Archive | PermalinkThirty-Nine Hours Is How Long...

... I've been awake with only half an hour of sleep at only one instance, spending 24 of those hours straight in the office with quite a heavy workload on a two-day deadline while having to travel all over the city to help get the work done. I feel like there is a nest of bugs in my chest. My reaction time is slowed.

Just over an hour ago, I looked up in the night sky which had a thin cloud cover. This gave the full moon a diffused but bright yellow glow which bathed the countryside on my way back to the city from KLIA. Then, an aircraft which was a mere silhouette crossed the moon's disc. From the back seat, Irfan saw it too.

It was a unique and beautiful sight.

I'm exhausted. Good night everyone.

Keywords: rants

Archive | PermalinkSequence of Events

I have a few backlogged blog entries to make, and here is the sequence of events detailing why they were delayed:

1. Thursday January 22, 2009 - Allie's 6-month birthday. Lots of picture taking occurred.

2. Friday January 23, 2009 - my laptop screen dies in the mid-afternoon. Connecting it to an external monitor shows that the laptop itself is fine. I drive to Best Buy, stand in line forever, only to have the Geek Squad (f*ckers!!!) tell me that a) my laptop warranty ended November of 2008, and finally they come around to say that they don't fix laptop screens. Please call someone else. They suggest a company. (Don't even get me started on how angry I was that I drove all the way to Best Buy to have them give me this bullshit. What kind of Geek Squad doesn't fix laptop screens?) So I get back in the car, call Vin and he gets me the repair company's number. I call them, they are open until 6 PM Mondays to Fridays and they ask me to bring the laptop and power cord. Of course I had left the power cord at home since the last time I went to Best Buy they made me take the power cord home while they sent the laptop back to HP for repairs. So I drive all the way home, pick up the power cord, find out that Allie is refusing to drink milk from her bottle and is getting very cranky. Then I drive back the way I came (past the Best Buy - could have waved to the effing Geek Squad) and 12 miles further to the laptop repair place. I get there at 5:30 PM, drop off the laptop and power cord, and drive back. All this while I am worrying because even though I had defrosted milk for Allie to drink she had refused the bottle. But I did call for Indian carry-out and picked it up on the way home. I get home around 6:30 PM and Allie has refused the bottle all this while. And she is cranky and upset by this time, although Vin coped very well with her.

Keywords: around_the_house,birthday,computers

Archive | PermalinkNixon in China: Minimalist Rant on an Awful Opera

Last summer, Vin and I started going to the Cincinnati Opera where we enjoyed 3 wonderful operas last year. This summer, with great excitement, we subscribed to the entire season (Cincinnati Opera is a summer season, they produce 4 operas each summer).

We enjoyed Faust in mid-June, then had to miss Cosi Fan Tutte due to an unexpected death in the family. We gave our tickets to our friends who said they very much enjoyed the performance. The third opera this year was Nixon in China. We went to see it on Saturday night.

Now begins the rant. Better not continue reading if you object to profanities because I'm afraid I can't contain myself on this one.

Archive | PermalinkNot Very Uplifting

Here's another rant I stored somewhere which I rediscovered.

Say you're waiting on the ground floor of a building. You need to get up to the tenth floor. When you arrive at the elevator doors, the cab is currently at the tenth floor. You hit the button and it starts to descend. Another guy waits with you by the lift. It stops at the 8th floor to pick up a passenger on the way down. Then it stops again at the 7th floor, where it remains there for more than 30 seconds. Then it descends and stops at the 5th, 4th and finally the 2nd floors.

The doors open and a bunch of folks come spilling out. One guy is carrying a large item of furniture, which probably held the lift at the 7th. Once the lift is clear, you and the other guy waiting board the lift cab. You hit the 10th floor. And the other guy squints, moves his finger with uncertainty deciding which button to press and finally hits the 1st floor button.

The 1st floor.

Where you can reach at least 90 - 240 seconds earlier by just climbing up one floor using the stairwell adjacent to the elevator lobby.

Many thanks to the more-than-just-a-couple-of-people who've wasted my time in such instances, and kudos for managing your time in such an efficient manner. Bravo! Author! Golf clap!

Keywords: rants

Archive | Permalink"I Make Lots of Graphs"

Lisa Simpson once claimed pessimistically in the episode HOMR, "As intelligence increases, happiness decreases", and made a graph about it.

Without going into the intelligence territory for super geniuses like Albert Einstein, Richard Feynmann and Querl Dox, it's apparent that every human possesses a certain amount of intelligence. As a human grows and develops, he or she learns more about the surrounding world, including things that is picked up in school and at work and media such as books and television. A human would learn, among other things, of science, history, geography, arts and literature, and of family, friendship and love.

Keywords: rants,tv

Archive | PermalinkI Thought I Could Build An X-Wing, At Ten

I seriously did think back in the earlier years of the Eighties I could build a fully functional Incom T-65 X-Wing space superiority fighter given the proper parts and tool. I thought that it would be cool to pilot the ship to school. I even picked out a landing spot, right by the Standard Three classes behind the principal's office.

Needless to say, I never actually did build the fighter with my 10 year old hands.

However, within the last decade or so, everything I achieved personally has had the "if I put my will into it" stamp on it. I had believed that if I put work into it, I could create passable digital art - and it worked. I had believed if I put work into it with a little help from friends I could create websites using HTML and CSS - and again it worked. The same with happened with my wanting to set up a blog, and write, illustrate & put up children's book pdfs for sale (not that anyone's buying), and draw professionally for RPG books, and running a Linux OS at home, and going further back I remember picking up BASIC (totally useless skill now) on my own just by reading a book.

So it's time to set the bar again for me to achieve something I can't do right now. I believe at this point in time I can with the right knowledge, try to create something useful of note with a computer, for instance a programming code complex enough for, say, a computer operating system if I put my will into it.

Well maybe not an operating system - but if you see me posting that I've created something like a moon lander simulator, or a Tron light cycle game, you'll know I've gone over the bar... or gone bonkers.

Keywords: rants

Archive | PermalinkBut Dopey He Aint, Thankfully

So I arrived at Kuala Lumpur International Airport from Bangalore by way of Chennai (which I was told used to be called Madras, by the way) at around 1540 hours this morning. I was early enough to jama' qasar my Isha' with my Maghrib before Subuh began.

Tonight while putting him to bed, Ain & I came to the conclusion that Irfan (like most kids his age) are 2/7th (or 0.28571429) of the Seven Dwarves (as told by what is now known as the Disney Company).

Why? Cause he's both Grumpy and Sleepy at the same time when fighting his lethargy.

Keywords: irfan,travel

Archive | PermalinkGirls' Names - A Look Forward

Babycenter's analysis of 2006's baby name trends was released some weeks back. Ain & I used to refer to Babycenter a lot while Irfan was happily gestating in his amniotic sac up to the time he started to walk.

The names are obviously American, but there are some issues that can be brought up by looking at the list. Not so much on the boys name though the rhyming names Aiden, Caden and Braden gives me the heebie-jeebies. No sign of Raiden though.

Keywords: rants,the_internets

Archive | PermalinkWhat Kind of Rich are You?

If you're a rich person (with more than a couple of grand in cash handy at the bank, able to invest in businesses, buy houses and yachts and other assorted rich guy items), which among these three categories of the financially wealthy do you belong to?

• Getting rich is a means to an end, which is to help as many people as possible.
• Getting rich is a means to an end, which would be an uncontrollable sociopathic urge to hurt and leech more from people around you.
• Getting rich is THE end itself and you'll do everything to get there, ensure your security to this end even if others around you get hurt.

Keywords: rants

Archive | PermalinkDamage Report

As much as I'm extremely happy there's roof over our heads (and ten floors plus change beneath us), I am very much zonked out by the accumulating damages in our house for the sole reason that the building was 10 years old when we moved in. It's a great place to be, but we need to move out of here so we don't spend a bomb monthly on fuel costs and waste hours every day travelling to work, which is right across the city.

But before we can move out, we'll have to sell the place cause we can't really spend on rent on our income. (Not to mention transporting our stuff would also cost us some money.)

And before we can sell the place there are a few things on the wishlist that need to be addressed.

Keywords: around_the_house

Archive | PermalinkToll Tickets Trawls Trenches Twixt Teeth

You can use the Expressway's toll ticket as a very effective toothpick.

It's thin enough to get between your molars. It doesn't disintegrate easily by moisture (or saliva, if you will). It bends easily and can get into angles and corners that would put a Hound of Tindalos to shame. Plus after you wipe the edge of the toll ticket the crud disappears like magic.

It works much better than a regular namecard. OK, don't ask about the namecard.

Sure it's disgusting. But man, does it work like a charm.

Keywords: travel

Archive | PermalinkLesson For The Semester

Yesterday was my semester finals. There are a few good lessons I learnt this semester.

1. I procrastinate til the last moment before I really study, thus activating my panic button right around 6 hours before the exams begin.

2. I should start to study a month before exams.

3. I realize these are all lessons I've learnt before in previous semesters, and things always go apeshit at finals.

4. I accept it as status quo and go back to sleep until about a day before my next semester finals. Wheee!

It's just past 0500 hours. Right now, we're all heading for Kelantan for the weekend (and the couple of days before it); and Sila and Vin are headed for Puerto Rico soon.

Vaya con dios, alls y'all.

Keywords: rants