Do not disturb the grouchy bear

I sort of woke up with a few things to be unhappy about. I got irritated a few times and went for a walk more than once to cool off. It's some part issues, some part irritation and a large helping of stress.
Do people who work as programmers really know how to write good codes? Logical errors, lack of comments and difficulty in maintenance seem to be the hallmark of programs here. Do people document for the fun of it? Why not put something useful in it?
I'm ok. Few know that my output goes inversely proportional to the amount of sunlight. I put in some good work and I even fixed an extra bug for the Buggiest program on Earth, introduced by the very first amendment. Wow. How about some professionalism?

-1H4U

Link to my blog

This is unexpected. I'm breaking the link between my friendster profile and this blog so to restrict the spread of its existance.
For those who prefer to use RSS, here's my feed.
http://feeds.feedburner.com/jwqh

What's a feed? Well, for starters, why not try to paste the URL into a window?
If you like, you can set up a program or a html page which mutliple RSS can give you a summary of "What's new" in friends' blogs or newsletters. For a long time, I had placed it inside my Friendster profile but I'm discontinuing it now.

-3H2U

Light will triumph over Darkness

[DotA: The beginning]
It was a simple practice session that snowballed into a massive match up. Our mutant, Hulk got the itchy fingers and decided to humble us mortals.

The match-up. Me, Joran, the sneaky player in training picked Kardel Sharpeye - the dwarven sniper that can kill people from afar. Woo, the retired pro, picked Aggron Stonebreaker - the Ogre Mage. Let's just say his character set things on fire. Via Spiel, our newbie in training picked Ryai - the Crystal Maiden, who specialise in freezing attacks.

Hulk chose my favourite hero killer - the dreaded Demon witch, whose stun and hex attacks are perfect setups for a team kill. On top of that, the Demon witch has a finger of death which does what its name suggests. An early game powerhouse. Fant chose Lucifer - the Doom bringer. His character is strong in melee attacks and comes with a good finishing move.

[1/6]
We led for the first 15 minutes, gaining levels more rapidly then they did. My longer ranged attacks forced Fant to return to base for healing many times.
Somehow, Hulk got a kill and things went downhill. Our characters were killed in turn and our shopping plans dashed.

[2/6]
Things got badder. I formed Snaga and Yasha - an attack enhancer and together we took down a tower on the left lane. And got killed by the evil Duo.

[3/6]
We probably all died like 7 times each. Strangely, they seemed to be killing our characters in sequence. Frustrated at what appeared to be a losing game, we banded together and charged along the middle lane. After several tries, we broke in, killing Hulk. We got killed afterwards. I started saving up.

[4/6]
Hulk and Fant went out in revenge, killing our characters whenever we tried to take the middle lane. We took the left path while they were busy defending the middle lane. We reached the final tower on the left path and were killed when they ambushed us front and back. I saved up enough for Monkey king bar - an item that can disrupt enemy spells.

[5/6]
We alternate between the left and right lanes. Occasionally we got killed but we made progress. Eventually, we tied down a pattern. Woo would supply the muscle; Via Spiel would freeze them when they charge; and I, who would be hiding in a corner would fire shots that stun them. We began to turn the tables.

[6/6]
We broke into their base in 2 places. Victory!

[Last words, uttered by Joran]
1. Morgaga is reaching home...
2. Via Spiel, these are runes...
3. Via Spiel, run!
4. Hulk is here...
5. They respawned... Woo, out!

-3H0U

You give so much to your parents?

Ok... I met her again. As my brother forgot my standing order to tell all female callers that I'm not home, she managed to contact me and I continued my lie that I didn't receive her sms all this time...

Long story short, she wanted to review my coverage, so another meeting to set up. She was surprised at the amount I gave my parents, but the true ratio was hidden from her as I did not tell her I have allowance. She suggested that I could reduce what I am currently giving to my parents. I gave the excuse that this could approximate my true expenses in the event I move out.

I give a total of 23% of my gross salary to my parents and grandmother. I wonder how much others give.

-1H1U

Sorting out photos

I'm the process of sorting out my digitial photos from Kota Kinabalu. While I'm still days away, photos for the white waters rafting are availiable. To protect my identity, I won't be posting the URL here. Please check out my Friendster profile for the link or ask it from me when I'm online.

-0H0U

Must get that seat...

[Case 1: lunch time]
Train slowed down. Everyone formed a wall outside the train door. Uncle had trouble getting out.

Little girl was having fun going round and round the pole. An auntie in the 50s came in, saw that the only seat unoccupied was next to the mother, moved towards it. Mother scould, "See la, auntie take your seat already la!" Auntie hesitated till a surviving strand of social decorum kicked in. "Oh it's okay, you can seat". Auntie took the seat reluctantly. Girl continues to dance around the pole. Mother assumed a very crossed look and gave her a slap on the butt.

My stop was approaching, I got up early. Auntie shifted to the seat which I occupied. Mother gave another stern meaningful glare at her daughter.

[Case 2: Sojurn]
Train slowed down. Everyone formed a wall outside the train door. Passengers had trouble getting out.

Yuppy couple rushed in, took the seats meant for those who would benefit from the proximity to the doors. When the old folks came in after them, they looked away.

-3H2U

That bloody service charge

Every month, I get an average of $0.09 interest from each of my bank accounts, with each having an anverage of $1000 inside. Approximately every 3 months, a situation will arise such that the balance have to go under the $500 mandated by our evil local banks. When this happens, they deduct $2 from me.
I know this is an old tune but I swear I lost more money to this "SC" entry that I have ever gained from them! What about my healthy bank balances before I go on trips? Do they reward loyalty at all??

-0H1U

We are the kids

I was out with a friend today to have tea. When we were done, we shopped around for her young nephew's birthday present. "I want to buy him a toy bus with doors that open", she said.
Action City and Lego shop yielded not results. We then visited Centerpoint. The first item I picked up was a bus with a smiley face from the "Thomas and friends" series. My friend wasn't too impressed and we went on to look at other die cast cars. There was only 1 toy bus and it didn't have doors that can open.
We briefly considered toys for toddlers and I was rather fascinated by a crocodile car. I entertained myself with it while TimidGal looked on, amused. I passed her my initial pick of the "Thomas and friends" bus again and said if she doesn't want it, I'll put it back. It was then she thought it cute. -.-

So we went to the shelf and she went, "Cute! Cute!", like some little chirping chick. What began as a simple search for a bus became a half hour ransack of the shelf with the 2 of us getting more excited with each new find. Kids were trying to get around us to look at the trains...


Final choice: A train engine named Mike; A magic cargo car that changes its contents every time you open its doors; A bus named Bulgy

You know what's amazing? Each of them has 1-2 bi-directional magnets that allow the cars (including Bulgy) to be joined!
We are the kids.

Source of pictures:
All Aboard Toys
Toys & Hobbies
More reading:
Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends

-4H3U

When they want to recruit you, you are worthless. When they want to retain you, you are the world

I don't think I'll find employment easy for the moment. With just one sentence, "So you're still doing support?", they compressed all my experience into something simple and brainless. What about my years of experience? My exposure to multiple modules? My cross training? My strong programming orientation?
And this is not coming from the HR department. This came from the agents who approached me, whose role was to put me in the best possible light. Like their HR counterparts, they tried to make me feel lucky that I'm even worth a second of their time. That I'm so useless, I can rot in my current job forever.

I'm not making the same mistakes. I'm not selling myself cheap this time. No surprise pay cuts upon confirmation. No surprise change in working environment when I report to work. Play any tricks and I'll walk. This I promise myself.

-3H2U

Irritation and Satisfaction

[Work]
Imagine a pride of lions in a Safari park who are very down on their fortunes. They had lost most of the teeth and claws due to old age and accidents so the rangers had supplied that with steel fangs and claws. The design was such that these could be swapped between the lions themselves.

Comes the hunt. Long tails was stalking a zebra and spooked it. The zebra ran right into Swift foot’s ambush and she brought the zebra down by latching her steel claws onto its hinds. However, she could not get an effective kill and in the struggle, the zebra kicked her and got away.
"Why didn't you secure the steel claw and the steel fangs together?", Long tails demanded as she caught up.
"I couldn't. Bright mane is facing a challenge today and he took it".

Such is the problem I face at work and it irritates the hell out of me. There are 20 of us and there are only 7 IDs for our use. 8 terminals with email access are to be fought over by 40 of us. I was moved to pass on the joy to my boss by stating this whenever he ask, "Got problem a not?". I plan to annoy everyone ranked above me till this is resolved.
"We're looking into it", is not enough for me. They are not the ones being stressed. Already, there are signs that tempers are rising as our team got our load doubled and our resources halved. We are going to miss many of our targets this month and if complaints fall on deaf ears, then perhaps their precious statistics might make them sit up.

[Food]
Past experiences of Japanese buffets were not good. The food came deliberately slowly; Orders were "forgotten"; The sashimi was not tasty; You could never catch the eye of anyone.
So it was refreshing to have had something different.

We had our farewell dinner for Conrad at Telok Blangah: Mount Faber SAFRA club's Himawari Japanese restaurant. Everything was the reverse of what I complained. ALL the orders came, well cooked. The staff were all smiles and did not dodge their duties. The sashimi was nice and they gave us more than token pieces. Their tempura actually sticks to the skin of the prawns, rather than floating above it like a disgusting corndog.
Why not give it a try?

-4H2U

A little bit will make all the difference

This story goes way back to the 90s, at the height of the popularity of Star Trek: TNG.

In the 60s, NASA examined the bridge of the original Enterprise and walked away happy, having learnt "insights" on what an effective command bridge should be like.
30 years later, their successors went over the design of the Galaxy class starship with hopes of learning something useful in their pursuit of designing a spaceship in the future. They found it to be perfect but for one thing. The warp nacelles have to be lowered by 0.5 mm else the stress of space travel would rip them off.


Yes, friends, future girlfriends, wives, you are fine the way you are.

Source: Federation Starship Guide

-2H1U

DotA with a new character: Anti-Mage

"No Lion!" , thus decreed our student in training. So I trained a new character for our match yesterday (11 July 2006) .

The day came and we met at Bugis for dinner. We threw up some challenges. If Cheryl could kill my character twice in a single game, I would buy her a complete set of Warcraft III.

Long story short. I won the game vs the combined forces of Morgaga and Cheryl. Cheryl won herself her copy of Warcraft III.

Tally:
[Forces of good]
Cheryl, kills 2
Morgaga, kills 0

[Forces of evil]
Joran, kills ??, somewhere above 36

-2H1U

Morgaga vs Joran

Morgaga the Ghost (Won)
Kills: 1

Joran the Chaser (Lost)
Kills: 4

No fair...

-2H2U

No commitments

If anyone bothered to click on my yahoo calendar, they'll see that there's a slot for "Eye of the City" scheduled for today (08 July 2006). This is an exhibit of photos taken by people on the last day of every year. Subject being anything they feel best represents or personifies our country. It is being displayed at the National Library for the month of July. Then it was to be followed by a DotA game.

Due to the fact that people I know cannot give me a straight yes/no, or lagi best no reply, my Saturday plans were turned totally upside down.
So never mind, it became a tea meeting, which led to a DotA match. I tried not to kill Cheryl's character, but what am I to do when she stays so invitingly near the fray? Morgaga was a more elusive prey. I scored my earlier kills when he thought he had the upper hand with his army of fairies. I just stayed away and returned with a stun attack then a polymorph spell which turned him into a little sheep. Then I slowly click 'F' and left clicked on him. Bye bye Gaga...

Ok... So I got nothing much to post today, but having no content can be deceptive.

-3H1U

Analysis: Actions by MICA

[Political]

Never post on work, religion, politics or race on your blogs. Well, I broke 2 of them, so here's a third.

The big hoo haa on blogspace recently is the condemnation by the press secretary for the Minister of Information, Communications and Arts on Mr Brown's pod cast. Summarily followed by his removal as a columnist by a local newspaper.

I was rather surprised. I thought that our MICA had a sense of humour when he said he found the pod cast of the "Mee Pok Man" funny. So why when the offending pod cast on our country's cost of living comes up, they threw down thunderbolts?

Welcome to the most powerful tool known to governments since the dawn of civilisation. Tell your soldiers your opponents are baby killers and they will fight with a vengeance. Tell your students that they are the cream of the crop and they will defend their position. Tell your populace that the economy is going up and they will live with a passion, spurring up the economy in the process, in a self fulfilling prophecy.

Making fun of their bureaucratic behaviour is a small thing and admittedly, funny. Destroying the upbeat feeling they are trying to cultivate is an act of treason. Their cause is for the greater good and for that, the downfall of one person is a small price to pay.

To be fair, we don't know who dealt the killing blow. But no matter how I look at it, the paper that released him is at fault.

-1H1U

Back-dating

I know it doesn't make sense, but I'm back-dating my postings on my trip to Mount Kota Kinabalu to the days they actually happned. I just thought that it might be easier to locate the posts in future.

This will make it hard for you all to keep track of new postings on the trip, but when I have logged in all the days, I'll put up a new posts as a sort of index page for them.

Till then.

-2H2U

July update

Apologies, was busy with having fun and didn't have the energy to update recently. Plus the fact that I'm not done with my K.K write up yet.
As interests vary between individuals, you might want to skip sections that are boring to you. I have labelled them with a subject title.

1. [Military geek speak]
The advantage of living in my area is that I can see the pride of our nation - the fighter jets, scream past our window, year after year. My nicest view this year happened when I was in the car park, watching a F-16 jet roll lazily with me as the center.
With the Apaches joining the National Day Parade this year, it felt so surreal to have such high tech equipment in our country. F-16 Falcon and AH-64 Apache; These are stuffs you see on CCN and Discovery Channel. Never mind that the Falcon was developed before I was born but watching it in the skies is a sight to behold.

2. [Neighbourhood]
Happy birthday to my local library. I didn't know that she had served me 18 years =)

3. [Gathering]
Went out with the guys to Settlers Cafe last Saturday (1 Jun). We played Settlers of Catan and fell in love with its simplicity. Bryan later opened our eyes to what a cutthroat merchant he could be...
Cheryl wanted to go to Takashimaya for shopping but it was I who ending up buying a pair of shoes. The night was ended with a 2hr DotA match, bringing in Cheryl and Bryan as beginners. On one side were Bryan, Cheryl, Daryl and GagaGoogoo. On the other side were me and some AI bots to assist me. DotA is a game where beginners are a liability rather than a help. So the game went badly for Team A for I grew stronger with each kill :p. Cheryl was beside me and she was absolutely livid whenever I killed her character. Everyone pretty much enjoyed themselves.

4. [Injury]
Erm... The healing is proceeding slowly.

-2H2U