Movies galore

This week has been a good one for movies. Although I didn't expect there to be a theme (can you spot it?):

First movie was The Omen on Tuesday, 6th June 2006. Yeah, so it was a marketting gimmick but hey, I'm a movie buff and I do like scary movies (including Scary Movies). Looking through the papers we found that we could catch the 11.25pm show at Cathay Cineleisure so we did just that. Cathay's good points: lotsa roomy legspace and 90% of their popcorn were perfectly coated caramel crunchy popcorn, not cardboard! Cathay's bad points? Straight-back seats that doesn't allow you to lean back and enjoy.

Oh yes. The Omen.

I never realised that Terry Pratchett's and Neil Gaiman's book, Good Omen was a parody of The Omen! In a way, the book was a good introduction/synopsis for the movie. The movie had a totally unlovable child playing Damien, black dogs, witchy nannys, slowly-getting-mad mother (think Devil's Advocate?), pictures of how people will die (think The Ring and Final Destination), graveyards...Not really that spooky la tho. But it did spark my curiousity as to the original Omen, and Omen 2 and 3 too. And if Scary Movie 5 ever comes out, surely The Omen's gonna be in it!

Next up, Saint-Ange. Since I wasn't working on Thursday I thought I'd try and catch a French Festival movie. Initially planned for Le Coeur Des Hommes at 12.15pm, but whatwith mum and a contractor locking horns till past half-twelve, I decided to catch Saint-Ange at 2.30pm instead. Mana tahu this turned out to be a horror flick, and mainly in English! In a cinema with only a couple and another dude! Had a better spook factor compared to The Omen tho, I must admit.

Finally, Saturday night. Initial plan, bowling at happy hour.

1 hour, 2 people, 3 games. Worth it? Worth it.

As we walked past GSC, the lure of a near-nonexistant queue compelled us (Lemon and me) to take a look at what's showing. What show did we get tickets for? Black Night. This was a spontaneous buy, and for this show we thought there should be plenty of seats. The whole cinema turned out to be full! There were only three separate seats left, thankfully two of them near the back. We assumed it to be an Asian horror flick but wasn't sure if it was Chinese, Japanese or Thai.

It turned out to be all three: three short stories in Cantonese/Mandarin, Japanese and Thai. Two things all three stories had in common: vengeful spirits and water. It seems that once someone dies, it's always bent on killing you after suitable scaring the shyte out of you. And their ghosts are either immersed in water, or have water flowing all over their skin, or disappear only to leave a big big puddle...

Am waiting for Scary Movie 4 now.

One more turn...

Civilization popularized it, Civ IV uses it as their tagline.

But we're using that line for Heroes V. Like Heroes III, it's always, "One more turn," or "After the outcome of the battle," or "Let me build this structure in the next round first," or "Let's see what the AI does first," but essentially its:

One more turn.

Move heroes, build up town, collect resources, recruit army, fight enemies, conquer territory, end of day. AI players take their turns. Day ends for all players.

One more turn la. Move heroes, build up town, collect resources, recruit army, fight enemies, conquer territory, end of day. AI players take their turns. Day ends for all players.

.
..
...

One more turn la. Recruit high-level army of frightening dragons, archangels, archdevils, titans, chase and slaughter other players' armies, seige their towns, cast impressive spells like chain-lightning, meteor shower and armageddon, claim town for own...

One more turn la, wanna see what that town's magic guild has in terms of spells and probably recruit their high-level creature. Ooo! More dragons!

Let's go hunt roaming creatures to try the bigger army/new spells on. Conquer more territory, capture more resources, end of day. AI players take their turns. Ooo! Enemy hero wandered within our sights! Must chase! Day ends for all players.

One more turn. Gotta chase that hero before he becomes a threat.

.
..
...

One more turn.

One more turn.

One more turn.

Look at the time! Gotta save! Sleep! Sleep! Okay, after the next turn.

Keeping ourselves busy

Hurrah! A few things have finally dropped into our lives to keep us occupied, and all of them are leisure-related!

First up came the opening of Pay Less Books at 1 Utama's new wing, with Agatha Christies selling from RM3.90 before a further discount! Whooo! Now Agatha Christie books cost about the same as a normal novel (around RM35 nowadays), so picking up 5 AC books was absolute joy! As an added bonus the books were all either Miss Marple or Hercule Poirot stories.

Am onto the last book now. Normally wouldn't have taken me this long to finish all the books, but whatwith...

New Super Mario Bros out for the Nintendo DS! Glee! Have been waiting for this game also. It has been absolute years since a Mario platformer has been released, and this one does not disappoint. Our personal favourite is still Super Mario Bros 3...gleeful music, many many powerups, short sweet stages, very good game physics...sigh. When we first started stage one seeing those little goombas walk walk walk *small jump* (!) our heart also took a small jump ^_^ Took me 2 nights just to finish the last stage (with short cuts etc of course). Am now finishing all stages properly.

However, thank goodness we'd finish New Super Mario Bros when did. Because what's keeping us awake at nights nowadays is...

Heroes of Might and Magic V! Oboy! Could not believe it when lad called us at work to tell that the game was out (what, a week before it's announced launch date?). Doesn't matter, if the game provides, we are DEFINITELY getting the limited addition of the game! Anyways...first impression of the game. EYE-BOGGLING with appreciative "Waaahs!"...Main Menu..."Waaah!"...Adventure Map..."Waaah!"...*scroll scroll scroll* Adventure Map zooms in!..."Waaah!"...Town Screen..."Waaahhh!"...*rotates* Town Screen rotates..."Waaahhhh!"...Town Screen rotates till sunflare in background..."HWaaahhh!!!"...

We are not, repeat, not getting much sleep nowadays.

The Body Remembers

When observed that we seem to know the moves for Bodycombat and Bodyjam quite well, we just reply, "We don't memorize the moves or anything, it's just that after a while the body remembers the tracks and the moves."

Somehow, it's not good to just let the body take over like that. This month, Gwen Stefani's "Rich Girl" is playing in the stores. Gotta remember not to swing them hips!!!

Tax(ing) Income, 2005

Sigh. Last year, I totally totally left doing my income tax until the last week, because I never realised that the income tax submission dateline was nigh plus never realized why my company sent me an EA Form. The final week for submission saw me heading over to Randall's for a crash course in income tax form filling, and then the next day to submit the form at the Inland Revenue Department at Kelana Jaya.

Only one problem: I hadn't had a registration number, so my form wasn't complete. Plus I hadn't any tax to pay, since I only started work in September 2004. So, I spent an hour there trying to register only to be told that I need not submit my BE income tax form in the end. Blah. So, I'd marked down on my phone calender to get my registration number by February 2005.

That calender reminder, I must say, was just ignored for about a month until I got a letter from the Inland Revenue Dept informing me of my registration number etc (phew). No escaping income tax submission for me this year, then.

Should be easy, hor, filling up the income tax form after having done so?

AAAAARGH!

Burn you, horrible horrible forms!

By habit I print out 2 copies, one in English for rough filling, and the actual BM one for submission. This year instead of printing out the BE form I'd print out the B form instead, which has yonks more sections that did not relate to the employed but to those that opened their own business. Wasted my resources printing out some 14 pages.

And then, instead of the quick within-the-hour of filling up the forms, I'd decided to look for my book receipts to claim. Another habit of mine is to use the receipt of the book I bought as the book's first bookmark. So, it's just a matter of flipping through my books to find the receipt and hope it's for the correct year.

A treasure hunt that turn out to be. I ended up finding a measly few (hey, I'm allowed to claim up to RM700, and I know I buy books aplenty) and wondering where the rest have disappeared, but the treasures...

The Discworld Almanak. April 26th, 2006, Thursday: Rain of fish a high probability. Be prepared to find forgotten currency.

A crisp, new RM50 note and an unopened angpow.

Well. A final bit in me EA form caught me off-guard as I never had that bit in the previous year, so I'd to leave completing the form until I'd someone instruct me properly. Once done, it's just waiting for next year to once more go through another bout of treasure hunting.

Puppy License

And a wonderful thing it is to have. Wee'd inside the house? "Aiya, pee here ar!" in that symphatizing voice that states: Aren't you CUTE! Equally, "Aiyo, why you pangsai there?" Variations in Cantonese and other baby talk also feature heavily with this license enforced.

And people don't get angry with you for any reasons! Bite this, crap there, whine about...all people can do is let their hearts melt, get mildly upset, but never, ever really get angry having to clean up (or whatever) after you!

Nice hor? Not only that, you get cuddled, carried about, loads of attention...Aren't you the baybee? Aren't you? Aren't you the fuzz-wuzz cute thing now?

Here's hoping: never grow up. Sigh. You only go through this once.

I Dream

I dream:

• Of how my future home will be - how each room is decorated, the layout of the garden, the pool...
• The kind of cushy job I can have
• That financial issues will never be my issues
• That I can enjoy life and remember all the enjoyable bits instead of being so forgetful
• Of Heroes of Might and Magic V to come out very very soon (I would buy the original for this)
• That perfect, credit-card-thin PDA
• That perfect Nokia phone
• For more people to trash compete with in Tetris DS
• For that bachelor-for-life to find a partner-for-life
• Of joining a choir
• Of weird dreams
• Of getting a Citroen (I may entertain the thought of a VW Golf...maybe)

I Just Like The Colour Green...

Following njapf, we got this:

Your Personality Profile

You are nurturing, kind, and lucky. Like mother nature, you want to help everyone. You are good at keeping secrets and tend to be secretive. A seeker of harmony, you are a natural peacemaker. You are good natured and people enjoy your company. You put people at ease and make them feel at home with you.

The World's Shortest Personality Test

Sins that we give in...

Now, if there's a thing we cannot resist, it's treating ourself to some good sinful chocolate. Chocolate will set us a-flutter if we need to do some self-pampering, and in a non-destructive sense too (no-ooo, we don't think getting fat counts as destructive. Non-productive maybe.) And so while walking about The Street at The Curve this afternoon (our third home, nah, not yet...) we decided to head for the Chocolate Fountain stall for choco-covered marshmallows. That hit the spot. But it wasn't enough. The day was still young.

So when we were at our second home we stopped by Bakerzin to havva try at their wares. Delightful, sinful wares. Enter the Sumatra: a mix of white and dark chocolate blended with Sumatran coffee beans...

One bite, and it was ambrosia. Ab-so-lute de-lish!

Every bite to be savoured. The lemon macaroon in the background served as intermission, to allow the taste buds to recover from the onslaught, much like lemons given out during half-time at lacrosse.

And at the end, the mental equivalent of loosening the belt and slouching in the chair. Who needs books telling you how to detox or relax when the simple pleasures of life are everywhere?

Says it all.

Exactly about how we feel about looking for a job.

Introducing a new member to the family

We have a new wog. She be unnamed as of yet, as there were nothing suitable that everyone can agree on. Say hewwo to the new Maltese woggie.

Hmmm. Let's try again. Say hewwo to our new woggie.

We hope the parents come up with a easy nice name...

McDonald's throughout the ages...

Like, McD's was always there when we were born lah...since we were young already there were Happy Meals, Value Meals...toys galore...

Then when we grew up, McD's just keep on spurting everywhere...even when we were in Taylor's College a McD's popped up just down the corner!

And now. Like never change hor?

How To Eat At A Buffet

Here's our friend Lemon to show the correct attitude to assume during a buffet, especially at one that closes after 2.30 and not remain open till after supper.

You will see the starting up pose. Lean towards your dominant hand side for the pull-up...

Now, once you have enough energy pented up, unleash it in a powerful burst of speed!

Use the speed to guzzle the dishes! No waiter/waitress is gonna stop you!

And this was how we devastated Restaurant Sogo...nah, probably didn't make so much as a dent in their budget. Food was fair for a buffet lunch, really. It wasn't like tasting ambrosia, but at least whatever we had could put a satisfied smile on our face.

There was teppenyaki beef...

There was salmon...

And there was wee octopus...

Oh yeah. Now only if Rakuzen had something like this...I absolutely love their unagi!

How do you read?

I'm a skim reader. The books that I read, which tend to be non-serious, easy-reading, put-down-pick-up books suits me fine for my purposes. Skim readers go through books fairly quickly because we don't have to read every word, our brains really interpret what we read into contexts that we're familiar with. Example, with my Pratchett's Discworlds, conversations or actions become sounds and pictures, and this has been reinforced what with watching the Discworld plays.

Plus, I'm a fairly forgetful person. While forgetful skim-reading easy-reading fiction this is fine, it's a absolute horror with textbooks. Informative texts that require steady attention to what it is trying to get across, not good on nonattentive forgetful fellow who, while able to get the concept pretty quick, will forget what the whole thing was about later on.

Anyways, the point is thus: I'm capable of re-reading most books because there's a novelty value of coming across some part that I didn't notice before. With the Discworld series (especially the early books) there're lots of gems to look out for.

Which leads us to the reason for such long-winded nonsense. Today, reading back Guards! Guards! I learnt a new word. To quote the line:

'We hath got the crown, i'faith, and we will kill any whoreson who tries to take
it away, by the Lord Harry.'

This be my Lord-knows-how-may-times-I've reread that book, I guess still within two-digits, but it's the first time I saw that word. Skim reading really reinterprets similar-looking words and that was a gem.

Wondering which word I learnt? In Interesting Times a similar word would be 'lovechild'.

Job choices

Bummed on finding that dream job? Come, join the Asian profession: piracy!

Yeah! I mean, most people indiscreetly support the piracy culture that is now so ingrained into Malaysian life. After all, why buy a good quality copy album of an artist you like when you can get a pirated copy that has near-same (or slightly lower, normally cannot hear the difference one) quality, especially since you only want two or three songs from the entire album? Why pay RM10 to watch a movie where you have to squeeze in with an absolutely aggravating mix of people that cannot behave decently in a cinema when you can get a RM5 DVD clear copy of said same show, to watch at your own leisure?

Why?

Like the store says: Why Pay More?

Really lar, iTunes did wonders selling a song at 99 cents. Only thing the buggers do was make online purchasing available in Malaysia. But thankfully there are stores like Victoria Music Station and Rock Corner that do have CDs going on for some RM35. That's a RM10 difference you know! Singles are still not worth it, unless you're after the B-sides that you can't get elsewhere.

Not that I'm so stuck-up that I only buy original. If I really like it, then only I support it and will get the original la. After all, sometimes generic sudah cukup. See what you're after la. Just one song? Need whole album meh? Singles CD oso costs RM25 already. Where to find Zoolander DVD around here that you can grab off-the-shelf? Plus who wants to take the trouble really to go all the way to Singapore to catch Brokeback Mountain 'cos they won't show it here?

Should watch Sepet also, open your eyes a bit. Isn't all fun and games, this job.

End of nonsense.

Lazyman's Wrapping 102

This time we've a tie to wrap. Since the tie didn't come in a nifty box to thwart gift-guessing, we'd to use an alternative. Presenting, the envelope.

Requires:
One medium-sized, long envelope.
Wrapping paper.


This was a nice tie until I added a couple of Magic: The Gathering mana symbols and the Selesnyan sigil. I was trying out the iron-on transfers. Anyways.

Fold tie nicely and place in envelope. Preferably one that has the government letterhead or from the Revenue department and addressed to person receiving gift.

Wrap letter.


Voila. Wrapped-up present does not feel limp nor difficult to wrap.

Snapshots of Glasgow 1!

Now that I have a scanner I can start putting up some of the photos I've taken in the past! Ooo! What fun! Nah, not really. I have loads of pictures (maybe not as many compared to some others) that are sitting in the packs that Jessops place them photos in after developing, with no albums to arrange them in. Come to think of it, I wouldn't know how to arrange the photos too! Anyways.

Welcome to City Sightseeing, Glasgow tour!


You see, somewhere during our final semester my and my housemates decided to take the bus ride around Glasgow. Imagine, one year living in Glasgow, practically our second home, and not even going around the town! Yeah I could have done that, actually. I'm actually inert enough not to care much about my surroundings. But, since I'm not going to be able to stay there for indefinitely and since we'd the energy, we made the trip (and am thankful that we did).

So. Today's photo tour will be on the Riverside Route (actually we did Riverside Route on Day 2 of our bus ride!).

Here's the Tall Ship. I've been rather economical with my picture taking because 1) it's a conventional camera requiring film, not a digital camera, so cannot simply snap anything as my heart desires as worry may not have enough film to last; and 2) I wasn't a camwhore back then. So that means I didn't get to take a shot of the ship in it's entirety but only had shots on board.


Honestly I wasn't interested in much of the history of the ship (the S.V. Glenlee she was) but you can read all about her and the Glasgow Harbour at http://www.thetallship.com/.

Just look at the size of that! The wheel is as big as me man! Makes you wonder just how big Scotsmen were in the past...


For us, the Riverside Route only presented 2 interesting stops: Tall Ship, and SECC aka Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre where we were heading for the Glasgow Science Centre. Hmmm...think KLCC and Petronas Science Centre without the shopping elements? Yeah, this place is something like that. Somewhere after our tour about the Tall Ship and before entering the SECC, we'd lunched on fried rice that Ming cooked.


And what did we do here? Well, like children we'd had a hand touching everything touchable...and watched a 3D movie at IMAX! Rummaging through my box of memorabilia, I even found the tickets!


Whoa. Into The Deep 3D at 1.30pm, costing 4 quid on student price. Convert that price and it's RM28! But hey, it's an experience!


I remember Ming almost fell asleep during the movie. Seats were super comfy man.

Anyways. Wasn't really much for me to talk about. Just some snapshots into a day of my life. In fact without these snapshots even I'd have difficulty remembering what happened that day. Oh dear.

Making our way to work of late

MidValley is very bad for me nowadays.

This is a tough joint I have to pass by this week. Walking past the Polo Black concourse booth is by no means an easy feat when the smell simply addles you.

<"A bold fusion of iced mango, silver armoise and patchouli noir."

Simple mind-blowing!!! Gah gah gah gah gah who needs drugs when all they need is the correct perfume? Everytime I walk past the booth I aim to get a sample card to use as a bookmark, even though the scent only lasts a few days.

And somehow, since I've started parking at MidValley when I commute to work in KL I've made JuiceWorks a regular stop. Mostly when I'm on my way home. Have been chugging the Detox range of drinks and occasional fruit blends. Very refreshing, I must say. Their wheatgrass shot reminds me of a tequila shot...

There's a small shot of wheatgrass, all nice and green, and a slice of orange for after you 'shoot' the stuff. It isn't as if the grass taste bad in the first place, I find it palatable.

Gah. It's expensive, working in KL...

How time flies

Egads. Just look, we're now into March. How quickly time just suddenly seems to fly by, yeah? Just not too long ago we were just thinking how fast it was near the end of 2005, then 2005 came and went and we were thinking how that, since it's 2006 the year will start out slow...

End of January and early February was nice, whatwith it having nice long holidays (Chinese New Year being somewhere during the middle of a week leading to a lovely long weekend...) and now, we're already in March! Whoa!

How slow time passes when you're experiencing it and how quickly it leaves you behind when you're not looking, only to be so far away once you do.

Mealtime mysteries 1

Here. Have a guess at what I had for dinner at Ming Tien (large happening makan place at Taman Megah) last week. This kind of picture occurs because my phonecam cannot take night shots. Answers with next mystery!

Let the answer hit you like a spark of inspiration, like thus:

Testing our printer.

Welcome to ay-cee's printing centre.

So we'd decided to put the printer through the wringer and see how many photos it can churn out before the colour cartridge empties...no, we tell a lie. We'd offered to print out any digital pictures mum took on her vacation, still being rather proud of our printer. Except...mum wanted to have all the shots printed, and the count was 133 photos! One hundred thirty-three!

So...preparations. Went to 1U today to buy A4-sized HP Everyday Semi-Gloss Photo Paper, a black ink cartridge and a colour ink cartridge and a book to while the time printing (we had to make use of our MPH RM5 voucher before it expires).

Once home we started printing. This was...some 7 o'clock we gather.

All beds not slept in were utilized in the drying of the prints.

Well...our colour cartridge does some 60-odd prints before giving up and printing somewhat sepia-filtered shots. Sob. Thank goodness bought a new cartridge after all. So swapped that and continued.

Was around 10.30pm when the new colour cartridge also gave out! Waaah! Expensive! Expensive! And I haven't finished printing everything yet! There was about 15 more pictures!

Calculate this: 133 prints at, say, 65 sen apiece. That's RM86.45. Give or take a bit due to service charges or offer prices that's still about RM85 lah.

Now, three colour cartridges, RM70 a cartridge. One black-ink cartridge, RM50. A4-size photo paper, RM44. Wahlaupiang RM304!!!

No more, no more...shall only allow selected shots to be printed next time. Our heart (and wallet) hurts.

Dinner and DVD nite

On Sunday we'd thought of having a dinner-and-DVD nite on Tuesday night. Reason? Sunday was too impromptu, and Tuesday was the 28th, the last day of February. Nah. It was mainly because I haven't watched Zoolander before and people were going on about it being a very good comedy, plus I thought me mum was returning from her holiday on March 1st (last checked proved me wrong, she'll be back on March 4th, phew).

Well, I decided to make it a small one and just called the guys only (considering the turnout I could say it was a GC occasion). All in all we had 4 large thin-crust Domino's Pizza (courtesy of their very valuable Gold Card): Crispy Chicken and Beefy Crunch (promo pizzas), Extravaganzza (personal favvie) and Super Deluxe to be shared by goodsheet, ladthelad, Lemon and me while watching Zoolander. Oh yes with guest Russell/Rascal who was adorably sleepy.

MrWho came by after Zoolander (very very good, especially if you're Malaysian with sense of humour) and after we'd cleaned out all four pizzas (so sorry!), and with goodsheet and ladthelad having to leave that just left the three of us eeeeeviiiiilllll people to watch 'Long Khong' or 'Long Thong' or summat - Thai horror movie. Arrr. Wasn't really scary or anything, in fact none of the gruesome bits that appeared on the VCD cover was in the movie. Problem laid in subtitles with poor visibility and movie direction.

Methinks things were just 'okay' for tonight. Why? Well...a poor host, for one. Furniture that doesn't complement dinner-and-DVD, for another. IMO appropriate furniture would be - distance between couch and table: within arms' reach so one doesn't have to get up; table large enough to accomodate 2-3 large pizzas plus place for drinks and at comfortable height. And doing a movie on weekdays are sometimes iffy because people may have work pressures and won't be able to stay late.

More to come? Hopefully, and that it'll get better.

Many faces of ay-cee

ay-cee's mood is: Very Mindscrewed

We're happy that we have our new printer-cum-scanner. Now we can draw out much better pictures although sans colour effects. This also reminds me of when I stayed in James Blyth Court, where occasionally I will stick a little picture something like that on my door to reflect my mood to my mates.

I hate my brain for being so able to mindscrew myself and leaving me rather defenseless to further mindscrewing.

Me, evil?

An eeeeeviiiiilllll friend passed me the link to this:

http://home.att.net/~slugbutter/evil/

Right.

Turns out I'm not evil, I'm just twisted! Very niched.


How evil are you?

Don't You Want Somebody To Love

This was Princess when she was, what, 5 months? Adorable thing.

When the truth is found to be lies
And all the joys within you dies

Don't you want somebody to love
Don't you need somebody to love
Wouldn't you love somebody to love
You better find somebody to love

When the garden flowers baby are dead yes
And your mind is full of red

Don't you want somebody to love
Don't you need somebody to love
Wouldn't you love somebody to love
You better find somebody to love

Your eyes, I say your eyes may look like his
But in your head baby I'm afraid you don't know where it is

Don't you want somebody to love
Don't you need somebody to love
Wouldn't you love somebody to love
You better find somebody to love

Tears are running ah running down your breast
And your friends baby they treat you like a guest

Don't you want somebody to love
Don't you need somebody to love
Wouldn't you love somebody to love
You better find somebody to love

['Somebody To Love' by Jefferson Airplane]

New printer!

Recently I've been buggered by the fact that my old printer, a loyal Canon BJ230, has been on the fritz a bit too often. It's not as if there's some mechanical malfunction or summat, it's just that the ink cartridge has been playing up.

Now this printer is just your regular black-ink printer that'll do the perfect job for usual printing needs ie. resumes, sudoku sheets, stuff off the 'Net, and to cut costs instead of buying a new cartridge altogether it's much cheaper to get a refill and do-it-yourself. The only hazard is spilling ink all over the place, or worse, having ink spilling out from the cartridge after refilling it.


Anyways. I couldn't print anything these past few months because of my printer cartridges, even after getting a new one, and refilling that a couple of times, so I thought that it's time to upgrade. Enter the HP PSC1510!


Yow. This baby won over the Canon Pixma iP4200 because of three things: first, the Canon costs RM699 (with free pendrive thrown in, last 2 models available) compared to the HP that costs only RM379 (normal selling price RM399); second, the Canon can only print lovely colour prints and CD labels, while the HP can print lovely colour prints, and is also a scanner and copier; and third, the Canon uses 4 cartridges (black, magenta, cyan and yellow) while the HP uses only 2 cartridges (black and colour).

A main concern I had while getting this printer was that it may be too big to fit the table (it's about twice the width of the old printer), but after getting everything out of the box and setting up, hooray! It fits!


Now I'll just wait for the parents to wake up and see the thing and screech at me.

Being straightforward

You know how it is with guys generally lah. Can't really be obscure in your meanings one. Sometimes *nudge nudge* or *wink wink* or lines like, "You know about 'that thing' hor?" cannot penetrate the thick desensitised husk that is Ah Beng's brain. Must be like the brave girl taking her medicine or lancing a boil - deep breathe, close eyes, DOWN! Wanna get the message across, must take the leap.

So we're rather grateful when we got this yesterday. No mistaking the intent.

Grateful for getting a flower and thankful for the straightforward intent so no need to wonder so much what the flower means!

Personal stock take

Looking back and wondering what have we achieved or where are we going:

Our life is aimless.

We have no long-term goals.

Nothing to claim to my name in achievements.

Whoa our life is pretty much worth shitzilch.

Storywriter's Helper

Just starting a new story game with some friends and I thought about this: what to do when you get writer's block? So! Introducing the Storywriter's Helper! Just get a dice and throw and refer to the table below as a matter of some guidance.

Step 1 - Regarding Main Story
1: Introduce a new character
2: Natural disaster
3: New topic/Plot twist!
4: Anonymous encounter
5: Waste time on nonrelated topic
6: Kill someone

This should be simple enough to get you onwards. But if the block is bad, so bad you might want more from the Helper. So from dice roll number one, refer onwards!

Introduce a New Character
1: Sidekick to main character/party
2: Wiseman/Oracle/Elder etc
3: Intelligent animal
4: New villian
5: Family member/Friend of main character/party
6: Return of supposedly-vanquished villian

Natural Disaster
This one actually depends on your story setting. But you could use this as examples or replace them with relevant disasters e.g. Alien Invasion, Bull Stampede. Heck it doesn't have to be a natural disaster.
1: Earthquake
2: Hailstorm
3: Tornado
4: Volcano eruption
5: Flashflood
6: Flashfire

New topic/Plot twist!
I guess if you could somehow incorporate 'New topic - Alien war' into 'Main story - Stone age' then you shouldn't need the Helper in the first place.
1: "Meanwhile, in another part of [insert variable location here], [character] is [verb]..."
2: Reveal a betrayer!
3: "Meanwhile, a secret weapon is being constructed/made at..."
4: Villian kills some unrelated person
5: Someone in the party/close to main character is kidnapped!
6: Totally new unrelated topic that will weave into main story

Anonymous Encounter
Speaks for itself.
1: Ambushed by [insert creature type/class type here]! A fight ensues!
2: Angel/Spirit/Friendly ghost gives advice
3: Damsel in distress
4: Possession by spirit/demon
5: Old friend/family member/member from same homeland appears
6: Neutral [creature type] bars the way

Waste Time on Nonrelated Topic
If you read Douglas Adams or watched Monty Phyton then you probably have some idea of how they can waste time on totally nonrelated topics. For this, look outside your window, or watch some telly, or play some games, and use some of that to help you. Think of it like some sudden cut-scene talking about some other part of the story but has no direct relevance to it.

Kill Someone
Take your pick.

A good long rest

Chinese New Year 2006 is a lovely one: falling on the weekend, public holidays are then pushed forward till Thursday due to Federal Day on Wednesday, and most people (some compulsory tho) taking Friday off...that's a very long week for holidays man! Count it! 9 days!

During this whole CNY hols, there was a 'feeling' about it that I just couldn't place. Not until last night at Vincent's open house and I was chatting with Randall. The 'feeling' was akin to the same feeling one gets when it's the school holidays! Of course!

Sigh. Not counting the university years la (since uni life was ultra-flexible with variable timetables) it's been 6 years already since a whole bunch of us could enjoy a good long break of 2-4 weeks at the same time. School holidays meant day after day of games and hanging out and doing nonconstructive things with everyone. School holidays meant going for trips with everyone. School holidays meant you had no worries totally.

Flash forward to after the education phase. When you're working, there's no chance of taking more than a week's worth of leave without consequences. Plus, you're taking that leave alone, or with few colleagues/friends. You gotta plan for fun stuff like travelling and such already. No chance of an impromptu get-away-from-it-all.

A: Eh, let's go Singapore tomorrow! Stay for one week! The rest of the gang confirmed woh!
B: You want me to die-ar? Now is our company's peak period! No chance I getting away!

Heh. This kinda 'feeling' (pronounced in that very Chinese way, "fee-LING!") is very rare nowadays. Even when I had my stint as man of leisure (read: jobless) I didn't had this feeling because everyone else was still working. Holidays are meant to be shared together.

Anyways, here's going out to everyone: I hope you'd a good long rest!

Kung Hei Fatt Choy!

Small Goals 1

Browsing today at 1U I found the following:

What is it? Monty Phyton's Spamalot - the soundtrack of their musical. A Monty Phyton Musical! Actually what really caught my attention was the grail picture - I love Monty Phyton and the Holy Grail - and so natural reaction for me was to pick it up and look it through. It's gonna be most likely that I'll enjoy this. Measures of self-control were overridden when it comes to stuff that you know are rare, or know prices won't change anytime soon no matter how long you wait, or worry that once it's gone, it's gone. Unlike the OST for Perhaps Love, which I can always wait until the price drops to something more appealing.

Listened to the musical on the way to (and back from) Klang I just fell in love with it. The same appreciative feeling that I got from The Phantom of the Opera and Les Miserables I had with this, although instead of just being immersed totally to the music I had a better time listening to the lyrics. I mean:

LADY
I'll sing it in your face
While we both embrace

BOTH
And then we change the key!

DENNIS
Now we're into E
That's awfully high for me

LADY
But everyone can see
We should have stayed in D

BOTH
For this is our song that goes like this

...that goes on until...

LADY
I can't believe there's more

DENNIS
It's far too long I'm sure

LADY
That's the trouble with this song
It goes on and on and on

BOTH
For this is our song that is too long

Or another song example!

LADY
Whatever happen to my part?
It was exciting at the start
Now we're half-way through Act Two
And I've had nothing yet to do
I've been off stage for far too long
It's been ages since I had a song

I mean, she's singing about not having a part in the musical! This CD had songs not only from Monty Phyton and the Holy Grail but also from Monty Phyton's Life Of Brian, while some of the other songs while I don't recognize they do sound familiar as if it was a parody of some other popular musical.

Gotta love Monty Phyton. If you ever thought that Terry Pratchett was hard to follow, or thought that Douglas Adams was wacky, try Monty Phyton. Lords.

Which brings us to todays title. Having short memory means I've gotta jot down 'small goals' before I forget them or deprioritize them. Small goals are stuff that I can slowly do bit by bit over any amount of time, not really needing a lot of saving up or heavy investment. So some things to jot down and more to add on when I think about them:

DVD Collections
Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings, both Fellowship and Two Towers extended 4-DVD set. I already have The Return of the King and I want the originals for this.
Queer as Folk. Probably not very important, and definitely something I'll only get when I stay out on my own (very controversial after all). Would be nice if I could get the UK version. This one no need originals.
Sailormoon, Sailormoon R, Sailormoon Super S and Sailormoon Sailorstars. I have Sailormoon S already (best season to my opinion) as well as the movie collection, and I have all the episodes for Sailormoon and Sailorstars in Realplayer format so no rush here also.

Plays and Musicals to watch
Monty Phyton's Spamalot!
All Discworld plays! Especially Wyrd Sisters (love Granny Weatherwax!) and Maskerade!

Book Collections
All things Terry Pratchett. This include the entire Discworld series and their other spinoffs like The Science of Discworld etc. Oh must keep an eye on the Discworld maps collection.
Frank Herbert's Dune Messiah. I think that's the only missing book in my collection.
Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple series. The only thing that keeps me from actually making this a priority buy the fact that the books are small, but the price is big.
JK Rowling's Harry Potter: Philosopher's Stone and Chamber of Secrets. Started my collection backwards.
Magic: The Gathering: Ravnica series - Ravnica, Guildpact and Dissension.
Once I get my own place and have my own athenaeum I'm definitely looking to expand my range.

Gadgets and Gizmos
I guess next on my list is a digicam so I can be better camwhore. This one can consider a bit of a 'medium goal' actually.
Tetris DS for NDS.
New Super Mario Bros for NDS.
WACOM tablet and stylus? I guess this one is definitely out of reach plus the fact that it's more for professionals than for dabbling in doodling.

WTF I just made a wishlist! It's not a wishlist! Bah who am I fooling. >:P