing from Prakash about how good they are is just not convincing enough. So I'm preparing myself to be blown away when I go on Sunday night. Its not too late to get them tickets today.

I think they will just do fine. And if you're reading this at work before you go tonight, I wish you all the best! and thanks for visiting my blog regularly

My Macbook Pro Wishlist

What you're looking at is the Macbook Pro. Isn't it a beaut? Yeah, you can look at it longer if you wish before continuing.

Ok, so I've been waiting for an update to this since December '06. Nothing came in January at MacWorld '07. Nothing came at NAB '07 last Sunday. Now, all my hope is for an announcement before the end of the month and a release in May. Wishful thinking I know. I think most of you guys must be wondering why I am so desperate for a new mac when I own a 1.5 year old Powerbook. I will explain it in a future post, so thats that. But on to my wishful thinking. Lets see what the current Macbook Pros offer. For the sake of keeping things simple, I'll just concentrate on the 15" models and what is relevant to me.

Current Generation 15.4" Macbook Pros
2.16 GHz or 2.33 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
1GB or 2GB DDR2 SDRAM (max 3GB)
120GB HD (max 200GB 4500rpm)
128MB or 256MB ATI Radeon X1600
6x Superdrive
15.4" LCD panel

My Santa Rosa Macbook Pro Wishlist
2.33GHz or 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
2Gb or 3GB DDR2 SDRAM (max 4GB)
160GB HD (max 200GB 5400rpm)
Newer generation graphics card - Don't know which one is that, as long as its new
Blue-Ray Drive? (Thats really wishful thinking)
Rumored 15.4" LED LCD Panels
User Removable Hardisk Slots ala Macbook
CASE REDESIGN?! (really hoping for this)

Last but not least - May release! This is not that demanding as Fujitsu has already announced their Santa Rosa laptops for May. Gah! Apple can't delay this like they did with this gen's MBP.

There you go. Simple, reasonable expectations from a big fan. Apple please don't let me down

The Last Tuesday at Macasia

This is my last week at MacAsia before I enter my brand spanking new course at UCSI - Mass Comm majoring in Film & TV. Freaking out last minute, but less about that for now.



Today was just me and Jason at MacAsia BSC, and when it comes to working here, there's really nothing to do here. We had one sale for today and thats it. So from the pic, Jason got so bored and he decided to just lie pornly on the long stool.




Just because he's from Furion Escalada, that plays gigs here and there, he thought he could just bring his gshiny red guitar to work and show all the customers how canggih his guitaring is. Some people... =P

"So got a lot of girls throw their thongs on stage when you play guitar not??"
"Don't have la.. "

Of course la bro... where got pretty girls like hard core metal?



From the pic above, I nicely highlighted 2 very interesting things under the desk today at the office and it is not what you're thinking. First up at the top drawer, you can see a tiny portable speaker. Guess what that was for... Yeah, he used it as his amp to jam out all those guitar riffs. Its really surreal to hear heavy metal guitar riffs coming from such a tiny thing. Below? The pedal. This is what the customers would've gotten to see if there were any in the first place. But at least we got one sale today.

Jason will be recording tonight after work. He was bloody nervous, but I think he'll do just fine.

Aobe Creative Suite 3 Shipping

Adobe CS3 is out! Not all the versions, but hell, its out! Now if only Apple would release a new Macbook Pro to go with these babies.

Full press release from Adobe here

Well, why is this such a big deal for mac users?
Universal Binary

Ok, here is my attempt at explaining it to the masses. Macs that were made before 2006 (iBook G4, Powerbook G4, Powermac G5, iMac G5) are fitted with PowerPC Processors from IBM/Motorola. They had a different architecture from Intel chips and thats why we couldn't run Windows on our macs (Virtual PC just wasn't good enough, so lets take that out of the picture).

So when Apple had macs fitted with Intel Processors in 2006 (Macbook, Macbook Pro, Mac Pro), the architecture was the same with what PC users had. That is why we have Windows Xp and Vista running fine now but at the expense of older mac software running at a slower speed because they were programmed for the PowerPC era.

Hope thats clear enough to help you understand why Adobe CS3 is such a big deal for mac users.

This Makes All The Sites I Designed Look Like Crap! (this is not sarcasm)

Quick! Check this site out:

No One Belongs Here More Than You

But do come back and read the rest of this post. Don't worry, I'll be right here when you're done.

Back? Good, looks like you really didn't just continue reading the post then visit the site. Don't tell me that isn't the bestest site yet?? That was so inspiring, I'm going to work harder on this blog than I originally planned. Thanks Miranda July!

The Sounds Got Me High

It's late in the night and I just started listening to The Sounds an hour ago. I don't know how to exactly categorize them or describe their music (read: it's late), so I'll just say this first up.

Totally trippy. Wonderfully trippy stuff

More details when I get them / not tired.

Take That's Shine Is The Worst Song Ever...

... that would be how I would feel if I wasn't feeling what I feel now which is the total opposite of what I made you believe I was feeling in the first place.

Moving right along. You see, I never thought I would be writing about these guys in my blog. I am definitely not a boy band kinda guy, even though I used to listen to them when I was a kid, but who didn't listen to Take That back then? The truth is, I wasn't interested in their new album when it was launched last year. But when I heard this song today on Chanel V, I had to admit that it felt good. It felt so good, that I decided to write about them.

You know what make would feel better?
This video of their live performance that I found on Youtube. Check it out. Amazing dance moves they pulling off.

Its a really happy, upbeat song about getting up, putting things down and just shining your @55 off!!

In my attempt to save whatever kemaluan I have left after that last sentence, I'm just going to go ahead and say that theres nothing gay about shining. On to the song.

Its a really simple song musically, but that's what so great about it. Simple music, catchy melodies and great positive lyrics. You should give a listen. But for bigger effect, watch their live performance. Did I mention those dance moves are just fantabulous?

One last thing. Has anyone noticed how Gary Barlow shot up a few dress sizes from last time? But the rest are just aging so gracefully.

Leopard Delayed!

This morning has been rough for me. I got into work a little later than usual, was greeted surprisingly by a loudmouthed noob worker saying lots of stuff about me being late for work, shouting here and there about shit...making a big scene... all the time failing to understand that part timers are suppose to work... what? PART TIME! Thats right... part time! I am a part timer. A part timer that has served this company far more longer. Incredible isn't it that some people can just be so ignorant and idiotic.

To add to the great morning I'm having, I was greeted by this on the front page of Apple's Hot News page

iPhone has already passed several of its required certification tests and is on schedule to ship in late June as planned. We can’t wait until customers get their hands (and fingers) on it and experience what a revolutionary and magical product it is.However, iPhone contains the most sophisticated software ever shipped on a mobile device, and finishing it on time has not come without a price — we had to borrow some key software engineering and QA resources from our Mac OS X team, and as a result we will not be able to release Leopard at our Worldwide Developers Conference in early June as planned.While Leopard's features will be complete by then, we cannot deliver the quality release that we and our customers expect from us. We now plan to show our developers a near final version of Leopard at the conference, give them a beta copy to take home so they can do their final testing, and ship Leopard in October. We think it will be well worth the wait. Life often presents tradeoffs, and in this case we're sure we've made the right ones.
[Apr 12, 2007]

I am devastated. This announcement can only lead to more bad news. So why is this such a big deal for me?

1. My Powerbook is dying and I need to replace it

2. No point buying the current Macbook Pros because its already April and Santa Rosa is being released next month

3. The general consensus is that the next MBPs would come with Santa Rosa and newer tech across the board.

4. Guessing that the new MBP would come after Leopard is released. That would be shweet because I would get a new model plus the new OS

5. Thought all of this would happen by May - June

6. Leopard is delayed to October!!

So there you go, why this news is devastating to me. The only hope I have is that Apple announces the new MBP next week at NAB (April 15th) that would still ship with Tiger and iLife '06 so that I can just get it first and get Leopard when it comes out in October. I think some of my friends who didn't wait and got their Macbooks are going to be relieved when they hear this.

That Thing About Malaysian Traffic Police

Yeah, so I was driving down the usual road home after a drink with my friends (which I ended up speeding at around 120-130, poking another red Kelisa that just won't let go) when I ended up at the end of the MRR2 bridge and the start of the MRR2 heading to Batu Caves, when I saw a BIG road block ahead. I slowed down and was hoping for it to be crime police (courteously letting the red Kelisa from earlier to be ahead of me now).

So whoppee... I see lots of white shirts at the block and got flagged to the side. I stopped by the road and was greeted by a traffic police officer quite nicely, and so the conversation begun.

Officer: Lesen memandu...

Me: (Took out my driving license and passed it to the gentleman)

Officer: Kerja apa?

Me: Boss, saya masih study

Officer: Kenapa speeding? You tau you speeding?

Me: Lewat ma..

Officer: Ha... Saya perlu bagi you saman ah. 300 ratus ringgit tau. Bukan murah.

Me: ... hmmmm.... Bagi lo..

Officer: Bukan murah tau... 300 ratus...

Me: Bukan 100? Saya ingat 100.. (testing waters)

Officer: 100? Mana ada begitu murah? Sekarang parking illegal pun 70!

Me: Oh..

Officer: You mau saman ah? (pause) Atau mau tolong?

Me: Berapa you mau? (testing again)

Officer: Berapa you ada?

Me: (looked into my wallet) Saya ada 15 saje... Takda duit la

Officer: (gave me back my license) Tak pa la, tak pa la..

Me: So you mau 15 ah?

Officer: Tak pa la, saya tolong you la.. Pergi pergi..

Me: (he seemed to have forgotten about the fine...come on... what do you expect me to do?)

So I left. That was how it went, as accurate as I could remember. My only reasoning for him letting me go without a fine is that he's not suppose to be there in the first place!

I didn't exactly offer him a bribe, I was more than ready to accept the fine, but in the end, when I looked like I couldn't give him enough to buy him that Ferrari when he's retired, he lost interest in me and just asked me to leave. Shouldn't he be giving me a fine if this whole road block was official? I still regret not seeing if he had those "Saya-Anti-Rasuah" badges on. That would be just hilarious.

I'm not complaining that I got off scott-free, but seriously, what in the world are policemen doing in the middle of the night blocking off roads and asking for bribes?

So have we gotten anywhere since 4 years ago? I guess not.

Another interesting story about our best friends in white

PDRM's blog

Mac Evangelism

As I was taking my shower, I realize that I have done a whole lot of damage to Microsoft (or so I would like to think) over these couple of years. I'm sure by now you would know that I am a Mac advocate to the end, but lets see the real damage that I have been doing to that damn company.

The Converts List (not taking into account the sales I did in MacAsia)

2005
Bobby (iBook G4)
Victoria (Powerbook G4)

2006
Dikota (iBook G4)
Steven Wong (iBook G4)

2007
Christopher Lim (iMac 20")
Jonathan So (Macbook CD)
Kim Mooi (Macbook C2D)
Lam (Macbook C2D)

Total= 7 people in 3 years

These are all I can remember so far, but I'm sure I'm missing out some people here... anyhoo, thats most of my friends as well as classmates. The converts list does not include iPod converts.

The I-Wish-I-Had-More-Money-So-I-Can-Convert List
Prakash =)

I know its a modest list, but I'm just making a point. So there you go. Now if only I have such a robust list for Christian Evangelism...

The Oral Stage Presents Screwed

My friend Prakash has been active in the arts scene with the troop The Oral Stage and here I am shamelessly helping him to promote their new production premiering in 2 weeks time. Here is the pr from their official blog:

The Oral Stage enters its fourth season with an all-new line-up of original shorts and monologues, a contemporary take on the timeless issues of identity, gender, relationships, meaning and purpose. Screwed reinforces the fact that being human is nothing short of being screwed, after all.

Established in 2004, TOS is a youth arts company dedicated to arts empowerment through education, events and performances. Now in its third year, TOS is housed by The Dram Projects studio in Petaling Jaya and is supported by the arts community. Its members comprise of young, aspiring youth from all walks of life who band together to prove that arts is, for everyone. We’re nowhere near defunct just yet.

This season’s ensemble stars Waimin Lee, Emily Yoon, Doreen Loo, Gary Ooi , Branavan Aruljothi, Christine Ellis, Prakash Gopalakrishnan, Lam Wai Yee, Batsheba Zlikha Arsalan, Erin Victor, Nick Davis, Rachel Lai MS and Elza Irdalynna . Directed by Kelvin Wong and produced by Christine Ellis.

Pieces written by Joyce Hooi, Gary Ooi, Davina Goh, Priya K., Gavin Yap, Patricia Low, Doreen Loo, Kelvin Wong and Rauf Fadzilla.

Supported by The Dram Projects, KLPac and The Actors Studio.

For more information, click

Prakash, you've juggling your work and practices for awhile now and I can see you're stressing out. But it'll all pay off soon. We'll be there to support you. Hakuna Matata!

Joyce

The one who got me through the times when I couldn't. You make this life so much more bearable. I guess it makes sense when the only emotional thing I can do with you is laugh.