Camland New Year!

To the other Klangites, the last Camland Getaway seems very recent - Wii however likes our holidays and wouldn't complain. It's a holiday away from the usual hustle and bustle, why bugger about it unless there was a previous horrendous experience? Anyways, Wii'd ended up at Camland again to celebrate the New Year's with the Klangites (a change from wrangling with the crowd in Bangsar or Bintang Walk).

The ride up Brinchang was jam-packed with cars, thus dampening the spirit to drive far for lunch and exploration. It was a good thing that food and shops were nearby, as our legs were still on the road to recovery from muscle strain and Wii weren't too happy entertaining the thought of heckloads of stairclimbing (thankfully Wii recovered soon enough for the jungle trekking).

Wii'd rented an apartment this time, as 'Ward was afraid Wii'd trash his apartment couldn't join us for the trip. Say hello to Honeymoon Villa Apartments, Brinchang.

Not as large as 'Wards' Parkview Apartments but still big nevertheless, with 3 bedrooms able to accomodate 4 peeps each and with their own attached bathrooms, Wii were all comfortably settled in. Asides from 'Ward, Randall has also flown off to the UK, yet bringing down the numbers. But this trips still saw us 10 peeps strong - 'Nic, Vincent, Jun, KE, Ee Lee, Ivan, Unker Ray, Larry, Lynn and us.

Rain was a bit of a hassle in Camland, keeping us indoors for a fair bit but that didn't mean Wii couldn't be entertained.

We Banged! each other...

Hunted Chameleons for their pelts...

And whenever a player got saboh-ed, we'll just say, "That's Life," with a big grin.

One of the highlights of this trip was the food galore - led by the Food God, Ivan. Wii'd already learnt our lesson about eating at any other available place - Wii had weird lunch where the fried rice was tasteless and the kuey teow tasted of pure pepper. So, crowded restaurant = good food. Come dinner Wii had steamboat at this place called Restoran Jew May Yen, which was fairly crowded but thankfully Wii'd managed to get a table.

After steamboat Wii then headed down to the pasarmalam for a bit of a look-see. It seems that chocolate-covered strawberries have also hit Cameron - there were 2-3 stalls selling them for RM2 per stick. Hmmm, isn't that the same price as that Wii get at The Curve? Shall check back next time. There was also home-made ice-cream - now those wasn't half bad, altho the blueberry-flavoured one Wii had was rather thick and Wii couldn't tell the difference from blueberry to strawberry after that.

Highlight 2 - New Year's Eve activities! Our old friend JD paid a visit, bringing his mates Jim Beam and Bicardi along to celebrate as well. Together we yam-seng'd 2007 in, only to be copied by some neighbouring apartment who cannot stick with the usual "HAPPY NEW YEAR!" instead. Memories were tested with the School Song and the School Rally, and even the ex-prefects had their song (what was it called again?). All in good boisterous mood.

After a while of drinking games, we'd decided to cut to the chase - just open the top card, count the number of peeps and the fella drinks! A very fast way of achieving highness. It's a shame Wii didn't take any videos - Wii has a replacement 'entertainer' now that Randall has gone, although this one's more expensive as he can outdrink the rest of us before Wii get to watch the show.

Oh yes, must remember to stock up the pharmacy/first aid box before going on trips.

Next morning, Wii had Marvel Heroes set up for playtesting...except no one knew how to play the game. 'Nic was appointed rulesmiester and sent off to read up the rulebook while the game, all ready on the mahjong table, was put aside for later. Lunch saw us back at Jew May Yen for a 7-course lunch! Good food. KE and Ee Lee left us after lunch to head back to KL, bringing our numbers down to eight.

So Wii headed off for Highlight 3 - Jungle Trek: The Sam Poh Screw! Pray that you make it out alive!

Vincent prudently sat out of this one, leaving brave lads 'Nic, Ivan, Jun, Larry, Unker Ray and us. Unfortunately, Wii weren't clear about it being a jungle trek and thought that Wii were just off to see the temple. And so there we were, dressed in jeans and a polo-tee, equipped with wallet, phone and Ixus. The designated shorts and tee meant to be worn (and get dirtied) were left wailing in our backpack. Dressed like this spoilt things a bit for us as part of us were then now obsessed with trying to remain as clean as possible.

Still.

Last Camland Getaway regrets were that Wii had no pics of said experience - thankfully Wii had our Ixus with us this time. Now the only thing is to try and take shots that don't look shaky >:( A concern of ours regarding while we went trekking was that our legs would hamper progress. Miraculously Wii were bouncing along the trek all the way! Wii put it down to the trail being uneven, so that Wii didn't have to strain our already-tender muscles. Jungle Walk 2 was good - lots of slopes to climb, two streams to cross (the only bad experience for us was this bit, we were trying to avoid muddying the jeans and failed) and from Jungle Walk 3 out the Golf Course it was a clear easy trail. Interestingly enough some of the trees sprouted weird fruit - plastic-covered notices attempting to get the attention of a Japanese hiker who'd been hacking away with a big K-N-I-F-E and marking trees every 50 meters or summat (at this point Wii were muddy and didn't want to sacrifice our Ixus for the sake of a little camwhoring). Once out of the jungle it was the slow march back to the apartments, where, once in sight, led to the group of us racing back. Goodness. Much as Wii can bounce about in the jungle, our stamina still isn't good.

Comparing this trek to last Camland Getaway trek (Jungle Walk 5) this was deffy more fun and didn't take as long.

Dinnertime saw the Food God leading the eight of us against a 6-course meal led by Gen. Curry Fish Head. Justice was done. More games of Bang! (amidst cries of, "I'm the Vice! I'm the Vice! I'm the Vice!" and much kowtowing to Lynn, the Sheriff) and That's Life followed at night while the rulesmiester continued slogging through the manual.

Tuesday morning. Wii leaves today and so to minimize luggage the following mandate was put out: finish the junk food. Not very hard to carry out. After that, Wii'd killed time killing peeps in Pompeji, much to the chagrin of Marvel Heroes, which sat on the mahjong table all this time and was never played.

Was it time to go home? Nope. It was time for Highlight 4 - Gunung Brinchang. Up and up we go, to reach the top and climb the watchtower. The roads were narrow and steep, the scenery breathtaking at times, and Wii were supposed to be put to shame by the angmohs whom hiked all the way up rather than drive.

At our destination was another watchtower to climb - leading us to heaven.

Suggestions were then put out to trek or have a steamboat atop the watchtower (then again, it was nearly 3pm and Wii had not lunched). Wii just left in the end.

Next stop was the Sg Palas Boh Tea Centre, simply for a look-see, more photo opportunities and tea-buying. The Tea Centre is quite cozy and aesthetically pleasing.

It started raining as Wii left the Tea Centre, putting a damper on our plans to get fried food (from mushrooms to potato balls) at Kea Farm - just a quick stop for Unker Ray to get his Bharat Tea and the rest of us for snacks. Then began the long drive home.

Asides from the wee jam (and driving behind a groggy driver swerving all over the road) Wii made it back to KL by 8.30pm, stopping by Nando's for dinner. Extra Hot Peri-Peri 1/4 chickens, Peri Chips, free soup and Wii were happily stuffed.

So, for all the face-feeding Wii did, what was the damage? Weight before = 53.6kg. Weight after = 54kg. Wii loves the holidays.

"We Went Before We Came..."

Things to remember before we ever go for a medical checkup again - there's a urine test involved, and we've to fast for at least 8 hours since dinner the night before. Fasting was fine, since when we called up the hospital to enquire they reminded us. But not the urine test bit.

Firstly urine tests depresses us somewhat, why, no idea. But we're not really happy with it even though it be necessary. Talk about performing under pressure. The only good side to it is that guys have it easier than girls. We wonders how the guys manage in sperm banks, though.

Next, we went for the checkup first thing in the morning after the necessary ablutions, so that we could proceed to the topic of food ASAP. So of course the bladder is nice and empty until we made our first medical checkup stop: blood and urine tests. Wwhen suddenly passed the bottle by the technician, we'd to tell her, "We already voided before coming for the checkup."

She goes, "What?"

"We went before we came."

And after that sentence left our mouth we realized how wrong it sounded. It sounds better than if put the other way around, but still.

Good thing lab tech was rather innocent, or at least a very good actor and told us to take a drink and do it after all the other tests.

Blessed Christmas!

It's Complicated, These Heroes

Gawds. Am reading the rules to Heroes Of Might and Magic IV Collectable Card And Tile Game and I'm thinking - the mechanics don't seem to be worth the effort. As Richard Garfield puts it, there's too much busywork.

And I still don't like IV's gameplay.

Pen-tiful

This is the amount of pens we've picked up in our hospital days, and a few from the retail years that followed:

Those were the contents of 1 venti-sized Starbucks plastic cup. If we had stayed longer in the hospital line we probably would have had on average...2 venti-sized Starbucks plastic cups filled with pens per year. And our few favourite pens among the lot?

A bit obvious - must have cost Pfizer and MSD a fair bit more to have them made compared to the same old, same old. However, our longtime favourite Kytril pen is missing!!

O Fortuna

This, if we remembers well, was our first ever Latin choir song ever sung. First semester in university, for Friday Night - the choir team traditionally kickstarts the event with a song before any other performance.

When we heard it, then we recognized it. Once recognized then it was just a matter of remembering the lyrics. Which, given the time and practise we had, not much of a chance really.

Anyways. Bodycombat had some sort of version of it (Nick Skitz's "Excalibur"), but the lyrics didn't match. We couldn't find the songsheet for quite some time and thought we'd lost the songsheet, but stumbled upon it yesterday when we were looking for cardboard paper for wrapping purposes. So here it is:

O Fortuna

O Fortuna, velut Luna statu variabilis
semper crescis aut decrescis, vita detestabilis
nunc obdurat et tunc curat ludo mentis aciem,
egestatem, potestatem dissolvit ut glaciem.

Sors immanis et inanis, rota tu volubilis,
status malus, vana salus semper dissolubilis,
obumbrata et velata michi quoque niteris,
nunc per ludum dorsum nudum fero tui sceleris.

Sors salutis et virtutis michi nunc contraria
est affectus et defectus semper in angaria.
Hac in hora sine mora corde pulsum tangite,

quod per sortem sternit fortem, mecum omnes plangite!

Lazyman's Wrapping 104

When we've clothes to deal with and no boxes for easy wrapping, we've got to make do with what's available.

Requires:
Wrapping paper (Ikea ISIG wrapping paper was used)
Plastic bag
2-way tape

First, fold clothing nicely and place inside plastic bag - the ones normally supplied by the clothing boutiques are fairly good ones, retaining their shape without getting crumply. Once clothing is placed neatly inside, fold the bag so that there's no empty space.

Next, measure out enough paper to fold over twice width-wise. Leave about an inch on each side.

Use the 2-way tape to stick the edges. Now it can be used as a pillow until opening day.

Minute musings

How much does a person's taste in fashion or what the person wears tell you about that person's personality?

Miserere Mei Deus

Gregorio Allegri's famous piece (think Pachelbel's Canon). First time we heard it was on Civilization IV, although we've had a compilation CD that actually had a version of it much much earlier!

It's an a cappella piece with two choir teams singing with the tenor singing every alternate paragraph. What makes this piece rocks? You could check up Wikipedia for the full story. Highlights include how Mozart, at age 14, heard the piece once and later on transcribed it from memory; how this piece is some 10 minutes long (it could be longer); or that it's performed annually at the Sistine Chapel; or that it's played on Civilization IV (whoops, said that already).

However.

Civilization IV's version doesn't enthrall. "Wahhh!" factor is at 3 exclaimation marks, a good clean full version but unfortunately the parts (SSATB/SSAB) do not stand out in terms of clarity.

Another version we have, courtesy of a classical compilation called 'The Best Classical Album Of The Millennium...Ever!' (yes yes stop laughing already) featured a recording by the Choir of King's College, Cambridge, conducted by Stephen Cleobury. This one has a "Wahhh!" factor of 4 exclaimation marks (no half, half an exclaimation mark is what? A period?) as it is slightly slower, and the clarity is profound where you can make out each individual part. However, this version was cut short. Wikipedia states that the most famous recording is by the same choir but conducted by Sir David Willcocks. We'll listen out for it, hopefully it's the full version.

This is one piece we would definitely want to be part of, if given the chance.

Anyhoo, onwards to the Miserere. Translation? Loosely, read Psalm 51.

Miserere Mei, Deus.

Miserere mei, Deus,
secundum magnam misericordiam, misericordiam tuam

Et secundum multitudinem miserationum tuarum:
dele iniquitatem meum

Amplius lava me ab iniquitate mea:
et a peccato meo mundame.

Quoniam iniquitatem meam ego cognosco:
et peccatum meum contra me est semper

Tibi soli peccavi, et malum coram te feci
ut justificeris in sermonibus tuis, et vincas cum judicaris

Ecce enim in iniquitatibus conceptus sum:
et in peccatis concepit me mater mea

Ecce enim veritatem dilexisti:
incerta etocculta sapi entiae tua manifestasti mihi.

Asperges me hyssopo, et mundabor:
lavabis me, et super nivem dealbabor

Auditui meo dabis gaudium et laetitiam:
et exsultabunt ossa humiliata

Averte faciem tuam a peccatis meis:

et omnes iniquitates meas dele.

Cormundum crea in me, Deus:
et spiritum rectum innova in visceribus meis.

Ne projicias me a facie tua:
et spiritum sanctum tuum ne auferas a me.

Redde mihi laetitium salutaris tui
et spiritu principali confirma me, confirma me.

Docebo iniquos vias tuas:
et impii ad te convertentur.

Libera me de sanguinibus, Deus, Deus salutis meae:
et exsultabit lingua mea justitiam tuam.

Domine, labia mea aperies:
et os meum annuntiabit laudem tuam

Quoniam si voluisses sacrificium, dedissem utique:
holocaustis non delectaberis

Sacrificium Deo spiritus contribulatus:
cor contritum et humiliatum, Deus, non despicies.

Benigne fac, Domine, in bona voluntate tua Sion:
ut aedificentur muri Jerusalem

Tunc acceptabis sacraficium justitiae, oblationes, et holocausta:
tubc imponent super altaretuum vitulos.

Pictures in time...

Camwhoring never existed until blogging became popular. To be more precise, until places like Blogger made it easy not only to blog but to upload pics. After all, not everyone has the know-how to make their own webpage. Anyway, we've a whole boxful of nostalgia under our bedroom table.

We remembers this: when we were thrown into the Editorial team for our student batch one of the few things we remembers is telling the photographer (Mr JA with the complicated equipment) to take as many photographs as possible.

Looking in retrospect, we really, really WISH that digital cameras were already the in thing then.

Sad to say, we were one of those who never really jumped on onto the digicam bandwagon until...we got our own digicam this year. We'd always advocate film cameras. Why? We still remember our arguments against:

"Expensive lar to develop the photos compared to film."
"When run out of memory how to take more pictures? When go long holiday zhia lat la second half of trip cannot take anymore photos."

So while we have a wide variety of pictures of our uni years in Malaysia, it's sad to say that pictures of our time in UK were slightly limited. Well, we were trigger happy, but not as trigger happy as we are now with a digicam, taking shots, deleting shots, retaking shots, going macro, snapping happily at anything and everything. Oh, and when we first got our Nokia 7650 we did go trigger happy but memory confinements limited the pictures we took.

James Blyth Court, taken with our Nokia 7650.

Sigh. If we tabulates our expenditure on film itself, added the fact that we have jerky hands and there's the risk of film exposure (evident in the pictures we took at Glasgow's Necropolis) and that we developed all our photographs taken in Glasgow in 4R instead of standard 3R. And really it was more of pictures taken on trips rather than things closer to home [see Nov 20 entry].

Now, all we have to worry about is hard disk space and file corruption and that once we'd burned the photos onto CD the CD may get scratched, and with it all memories gone.

Wow-whee

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Many Many Many Mouse

This is bad for them who enjoy Latin in Final Fantasy, but good for those who always wanted to be able to sing to One-Winged Angel of Final Fantasy VII.

Just go here. Music and lyrics provided.

*For the sake of those too lazy to do an age verification check, here. You'll have to fill in the music by yourselves, tho.

Estuans interius (Burning inside)
[Bells Frogs Bing Cherries]
ira vehementi (with violent anger,)
[Jingle Bells Magic Cheese]
Estuans interius
[Bells Frogs Bing Cherries]
ira vehementi
[Jingle Bells Magic Cheese]

Sephiroth!
Sephiroth!

Sors immanis (Fate - monstrous)
[Swords in my knees]
Et inanis (and empty,)
[Ed peed on this]
Sors immanis
[Swords in my knees]
Et inanis
[Ed peed on this]

Veni, veni, venias, (Come, come, O come,)
[Many many many mouse]
Ne me mori facias (do not let me die)
[Then adore me crunchy love]
Veni, veni, venias,
[Many many many mouse]
Ne me mori facias
[Then adore me crunchy love]

Gloriosa (Glorious)
[Oreos are]
Generosa (Noble)
[Now upon us]

Sephiroth!
Sephiroth!

Retail Therapy For Impulsive Disorder?

Right. We actually meant to talk about this and not really do a review for WoW:TCG.

Now what led to that? Well, we received a call during lunch yesterday to inform that our dear camera has finally been repaired and ready to be taken home. So we popped down to 1U after work.

Once again, one more turn...

And popped into a PC store to see if Hammers of Fate was out. It was. Bang! It's mine.

Then popped into Anime Tech for a look-see if Death Note was available. It wasn't, but they have Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children 2-CD Original Soundtrack. Bang! Mine.

Those, plus the Jamiroquai High Times and Robbie Williams Rudebox and That's Life, unplanned purchases all of them...

It's a good thing the Nintendo Wii is not cheap at RM2090.

And we haven't even started our Christmas shopping yet.

Help.

Like, wow...

Of late we've been heading back to trading card games (TCGs) whatwith the arrival of World of Warcraft (WoW): TCG from Upper Deck Entertainment. We weren't really that interested in the game so much as to rush out and buy a starter to try the mechanic like we did for Lord Of The Rings TCG by Decipher (of course, LotR:TCG was released after The Fellowship movie was screened, and we were still enthralled by the Nazgul at that point) when we upped and bought the Deluxe Starter set.

When a friend bought some starters and boosters for WoW we then had a chance to explore the mechanics and game. First card we'd glanced upon was a Rebecca Guay! Whoa. That made a good impression. The game idea was pretty simple: pick a hero, build a deck based on the hero class by throwing in allies and equipment and quests, whack enemy heroes. Somehow, that's when the nitpicking started...

The game is expensive to invest in. Other TCGs cost on average RM35 per starter and RM11. WoW costs RM57 per starter and RM15 per booster. Plus the fact that the starter contains only 30 cards plus 2 boosters.

The card pool me friend had was limited for deck construction. There were 9 classes of heroes to choose from! So our Undead Priest had only one equipment in the whole pool of cards he could use, but it went against our deck strategy of emptying the opponent's hand. But then again Priests probably don't go around bashing people with their staves all that often, nor would Priests actually be able to do a Barbarian War Cry we guess...

Allies make up the brunt of the army, and thankfully they aren't as limited. Like 'Mechs in Battletech:TCG, they're just aligned with one side and many can fit into your deck. Now if only we had more that helped our Undead Priest but so far the allies we've got somewhat complemented the deck.

Combat is done by targetting individual allies or heroes to whack. Hmmm. Somehow this bit seems problematic, because weak allies probably won't survive to see the light of day (of the next turn) if they're just marked for death each time they show their face. At least in Battletech 'Mech's can only target slower 'Mechs and in Star Wars (by WotC) speed determines initiative irregardless of player turn.

Quests are twofold: they work as resources and card fetchers. But as resources they're not really that necessary, as any card can be played face-down as a resource in the first place. This throws up the question, "Is it still necessary to build a deck of 33% resource?" and we thinks, "Not really. We'll just pick a few quests that fetches allies."

Given the card pool limitations, we had an Undead Priest (Omedus the Punisher) deck that does a one-off direct damage of (7 minus cards in target opponent's hand), very very few cards to cause an opponent to discard, plenty of allies and 9 quests. The deck is pretty much anything goes.

Early playtesting finds that numerous allies, with added fact of the ability to target nearly ally/hero during combat pushes advantage to whoever has stronger and/or more allies in play. Tension is fairly balanced with the choice of playing a card as a resource or holding it back for later. We have yet to do a multiplayer game, and am looking forward to introducing the 'It' multiplayer variant (ahhh Battletech days...).

Damn, it turned out to be a WoW:TCG report. And while we were playing WoW, our minds kept thinking back to Battletech.

Nevermind, onwards with the preview card, next post.

Ouch.

Camera shop just called - repair costs for broken Canon Ixus 55 LCD screen is RM220. Sigh. What to do? Cough up the cash of course.

And I Was Not Going To Blog About Work...

It's odd, how my ex-colleagues don't believe me when I tell them about my job.

So since we've changed jobs we'd to update peeps who ask. Of course, how much fun to take them on a more memorable job description. However, those whom I've worked with before took what I said with more than a pinch of salt, while old classmates from various educational institutes took my word for gospel.

As a friend put after clearing the matter up with her on what I'm currently doing: "You see, your friends trust what you say!" Nice.

First time I'd announced I was changing jobs, I'd sent out this text to friends. This was during the Thailand military coup:

Hi. sorry i didnt tell u that Im moving permanently to Bangkok nxt wk. I dont know how long i am staying there. I will gv u the number, address and new email when i get there. Hope 2 c u b4 i leave? Sorry 4 d short notice. I hv no choice. They hv chosen me as the



Next President of Thailand.....

Heh. Now some friends and me sis recognize this not to be my style of texting, and sis even texted back to say, "Thailand has Prime Minister lah, not President."

Nowadays we tell people that we're working as the cleaning supervisor in Amcorp Mall.

Really.

No joke.

Have to take care of 15 cleaners, 4 floors (shopping mall) plus 36 floors (2 office towers), and even the parking basements not easy you know?

It's Supposed To Be A Simple Business Trip...

So why is it when I dump my stuff in the hotel, I have to make 2 trips from the car???

My luggage bag, the shoe bag and Fitness First bag on top of it, a company baggy with loads of materials and papers inside, my Playstation 2 and the laptop.

I Want

Oh dear, temptation-by-brain is at it again.

Have just updated phone software of my trusty (albeit cranky) Nok7710 - a phone that gets most people asking, "Is that the Nokia N-Gage ar?" - for the first time since I've gotten it 2 years ago. That's 2 years that I've been tolerating slow applications; cranky, sudden phone resets; phone hanging up on me (without even me knowing most times!); and my alarm not ringing.

Why wait so long for a software update? Because all this time I've been checking the website, there has been absolutely no annoucement of a software update - under 'Applications and Services' or Software and Support for Owners' I just get a lot of 'Try and Buy' games and such. No such news that goes, "Oh, we've heard a number of complaints about the Nokia 7710, here's a patch to make things better."

*not that I complained in the first place, I love my Nok7710 regardless*

Anyways, was browsing in a Nokia store when I happen to ask them if there were any updates for the phone. Fiddling with my phone, the fellow says yes, it's now version 4, yours is version 2.

>:(

That's 1 year past my warranty. Now I've to pay to have it updated.

Took me a while to get it done, because the fellow tells me they're only open at office hours - when I got there they told me they're open till 7pm, even on Saturdays. Bah. And I was down at KL twice on Saturday thinking the place was closed!

Even getting the phone software updated entailed its own risk - the customer service woman gives a once-through on my phone to note down it's current state (so that when I get back my phone I don't go, "Woi! Where this scratch come from?" etc) and I was pleased with her comment, "Wah, your phone still looks new."

*beams*

Then she continued with, "If there's any problem while updating the software, like if it hangs, got different charges ya."

*blink*

Say what?

"Quotation for that is [checks price list] RM270."

Muh?

Dilemma. Risk the bloody thing causing me extra charges, or live with annoying OS? In the end I decided to risk it. I had to spend a good 4 hours or so totally blocked out from communications waiting for my phone. And since I use my phone as my watch as well I had no sense of time.

Whoa. Gadget-dependant, I am.

When I got back my phone it's as if I've just gotten it for the first time (but I have back-up!). And the software update has made things better. Glee. No complains now.

But...but...but...

Brain is pushing to get something new...OMG. I can't afford this. I've just had the software updated so I could still love my current phone! Brain wants PDA as well as nice new phone! Brain is sick of writing texts and wants alphanumeric keypads once more. Brain wants nonbulky phone. But brain wants PDA for organising purposes too so that brain doesn't need to overextend itself remembering too many appointments and to-dos!

The brain wants, but wallet needs a sugar daddy.

Lazyman's Wrapping 103

This time we've a big prez to wrap. Not keen on taping 2 pieces of wrapping paper together and working from there, I'd decided to go back to wrapping tissue. Unfortunately, this time it's not so quick to finish this.

Requires:
Wrapping tissue
Box
Paper

Firstly, box the present.

Wrap boxed prez in brown paper. Note: Brown paper makes wrapping ugly.

Print out birthday greeting big enough to cover top quarter of box top.

Lazyman's option: Stop here, paste birthday greeting on box and send by courier service of choice.

Else, continue. Paste birthday greeting on contrasting card and stick onto a corner of the box.

Then proceed to wrap with wrapping tissue.

Jump Forever

One -jump-
day -jump-
(hey), -jump-
your -jump-
sweet -jump-
letter -jump-
arrived, -jump-
Reminding -jump-
me -jump-
of -jump-
our -jump-
home -jump-
town. -jump-
My -jump-
thoughts -jump-
drifted -jump-
back -jump-
over -jump-
our -jump-
love's -jump-
memory, -jump-
sweet -jump-
dreams -jump-
of -jump-
the -jump-
time -jump-
our -jump-
hearts -jump-
bound. -jump-

Through -jump-
a -jump-
soft -jump-
veil -jump-
of -jump-
pale, -jump-
shimmering -jump-
petals -jump-
My -jump-
soul -jump-
floats -jump-
away, -jump-
helpless -jump-
in -jump-
passion's -jump-
sway, -jump-
I -jump-
miss -jump-
home: -jump-
you -jump-
are -jump-
my -jump-
home. -jump-
Kokoro, -jump-
once -jump-
lost, -jump-
now -jump-
found.

Hahaha we loves this game in Wario Ware Inc (the first GBA version). And best of all, the English lyrics that appear when you're jumping about isn't a translation at all to the Japanese song that's being sung!

Many thanks to enigmaopoeia for the lyrics!

I Think Something's Broken Inside

I can't see anymore.

It's all bright - and there's a hint of a crack line.

My Ixus.

Shit.

Training @ Starbucks

Bugger. They've lost my bag of just-bought Kenyan beans.

This all started when we first started our new jobbo. Estactic at having a local Starbucks within the same building, we'd made plans to bring our cafetiere (coffee press) to work, and regularly buy beans and a big 20-oz City mug. Upon payment of beans and mug, we'd asked the barista to have our beans ground down for cafetiere use. Her reply, "Do you want to leave your beans here?"

Us: Huh? Leave my beans at the store?

Barista: Leave the bag of beans at the store, each time you drop by, just inform that you have coffee beans there and mention your name. We'll then make your coffee.

Us: Any charges?

Barista: Nope. It's free.

The skies opened and angel choirs sang at that point.

\(^o^)/

We're still in the midst of training our local Starbucks till we can reach the point where they prepare our coffee once we call them.

Currently we've reach the point where some staff members now recognize us upon our entering the shop with our KL City Starbucks mug in our hand. Of course, there're still bumps to smooth out in this bit too, because they only recognize us as 'that customer'.

We call it this way because, working in retail before we come to either love or hate regular customers - if they do their own thing, pay up and leave we don't mind them. If they totally get in our face they become, "OMG, it's him/her. Sheetsheetsheet no one to divert to look for scapeg- Hi! How are you Uncle/Aunty/[customer name]/[no name] today?" followed by the blahs of come what may.

So, we don't wanna know if we're labeled as 'that customer'. we might be 'that cheapskate customer', seeing that we only get a bag of coffee and from then on it's "Make us our coffee, thanks. No, no muffins, no food. Nothing." we don't even drink at the shop, we pack it back to the office. So long as we get our coffee and we don't have to make a fuss.

Hmmm. Things were friendlier back at 1U when we used to work there - but then again we was a (more frequent) paying customer then. And the peeps we knew there are all gone now.

Oh well. Training goes on. Or should we go all the way until they prepare my coffee at 10.30am sharp everyday unless we calls to say we don't need coffee on that particular day?

The Lord's Prayer

Amazing really. Most of us has been singing it now for almost a year, and I don't mean the Millenium Prayer by Cliff Richards (which also rates quite highly with me). In fact, not many of us really realize the first time we hear it that it's the Lord's Prayer!

Here's the original Swahilian lyrics.

CHORUS
Baba yetu, yetu uliye
Mbinguni yetu, yetu, amina!
Baba yetu, yetu, uliye
Jina lako litukuzwe
(x2)

Utupe leo chakula chetu
Tunachohitaji utusamehe
Makosa yetu, hey!
Kama nasi tunavyowasamehe
Waliotukosea usitutie
Katika majaribu, lakini
Utuokoe, na yule, milelea milele!

CHORUS

Ufalme wako ufike utakalo
Lifanyike duniani kama mbinguni (amina)

CHORUS

Utupe leo chakula chetu
Tunachohitaji utusamehe
Makosa yetu, hey!
Kama nasi tunavyowasamehe
Waliotukosea usitutie
Katika majaribu, lakini
Utuokoe, na yule, simama mwehu

Baba yetu, yetu, uliye (yetu amina)
Jina lako litukuzwe (baba yetu)(x2)

Recognize it yet? The chorus would have already told you where you've heard it (if, provided, you're a gamer with a taste for civilization games).

Yep, the main menu song for Sid Meier's Civilization IV.

Better yet, you don't have to get the game to hear the song, it's available to download for free at the composer's site. Yes, free. Yes, legal. Yes, it's the full song. No, you don't have to be Christian to enjoy the song. What are you waiting for?

Quotable Quote

Temptation
"The only way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it."
- Oscar Wilde (1854 - 1900)

Danged Virgin

This Virgin emails us something regular but this be the first time she scars our heart by reminding us of her man in Glasgow.

http://www.virgintrains.co.uk/cityguides/city/glasgow/ourmanin.aspx

Ticking off the checklist to see what I did do and what I'd missed out. Thankfully with his list managed most on the first half.

To be able to travel near halfway around the world again...

Tricked By Treat

So after work we decided to drop by The Curve - had dinner of claypot rice with pork and no drinks - as we were feeling thirsty. Was juggling between a FruitWorks juice or crashing awhile at FF (hey, we paid for those 100 Pluses okay?). Refillable 100 Plus won, and as we walked past TGIF and Laundry Bar the various waiters in makeup reminded us that today is Halloween. Ah. Even had a coven of pretty witches having their pictures taken.

Asides that, some booths were set up and there was a stage where a couple of hosts were getting contestants to 'Guess The Creature In The Box' near the fountain. Poking our noses we learns that 8TV and various newspapers were having a sneak preview of The Covenant at 10.30pm. Seems like we were just in time :)

Amongst the activities going on then include giveaways (posters and free drinks mainly), live band performances and interestingly enough, a Tarot booth.

But best of all was this fire-eater who decided to fire up the band's act.

Treat me nice or I'll burn you all. Who call you so smart wear langsir bought from Kamdar?

Anyhoo. Movie time. We were aware that the deejays kept asking the crowd, "Who wants tickets? Who wants tickets?" and that we got our free tickets even without needing to handover the Malaysia Today cutout. Our rationale was, "It's a free horror movie that's not gonna be crowded."

It's not a horror movie.

It's...gah. Good points: little censorship (some actress moons the audience! The trailer showed her wearing panties!). Bad points: little censorship (what is the matter with minor foulmouthing?). That's being nice and noncommital on movie reviewing.

>.<

Have to chill out after such a movie. What have we? Scrounging our kitchen to find...

Hmm. If I just use a slice of watermelon mum will complain about us 'always leaving the last piece for someone else to finish and clean up'. Although that's true :P but this time we thoughts we shall make use of both slices.

Where the heck are all our cocktail forks?

And since it's Halloween let's make this scary.

Ahhh bliss nightcap.

Too Good To Last.

The haze is back. The traffic jam is back. Sigh. I only got two days of driving bliss. :(

It's A Mad Mad World.

Last night been to bed with some of me old old magazines - we're talking InQuest 1998 that talked about Middle-Earth's CCG expansion The White Hand and The Duelist 1997 reviewing Battletech's CCG expansion Mercenaries (there's a picture of Anastasius Focht - white hair, black eyepatch but purple robes!).

So when I got a text this afternoon (while still asleep) that goes:

Who wants to be MAD? Got my game, its utter MADNESS. MAD, get committed.

...my first thought was to Magic: The Gathering's expansion Torment, one of my favourite expansions with the game mechanic Madness.

Once we'd woken up tho', it made sense.

If your name is Alfred E. Newman, this game is made for you.

Psike mentioned he owned a Mad boardgame set and he'd finally found it. Ahhh...so finally we could see what the game was all about - lose all your money to win. One thing we were warned about: don't question the logic of the game (there isn't any). Cards like "This card can only be played on Friday," and "Stand up, boo the person on your left and lose $1000" shows up.

The game has it's bits of fun because there are times when you're instructed to change seats with other players, but you don't change money as you change seats! Imagine stockpiling loads of cash and then leaving it for some poor sod who's $500 away from winning the game. Like Psike said, the game ends pretty quick because you lose cash quite fast. So we tried a variant - all cash we lose, instead of going to the bank, goes to the square called 'Tough Luck' (you get all the cash on 'Tough Luck' if you land there).

Still manage to win the game! Rah! Rah! Rah! Counting the total circulating cash by that time...$45000. Gods.

Today be the second time we did Domino's. First time was when I got my That's Life set, and that was 2 large shared by 4 peeps. This time, it's 2 large (same pizzas again, an Extravaganza and a Beef Pepperroni) shared by 2 peeps. Absolute fullness. Best thing be, the operator (by name of Jasmine) tells me that as a frequent customer I got a free gift. First thing that pops into me mind: 1.5l Sprite/Coke bottle? Free gift turns out to be a choice of Twisty Garlic Bread, Banana Kaya Dessert, CinnaStix or BreadStix. Alright...Twisty Garlic Bread it be.

Look, just look at the butter waiting for you to soak your bread in.

Our arteries are panicking.

Guys, Put Your Off-Roads On

With our left sandal finally breaking apart, it was time we moved on. The running argument of what new foot wear to get - loafers, because they can double as shoes; Crocs, because they're funky and comfy; or another pair of sandals?

Over the previous weeks loafers started losing out in the argument as they can't be worn if they get wet and wearing loafers sockless might lead to smelly feet/shoes. What finally led us to settle on Crocs? We has a friend who stocks them - and so we got ours from hers: the Army Green/Orange Off-Road Crocs. She'd recommended this colour combo, and guys, trust gals judgement if you're unsure.

The moment we put them on, our first comment was, "Whoa! Feels like I'm walking 5% faster now!" No Power Threads this but walking does feel much more quicker after I'd put them on in the store. Wow. Plus I'm now a wee bit taller.

Now maybe I should start looking out for some Gloves of Speed.

Aieee7!

We're trying out Internet Explorer 7 and yes, it's nicer. The screen has more space whatwith the removal of the large icon toolbars at the top and replacing them with only the commonly used icons; the tabs are sooooo much more neater (less stuff to minimize!); there's an inbuilt RSS feeder; and everything is in ClearType. Of course, we can only play with IE7 in the office as it uses Original Recipe Windows and we need to get used to the tabs instead of different windows of IE. Me I'm waiting for Vista.

Am also itching for a Mac goodness knows why. The compulsiveness, oh! Must keep it in reign. Had a look at iLife as it has everything useful for us in it, but it's a bit of a blah to suddenly have to change blogs to .Mac instead. Must. Control. Spend. Elsewhere.

Sandals have broken. Shall start looking out for lime-green Crocs.