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Posted in by Huai Bin at 05:12 PM Permalink | Comments (25)

ICT Expo 2004: Day 0 - Setup

This is KCBA ICT Expo 2004 - the second expo we're establishing a presence in. KCBA is the acronym for Kuching Computer Business Association and ICT apparently stands for Information, Communication, Technology. It's organized by the good people at IDA Exhibition Services and it's at Level 5 of the Permata Carpark Building.

ICT Expo 2004 is more oriented towards entertainment and consumer electronics, and is supposed to attract a younger crowd, compared to the previous expo, which was mainly for suppliers and trade people. It will officially open tomorrow, today is the day the exhibitors come in and set things up.

Anyway, the WCG (World Cyber Games) East Malaysia preliminary is held at the same expo. That's a pro gaming tourney, and I had half thought about joining for fun, but they told me the spots were full and the signups were closed five days ago. The above shows the boxes that the games are going to be played on.

There was a security guard walking around, no doubt to prevent competitors from installing aimbots or something. I got him to pose beside the arena of PC's and he kindly obliged. Cheers!

Here's the customary video of the day:

Download: ICT Expo 2004 Setup [sixthseal.com]

The reason for the long pause is coz I was checking my Exhibitor tag to see what expo this is...you tend to lose track after a while. :p

Well, since today is the setup day (not open to the public), not all the booths are finished yet, but from what I see, this is going to be a more interesting expo. There were a lot of promising booths offering intriguing products.

Intel is also renting a couple of booths at the expo. They have a "Loot me!" sign attached to their booth. There's no one there, in fact the whole expo floor was practically empty. Monitors anyone?

The booth to opposite us and a little to the left has Ragnarok Online - Dream Sky stuff. I'm not into MMORPGs...

...but these balloons were going "Grab one, I'm cute!"

Here are some miscellaneous shots from the expo floor on setup day:

I'm intrigued by this device.

It goes "I am EVERYTHING & EVERYWHERE. I am InFocus." I'm not sure what it does, the dark walk in display doesn't do anything, but it could be one of those integrated home entertainment system things. I'll report back tomorrow.

This poster really made my day. Anti-intellectual property theft (the correct term for "software piracy") propaganda. This is John, a "computer genius" falling victim to "software pirates". Poor John...a minute of silence please, for John's plight.

Men behaving badly. This illustrates the concept of "chao huey" well, a local term which literally translates to "fire escaping". It's one of the few things that survives cross-language translation. Chao huey is the term people use to describe that aggressive and pissed off state of mind following prolonged and high caffeine intake before benzos are called in to temper (no pun intended) the negative effects. It can manifest itself in various ways, namely, aggressive behavior towards other people, a general simmering rage, and here, it shows a shirtless someone giving you the finger with his pants falling down, showing his tattered, but comfortable briefs.

When questioned, the man said that he's feeling hot from all the manual setting up work and wanted to go shirtless. I did not talk to him much coz he was really agitated and confrontational.

Disclaimer: I made sure that there were no organizers in the vicinity before taking that photo. There wasn't anyone at the empty expo grounds at that time except for us and this girl who was so surprised she stopped in her tracks as I was posing for the photo. This is just a fun photo taken by an employee and should not be taken to reflect upon the company in any way.

1st of July (tomorrow) is when ICT 2004 will be open to the public. Come one, come all! I'm at Booth 30, say sixthseal.com and I'll take a photo with you. =D

Anyway, we take turns having our lunch break...mine is up, I'm going back to the expo to set up the wireless LAN.

Posted in Huygens Asia by Huai Bin at 12:33 PM Permalink | Comments (8)

RFC 003 - Celtic cross tattoo

I have this unbearable urge to get another tattoo, thanks to Lainie [tabulas.com]. :p I've been actually wanting one for a long, long time but have put it aside due to certain constraints, hereby stated in print:

1. My girlfriend would have a fit.
2. My parents will disown me.
3. My girlfriend's parents would disapprove.

I have this line I call the Impulse Line (IL). It's a very permeable line, but only on one side, unfortunately. I would be driving along, thinking about going home when this loud, annoyingly alluring fast music gets into my auditory senses and I grab my cell phone. I'm standing on the IL at that point. It just takes a nanosecond for me to decide to press Call and meet up with my barista friend. That's the TTL (Time To Live) of my neurological biochemistry. Just one nanosecond to cross it.

That's how I got all my previous tattoos...the first one, I was just sitting on a bus and passed by a tattoo studio and said, okay, I'm going to get one today and I went in and got one. The second time was when I was talking to my friend about getting my gf's name tattooed on my left forearm...it was the middle of the night, and I thought, sounds good, and promptly got it done the next day.

I am very impulsive by nature. Once I cross the IL, it takes A LOT to get me back. I'm quite sure I crossed it today.

RFC = Request for Comments
003 = My third tattoo

RFC 003 - Celtic cross tattoo

Here's where it's supposed to go. The Celtic cross goes on the nape of my neck and the Latin phrase goes over my shoulders (back).

This is a simple and quick mockup I did of what it would look like. In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti is Latin for In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. I know "nomine" is supposed to be in lower case, but I like it in uppercase. It will be done in some Gothic font. I'm planning to get it done at Borneo Headhunters Tattoo & Piercing.

Update: Holy shit, look at what James [blogspot.com] did! Thanks mate! I love this design, it's love at first sight. What do you all think? Shall I? Shall I?

Tattoo visual

Tattoo mock

I will film the whole procedure, just for documentation's sake, since I never did that for my previous ink work.

Tell me what you think.

Posted in by Huai Bin at 07:10 AM Permalink | Comments (73)

Snow Flakes

This dry and unbearably hot weather warranted a visit to Snow Flakes @ Tun Jugah Food Court during lunch hour. I decided on Sour Sop.

Bring me ice! Lots of it. Make haste! I'm burning up...

This is what it looks like - it has dragon fruit (again! w00t!) over a bed of nice, refreshing sour sop, pineapples and a lime in the middle. It's heaven. Heaven, I tell you...

Perfect for a hot day.

This is what one of my co-workers had. I don't know what he ordered but I'm sure just looking at the photo will cool you down.

Here's another one, the heat wave made us walk to this oasis. This place is really good, the snow flakes (a pretentious name for crushed ice) is milky sweet.

In other related news, I'm now Senior Systems Engineer. I just got back from work. Go secure that RM 3 million in VC funds tomorrow, team! Go go go! =D

Posted in Food by Huai Bin at 11:59 PM Permalink | Comments (6)

Ice Blended Black Forest @ Coffee Bean

The Coffee Bean.

The Original Ice Blended Black Forest w/ whipped cream @ RM 11.50.

Optional honey sticks for those of us who still have taste buds.

Here's a closer look at my short hair. My friends say I look 13 instead of 23.

Black Forest Ice Blended
Our secret Coffee Extract and chocolate or vanilla powder blended with ice, chocolate espresso beans, maraschino cherries and low-fat milk.

This is a double espresso - the ice blended drink was just for starters.

Posted in Fast Food Inc. by Huai Bin at 07:08 PM Permalink | Comments (22)

Central Market, Kuching

This is Central Market in Kuching. It's only open on Sundays. I was liberated from my slumber from one of my friends to go along with him and his girlfriend, and I thought, why not...

There are all sorts of things there, strange things like this upside down plant.

It was a hot day, iced sugarcane drinks are a must...

L-R: Huai Bin (me), Miriam, Ah Lung

I know my pants are falling down; most of my attire doesn't fit anymore without a belt.

We ate our way through the market. This is keropok lekor, which I assume is some kind of fish. There were samples and I thought it was pretty good, so I got some. It tastes like real fish.

There were strange stuff on offer...these are edible.

Here's a stall with assorted kuih. The long phallic looking things in the middle is a derivative of the fish keropok, or so I'm told.

This is a drinks stall with old skool 60 cent bottled sodas. Memories...back when I was young, we didn't have enough pocket money to buy anything but these.

Textiles...

RM 160 canines...

Cacti - none of them psychoactive, unfortunately.

My favorite - cats!

These are quails - note the quail egg at the side. I've never seen quails this huge before.

Stop looking at me like that, feline...

I'll give you some goldfish to eat if you want?

Pearl grass at RM 10 per plot. Jesus, the grass at my house back home looks exactly like this. You can have that for free if you want.

Here's some parangs for sale.

Doesn't look all that sharp to me. I'll stick to balisongs, thanks.

Scary figurines to bring the wrath of the god(s) down on yourself or to bring good fortune to your enemies. Or is it the other way round?

Fuck, this is one HUGE rabbit. It scared me.

The stall owner told me these are "vegetarian drumsticks". I got one to try.

It's pretty good actually, and the "bone" is made of a slice of sugarcane...sweetens the whole thing.

Salted fish anyone?

Here's a stall offering deep fried stuff.

I saw they just got a batch of goreng pisang out, so I got some of that.

I also had some of these huge sotongs...it's a WHOLE sotong on a skewer. Note the body at the end and the tendrils (or whatever appendages they have) on the front.

I'm heading out again, will reply all the comments later. See ya!

Posted in Interesting by Huai Bin at 03:43 PM Permalink | Comments (16)

I'm a freak!

I just got my hair cut really, really short. It's funny how the definition of short changes over time. This was how I used to keep my hair, until the decision to keep it long was made. Anyway, I went to Joliz Unisex Hair Saloon, no particular reason, it was just the first one I saw who had a hairstylist that didn't hurt the eyes too much *cough* so I just went in and told them I wanted to get my hair cut by her (points at aesthetically pleasing hairstylist).

Anyway, here's a video of me before getting my hair cut:

Pre-cutting session [sixthseal.com]

The video is just me showing my lower lip length hair, the longest I've ever had. That's a longan iced drink to the bottom left of the frame.

I know that the lighting conditions are rather unfavorable, my apologies for the quality, I didn't realize I had a lighting preset on in the recording function.

This is me, in the final stages of the haircut, with short hair:

Final stages of haircut [sixthseal.com]

She's making the final touches and applying gel. I have to add that this establishment is very big on the comfort of its customers in providing pillow rests, depending on which hairstylist you go for. ;)

The haircut just cost RM 5.

This is me and the hairstylist Ellen (or Helen). She's not Chinese as I first assumed, and she looks much better in real life than in this blurry photo (taken by the proprietor).

I miss my old hair...

Posted in by Huai Bin at 06:14 PM Permalink | Comments (25)

sixthseal.com in The Sunday Times, Print Edition

I received a print copy of the article this blog's URL appeared in, courtesy of The Straits Times (The Sunday Times), Singapore Press Holdings. It came in a cardboard reinforced envelope today. sixthseal.com was mentioned in an article in The Sunday Times [sixthseal.com] last week. I wrote an email to the author of the article with my opinion and also to request for a hard copy of the article and they obliged and gave me a free copy. Thanks!

The two pieces were clipped with a note saying "With Compliments - Singapore Press Holdings".

This is the front page of the paper, where the blurb was.

This is the main article - it spans a whole page.

This is the bit where my blog was mentioned.

Hazel [soundingblue.com] also sent me a copy, thanks for that!

Any publicity is good publicity! ;)

This is the email I wrote for anyone who's interested in reading it:

Hello, this is Huai Bin from sixthseal.com. One of my readers notified me of the blog's URL appearing in your article.

Anyway, a lot of benzodiazepine users do have an existing issue, which makes them prone to self-administration and the escalation of dosages as needed.
Granted, this is dangerous behavior as benzodiazepines are physically addictive and to quit "cold turkey" after a prolonged period of consumption may result in life threatening seizures, much like acute alcohol withdrawal, but worse.

Personally, I do have social anxiety disorder, I'm constantly worrying about what others are thinking about me and those thoughts are usually delusional and paranoid in nature. Benzodiazepines have helped me a lot - I'm more comfortable around people, that helps me communicate better and I find that I'm more productive at work.

Your article seems to paint a negative light towards self-medicating people like us. It's understandable, I feel strongly about certain issues too. However, if you don't mind, let me voice my opinion on the line:

Brutally honest, Michael admits that being on drugs has stunted him emotionally: 'My thinking, my personality, it's still that of a 16 year old. I still throw tantrums.'

I have to say that this is a classic benzodiazepine rebound side effect after bzd dependant people quit. It's due to the way benzos work - they bind to the bzd receptors in the GABA region of the brain, which regulates, amongst other things, sleep and acts as a natural agent that calms people down.

"Michael" is not throwing temper tantrums and being "emotionally stunted" or immature. He's just agitated because the brain is used to having benzodiazepines binding and activating the GABA in the brain, and now it's not.

An analogy of this would be someone driving down the road, relaxed, when another driver swerves in and cuts the driver off and provokes the driver by preventing any attempts to overtake the offending vehicle. The driver is stressed out - GABA production is unable to cope with the stress hormones, and thus, they get angry and would probably "throw a tantrum" or do something violent.

In time, the effects are reversible and the brain grows to expect less and less bzd receptor binding and GABA production, though this usually takes a while (years) before it returns to normal levels, which is where the importance of tapering (slowly reducing doses over a period of a year or more) comes in.

Benzodiazepines, like alcohol, acts as a disinhibitor. It's unfair to portray benzodiazepine users as criminals and petty thieves.

Alcohol is another GABA agonist (it enhances GABA production) - it would be accurate to make allusions towards alcohol and benzodiazepine dependency, as they work basically the same way, by (in)direct GABA stimulation, just like the barbiturate group of drugs before benzodiazepines.

To single out benzo users as somehow more prone to commit crime is, forgive me for the use of this term, just spreading fear, uncertainty and doubt (FUD, I'm sure you're familiar with this phrase). The tendency has to be in there in the first place for it to happen.

It won't turn church going Christians into deviant rapists overnight...unless, of course, they were already suppressing that urge in the first place. It's just a disinhibitor, like alcohol, no more, no less.

Anyway, I thank you for reading my email and cheers for mentioning my blog's URL in your article, although I would have described it differently. :) I never meant for it to be a forum for drug recipes, I do not respond to chemistry related questions. However, intellectual discourse is encouraged, so long as no dealing or soliciting is going on.

Thank you for your time Salma, and if it's not too much to ask, could I have a copy of the print edition of The Sunday Times on 20th June 2004 (the one with your article)? My mailing address is:

Poh Huai Bin
(deleted my postal address)

I will be willing to pay for the postage and your trouble. Please get back to me if you can, I can be reached at me@sixthseal.com and I would appreciate it if you could get back to me about the status of the print edition.

Thanks for your time, Salma, and have a nice week ahead. :)

Regards,
Huai Bin
http://www.sixthseal.com/

Posted in by Huai Bin at 01:48 PM Permalink | Comments (10)

New Zealand Herbal Lamb Soup

I went on a site visit today to Choice Deli (Tabuan Laru) and noticed this particular product on offer...NZ Herbal Lamb Soup. It's the plastic containers flanking the bottom left of this photo.

It retails for RM 5.00 per plastic takeaway bowl and it certainly looks tasty from the photo. However, they didn't have a spoon (and neither have I, there is no spoon) so I had to pass this one by.

It was only later that I realized...I could just have drunk the soup and then picked up the meat with my fingers and eat that. Doh!

I shall return, herbal lamb soup...

...and when I do, you'll be like...er, lamb to the slaughter

or something. ;)

Posted in Food by Huai Bin at 06:42 PM Permalink | Comments (11)

Martini vermouth

This is Martini (no, not the cocktail), otherwise known as Martini & Rossi vermouth. It's a dry vermouth made in Italy. Vermouth is a herb infused wine usually considered as a mixer but it can be drunk neat at room temperature. It's pretty good actually, tastes like white wine that won't give you gastric.

It weighs in at 18% - very paltry, but it has been my companion for the last few days. You can see that it's at the end of its lifespan, it's a pretty good to drink before dinner. A lot of people won't consider vermouth, especially the dry ones, for drinking straight, but try it, you might like the taste.

Posted in Ethanol and tobacco by Huai Bin at 06:09 PM Permalink | Comments (12)

Fansigns from Abby Lu (n1kki)

I'm pleased to present two fansigns from two aesthetically pleasing bloggers in a row today. That's not something that happens every day. ;) This is Abby Lu from An exercise in journalism [frens.net], and she was kind enough to give me a series of photos. Abby is one of the rare intellectual types that actually looks really good. She's a college student, got to her blog via PPS and have been reading since then. She's reminds me of myself, before I tweaked myself stoopid. ;)

Oi, stop laughing back there, I was intellectually gifted *preens* before I tweaked myself stupid. :p Just look at the old posts - sixthseal.com jumped the shark during the methamphetamine IV post. Oh...the bane of my existance, the only absolute beauty in my rotten life.

Blind...maybe I'm blind...coz you can turn a drop of water, into an ocean...

Here are the other photos in the series:

Thanks Abby! Much love for taking the time to send the photos.

Posted in XX chromosomes by Huai Bin at 07:03 PM Permalink | Comments (43)

Fansign from Lainie

This is Lainie [tabulas.com], one of the more interesting bloggers out there. You can't read an entry without seeing the words "Nessa" and "Daphne", not that it's a bad thing, mind. ;) One of the blogs I actually enjoy reading, her exploits rivals the best of anyone's, but some entries are private only. My favorite thing to do over there is to steer the conversation towards something else. The digression of today is balisongs.

Thanks for the photo, Lainie! You look great!

Update:

This is the permalink:
Lainie loves Sixthseal.com [tabulas.com].

Just in time too, I didn't feel like writing today. ;)

Posted in XX chromosomes by Huai Bin at 06:26 PM Permalink | Comments (9)

sixthseal.com in Singapore's newspaper

Thanks for the tip off, Kristian.

http://www.straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/think/story/0,4386,257247,00.html

The link expired, here is the emailed version, courtesy of The Sunday Times:

*****

This message was forwarded to you from Straits Times Interactive (http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg) by me@sixthseal.com

Are they drug dealers with stethoscopes?
by Salma Khalik

MICHAEL, 36, has a list of 20 doctors whom he calls 'sellers'. These are general practitioners (GPs) who willingly sell sleeping pills to addicts.

These GPs don't bother with consultation. They charge $3 to $5 a pill for Dormicum and $12 for Erimin.

The man who calls himself Michael is a former computer technician and a drug addict for 20 years. He told The Sunday Times: 'It takes just 1 1/2 minutes to get the pills from them.'

Those 90 seconds or so are the sum total of the doctor's 'treatment' - all the time he needs to check when he last prescribed pills to this patient. To satisfy health authorities that they are not overprescribing, they stick to the guideline of a pill a day.

This cynical approach to rules designed by the health authorities to protect addicts from themselves may be at the core of a worrying change in Singapore's drug culture. Over the past decade or so, effective police action has reduced access to hard drugs like heroin and cannabis. The addicts' solution: prescription drugs.

More interested in profits than healing, unscrupulous GPs are believed to have already turned Dormicum and Erimin sales to addicts into a sizeable business. Doctors are the addicts' main suppliers: An Institute of Mental Health (IMH) survey found that three in four addicts got their supply from GPs. The black market accounted for only 22 per cent.

Each pill costs a doctor just a few cents to buy. The selling price of a Dormicum pill ranges from about 70 cents at public hospitals to about $5 at some private clinics, with most selling it at $3. Dormicum pills alone can bring in thousands of dollars a month for a clinic. If a doctor freely sells both Erimin and Dormicum, well, he won't have to do much doctoring to earn a good income.

Since 1990, the Singapore Medical Council has censured 18 doctors for prescribing sleeping pills too freely to patients - with six dealt with this year alone. Several other doctors are now under investigation for this breach of professional conduct.

But the practice continues, and not just in Singapore. There are Internet chatrooms - like weblog sixthseal.com - where addicts share their favourite drug recipes and experiences.

There is no shortage of supplies. No one seems to know exactly how many sleeping pills are imported into Singapore. The Health Ministry does not keep records of the 79 different brands and generic benzodiazepines - a category that includes Dormicum, Erimin, Valium and Xanax - that are allowed in. But people in the know estimate an annual import of between 25 million and 30 million benzodiazepine pills.

Either taken on their own or in a cocktail mixture with other drugs, alcohol or even Coca-Cola, the sleeping pills can give a feeling of well-being, or in Michael's words, make 'everything more beautiful'.

Called hypnotics or depressants, Erimin, Dormicum and the like are highly addictive. If taken long term, they can damage internal organs, cause memory failure and weaken muscles.

Moreover, society suffers. An IMH survey of 50 such addicts found that at least a third of them shoplifted while under the influence of the drugs.

Michael has been arrested and thrown into jail several times for this. But he can't recall doing it at all. All he remembers is waking up in prison and being charged with the crime.

He was sent for drug rehabilitation, but relapsed the moment he was out. As he put it: 'Sobriety brings clarity. With clarity comes responsibility. And responsibility sucks.'

In 1998, in an attempt to keep a lid on such addiction, the Health Ministry set a cap on the amount each clinic is allowed to buy. Clinics are permitted a maximum of 12,000 Erimin and 21,600 Dormicum pills a year.

In 2002, the ministry issued warnings that one pill a day for just two weeks could lead to addiction.

But this guideline seems to have had little effect. Michael and his sleeping-pill addict friends, who take more than a pill a day, visit an average of five GP clinics a month for their supply. Doctor-hoppers have an average of 12 doctors prepared to prescribe for them. One person went to 23 different doctors.

The addicts identify three supplier categories: pure 'sellers' who aren't the least interested in the people asking for such pills; 'reluctant' GPs, who charge high for the pills, claiming that this is to discourage addiction; and 'concerned' GPs, who try to help them overcome their need while still supplying them with the pills.

Says Dr Munidasa Winslow, head of IMH's Community Addictions Management Programme (Camp): 'In private practice, you have to be both businessman and doctor.

'The vast majority of doctors practise ethical medicine, but there will be some who are more businessmen then doctors. It is highly competitive and there is a lot of pressure on doctors to give patients what they want.'

Singapore can't just stop the pills' import as the drugs have real medical value. Dormicum, for example, is often used to sedate patients undergoing a colonoscopy to check for cancer and other problems in their large intestines.

People doing shift work may also have difficulty getting enough sleep, because their body clocks get disoriented by changing sleep patterns.

Most hospitals and clinics don't stock Erimin, because this Japanese product is a controlled drug and involves a lot of paperwork. Non-doctors caught selling it can be jailed 10 years and given five strokes of the cane.

Clinics that do prescribe Erimin buy an average of 6,000 pills a year. Most clinics stock Dormicum and they buy about 2,400 to 3,000 pills a year.

Yet last year, 23 clinics bought the maximum of 12,000 Erimin pills and 12 clinics bought the maximum 21,600 pills allowed for Dormicum.

Before 1998, when no limits were placed on the number of pills clinics could buy, sleeping pill revenues were even higher. Some clinics circumvented the Health Ministry cap by opening more outlets.

Grace Polyclinic was one such clinic. It was in the news recently when its doctor-owner was struck off the medical register and no longer allowed to practise. Seven of its other doctors are either under investigation by the Singapore Medical Council or have been censured for grossly overprescribing sleeping pills. The clinic had seven outlets each buying the maximum 12,000 Erimin tablets a year. Each outlet also bought between 3,600 and 19,800 of the less lucrative 15mg Dormicum pills in 2000 and 2001. Six of the seven outlets have since closed.

Dr Winslow suspects that a surge of sleeping pill addicts in the 1990s followed successful police crackdowns that made heroin and cannabis more difficult to get. With their drug sources drying up, addicts had to look for alternatives, and these were readily available.

This was what happened in Michael's case.

He started his drug trip when he was in his late teens. He wanted to be 'one up' on his school mates. So while they smoked cigarettes, he puffed on marijuana.

A few years later, he progressed to heroin. Being a drug addict was an expensive vice. He would spend about $60 a day to get his fix. He once splurged $4,000 on a two-week binge.

'I had to be manipulative and scheming to get the money for drugs,' he says. When he couldn't borrow or steal the money, he would help his colleagues with their work, and suggest they thank him with cash.

It was partly the high cost - the price for one straw of heroin shot from $7 to $8 in the late 1980s to $15 to $20 in the mid-1990s - and partly the increasing difficulty of getting heroin that pushed him towards sleeping pills and high-codeine cough mixtures.

He needed as much as $90 a day for heroin, but only about $30 for pills.

Dr Winslow says addiction is an expensive business as addicts would spend hundreds or even thousands of dollars a month to satisfy their cravings. Since early last year, more than 200 sleeping-pill addicts have sought cures at IMH. Three in four addicts surveyed by the IMH said GPs were not interested in discussing their plight.

Breaking the addiction is far more difficult than getting hooked. Michael, who is married 'to a saint who has stuck by me' and has two young children, is now entirely cured.

But he still attends therapy because the temptation to return to a drug-induced paradise is everywhere. Every time he goes to the toilet (where he used to hide to take his drugs), 'I think of how beautiful life was,' he says. 'Everything I see is a trigger.'

Brutally honest, Michael admits that being on drugs has stunted him emotionally: 'My thinking, my personality, it's still that of a 16 year old. I still throw tantrums.'

It was to help people like him that the IMH set up its addiction clinic.

Ms Catherine Dong, the Camp psychologist who did the survey on addicts, thinks that just treating patients is not enough. She wants something done at the source of such suffering.

Her suggested solution: a national registry of benzodiazepine users so addicts can't doctor-hop.

Such a move would involve considerable paper work, but it should drastically reduce the amount of such pills available to addicts. Addicts can also be identified and sent for treatment. It would not only cut down on addiction, but also shoplifting and other crimes that go hand-in-hand with drug abuse.

*****
Quote: There are Internet chatrooms - like weblog sixthseal.com - where addicts share their favourite drug recipes and experiences.
The Straits Times, Singapore

This kind of publicity, I don't need. I have received news from another friend who tells me that my residence will be violated very soon. I have to do housekeeping, excuse me.

Posted in Best of sixthseal.com by Huai Bin at 10:27 AM Permalink | Comments (33)

BTS Day 3: Booth babes!

The term "booth babes" is a totally un-politically correct term, so we'll use the phrase "aesthetically pleasing female liaisons" instead. I've been in this convention for several days - tomorrow is the last day. This is the Best of Show - Janet Lim from Kam Kam Sanitaryware Sdn Bhd (a subsidiary of Kim Hin). She's the Sales Officer, or so I gather from her business card.

Of all the females in the show, I immediately noticed her - she's the one with the looks, the attitude (though that dissipates when you talk to her), and...well, this is a difficult topic to approach without seeming like a pig, so I'll just say it once and for all - Janet Lim is absolutely fabulous, the best female in BTS 2004 in my eyes.

I wanted to take a photo of her since the first day but I didn't get around to it until today. I think she was sick of me approaching her for photographs/videos - I think I did that 5-6 times coz I wanted a really good shot of her and my coworker Deng was going on about how my photography doesn't capture her beauty in real life. Oh, and the last time was when I was totally ethanol impaired...now that's a good impression. *shrugs*

Gorgeous isn't she? My apologies for "spoiling" the photo with my less-than-pleasant mug. I would say "/me drools" but then that wouldn't sit well with my gf, so I'll refrain. ;) Oh shit, come to think of it, I wrote down my blog's URL in my business card when I passed it to her - I hope she doesn't see this...

Last shot, I was ethanol impaired while this photo was taken...

Nevertheless, I won't be posting up the videos and other photos of her - that's my personal collection. :p I probably would go out early tomorrow and develop the photos I promised to several people though- just shove it into one of my smaller CF cards and pass it to a photo studio. Come to BTS 2004 - see Janet in real life, I haven't seen a more elegant (old skool word, but it fits) person in ages.

Right, here's the other BTS 2004 female booth personalities (it's so hard being PC nowadays, I exhaust my thesauruses):

This is our booth neighbor Loh. She won't be coming tomorrow (it's her last day) so I told her I'll mail her photos to her. Come to think of it, I'll just pass it to the booth management.

These are the girls from Nu-Coat. I didn't get their name too, it was a busy day today, so I had to run and shoot and get back to my booth (before getting pissed at the end of the night though).

Here's the girl from SlideHide. Much props to her for being friendly! She's great! They have these concealable compartments that would be perfect to keep your dru...er, items, concealed...except the law enforcement officers here are too smart for that shit. You know what they do when they raid your residence? They go through the ceiling boards and toilet cistern - most obvious places of concealment. That is why I put my stuff in plain view - I reckon they'll be looking too hard for concealed drugs to see the stuff that's not concealed. ;)

This is a photo of me with her. I took several (again) coz the previous ones didn't come out so well (people walking into the frame etc) - thanks for being a good sport! Cheers!

Okay, back to the convention stuff - here's lunch with Deng at McDonald's. They have a promo going on where you get a McFloat for McFree with a McChicken at no extra McPrice. Yes, that is my Xanax Face (TM) - try and pitch rude strangers and tell me you don't need some chemical assistance without resorting to unacceptably violent measures. Xanax is good. My friend, I would not have apologized if I wasn't on benzodiazepines, you high and mighty fuck. Retaliation beckons, please don't let me see you in town when I'm not representing the company. I digress...

Anyway, we take turns for lunch, I like going with Deng, she reminds me of a friend I have.

L-R: Jordan, Deng, me (Huai Bin)

This is dinner...at the discussion area booth beside our booth...we have a RM 50 meal allowance from the company.

We have two videos today, one of the last route inside and another of the outside exhibition area:

Download: BTS Day 3, indoor [sixthseal.com]

Download: BTS Day 3, outdoor [sixthseal.com]

Tomorrow is the last day of BTS (Building and Trade Show) 2004 - come and visit booth S6 and I'll feature you on sixthseal.com.

...but only if you say so, I don't know who you are if you don't identify yourself.

The night ended with an open bar for all exhibitors...drink, regurgitate, repeat. :p

Alcohol and veritas don't mix!

Now, I'm worried if I said things I shouldn't have said about veritas's private life in front of management while under the influence of ethanol...

Phrase of the Day: (hushed tones) Listen mate, I'm just doing my job here. I'm representing my company at this expo...don't make the mistake of forgetting that after all this, I'm just the average guy on the street. I will not hesitate to get a bunch of my friends to smash your face into pulp if you try and start shit again. I'll tell you straight out...right here, I'm the silent and apologetic company representative, but after I take off my shirt, I'm the Ah Beng you see on the streets. I urge you not to piss me off, my friend. This expo does not last forever and you do not want to piss me off, lest you run into me at night. Do we understand each other? Good. I'm Huai Bin, the systems engineer here...don't hesitate to call to email me or even call my cell phone if you have any tech related questions. Thank you for your time, sir.

Posted in Huygens Asia , XX chromosomes by Huai Bin at 04:16 AM Permalink | Comments (11)

Open fucking bar

Open bar. Please do not utter this phrase when I'm representing my company. I always go overboard. You know that first guy who slams all the alcohol and gets pissed drunk first? Yup, that's me...

Download: Fucking open bar [sixthseal.com]

I will update more soon...clearing the Beer Fog from my brain. I drunk around 14-15 beers in half an hour.

Posted in by Huai Bin at 11:57 PM Permalink | Comments (9)

BTS Day 2: Termite Queen!

I just noticed a booth by Termite System Specialist Sdn Bhd which has a real life display of termites! They have a chunk of earth with a living termite queen and king and heaps of termites swarming (or whatever it is that termites do) around. It's wonderful!

Here's a video of the termite display (with commentary):

Download: Living termites display [sixthseal.com]

Today has been busy, so I didn't get a chance to tour around much and take photos. I hear we have one of the busiest booths in our show. I know I said "We're so confident with our product that we're offering you an unconditional 30 day money back guarantee" more than I cared to. I'm not much of a pitch person...

Here's a photo of me (white shirt) with the AT & A people (brown shirts).

This is a tip for the people who want to go to Permata (for the seafood, bar, or just to park there) - get your parking ticket stamped at this self-service Parking Coupon Verification Counter and it's a flat rate of RM 2 per entry instead of RM 1 per hour.

This is the traditional show grounds tour, this time it's taken in a different section of the Building and Trade Show (BTS):

Download: BTS Day 2 [sixthseal.com]

L-R: Yee, Deng, me (Huai Bin)

It was such a busy time for our booth we had to take turns to eat...note the discrepancies in the number of people and the number of plates.

Posted in Huygens Asia by Huai Bin at 11:56 PM Permalink | Comments (11)

BTS Day 1: The grinning blue fluffy toilet

This blue Madaya toilet mascot (yes, there is a person inside) was walking around the show grounds and features a lift able toilet seat which has a wonderfully detailed brown colored lining inside and sweets on top of that. It's a magnificent combination, I'm sure you'll agree. ;)

I loved it so much I wanted to take a photo with it. Let's dig deep for sweets!

I'm not the only one. This is my coworker Deng.

Here are some Madaya employees with the blue sweet dispensing toilet that everyone loves.

In other news, here's the first day's tour of the show grounds, narrated by yours truly again, but this time I'm in it as well.

Download: BTS 2004 - Day 1 [sixthseal.com]

All videos from now on requires DivX 5.11, please take note of that, it's the last time I will be announcing it. Cheers!

Datuk Sri Wong Soon Kai was the guest of honor, he visited every booth. This is ours.

The booth opposite ours, LCS Trading, is staffed by people who's not too hard on the eyes, to say the least. ;)

Say hello to Loh (my right) and sorry, I didn't get your name (left). Sociologists discover that booth neighbors in expos tend to fraternize, especially if they're in similar age groups. In other news, scientists discover that the sky is blue. They are still in discussions about the color of grass, but indications suggest that they might reach a consensus that it is green.

Alternate take, my apologies about the quality, it takes a while for people to get used to my digicam. I hope my gf doesn't see this... ;)

There was free food as well

Mmm...lunch!

Here's a video of the Madaya toilet mascot:

Download: Madaya mascot [sixthseal.com]

The grinning Madaya toilet says bye!

...and just coz I can't resist, I must add "Arr! What manner of treasure do I see there?"

Posted in Huygens Asia by Huai Bin at 07:59 PM Permalink | Comments (14)

BTS expo preparation video

Industry was the word of the day as the 5th floor of Permata Carpark was opened up for the exhibitors to setup their respective booths. I watched empty space being transformed by various groups into functional displays. There was a lot of carpentry, masonry and yes, the fumes of various chemicals like paint, emulsifiers, glue and what have you. I got high on fucking solvents...

This is a mini tour of our sections of the exhibition - narrative provided by yours truly:

Download: BTS preparations video [sixthseal.com]

* AT & A is a company we're very close with (share the same building). Angel is the one managing it. We have no relation to Kim Hin, it's just a booth I passed.

We weren't exactly fully done at this point, as I erroneously stated in the video. It took a good six hours after that before we were done - I just got back! I have to get there before 8 am tomorrow to boot. I heard Phua Chu Kang is coming to the gala dinner (which I doubt I will be attending as only one free ticket is given to each booth).

I'm tired...will reply all comments tomorrow and I'll bring my CF card reader along too, so you'll get live updates on the scene.

Posted in Huygens Asia by Huai Bin at 11:11 PM Permalink | Comments (5)

I make the news (again) - photos in the papers

The Business section of the papers just got a lot more interesting. Narcissism season hits early this year, producing masturbatory posts such as this one. ;) Our company's press release was published by three papers - The Borneo Post, Sarawak Tribune and Sin Chew Daily.

Source: The Borneo Post, 15/6/2004

The photo in The Borneo Post is the best one - with me in the foreground. Yes, the pretty boy *cough* of sixthseal.com graced the back cover of the Business section of the paper today. ;) Go get a copy!

The caption reads: HIGH TECH SERVICE ... Ling (left), director Wong Hua Ling (center) and systems engineer Poh Huai Bin posing for a photograph after demonstrating the system.

I love you (insert name of the female reporter/photographer that came yesterday)! :)

I'm sorry, I didn't get your name.

Source: Sin Chew Daily, 15/6/2004

This is a candid shot with me and the CTO, Alex.

I didn't put in the Sarawak Tribune one coz it's a ghost of an image. We got on the front page of the Business section though.

I know, I'm a publicity whore. ;) Who isn't?

Posted in Huygens Asia by Huai Bin at 01:09 PM Permalink | Comments (33)

Press release and the amazing dragon fruit based tart

We got our company shirts (meant for the exhibition, but we wore it today for the press conference anyway) today.

[Deleted: Three papers published it, two with my photo, one with a ghost photo.]

Here are the refreshments, personally made by a home baker (not selling to the public):

This is a wonderful fruit tart - it has dragon fruit [sixthseal.com] (first time I've seen this in a fruit tart), kiwi fruit and a slice of apple. It's wonderful - best I've ever had. The company ordered a lot from the home baker (friend of one of the management) so we managed to eat our fill as well.

Here's a savory pie - it has meat, peas, carrots and various things in a crumbly crust. It's good.

This is the sweet pie - with a mix of fruits inside. This one got sapu really fast so the photo is a lonely single pie.

This triple filling sandwich is also very popular - made with grain bread and having two crispy, finely shredded vegetables with another meat based one. It has a nice mix of colors, very appealing.

Bottled water is also available, but I'm sure no one wants to see that.

Posted in by Huai Bin at 06:24 PM Permalink | Comments (6)

Gmail invite contest winner

This is Melissa Cheung from UK (not Singapore as I erroneously stated previously). She's the first person to send in the customized photo according to the specifications. The Gmail invite has already been sent out and I have received her activation confirmation. The Gmail account has also been tested, here at sixthseal.com we provide end to end support to ensure proper transaction protocols are adhered to. ;)

Thanks Melissa!

Posted in People by Huai Bin at 10:48 PM Permalink | Comments (22)

Jolin Tsai Promo Tour Malaysia - Kuching Concert

The Jolin Tsai Yi Ling Kuching Showcase (mini concert cum autograph session) was held at the outdoor carpark of the International Times Building at 7:30 PM on the 11th of June 2004. This is Jolin's It's Love Promo Tour Malaysia 2004 to promote her new album Castle. I believe this is the first time Sarawak was included into the tour venues. Jolin is a Taiwanese performer who has a string of albums and serial dramas in her portfolio. I didn't know she was coming to Kuching until the night before. I made a couple of phone calls to ascertain where to get the tickets and the venue of the concert - it's a good thing I managed to attend the event, given the short notice.

I also noticed that there are three photos which captured me in the frame during the Jolin concert in the papers today - one in International Times and two in Berita Petang Sarawak.

Bring me to the Jolin concert writeup!
(a.k.a. "I'm not interested in hearing other details")
This jumps to the concert start paragraph - it's for readers who just want to know about the concert and not any other personal experience details relating to the event)

I must admit though...I'm not a fan of Jolin per se - my exposure to her work is limited to watching the Working Girl (2003) serial and I was SDS all through it. I liked her character in that series though, and I thought her song (the intro) was pretty good too. Thus, I have been anticipating to see her perform live (though I haven't listened to much of her songs) and I wanted to see what she looks like in real life. She isn't exactly hard on the eyes, to say the least. ;)

/me wipes off drool

The venue proved to be a challenge to locate though...I had vague instructions - something along the lines of "turn up before 7:30, door sale available, it's held at the International Times Building car park". I understand that the place is in Pending, which is relatively near, so I left late. The fact that I did not know where "The International Times Building carpark" is did not even cross my mind until I was making the turn into Pending.

I must extend my thanks to the guy at 082-482 215 for his real-time cell phone relay directions. I'm not familiar with the area, so I called out building names as I passed them by and he told me where I should turn. That's the number of The International Times (it's a newspaper), cheers to Mr. Anonymous Employee for the directions. He also mentioned that I would not miss it - there will be a lot of people there.

The large caption reads: Ah Beng and Ah Lians of Kuching, Unite!
Source: Berita Petang Sarawak, Front Page.

He did not exaggerate. Every Ah Beng and Ah Lian in Kuching was in full attendance, with a strong showing from the Ah Seng and even Ah Pek (totally serious) congregation. In other words, everyone and their grandma and her poodle was there. Cars lined the side of the road and thousands of people milled around outside. I knew I had to resort to my DICC portfolio to get a good spot for photos when I had to park right ON the left lane of the road...300 meters from the place.

I started at the tickets counter. The tickets were RM 10 - I got two, one to keep and one for entry. I struck up a conversation her, asking if I could get a press pass, claiming to represent The Star. Unfortunately, they don't have press passes, so I decided to go to the top and asked who the organizers were. I was pointed to one of them and I walked up to him and casually steered the conversation to the fund raising aspects of the concert - proceeds go to a under funded private Chinese school.

I told him in no subtle terms that I was interested in making a "special donation" to get access to the front. That didn't work though, coz he said he can't ensure I won't be ejected from the cordoned off front area if the other organizers did their rounds. My next target was the staff - they had passes hung around their necks. I appealed to the capitalism of no less than three people (profiling was done, to no avail) to engage in commerce, but failed.

I finally knew the reason - the third and last guy told me everyone knew each other, it won't work for me to just wear the pass and go in. By that time, the stage front was already 20 deep by the time I arrived. That's 20 early birds I have to Red Sea through. Oh well, if that's how it's going to be, that's how it's going to be. I choose a spot in the middle of the barricaded front and V formation myself towards it.

I exhaust my repertoire just to see you up close...

A V formation is the crowd access method emergency personnel use to get to someone who needs medical attention in the middle of a large congregation of people. I only needed to get myself in, so I don't need the wings of the V, only the spearhead. I begin my assault with just "excuse me", as if I were going back to my (non-existent) vacated position.

The "Jello barrier" (ask anyone who's done this before) was reached when I was about 10 deep. I replaced my phrase with "Reporter coming through, excuse me, I'm from The Star" to get pass that, and I shit you not; a couple of girls propagated that and got me through 6 people entities before I hit the "Playdoh barrier". I used intimidation to get through two guys (one person unit) and charm to get through another person unit.

Now I was the 3rd wave from the front - 3 deep, in other words. That's usually where the real barrier is - the ones who came in the afternoon (overheard in a conversation) just to be first in line, all carrying digicams. They were all teenage girls. I asked the person in front of me if she came with the people in front and she replied in the affirmative. That means it's a virtual 2 unit, there's only one more person unit to go to.

These are the girls - the papers mentioned they were already there in the afternoon!
Source: International Times, Page 30.

I gave it a bit of a thought...how much was I willing to spend? I could just squeeze through but I did not want to do that to teenage girls who spent hours waiting in line. I decided I wanted the front spot badly enough I was willing to pay RM 50 for it. I took out my wallet and got a RM 50 note out and tried the, er...plus sized girl (think that is the PC term nowadays) on my right. She's the fifth person from the left in the picture above, the one in the black t-shirt.

"Hello, would you mind letting me go in front, exchange places basically? Here's something for your trouble."

She did not even look at what I was offering before saying "No."
(I have something funny that I would like to share later, but let's not digress now.)

I picked the one on my left (closer to center stage, she's two more down from Miss Plus Size, wearing red, the seventh from the left in the picture above) and said:

"Hello, I really want that front spot to take photos, are you willing to part with it for this?"

Berita Petang Sawarak carries two photos which has me inside.

She looked at me uncertainly. I could see she wanted it. She's about 15 or so, by my estimate; and excuse my profiling, but she looks like someone who would think RM 50 is a huge amount to exchange for something with no tangible value (her current slice in space/time). So did the first girl I asked, and I'll get to that soon. :)

"Where would I be standing then?", she asked tentatively.

"You'll be standing behind me, we're basically trading places, you'll just move a little bit down, and you can still take photos over my shoulder."
(I later realized that it was unwise to say that, coz she took it literally and used my shoulder as a tripod three times...)

"Er...", she went uncertainly, looking to her friends for guidance.

"Take it", whispered one of her friends, possibly thinking about her cut.

"Er...", she went again, but this time with a hand half raised, still uncertain and looking at the reaction of the crowd.

I did not wait for her to make the decision. I just passed her the RM 50 note, smiled, and slid right to the front.

There were a few indignant "Hey's" from other people, but those were quickly replaced by incredulous variations of "He paid RM 50 to switch places? Wow, he's crazy!".

This is where I was standing.

This brings us back to the plus sized girl. :) She suddenly turned to me as I was switching and asked me with interest, "How much again?"

I did not reply. I do not take kindly to people who say "No" to me. Her friends took the liberty of answering for me though. I heard "You should have taken it." many times from my right while she looked miffed. She received a second round of disappointment when the pre-show warm up people started giving away Ang Pows for answering correct questions. She got one and at the urging of her friends, opened it to find...RM 5.

The obligatory "VIP" speach

Her friends made another round of digs about not accepting the larger first offer and she retorted back that she did not know how much I was offering since it was dark.

Heh! That was a generous offer since the second line can take photos through the gap of the first line anyway. I was actually prepared to go up to RM 100.

On another note, I wonder why these people say things within my obvious hearing range.
On yet another note, if you're wondering if I enjoyed the environment where various appendages, including but not limited to, breasts, buttocks, and thighs, were pushed against me, the answer is a resolute no. It's very uncomfortable to be squeezed around and I had to bend myself in ways the human anatomy was never meant to be positioned while waiting for the concert to start.

Jolin's autograph on Castle MV.

Anyway, the pre-show people announced that only CDs, VCDs and cassettes will be signed and I didn't want to lose my position so I got one of the staff to come over and gave him a RM 100 note and asked him to get the newest one for me. This also resulted in various exclamations around me. Obviously, these people find my behavior odd.

Personally, it's not about trust, but rather an issue of keeping my prime position and wanting to get an autograph, so it's nothing unusual to me. In case you were wondering, yes, he did come back, with my change and the VCD. I was set. The place I was in is just slightly off center in the very front (metal barrier cordon in front of me), about 5 meters from the stage. Success!

I was a permanent fixture here during the night.
Source: International Times, Page 32 (back cover).

Oh, and the girl I gave the money to wanted to give it back, saying that it's too much for her to accept, and that she'll just let me have the place for free, but I told her to keep it, it's hers and I didn't want it.

There are two reasons why I did that. The first is to compensate her for her time spent in securing that prime spot and I felt sorry about displacing her like that (but not sorry enough to move ;)). The second reason is to ensure that the place is rightfully mine in the crowd's mind. I had bought the place and to everyone, I was entitled to it. It would not be so if I took the money back.

I would never do something like that anyway. I'm very against taking back money, it's a disgusting thing to do in my beliefs. If you intend to offer someone something, you're satisfied to part with that thing in exchange for something else. End of story. I told her that I find I would find it insulting if she insists, and she didn't.

The caption says something about enthusiastic photographers (translated by the girl who works at the grocery shop downstairs).
This is actually one of my most demure positions...I get most of my shots by propping myself up so that my knee rests against the top of the barrier while my legs leverage the bars to keep myself up that way. It sounds unwieldy, but one you get the hang of it (no pun intended), it's actually very stable, and there's no "crowd jostle" to blur your photos. You're above the mere mortals! I actually stepped on the head of the Boy Scout several times but he was always very nice about it. Cheers!
Source: Berita Petang Sarawak, Page 12 (Back Cover).

I'll tell you something - it's the best RM 50 I ever spent!

Jolin's concert begins

Jolin finally decided to grace us with her presence at 8:30 PM. One hour after the scheduled concert start. I had taken several alprazolam (Xanax) tablets before that - I had to ignore the physical discomfort and dismiss the fact that I was in the paradoxical situation of being severely dehydrated at the very same time I was likely to suffer a ruptured bladder. It's an unfortunate situation to be in - I can't drink water to quench my thirst coz I'll have to pee even more, and I can't do that without sacrificing my prime spot.

However, all that was forgotten when Jolin showed up in a pink dress. Come to think of it, the whole place was pink - the banners, the silk canopy above the stage etc etc. Stop me from digressing again. Anyway, Jolin fielded several cliched questions from the MC's, form questions like "How do you find the weather in Kuching?" and groaningly predictable responses like "It's very, very hot." She has a really nice voice though. And yes, she's gorgeous in real life too! :)

The short Q&A was segued into a fast song - Pirates (cross checked the videos I took with the track list). She had an entourage of dancers dressed in white, synchronized sets. This is her intro song - the very first one:

Download: Jolin - Pirates, Kuching 2004 [sixthseal.com]

All videos require DivX 5.11

It's a good choice for a crowd warmer - this track gets a lot of radio play (if you listen to Chinese radio stations, or so I'm told) and even I could recognize the familiar tune.

There was a solo number after that - I didn't know the title of the song too. However, I did shout her name and stood up on the barrier during a particularly quiet time, just to make her look at the camera while I was filming. Heh! That video is for my personal collection though, sorry, but it's a classic, especially with the responses from the people around me, genuinely shocked at my "appalling" behavior. I wager they haven't been to many concerts. ;)

Anyway, in the break after the song, Jolin started answering questions again and what do you know, they're having a contest! Despite being sedated by said alprazolam, I was standing on top of the metal barrier (which makes me pretty damned obvious, and stands me out from the crowd) and shouting "Jolin! Here! Me! Me!" while waving crazily to catch her attention BEFORE the words "We'll be choosing five lucky people, those who want to participate can come on stage, raise your hands for Jolin to choose".

Naturally, my enthusiasm went far beyond a subtle rising of hands, so I was the first to get her attention. ;) "Him", she said, pointing at me. One of the MC's confirmed, "The guy in the red t-shirt?", and Jolin looked back and said "Yes, him." I hardly needed that confirmation, I was already in the process of climbing over the metal barrier. It's a little lower than my shoulder, but I just lifted myself and vaulted over it before the staff came to help me. I wasn't going to pass up a chance like this. ;)

On stage with Jolin. I know, it's an ugly shot, I'll show you another later. ;)
Source: Berita Petang Sarawak, Page 12 (Back Cover).

I was on stage! I could see Jolin up close - and yes, she looks just as good up close. :) I'll say something though, and please, no one sue me for libel, this is just my speculation. I swear that she looks like she's a tweaker to me. I'll even put my left testicle, nay, my testes on the line...she has all the signs of meth or some other stimulant use. It's the little quirks that tweakers exhibit - you know what I mean, fellow meth users, takes one to notice another, and you're right practically all the time!

Anyway, if you're one of Sony Music's lawyers, you did not read that last paragraph. Well, I stood there for a while, watching Jolin pick the others, with my digicam dangling beside me and I looked at the crowd and saw that it was HUGE - there must be tens of thousand people in attendance. I took a photo...and was immediately approached by one of the female staff on stage who informed me that digicams are not allowed on stage. I was engaged in vigorous dialogue with her and another male staff came over, probably thinking I was going to start trouble. The curses of keeping my hair long and messy and having tattoos. ;)

This is a shot I took of myself before the autograph session. I look like I've been beaten hard with the Ugly Stick, nay, the Ugly Forest. ;) The people around me has been filtered out to allow better image composition. This, my friends, is the face of a tweaker who eats once in four days and sleeps only one or two nights each week.

Well, I finally said that I would give the digicam to her to keep until after the contest and that was that. It did cross my mind to do a stunt like running over and hugging Jolin while I took a photo before security escorted me off the stage, and I nearly did that. ;) But nah, I reckon I wanted to see what the contest was like more, so I relinquished my digicam and told the staff to photograph me for me and she said she couldn't do that. I should have taken the stunt. :p

Anyway, if anyone has photos or videos of me on stage with Jolin, please email me and I would pay you for it. Back to the contest, we were asked to think of a good reason how much we like Jolin or something. I really couldn't understand what the MC said, he was using those damned intentionally obscure hard Chinese words. Anyway, I think that's what we're supposed to do, another MC attempted to translate it to English to me. I thought, or at least I tried.

The Xanax effect was working overtime and I couldn't come up with anything. I was standing first in line, closest to Jolin, and when we were asked who would go first, I saw that no one wanted to, so I looked at Jolin and started and just said what I thought. I can't remember exactly what I said, but it's very lame and the gist of it was this:

"Well...I don't know much about you...have only seen that Working Girl movie with you in it. I'm Huai Bin from sixthseal.com and hmm...well, I came to take photos of you...and, yeah, I basically paid RM 50 to get a good spot and well, you probably can see the way I take photos from the stage...and yeah, er...I came up and, well, that's how much I wanted to see you."

Note to self: Please avoid benzodiazepines unless you want to look and sound like an idiot.

I know, that's really lame. Since I answered in a mix of Chinese and English (some words come easier in English coz everyone talks in English at work and I write in English when I blog), I was asked where I come from. Well, to avoid having to explain everything, I just said I'm from Sibu and I just came back from Australia. I didn't want to have to explain the whys and hows of my use of language.

Anyway, there was a little kid on stage, which automatically makes him the winner, according to the Children Affirmative Action rights. Every participant gets the same prize, except the winner gets an additional poster of Jolin. I didn't mind, I wasn't here to win, I was here to be on stage and look at Jolin. Oh, and I also intentionally held her hand longer than a normal handshake would last when she gave out our prizes, just to see how she'll react. ;)

This is the prize.

Professionally, very experienced, probably been in far worse situations by real fans. I didn't release my hold, and she broke eye contact and slid her hand away, not missing a beat. I was looking at her the whole time. This is good on-stage recourse - by breaking eye contact and stepping towards the next person in line, she effectively gave me a psychological obligation to release my hand, since there are several thousand spectators. Heh. Sorry, did it for fun, to see how she'll react. Her hand is very soft though. ;)

The insides contain five assorted Sony Music promo CD's, none of which are Jolin's. Pffftttttt...should have gone for the stunt. ;)

Anyway, after it was over, I climbed back into my original spot, the prime one. Naturally. There was another dancer supported number after that - 36 Tricks Of Love. Here you go, the second video:

Download: Jolin Tsai set [sixthseal.com]

There was another solo after that and then it was the last song, choreographed with dancers as well. The Kuching Jolin Showcase ends with a total of five songs, two mini interviews and one contest.

Jolin came out again to present the charity check.

She then sat down for impersonal autographs, all done with a simple signature, not looking at the person, just going through every CD cover and signing it, over and over. The impersonal signing is understandable; there were too many people to ask for personalized ones. I did say "Hi" to make her look up when it was my turn though. ;)

What do I think of Jolin? Well, there's nothing much to say, she's your typical young Taiwan pop star who became famous fast. She looks mesmerizing and although I don't listen to this genre of music, she's alright.

I'm glad I went. It was a great event - Jolin put up an awesome set. She looks good enough to eat too. ;)

Posted in Best of sixthseal.com by Huai Bin at 07:52 AM Permalink | Comments (47)

Jolin in Kuching - will pay money for photos of me

I saw more than a couple of people with digicams and video cameras in Jolin's concert tonight. I will pay you if you have photos or videos of the guy in the red shirt who was on stage. Email me at jolin@sixthseal.com for arrangements.

I'm asking coz I just went and all I got was this lousy photo of the crowd before I was told digicams are not allowed on stage. I'm kicking myself now for not making the first shot a close up of Jolin. I'll write a post in detail later, but basically I was on stage but an organizer told me that digicams are not allowed on stage. I started to argue with her, and then another organizer came over and I think he was trying to gently "escort" a troublesome person off the stage so I relinquished my photographic opportunity since I wanted to see Jolin up close. ;)

I kindly asked the first organizer (who suggested to keep my digicam for me until after the contest) to take a photo of me, but she said she couldn't do that. (insert sincere_apologies.jpg from images)

Thus, I don't have photos of myself with Jolin Tsai. I will be willing to pay someone who can offer me the photos in question. I am the one in the red t-shirt.

Concert ticket: RM 10
Bribing the girl in front to give up her prime spot: RM 50
Getting up close and personal with Jolin Tsai: Priceless

There are some things in life Mastercard can't buy...for everything else, there's Ringgit Malaysia. ;)

That was the best RM 50 I spent!

Posted in Events by Huai Bin at 11:41 PM Permalink | Comments (28)

Spare Gmail invite giveaway - do you want one?

I was surprised when I logged into Gmail and saw that I have 3 (!) invites to give away. Actually, the verbal expression of surprise I used was "Well, slap me on my ass and call me Sally!", but let's not worry about semantics. ;) My account is a Gmail invite account too - courtesy of Pick Yin [blogspot.com]. I haven't heard of any invite email account holders getting invites of their own, so I was surprised to see that I have three invites in my account.

The reason I'm so st0ked over this is because I've been asking left and right for a Gmail invite...without any success. It's still rather rare. I just wanted one for my girlfriend since I don't need Gmail myself. I already have a 6 GB VPS. ;) I decided to log into Gmail, and was amazed by this stroke of luck - I had invites to give out! I hardly use the service - this is either the forth or fifth time I logged in since I registered! Yet, there it is - all three of them! :)

Anyway, I used up one invite (for my girlfriend) so there's ONLY two left - get them quick! The premium sign in names are already taken, I couldn't even register her first choice, so the sooner you get a Gmail invite, the more choices you'll have. However I'll only be giving away one Gmail invite - I'll like to reserve the other for close friends/family or a future giveaway.

Here's the Gmail invite giveaway rules:

This is a full featured 1 GB Gmail email account.
I will send you an invite link and you can do whatever you like with it - sell it (for good money), hoard it, swap it, give it away, use it etc. You can basically do whatever you want with it since it's a Gmail invite, so you can set up your own username and use it or plan some other nefarious purpose for it.

Free Gmail invite contest

The first person who sends me the best fansign will get the Gmail invite. I have to be honest here...only double X chromosome individuals need to apply. That's females only. It is after all a fansign...sorry guys. :)

Here's an example of a fansign [sixthseal.com].

However, you MUST be in the photo for this one.
You will need a digicam obviously, and the photo must have both the subject (that's you) and the fansign (just anything with sixthseal.com and your name/nick written on it will do).

An example of this would be you holding up a sign with "sixthseal.com" written on it.

Nothing should be obscured. Your face and body must be visible - think of it as a photo shoot...except you're holding some stupid sign. ;) We want to see you, not just the sign.

That's all there is to it - wear whatever you want, take the photo wherever you want.

Please send the full, uncompressed photo to gmailcontest@sixthseal.com

Notice: Photoshopped images (fake ones, layers on existing image etc) are considered invalid entries and will be discarded. Please send in a real, unaltered photo.

Please note that by sending the photo, you're giving your consent for me to use the photo - in other words, you're "giving" me the photo.

Thanks!

Disclaimer: This is a strictly opt-in chance of getting a Gmail invite. Gmail, with its 1 GB of storage and limited invites, makes it a commodity. It is not uncommon to sell off Gmail invites - it happens all the time on eBay. I would not think of doing that though, so I'll go the other common route - to hold contests of some sort to give away a Gmail invite. There is no onus for you to participate unless you want to.

Posted in by Huai Bin at 09:16 AM Permalink | Comments (116)

Cafe Majestic @ Crowne Plaza

Cafe Majestic is the Crowne Plaza attached dining establishment. We had two RM 40 complimentary dinner vouchers so that makes RM 80 for three people. Thus, the dinner bill would have RM 80 deducted from it - not bad at all. I've eaten here before though and I must say that my previous experience was nothing to write home about. This time, the gastronomical offerings fared much better.

Upon our arrival, we were greeted with warm, fluffy buns - fresh from the oven and wrapped in a blanket to preserve the heat. It went down well with the butter served on the side.

I had pineapple juice. Juice is complimentary with a meal. The pineapple wedge lacerated my tongue when I tried to eat it though...

This is the Chef's Salad (RM 16.00++). It had slices of ham, chicken, cheese, eggs and other things served with a bowl of Thousand Island sauce. I didn't order this, but I helped myself to some and it was alright, for a salad.

The Crowne Plaza Club Sandwich (RM 15.75++) tasted REALLY good. It came with potato wedges, but the sandwich is the main feature and it really pulled it off well. The bread was warm and toasted, yet it retains a fluffy texture. The layers of egg, beef slices, lettuce, chicken slices and cucumbers were absolutely delicious. Definitely worthy of its "club sandwich" status.

I ordered Grilled Sirloin Steak (RM 30.00++) and I was pleased with the choice. It came with fresh garden vegetables and french fries and the steak was served with bearnaise sauce. I liked the grill marks on the steak.

I wanted it done medium rare and for once, the chef did not ignore such requests. I loved it.

To finish off the meal, we had Ais Kacang (RM 7.00++). It came in a large bowl topped with a scoop of yam ice cream. The bottom of the bowl conceals a plethora of goodies - sweet corn, sea coconut, grass jelly, the works! It was a great dessert to finish off a great dinner!

This post was sponsored by Crowne Plaza Riverside Kuching. ;)

Posted in Food reviews by Huai Bin at 12:14 AM Permalink | Comments (8)

How to drill without making a mess

I have just witnessed this wonderful synergy of common devices to avoid making a mess while drilling. Some people came in to drill some mounts in one side of my wall. What mounts? I'll tell you very soon, we have a press release coming up and also several exhibitions so I can't exactly keep under wraps the field I'm working in.

Anyway, this entry feels rather forced, I feel much more comfortable venting in my quit drugs blog. That's...that's what a blog's supposed to be!

Catharsis for the soul.

Not entertainment for the masses.

Jesus, I have deluded myself for so long.

Home, sweet home, the journal for my progress.

I actually enjoy writing in that...I feel like I'm just talking to someone who's listening, instead of feeling pressured to entertain...

I think I'll blog more there.

Posted in by Huai Bin at 06:35 PM Permalink | Comments (4)

Stock clearance

Everything must go! The first inventory* clearance sale on sixthseal.com is on!

Email: needfulthings@sixthseal.com

Serious enquiries only. Will only do transactions with established (posts on bulletin boards, forums, bloggers etc) people.

Ships internationally. Payment by PayPal.

*old clothes, books, Needful Things etc.

This is a strictly legal garage sale.
ILLEGAL REQUESTS WILL NOT BE ENTERTAINED!

Posted in by Huai Bin at 08:00 AM Permalink | Comments (5)

Oi! There's hair in my food!

Waiter, there's a fucking hair in my pork leg rice!

Link:
My quit drugs blog
http://www.pengsan.com/index.php

I'm not going to link to it again, so if anyone is interested, just bookmark it or remember that it doesn't go in there unless you specify index DOT php.

Posted in Hmm... by Huai Bin at 06:55 PM Permalink | Comments (14)

Books from Amazon

I just received my orders from Amazon - I sent them to my mailing address back home instead of over here and my parents brought them over today during dinner. They were on their way to KL.

The Strength of the Wolf - The Secret History of America's War on Drugs by Douglas Valentine

The Road of Excess - A History of Writers on Drugs by Marcus Boon

Anyway, my apologies about the quirks this site is experiencing now...I messed up something while putting up the categories and broke it even more when I went into phpMyAdmin to try and rectify things. I'll fix it tomorrow, excuse me, I'm so full now that I am either going to throw up or sleep and I'll choose the latter. :)

Posted in by Huai Bin at 10:56 PM Permalink | Comments (2)

Download my nosebleed video while it's still fresh! ;)

Nose bleed

Here's something to entertain you on a slow Saturday morning. :) The link to download it is at the bottom of the post. It happened just now - I suddenly felt blood dripping down for no reason and saw that I had a nosebleed when I reached up to wipe my nose. I quickly grabbed the digicam - I can't remember the last time I had a nosebleed...probably before I reached puberty? I was mildly concerned at first though, coz I thought it was precipitated by *cough* sheesh, this room needs a good dusting.

I love the ones that still drip after you wipe it.

Anyway, I must say though, I have hypertension, which they say makes me prone to sneeze red. ;) It sure wasn't the gushers I used to have while I was young - my mom had to get me to pinch my nose to stop it, and still it won't quit. Heh. Memories. How I wish it was one of them legendary ones just now, those take to motion picture well. I don't get them now though so I was mildly surprised at this pleasant occurrence. It's something interesting to kick of the day, even though nosebleeds are really very tame and isn't anything to shout home about.

Mmm...tastes like chicken!

I still like to take videos of everything though. This was a really mild one, didn't last longer than a minute. It makes a nice video though, eh? :) I thoroughly enjoyed this experience, as inappropriate as that might sound.

Transcript:

Hey, this is sixthseal.com, and for no reason at all...
I found myself getting a nose bleed.
It sucks.
This is...a cause for concern.
I haven't even touched it, before, ya know, like blood flowing down?
And then I felt it drip on my shirt...and...
I can't remember the last time I had a nose bleed.
Must be pretty long ago.
I think...er, my teeth is clotted.
Well, anyway. I'm going to clean myself up.
sixthseal.com, out.

Download:
My nosebleed [sixthseal.com]
It's only around 4 MB, good quality DivX encoded video running for 46 seconds.
Requires DivX 5.11 or XviD codec.

sixthseal.com - delivering cutting edge entertainment 24/7. ;)

Note: This post was made early Saturday morning, but went down sometime during the afternoon - it's a configuration issue, and also a database corruption, which took the whole of this afternoon to rectify. The post just disappeared and I'm not sure why that happened in the first place. I remember six comments last time I checked, but I only received four through email unfortunately, so I can only restore those. Please feel free to comment again, as I've missed your input during that time frame.

I will fix the rest of the server problems tomorrow - I've gone for too long without sleep and I'm getting the hardcore constant visual hallucinations now (tiny worms are infesting and crawling across my screen, the box in the corner is flapping at me, you know the drill) and I have to rest even though I'm not sleepy per se (an amazing 35 mg of clonazepam could not put me down, not just due to tolerance but *cough* damn, there's some nasty weather coming up, I reckon).

I will also reply all the comments tomorrow - thanks for your patience. My apologies for the glitch that affected Apache and MySQL this afternoon...

Thanks goes out to Rebecca (Beckie) from Hamilton, NZ and Jason Tan from SF, US for taking the time to notify me. Cheers! I'm still looking into what's going on here...

Posted in Hmm... by Huai Bin at 10:49 AM Permalink | Comments (23)

Movable Type 3.0D

sixthseal.com is now running on MT 3.0. I love the comments interface, it can list ALL the comments in a descending order. I already anticipate this will be my favorite feature in this release. I have waited for this day for so long...the day, the glorious day, when I can mass delete those spambot comments in seconds! I shall finally be faster than a bot! ;)

Anyway, I was torn over MT or WordPress, coz MT with it's Perl and CGI bloat, really stresses my server while I rebuild the database. I installed WP 1.2 and was mighty impressed by it, the easy set up (imported my MT export file within minutes, faster than even MT can import!). It can be easily set up within seconds and I like the PHP type UI - reminded me of the stuff I used to write for the uni last time. Heh.

It was really fast too, I know that MT rebuilds make a huge spike in CPU utilization but surprisingly, extreme administrative stuff - I was continuously right clicking Delete links and opening it in a new window to see how fast it can delete, and even after 115 windows popped up, all of them deleted fine, as PHP commands issued should. It's just a quick right click, close on each docked window, and there you go.

I went into my box via SSH and ran top in shell (no I wasn't trying to be smart, and not use WHM, I was already in there to do some dig soa's) and was surprised at the vast different between MT rebuilds (heavy CPU and memory usage) and WP admin stuff (very, very low).

The only thing stopping me from installing WP is due to the unfortunate "single php file with templates" design. You can opt to have each post named according to the title of the post, but it's generated dynamically - there are no flat files, it usually ends with something like this:

/archives/this-is-wordpress-posting/

The problem with this would be apparent if you go to WP blogs and I've been to many before deciding that I'll better stick with MT. The WP system doesn't pass PageRank down to the individual pages, except in unusual circumstances.

Anyway, I'll be adding the rest of the sidebar soon and do some general redesign of the blog later today.

Wow, is this a boring post or what? ;)

Posted in by Huai Bin at 05:41 PM Permalink | Comments (14)

Danger: Upgrading

sixthseal.com is upgrading the CMS.

Caution: Do not even breath heavy on the site for the next hour or so.

Warning: Constant danger of DFA (Death From Above) if you do that. I can throw pretty far. ;)

Posted in by Huai Bin at 03:39 PM Permalink | Comments (8)

Quick, someone with better English than mine tell me what this means

Why is there a single CPU restriction in the license?
The single CPU usage statement was not intended to be in the license. It has been struck from the license, and everyone who has downloaded Movable Type 3.0 thus far can officially consider this change retroactive.

This is from the Movable Type 3.0 DE page. I still can't figure out whether it means MT only supports a single CPU or that there's an error in the EULA that erroneously states that it supports a single CPU.
Basically, from the semantics, does the answer mean that MT 3.0 can support dual processors? This is an issue for me as I'm running on Dual Xeons (2 x 2.4 Ghz). TIA.

Posted in by Huai Bin at 01:39 PM Permalink | Comments (8)

This is my answer

I know you don't like me to write about our relationship, so I won't.

veritas and castitas.com is gone.

I willingly deleted all of my drug posts. I will be lying if it didn't hurt me to delete all those memories. This will totally ruin the PageRank and SERPs I've worked so hard for. You know how much sixthseal.com means to me.

I don't care about those now. I'm doing this willingly. :)
I want to know that you're more important than anything else.

veritas
2002 - 2004
Pioneer and daredevil
May the memory live on...
R.I.P.

Those that will remember me will, and those that will forget, will forget.

I know that this would not be enough, nothing ever will be...but at least it's a start.

This is a small token of my sincerity, my love.

I will try my best to be the boyfriend that I never was. I will try my best to do the right thing. I am willing to do that, because you've more than I could wish for.

I choose you, Louisa.
This is my answer.

Posted in by Huai Bin at 07:01 AM Permalink | Comments (45)

ChickaCheese by KFC

This is the new product by KFC - Chick-a-Cheese! It costs RM 1.90 and didn't look like much from the banner, but I went in to check it out anyway.

There was a lot of cheesy goodness.

Much more than I expected.

I was overwhelmed by the cheddar assault.

Hell, even my tray liner is advertising the new Chick a Cheese.

Here's some interesting facts (?) from the liner notes:

KFC Chick-a-Cheese

Crispy Cheese-stuffed Chicken Sausage on a Stick!

Introducing the new Chick 'a' Cheese from KFC! A juicy chicken sausage, stuffed with yummy cheddar cheese, cooked nice & crispy in corn batter. That's what gives it the triplelicious taste of corn, cheese & chicken!

Did you know?

Sausages have been around for a loooong time. The Babylonians and the Chinese have been eating them since 1500 BC! They were even mentioned in Homer's "Odyssey", written in the 8th century BC.

The term "hot dog" was coined by cartoonist Tad Dorgan in 1901. He sketched a cartoon depicting vendors selling "dachshund sausages" but wasn't sure how to spell "dachshund" - so he just called them hot dogs!

Corndogs, made by dipping in corn batter, are a popular item in American high school cafeterias. They were created in 1942 for the Texas State Fair by Neil Fletcher.

According to the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council, July is National Hot Dog Month!

Anyway, this is what the Chick 'a' Cheese looks like. It's corn dog on a sticks wrapped in individual packages.

Here's what it looks like after a bite has been taken out of it.

Here's another angle.

What does it taste like? It tasted surprisingly good actually. The warm cheese was divine, melting out of the crispy batter and creating a wonderful fusion with the sausage. Recommended!

Posted in Fast Food Inc. by Huai Bin at 07:53 PM Permalink | Comments (12)

The ceiling fan is going to fall on me!

Download:
Soundtrack to The ceiling fan is going to fall on me [sixthseal.com]

This will be an experimental multimedia (or do they call it rich media now?) post implementing photos, text, animated gifs, mp3 downloads and a Divx encoded short film of the ceiling fan in question. I really did think it was going to fall on me for a second. It's not that I'm afraid of fans...it's more like I have...er, a manly apprehension towards these things in general due to some childhood issues I'll rather not talk about. ;)

Anyway, it didn't help that I've been up since Friday morning with just one day's rest in the middle before going on another high intensity caffeine run. My apologies if I mislead anyone, the straw containing crystalline wonders that's depicted above is not methamphetamine (That's Illegal!), but plain caffeine, the stuff you can find in coffee. Kuching just got way colder ever since I met up with this...er, coffee barista. *cough* He's a nice enough guy, always on time, with the goods at reasonable prices too.

The only thing about him is his fondness for meeting in hotels. I didn't think much of it the first time I was introduced to him...I suggested