sixthseal.com

Frusli Roadshow @ Lot 10 with photos of Frusli girls

Frusli Mini Bug.

I passed by Lot 10 today and saw the Frusli event. I was aware of this from TheSun - they had this page each day with a number on it, from 1 - 3 and you're supposed to collect the three different numbers to redeem a free Frusli bar. I didn't bother with that, just went to see what's going on since I just finished my work at the office and Lot 10 is just a short walk away.

Frusli blue customized Mini.

Anyway, there's supposed to be the original Frusli Mini there, I don't know which one it is, but I saw two - a yellow one stuffed with Frusli cereal bars and a blue one with a customized Frusli paintwork. The yellow one also has a Frusli decal on the bonnet and it's filled with the bars. It was cordoned off and had "The British Job" comes to Lot 10 banners with a competition for people to guess how many Frusli bars are in the Mini Bug.

Guess how many cereal bars is in the car?

Frusli stage.

There's also a stage where there's some shows going on, I saw a "Wheel of Fortune" type spinner which awards a prize depending on where the pointer falls on after the spin. Besides that, there was a Frusli booth with people packing samples for the Frusli girls (well, promoters would be a better word, but anyway...) to distribute to the public. This begs the question of why TheSun promo was necessary since there were at least 12 Frusli girls giving away samples.

Frusli booth.

Anyway, I didn't have time to stay for long, but I did take some photos of the Frusli girls, so here they are:

Frusli promoters photo #1

Frusli girls picture #2

By the way, IMHO, the blueberry Frusli bars taste the best out of them all.

Posted in XX chromosomes by Huai Bin at 08:12 PM Permalink | Comments (14)

Thai Seafood Sensation Pizza

Pizza Hut's Thai Seafood Sensation Pizza (spicy)

It tastes pretty good - the sauce is great and there's tuna, squid and crabstick with other stuff on it. Ordered delivery just now, woke up, called for a pizza, ate it and I'm going to sleep now. I have to go to work tomorrow...and I still haven't made a full recovery so here's a final rally, couple of beers, stuff myself, (I didn't inhale), (legally prescribed) and yeah, sounds like I'll have a nice 12 hour sleep. :)

Posted in Fast Food Inc. by Huai Bin at 10:07 PM Permalink | Comments (4)

NORML News, Anthony and Melbourne

aka fast posts for fast people. ;)

Thanks fuzzy [absolutely-fuzzy.com]! I got the copy of NORML that you mailed me. :) NORML News is New Zealand's cannabis reform magazine.

Today was Anthony's last day at XM Malaysia. Everyone say bye and good luck. You will be missed.

I'm going to Melbourne on the 12th of December and will be coming back on the 17th. Convocation. Staying at The Paramount [theparamount.com.au]. Can't go to Hard Kandy, but will probably hit another rave. Note to self: Avoid hassles at customs. Do not bring wallet or backpack over, not even after washing.

Short posts for people with short attention spans. :)

Posted in by Huai Bin at 08:44 PM Permalink | Comments (9)

Jit and Suzanne's birthday (XM Malaysia) 2003

Jit is the one in the white shirt. Prem is puzzling over the candles. ;)

Here are the photos from Jit and Suzanne's birthday at the office on Monday.

Jit and Suzanne blowing out the candles.

Suzanne cutting the cake.

Well, it's Thursday night now, and there has been a distinct lack of updates, as you may or may not have noticed. :) Anyway, I'm not dead, killed or in jail so that means I'm either depressed (my quarterly serotonin depletion) or something has happened. A little bit of both, I'll say. Monday night was crazy, my gf went back to Sibu on Tuesday morning for more than a month and my "Warning! Serotonin levels low!" indicators went off last Sunday and was beeping all through the Hari Raya holidays.

Thus, I slept. I figured that was the best way to counter depression (damned sea dwelling mammal...*shakes fist*) - always works for me. I can count the hours I was awake during Raya holidays on the digits of one finger. With a little chemical assistance (legally prescribed, thank you very much), my waking hours were greatly reduced to ride the depression wave and I'm pretty much okay now, and I project serotonin levels will be back to normal by tomorrow. :) sixthseal.com will be updated as usual from now on. My apologies about the Quarterly Serotonin Induced Hiatus (QSIH).

Me and my abysmal acronyms...;)

Posted in XM Malaysia by Huai Bin at 09:30 PM Permalink | Comments (7)

Big pink cupcake with yellow fringes

This is definitely the largest cupcake I've ever seen...used to eat them when I was young, they were purely white then, but the colored varieties do pop up once in a while. They all taste the same though. I got this at Bangsar pasar malam just now. I haven't seen one that comes in such a big variety before and two of us couldn't finish it. It's pictured next to an RM 1 coin, but it doesn't seem to show the scale of the big cupcake well. It's about 3-4 times bigger than the normal sized ones and it's in a large plastic container base.

Anyway, when I was young, I would only eat the top parts - the four soft chunks on the top and leave the bottom part for someone else to eat, which usually would be my father. I did not like the crumbly and relatively hard base - only the soft top then. Strangely though, this variety goes against the soft top - hard base mould. The bottom of this is softer than the top and the top chunks taste like the bottom of the normal ones.

Posted in by Huai Bin at 10:31 PM Permalink | Comments (19)

MDMA (and other drugs, non users) research at my alma mater

I saw this notice on Pillreports.com [pillreports.com] today. Photo courtesy of veritas, naturally. So...who's going? ;) The research is being done at my previous campus (Caulfield). I live at halls in Clayton but my main campus is at Caulfield (20 minutes drive), though I can take subjects in Clayton. I know Monash Uni had CADAR but wasn't aware of active research by the center. Help out if you can, it would be interesting to see the results of this study. Here's the details from the page:

Cognitive Performance and Monitoring in Dance Drug users (Melbourne, Australia)

People who have used ecstasy for over three years required to participate in a psychological study.

Research through Monash University's Centre for Applied Drug and Alcohol Research (CADAR) is looking for people over 18 years old:

who have used ecstasy for over three years

who would be interested in participating in a psychological study

We are also testing people who have used ecstasy for less time than this, people who have used no drugs at all, and people who have used other drugs (e.g. speed, cannabis etc) but no ecstasy.

Participation will involve around 3-4 hours of your time, and is open to those able to make it to Monash University, Caulfield. Participants will be reimbursed for out of pocket expenses.

If you are interested in participating in this research, please email me at gillinder.bedi@med.monash.edu.au or call on 9903 1149.

Posted in by Huai Bin at 03:15 PM Permalink | Comments (7)

Berbuka Puasa Bersama Kami di Nipah

XM and Zenith had the company buka puasa today at Nipah. They really do have an impressive amount of dishes - I couldn't try every single one, I would be amazed if anyone out there can. However, I didn't eat for two (or three?) days before and had two packets of Indomie last night with multivites, first meal after some days without solid food, so yeah, I nearly threw up when I had three dishes today. I would have too, if I wasn't on the LRT trying to catch the last bus back home from Bangsar and by the time I got home, stomach bloat factor has become less of an issue.

Anyway, I just got home so I'll post up the photos of the array of food they have tomorrow, since I'm about to fall asleep right now. I did sleep last night, but not as much as I wanted to, and I have to wake up at 6:30 am tomorrow. Check back tomorrow night if you want to see photos of the interesting platters of food Equatorial's Nipah Coffeeshop (no, not that kind - unfortunately, we don't have those in Malaysia). My favorite photo is the "Ulam ulam tempatan" section, very nice. Stay tuned!

Oh, and if you don't want to squint, here's what the text in the promo above reads:

Delight in traditional "kampung" specialities, popular hawker favourites, superb delicacies from various states and an unbelievable array of desserts from our renowned "buka puasa" buffet – enough to please even the most discerning diner.

Available nightly throught the month of Ramadhan from 6:30 pm to 10:30 pm.

Priced at RM 68.00+ per adult and RM 35.00+ per child.

For reservations please call 2161 7777 extn. 8555

I should be on their payroll for transcribing that. ;)

Posted in by Huai Bin at 09:55 PM Permalink | Comments (11)

Defaced and no screenshot...woe!

This site was "hacked" (er...defaced would be the correct term) by some script kiddies sometime during 3 pm to 5 pm (GMT +8) today. They just replaced index.html with another file, and I took a screenshot but before pasting it, I was looking at the source, saw a URL and copied that (losing what was on the "clipboard" previously - the screenshot) and now I don't have anything to post up.

Anyway, if anyone has a screenshot, I would appreciate it if you would mail it to me, coz I rectified the issue (it takes all of 1 minute once you notice it) before I realized that I haven't pasted the screenshot into Photoshop. Alternatively, if anyone knows of any "website defacement sites" where those l33t h4ck3rz post up images of sites they have "hacked", that would be appreciated as well, would love to have that screenshot.

Anyway, if you're the perpetrators behind this, please "hack" me again ok? I would love to have a screenshot. Plus, I didn't even remember your group's name or any of it's members, and what's the point of what you do if there's no memory of it? I promise I'll post a screenshot up and give you more publicity or something. ;)

Well, I'll be off to the company "Berbuka Puasa Bersama Kami di Nipah" later. I'm hungry already.

Posted in by Huai Bin at 05:47 PM Permalink | Comments (12)

Buah Kurma giveaway @ KLCC LRT station

Free packaged dried dates.

The staff at the KLCC LRT station were giving out nicely packaged buah kurma (preserved/dried dates) at the monthly ticket entrance as I got off from work yesterday. It was relatively early - around 6 pm when this happened. They had boxes of it and I tried taking photos, but it was the after office hours rush, so I couldn't get a shot of the personnel handing them out - someone is bound to walk into the frame due to the volume of commuters.

Kurma photo - close up.

Anyway, here's a closer look at the dates in the container. It tastes good, dry and yet slightly moist in the middle. There is a surprisingly high fructose content too, a little too cloyingly sweet, but it's great to eat when you've been without food for a while. It seems to be one of the more common things people eat right after buka puasa.

Which reminds me, there is a company buka puasa at Hotel Equatorial's Nipah CoffeeShop later at 6:30 pm.

Posted in by Huai Bin at 01:12 PM Permalink | Comments (3)

pengsan.com and VPS/VDS hosting

Before we go to pengsan.com (there's nothing there anyway) here's a photo that you don't see everyday. Another san, I mean sun - The Sun - a daily newspaper provided free in racks like this. For the life of me, I've never seen the racks filled...everytime I see these, it's empty. However today was going to be different. I knew it was going to be. I had inklings. I came in at a little past 7 am and walked into Wisma Antarabangsa...

This is the rack at the entrance and lo and behold it was partially full! Granted, it was only partially full, but for someone who's only seen it empty, it was a sight to behold. I stood there for a few minutes, admiring the beauty and decided to document it by taking a photo. The Sun! A rack partially full! Will wonders never cease? Soon after I took the photo, a woman walked in and grabbed a stack of the papers and walked out...such ephemeral beauty...I'm glad I took a photo of the rack, even though it was only partially full. ;)

Anyway, after a lot of research, I've decided to go for a VPS/VDS (Virtual Private/Dedicated Server) solution for my hosting needs. I got a decent custom package - US$ 17.50 per month for 1 GB disk space, 30 GB transfer, 64 MB RAM, 1 static IP and root access. Additional excess bandwidth is US$ 1 per GB and the same price goes for storage. Which brings us back to pengsan.com - I registered that this morning (no don't check, it won't progate until 24-48 hours and there's nothing there anyway) to test the VDS with.

I didn't have to, since there is after all a static IP assigned, but I figured it would be fun to get. sixthseal.com is biblical in nature, castitas.com goes into Latin and now pengsan.com, local! :) I don't know what I'm going to do with that domain yet, but currently, I'm going to use it to test the server with and store images for the time being, and I'm looking to move castitas.com soon (it's MUCH smaller than sixthseal.com and thus more forgiving if I fuck up) and if all goes well, sixthseal.com will be hosted at this new server.

Anyway, a VDS (or VPS) is basically a quasi dedicated server...it's not like shared hosting where everyone shares the system resources, OS and everything. VPS/VDS solutions are more secure and for all intents and purposes, it's a dedicated server, minus the cost of one. ;) The custom package I wanted is bare bones - nothing installed except Debian (a Linux distro). I chose that over Red Hat due to size considerations and I have experience with apt get. Er...in uni labs anyway.

Thus, you manage your own account - you get root access and you can install stuff and all that. It would be good practice, I haven't been around Unix/Linux for a while. Because it's empty (except for the OS), I'll have to install everything myself so it won't be up and running immediately, but it'll be fun and it's a learning experience. Anyway, once the account is setup, my first priority is to install and configure Apache (HTTP server) and use it as an image server. I still haven't figured out what to do with my existing accounts...sixthseal.com's is expiring soon, but not that soon, so probably will get more domains and do the funky domain dance to get load balancing right.

I'll get around to installing PHP and Perl modules later and set up MySQL databases soon and the test blog will be up when that happens. It'll be much more versatile than shared hosting - you install what you want and only what you want. I got one month first to test things out and we'll see how it goes. Thankfully this host (jvds.com) does allow the content of castitas.com, and he'll move me to Amsterdam if it violates US laws, so yeah, I'll have my own server to play around with soon. Stay tuned...

Posted in by Huai Bin at 08:09 AM Permalink | Comments (14)

US$ 10 Amazon Gift Certificate

I received a US$ 10 Amazon gift voucher from Brent, who runs The Weblog Review [theweblogreview.com]. I'm not sure if I should be saying this since it hasn't been announced but it was supposed to be on Monday. *shrug* Thanks Brent! I did not know about the contest until two days before it closed and er...posted up a review that I did several days ago with a link right on top. *cough* I figured that with the 1.3k visitors I get, someone is bound to click on that link, and sure enough 42 people clicked on the link when it was the first post.

I know, that's not exactly ethical, but checks and balances were in place - a reviewer cannot win first price (US$ 20), only second place (US$ 10). I was told that I was actually the top referrer, but I write for The Weblog Review and it was decided that it would be unfair for others who does not have the liberty of posting up reviews to...well, give hits a boost. I write once in a while, even though I committed to one review per week, which reminds me...I need to write one tonight.

Gotta have drums...

Anyway, I've been eating nothing since this breakfast I grabbed this morning. There was a stall that always was in front of the workplace, but they weren't open during the puasa month until today. Which reminds me, thanks to Taryn I now get to run around the office and take photos of people doing (client's name) work and send it daily to Catharine, the Creative Director. Yeah I can't talk about work stuff or post any photos because of the NDA I signed and the confidentiality agreement. I just took a couple today, the first batch, but again, only for internal use.

I just got back from the office not long ago, wanted to finish up some stuff and I had the energy and mental clarity (hey, from caffeine ok) so I reckon I would finish it up before going home. Also, I couldn't seem to drag myself off the seat and the thing I'm working on is rather compulsive on coffee...I just had to finish it off, or else I'll never leave it alone. ;) It's like...hmm, you go down the list one by one and you just have to finish everything, you can't concentrate on any other thing. Tweakers, you know what I'm talking about. Disclaimer: That sentence should not be interpreted to mean that I myself 'tweak' in the classic sense as I was using that term for caffeine.

Thus, I won't be sleeping tonight, there's not much time left anyway. I did get enough sleep yesterday, so yeah, will be up while I write a review and maybe work getting another one of my "meth projects" off the ground. Disclaimer: "Meth projects" is simply a metaphor for the things I start (remember sixthseal.com mailbag? the autograph project? and now this Black Kingdom chapter-a-day fiction) but don't finish, and is not an admission of any activities normally associated with that term.

Well, more verbal diarrhea, it seems that there is some activity in the search engine world (well, I only aim for Google) recently. I'm not a hardcore SEO (Search Engine Optimizer) per se and it'll be sad to see the Malaysian blog scene start to care about PR (PageRank) and compete for SERPs (Search Engine Results Page/Position). There are blogs out that that will not link a lower PR site or one that has PR 0 or grey barred because outbound links are essentially a 'vote' and will contribute PR.

IMHO, that's counter productive, especially in the blog scene. It shouldn't matter what PR a blog is, if you like it and read it daily, then by all means link it. That's what community is about...not linking to get PR or to hog PR. Personally, I've never minded what PageRank a page is before linking, everyone started with a low PR and get "importance" from content or inbound links, which I like to call "uplifting". Read Davin Brin's Uplift saga to get that.

Anyway, just in case you didn't know, yeah I do a bit of SEO but it's mainly for SERPs. I've got a couple I'm proud of (particularly this high ranking one in a high results (millions) keyword) and some I don't give two fucks about, and I'm glad to say that I dropped in the latter but not the former. :) I don't even know when Googlebot crawled nor do I have time for these things now but on an interesting note:

http://www.sixthseal.com
is PR 6
http://www.sixthseal.com/
is PR 5
http://sixthseal.com/
is a mere PR 3

I'm thinking about using Apache redirects at the .htaccess level to consolidate PR but I don't know whether Googlebot likes that or not. I'm pretty sure the PR 6 is just Google flux anyway and I'll be back to PR 5 again soon. I publicize the site as "sixthseal.com" which would get the browser to display the 3rd URL. However, inbound links are mostly using the 2nd method, which is what I use to link internal pages too. I don't see the logic behind a PR 6 for the URL without the / though.

Enough Search Engines 101, basically, I was surprised to see a PR 6 on the URL without the trailing / and was interested to see metafilters topping me using my link (not PPS) and was happy to see that the SERPs I hold dear are still there. If anyone is wondering what keywords I target, wonder no more, it should be pretty obvious. I won't be stating them here, since they're all er...chemically related.

Anyway, if you just skimmed through all that, you might get the impression that I'm making two different stances. I'm not, I just meant I personally do some optimization (but not hardcore ones, don't have time for that) but that doesn't mean I care about the PR of blogs I link and I don't think anyone else should either. It would be sad to see the blogging scene degenerate to a "Will I gain PR?" link policy.

Okay, it's 2 am so I should stop talking now. I'll write a review and then reply the comments and write the nasi ayam post if I have time left tonight and write another chapter of Black Kingdom in the unlikely event that there's any time left after all that. I'll be back again after writing a review for TWR.

You know, I found that talking about SEO issues during Google Dance always lowers my PageRank. Heh.

Posted in by Huai Bin at 03:51 AM Permalink | Comments (7)

Bread Talk - the catalyst

The catalyst? Pork floss buns and other pastries my gf's cousin bought and left with my gf's brother. I've become selfish, ungrateful and inconsiderate. There you go...that's how much I've degenerated. It embaresses me, especially since my gf's bro is the opposite of that. I was less than willing to take 15 min out of my preciously limited personal time to go and get something someone bought for us. And he bought it up to us. Someone knock me upside the head and call me names, I deserve it.

I want more time. But before that I really need to work on being less self centered...it's shocking how I get affected by work to let it affect my personal relationships. I really want to be a better person in this regards. There are only so many hours in a day. It can be extended if you want, but you've gotta crash one day. What did I want to do with this "personal time" anyway? Fuck this shit man, time with close people should be personal time too...I must not let this happen again. This is not who I want to be, this selfish, ungrateful and self centered person.

Posted in by Huai Bin at 09:53 PM Permalink | Comments (25)

Fuck this shit man...

I realize that I value my personal time a lot...and as it currently stands, I have fuck all. I was about to make the chicken rice post, re-sized all the photos and started uploading them. It's 9 pm and I haven't eaten dinner and it's such a small matter...we needed to walk down and get some stuff. I was a little unwilling because it takes time and time is something I don't have with this job...I wake up at 6:30 am if I want to catch the bus/LRT (and I have to if I want to live on my 1.5k salary) and by the time I get back (using LRT/bus again) it's usually 8:30 pm earliest, and usually it gets to be much later coz even though official working hours is 8:30 am - 5:30 pm, sometimes we need to stay back to finish up.

Which brings us back to the personal time question again. I have none, not during work days. Just now, as we were about to eat, my gf started being pissed off at me coz I was (admittedly) taking my work stress out on her, grumbling about having to sacrifice even more personal time to go out and she walked away without eating the stuff I tapau and well...I must have had a lot of pent up anger coz I just blew up on her...in front of all our housemates. I started enquiring (in a volume that wasn't suitable) about why she didn't want to eat blah blah blah and yeah...

I suck, it's all this stress and nights without sleep and anxiety about work security and the pressure to perform faster, stronger, better than everyone else and the realization that I hate coming home and having to go to sleep right away to get enough sleep, that or stay up with assistance and weeks and months pass and you wonder where the fuck your personal time went coz you sure as hell don't remember shit.

I should not have taken it out on her, I'm such a terrible bf...I'm going to apologize now.

Fuck this shit man..all this even after 2 mg sublingual lorazepam...I had wanted to talk about this to her too, about whether working in KL is what I want and whether I would be more comfortable working in a low paying but lots of free time ie teaching in a school but fuck it, forget it, back to the daily grind.

Well then...this is quite a personal post isn't it? Now, I'll sit here and wait for the masturbatory "oh, you just haven't gotten used to working life" comments to come in. See! Now I'm taking it out on my readers...

Posted in by Huai Bin at 09:27 PM Permalink | Comments (23)

Anita Sarawak film set photos

I saw some people filming a local production at Jalan Gereja this morning as we were heading to mass. It seemed to be a low budget film, considering the lack of road cordons, security or high end film equipment so I just took a couple of shots and then went to church. Anyway, after mass, we walked pass the set again and Richard noticed that one of the cast is Anita Sarawak.

Remember her? She's the local artist that was popular many years ago, and she's looking relatively young for her age. She was there with her Caucasian husband. I don't know much about her, this is what the others told me. I don't know what this film is titled, but Anita Sarawak was getting out of Land Rover and there was also a scene involving a mini that the guys had to push back and forth after failed scenes.

Here's a photo of Anita Sarawak beside her husband and some other cast members. She was only there for a short time before leaving, and I took this photo as we walked past (there are no cordons or anything):

Anita Sarawak is the one with the bleached hair.

Posted in Events by Huai Bin at 09:18 PM Permalink | Comments (21)

Brain Tofu

Tofu brain.

The picture above shows what my brain has become. Rows of rows of smooth tofu. Taufu lembut replacing my grey matter. I need at least 40 hours of solid, uninterrupted sleep to recover, but there's not enough time. My mental faculties did not escape this week totally unscathed and I'm about to fall asleep right now. It feels like there's a void inside my skull where my brain once was. It's Saturday morning and I haven't had felt this bad in a very long time. :)

There's stuff to do tomorrow...I mean, later today. Ah fuck, I don't even know what to write. I tried writing a review and tried doing a bit of work that I took home to do over the weekend but I can't think. Paleolitik 35,000 Mesolitik 25,000 Besi dan Gangsa 2,500. That's what I mentally recite during certain periods when my mind doesn't want to play nice. I don't know if the times or spelling is correct it's just something I repeat in my brain. It's from Form 1 Sejarah (History).

I want to eat but I can't move. I can sleep (with help) but it won't be enough. Excuse this post. I will update tomorrow with the really long due chicken rice post, which would be much less depressing, I promise. :) I will go to sleep now.

Paleolitik 35,000. Mesolitik 25,000. Besi dan Gangsa 2,500.

I still have this at least.

My apologies for not being able to reply the comments today. Thanks for putting up with my sporadic updates and lack of feedback. I will sort things out after sleeping. Meh, I've had worse. Everything is fine. :)

Posted in by Huai Bin at 06:47 AM Permalink | Comments (4)

Black Kingdom: Chapter 2 - A Brave New World

I didn't know what lead to it, but the four of us started to walk together and talk like old friends, joking around and everything. The events during the school sports day started to bore us, so Ah Boon suggested that we head off to smoke. Smoking! It was unheard of in my limited social circle, which consisted mostly of "good" people, when I was back home. I was apprehensive but attracted as well so I went along even though I haven't started smoking then. I was interested to try though, but parental conditioning made me turn down the offer of cigarettes by Ah Boon.

I was only 15 at that time as my birthday had not passed yet. I still remember what I asked when Ah Boon, Tom, Aaron and Chen lighted up. I said, aren't you worried about lung cancer? Boon had a strange answer - he didn't mind dying early as long as it's an enjoyable life and smoking is one of life's greater pleasures. I even remember what everyone smokes - Ah Boon favors Dunhills but would go with Mild Sevens. Tom would only smoke Dunhills or this Japanese brand of cigarette that has one word - "kaze" for wind in the front. Aaron on the other hand doesn't care for anything except Davidoffs.

We walked around Church Corner, where my house and the high school is located. There is dairy shop right there that has this dodgy looking but nice guy who sells cigarettes and adult magazines to anyone, even if you're in school uniform. :) It's not your run of the mill Playboy and Penthouse magazines, he carries the hardcore mags too, and always wraps it in a black bag when selling to minors. Heh. The legal age to purchase cigarettes was 16 at that time in New Zealand, but 1996 also saw a legislation change that made the age limit 18 instead of 16.

I remember a funny incident that happened during the day of the legislation change. I had started smoking later, and there was a very strict but nearer dairy opposite my shop. I was unable to purchase cigarettes till the day I turned 16, and I proudly displayed my Student ID as prove of age and bought a pack of cigarettes...and the law changed a scant week later, to which the strict but near dairy owner went "Hah! I know you can't be 18 coz you just turned 16 a week ago! No cigarettes to minors.".

That forced me to walk to the further but lenient dairy at church corner. The four of us hung out once in a while, mostly in school, but I was still going out more frequently with Sam and the others then. Besides the drama production practice, we sometimes go to this youth group, which is an interesting mix of half innocent kids and half not so innocent teenagers. Cannabis was a common drug then, one tinny (foil) goes for NZ$ 20 and it has about 1 gram or so of weed.

However, I have still not smoked nor taken any drugs at that point. A lot of my friends are users (on Sam's side), but I had read that drugs are bad mmmkay, so I just passed the joint along whenever someone has weed, which is quite frequent. The availability of cannabis and LSD was to high school students was surprising. I was interested in chemical and plant substances due to reading a lot about it and wanting personal experience, but I was still not comfortable about even smoking weed then.

My first cigarette was at this all nighter youth group function where several vans full of people went Go Kart racing, then adjourned to an indoor water park, before going to a laser tag game and then a ball at some far away horticulture place before ending the night with two back to back movies. I remember one of the movies I watched was Mars Attacks! It was an all day till the next morning event, and it was during the ball that I first started smoking.

There was this girl chain smoking the whole night, even making the driver make stops to buy more cigarettes. Everyone calls her Kitty. She's from my school as well, but one year younger than me and I remember Abba's Dancing Queen playing during the ball and I was standing beside her and she asked me if I wanted a smoke. I thought about it and reckoned that since I was interested to try, now is a good time as any.

We shared a cigarette and she laughed at my inability to inhale. :) She taught me how to properly smoke a cigarette, not just holding the smoke in the mouth and exhaling, but chasing the smoke down with another intake of breath so it gets into your lungs. I wouldn't say that I liked the taste of tobacco, but it was a memorable experience and the song that played during that time still reminds me of that day.

End of Black Kingdom: Chapter 2 - A Brave New World

[ List of Characters ]

Next: Black Kingdom: Chapter 3 - Bonding [sixthseal.com].

Posted in by Huai Bin at 02:23 PM Permalink | Comments (16)

Crazy Taxi (Limited Edition!)

Remember the the first crazy taxi [sixthseal.com]? I took one today that put that to shame! I went back at 5:10 am to take a shower and get some food and was picked up by this yellow cab with this late 30's guy with a tattoo on his left forearm, same place I have mine, except his is some kind of insignia.

I wish I had my digicam with me, I didn't bring my bag or digicam back coz I was just planning to make a quick trip home - it took me exactly one hour starting from me stepping out of XM to stepping in again. :) Record setting eh? Back to the taxi, the driver is fucking insane. Heh. First question he asked me when I got in?

No, not where I wanted to go. He said "Gan chek yau lai ah?" (Just took some pills?). I was like wtf? I said I just got off work, and he went oh, I thought you were feng tau in Warp. I said, Warp is a good 200 meters down and he went "Oh yeah.". And he said, so...guess what I'm on? I shit you not!

It's easy to guess, he's fucking tweaked out of his mind, I said must be ice (meth) and he went "YEAH!! ICE ICE BABY!!!" (slang for methamphetamine). He was speeding all along, going around curves like a madman. And at this traffic light, he wound down the window, gestured to the lorry with two guys beside and accelerated and said "You dare to race me?". The guys ignored him and he said they were pussies.

Anyway, suddenly, he asked me if I wanted some "ice ice baby" as he so eloquently put it. I said no thanks, I don't take drugs. *cough* He said he can get it for me RIGHT NOW if I wanted, a set for RM 500. I don't know how much a set is but he made this big size with his hands so it was quite a lot. I declined his offer and he went on talking about Genting (wtf?) for some reason. He's totally lost, speeding all along.

Also, near my place he said, let me show you 180 km/h and he did exactly that. I said, oi, I need to get to work tomorrow (meaning I didn't want to die) and he said no problem, this way you get to work FASTER! He's fucking hilarious and tweaked stupid at the same time, and best of all, he charged me RM 4 even though the meter was RM 7.60 and there is a surcharge of 50% coz he said he likes 4 coz he wants to die. 4 sounds like "die" in Chinese and most dialects.

This is not the taxi you want to get in unless you want cheap and fast transport and someone talking your ear off. He pushes dangerous driving to a new level and he shouts randomly at people on the street as well, with his window wound down. I was quite amused by his antics, but in hindsight, his driving was terrible. Don't get into a yellow taxi with a guy fitting that description. It might be your last ride. ;) A collision at the speeds he's driving would obliterate the car and the passangers inside.

That's the good thing about it - RM 4 only. :)

However he makes craxy taxi #1 look like a 90 year old grandma in comparison. Limited edition this one, I give him 3 months before he dies in a car crash.

Posted in by Huai Bin at 06:36 AM Permalink | Comments (15)

Black Kingdom: Chapter I - Preface

There was once a gang which was called "Black Kingdom". The decision to form the gang happened at one of the most unlikely places and the rise and fall of one of the Asian gangs in Christchurch, NZ in 1996 would be documented through the eyes of Kevin, the protagonist and narrator in this fictional story. Kevin will be referred to in the first person in this piece of writing. The story will start from the very beginning - orientation day at Riccarton High School. All names, places and events are entirely fictional and any resemblance to actual events is purely coincidental.

Preface

I was 16 and I was sitting at a desk in front of a classroom waiting for orientation to begin. It was my first time being so far from home and without parental supervision. The day was cold and everyone was rather silent...except for two Malaysian guys talking and acting in a boisterous fashion at the back. Suddenly, a guy sauntered in, wearing the blue jersey of Riccarton High School and grinned at the two guys at the back and loud greetings were exchanged. I found out later that they were not new to Christchurch - they were all ex Hornby High School students.

Orientation begins and a guy called Gerald from Kuching seemed intent on befriending me, while I was more interested in hanging out with the other guys. I also got to know several other people during orientation, which will be minor characters in this story. There were mostly girls from Kuching, interestingly most of the orientation batch are Malaysians. There was also a short guy from Thailand who we called Dang. He had a really cute Japanese girlfriend called Shinobu.

The cast in this story is convoluted, so I will compile a List of Characters as a reference at the end of every chapter and it will be updated when more people are introduced. Gerald, a tall, stocky guy from Kuching stuck to me like glue. I was immature at that time and I wasn't interested in befriending him. However, we did get to be friends due to taking similar classes. I also had classes with the two guys from Kuching - Ah Bi and Richard. We could choose our subjects in New Zealand high schools.

The first few weeks were pretty uneventful and boring. I hung out more with Kiwis than Asian people because I took Form 6 English while the others were taking ESL (English as a Second Language). Sam, one of the most popular guys in school took me under his wing when I went for this drama audition where I didn't know anyone. Sam is Eurasian, but he looks Caucasian and due to drama practice, I got into his circle of friends, the majority of which were Kiwis.

Sports day came along and even though I didn't feel like going, I dragged myself out of bed and went. Like I've mentioned, my friends were mostly Kiwi and this caused some resentment from certain Asians because they thought I was "too good" for them. I remember my first encounter with Ah Boon, the guy who sauntered into the classroom during orientation day. I was walking to the toilet when he called out:

"Wah, chi ko lang, ah neh tiaw keh, bo ka wa lang teng nang cham eh."

That translates to: Hey, look at him, he's so arrogant, he doesn't mix with us Asians.

I looked at him and saw him grinning at me. Ah Boon is a relatively tall guy from Kuching of slim build. He has a tendency to describe himself as yen tau, or handsome in Hokkien. It was all in jest though, so no one minded. He was good looking in a clean cut way, though he has long hair all around his face. His hair was straight though, and it frames his face well. I noticed that he's now hanging out with three guys named Tom, Aaron and Chen (all Taiwanese) instead of the two Kuching guys from before.

I couldn't think of anything to reply him with, so I smiled back and walked towards the port-a-potties. He wasn't dissuaded though, he immediately nudged Tom and said "lu kua, bo chap eh, tik tik gia" ("Look, he's not even acknowledging us, walking straight away"). The phrase was said in a friendly and harmless way, which is known as "gek/kek" in Hokkien as opposed to "suan" which implies malicious intent.

I liked him instantly. Most people do, due to his accommodating and pleasant nature. He's what one would describe as "wei peng you si". The direct translation is "willing to die for his/his friends" and it's a phrase that means a lot in Asian culture - someone willing to go out of their way for their friends.

End of Black Kingdom: Chapter 1 - Preface

[ List of Characters ]

Next: Black Kingdom: Chapter 2 - A Brave New World [sixthseal.com].

Posted in by Huai Bin at 01:44 AM Permalink | Comments (5)

View from my workplace on the 16th floor in KL CBD

Allow me to present to you...the view of KL city from the (only) window in XM Malaysia's Technical Department. To the left, you'll find Hotel Equatorial. The pleasing structure you see in front is reportedly Hong Leong Bank HQ (don't know for sure, what one of my coworkers told me). Okay, I just took this photo a minute ago coz I forgot to bring the nasi ayam photos so that'll have to wait. Sorry! :)

It's back to work for me coz I'm an amazingly productive employee who doesn't need food or sleep and I have a lot of stuff to do. Well...I try to be one anyway. ;) And yes, I can forgo sleep and food for days, just like IDNEX can. BTW, you haven't beaten my record, IDNEX. Tujuh hari tanpa makan tanpa tidur, ya. Go further or bow down before me and concede to my superior sk1llz! Muahahahaha! Okay, enough sillyness.

Word of the day:
Automagical.
Versatile expression that is used to describe a piece of code that does what it's supposed to do.
(Read: A function that does what you want it to do, but you know fuck all about the actual mechanics behind it. ;))
Also see TE (Trail and Error) debugging.

Anyway, for those of you with credit cards in Malaysia, which would you think is better:

Citibank Clear Visa Classic
Citibank Silver Visa Classic
Mayban Finance Visa Classic

Supplementary cards and bonus features not necessary. APR can be disregarded, payment would be made within 20 days. It would be used for Internet purchases (hosting and other stuff) only and I noticed some doesn't cover fraud until you report it (!?!?). I was under the impression Visa covers all credit card fraud and you need to pay RM 60 maximum.

Posted in by Huai Bin at 01:34 PM Permalink | Comments (17)

Maggie Mee Goreng @ Smart Curry House

Restoran Smart Curry House.

This is Restoran Smart Curry House - it's located at Jalan Gereja, near St. John's Cathedral and relatively near my workplace. I have to say that this is one of the more abysmal Maggie mee goreng that I've ever had...they batch fry it by the dozens (literally). It's this big wok and they get a lot of maggie mee goreng orders in the evening/night since the roti stall is closed so they mass cook it in a big wok and serve it up. It looks like this:

My gf who had the mee hoon goreng reported that it was dismal as well. Here's a photo of the interior:

It's not packed coz two groups left and their tables were cleaned up when I took the shot but it's surprisingly popular. However, I'll go for Ali Maju's Maggie mee goreng any day. It's not the best, but it's good anyway.

I apologize for not posting the nasi ayam post, it's really long and this one is shorter and I need to go to sleep. However, I did reply the comments and I will reply your email (unless you're in NZ, no it's not you ;)) later tonight. I have to apologize for not replying emails - it is impossible to do so with the volume I get everyday, sorry to everyone who mails me. I suggest IM if you want to get in touch with me - my UIN is 7345320 and I'm only online at night, after work and dinner, usually around 10 - 11 pm but most times I'm tired and I don't switch on ICQ.

Anyway, the promised nasi ayam post will be up tomorrow during lunch time (GMT +8). I'll write it during my lunch hour, I reckon that's fair since it is after all a break. I'm not taking up company time if I update during my lunch hour, right? Right. I don't even go to my own blog during work hours now. Wait for it tomorrow! :) I'm going to eat supper and then go straight to bed.

Posted in by Huai Bin at 11:39 PM Permalink | Comments (4)

...and then we'll go to sleep

I am so sedated from judicious use of GABA-A binding agents (hey, legally prescribed ;)) with alcohol that I could barely force myself to post. :) Okay, sorry for not being daily, that 7 hours of sleep in 5 days (two sessions of 6 hours and an hour two days apart) took a toll on me. I was very tired today from finishing that project at work and with the positive flow of chloride ions (which strangely seems to be decreasing, which means I'll have to regulate it again =D) that's going on, I will have a nice long (er...6 hours anyway) sleep! Well deserved, IMHO, and hey, I can even type proper and all. :)

I will make a point to update daily from now on, just like how I dragged myself out of bed with sleep deprivation and a mere hours sleep tday, starting from best chicken rice in KL tomorrow. Comments will be replied one by one tomorrow and yeah, some mails needs replying as well, I will reply at least the "nice fluffy something" one tomorrow, you know who you are. ;)

Posted in by Huai Bin at 09:44 PM Permalink | Comments (15)

Police: "Ambil gambar itu untuk apa?"

It all started at around midnight today (that's Friday night, it's still Saturday now). I happened to be at the Sungei Wang area and saw this apparently destitute guy sleeping at one of the support beams. He doesn't seem to be in top physical condition as well, from the crutches he was using. Anyway, I gave him RM 2 (that red drink container is the receptacle he was using for this purpose) and took several photos of him.

Anyway, he didn't mind being photographed, and he was going on about how his legs hurt and he kept on dozing off in the middle of the sentence so I figured I'll leave him alone after taking the photos. I was still in the area though, was talking to some people when two police came up, one male and one female and stopped beside the guy.

The female police is the one wearing the jacket with reflective strips. She proceeded to rouse the sleeping guy by kicking him...now, I understand that there are laws against these situations, but obviously the guy had some sort of injury from the bandage on his leg so personally, I didn't think that was necessary.

Anyway, I had my digicam slung around me like always and I immediately started it up and started taking photos of the scene. Unfortunately, my digicam defaults to red-eye correction flash upon startup, so the photos are really terrible, since my position allows too many reflective materials into the frame eg the metal railing, the strips etc. I couldn't use no flash since everyone was moving, so going without flash would result in a blurry photo.

The ideal setting would be fast/quick flash but I didn't have time to change the settings before the law enforcement officers managed to get the guy to move. Now, obviously taking photos with red-eye correction flash is not very discreet since there's a pre-glow before the actual strong flash. This did not go unnoticed by the police, especially since I took several photos in quick succession.

The male policeman walked up to me and asked "Ambil gambar itu untuk apa?" ("Why were you taking photos?"). Now, here's the funny thing...I should be worried about a law enforcement officer standing beside me and looking at my digicam, especially while I was putting it back into the carrying case, which does not only store an extra CF card, a spare battery and another USB cord, if you get what I mean.

He was obviously waiting for an answer...I should have been concerned since the carrying case was open and at a slightly higher angle, Things^TM which would not pass the scrutiny of the police would be visible and the Things^TM in question would be enough to get me into a fuckload of trouble. To top it off, I had More Things^TM in my backpack! Either Things^TM or More Things^TM would have resulted in shit hitting the fan on their own, and two collective Things^TM...now that's should have make me a little anxious to say the least.

Strangely, I did not even feel so much as an iota of mild trepidation, which was surprising since it's my 3rd day without sleep and paranoia usually sets in around that time. I was completely calm and worry free. I zipped up my digicam carrying case, slung it back around me, grinned at the policeman, gave him a friendly pat on the shoulder and said "Oh, tak ada apa, ini untuk koleksi sendiri sahaja." (Oh, no reason, just took it for my personal collection."). I gave him another big grin, waved and walked away, leaving him smiling in a decidedly puzzled fashion.

Disclaimer: The usage of the words Things^TM and More Things^TM in this post refers to a counterfeit digicam battery and several pirated DVDs respectively, which may not be legal. Things^TM and More Things^TM are not to be interpreted as an allusion to any illicit substance, because I do not possess anything like that. I reiterate that it's just a counterfeit digicam battery and several pirated DVDs. However, you should neither be bringing Things^TM nor More Things^TM around, regardless of what tangible objects the words refer to. You never know who you're going to bump into. :)

In hindsight, drawing attention to yourself from the police by taking full flash photos of them in action is not a very bright thing to do when you have Things^TM and More Things^TM in your possession. I would not do it again, I thank my parents for the genes which allows me to be real friendly when the need arises, the "Hey, buddy, how's it going?" kind of friendly, and also for a relatively innocent looking facial profile with a repertoire that includes a Shit Eating Grin^TM, which seems to be rather effective in diffusing situations like this. =D

I didn't even get good photos due to the flash going off so hard...it's a good thing luck was on my side. Even though taking photos in public is perfectly legal, dealing with police here requires a delicate assessment of the situation and a careful evaluation of the psychological state the policeman in question is in, to either:
1. Be real friendly
2. Act submissive
3. Appear to be busy
lest they get sudden and uncontrollable urges to question you and search your digicam carrying case and your backpack and take you in, which is not unheard of in my hometown, but I've not had that happen in KL so far.

I'm glad I made the right profile projection and chose #1. I think it was that friendly pat on the shoulder that closed the deal. ;) Hail Mary!

Oh right, I added something new in the sidebar, look under Photo Gallery. No flames please, it's only for people who want to. :p I'm not sleepy but I shall brute force myself into a state of slumber now, lest I go into Day #4 without sleep. I will reply the comments tomorrow, I bid thee farewell and good night.

Posted in Interesting by Huai Bin at 09:33 PM Permalink | Comments (28)

Postcard from fel! :)

I guessed right! :) I was hoping for this trippy postcard when I saw the stack of 13 postcards on fel's site [frens.ws]. Heh! I just got it today. Well, technically it was yesterday, but it was past midnight on Friday when I arrived home and saw the postcard. :) Thanks for the postcard Fel! I appreciate that you took out the time to choose this one. Work is good, but tiring as usual, going to have to go into the office tomorrow.

I like the image on the postcard - it's vaguely suggestive and all those lines make the postcard really intense to look at. The swirls and curves blends together and creates this surreal feeling. I have to say that this is my 3rd day without sleep though, so sleep deprivation visual disturbances might have contributed to the strange effect. Bizzare. :)

Posted in by Huai Bin at 02:38 PM Permalink | Comments (13)

Goodbye Shirley!

This is a photo of Shirley Yu Qi Ji, taken this morning. She's my housemate and she's finished her studies at HELP Institute so she's moving out today. The background is the empty room that was once occupied by her, and another girl from China would be moving in soon to take her place. I was surprised when she mentioned webpages after I took the picture, I wasn't aware that she knows I keep a blog.

However, it turns out that she doesn't know about my blog, she's under the impression that everyone taking photos with a digicam puts them up on the net. Anyway, she did not mind being posted and I agreed to mail her a copy. I actually forgot that she was moving out today until I got out of the shower, all dripping wet and saw her lugging several large suitcases down the stairs so I helped.

Anyway, Shirley is an international student from China and we've always been intrigued by this dish she cooks - she only makes one pot of soup for dinner, but there's all sorts of things inside the soup. That's the only dish...very interesting. Well, I'm still at the office finishing up some stuff...I think I would have to come in either Saturday or Sunday to complete it since I'm really tired from not sleeping last night. I'll update and reply the comments when I get home.

Goodbye Shirley! It's been great living together.

Posted in People by Huai Bin at 09:19 PM Permalink | Comments (12)

9 am deadline!

My apologies, I don't have time to post the review of the best nasi ayam I've eaten in KL now, but the picture above was taken there. It's a small sidelane beside Genting Plaza. I'll write a full review chock full of photos tonight ok? I have to rush off to work now, I've gotta 9 am deadline to meet, I arrived home at around midnight last night and I didn't sleep but fear not, my l33t *cough* programming sk1llz have not suffered due to that. I know it's early to be heading to work, I don't know if there's anyone in right now, but I have the key anyway, since I was the last one to leave last night.

Oh yeah, if anyone knows about a reliable (99.5% MIMIMUM uptime) host which has been in the business for at least 2 years please leave a comment. I need 1 GB of space minimum, 30 GB data transfer minimum, and no restriction on content (willing to host castitas.com). VPS/VDS solutions would be great, but not necessary. Multiple domain support is essential. No hosts which has quotas on "multimedia files" since I have a lot of images. My budget is US$ 20 per month maximum. No hidden fees, preferably allows hosting on a monthly/quarterly basis to test speed and reliability.

Does anyone have any suggestions? A lot of hosts has really strict T&C's, is there anyone who's hosted with a good host which fits the above criteria? Also, a host which has no restriction of filetypes would be good ie allows MP3, MPEG, AVI files. I know this is asking a lot for US$ 20 but if there's anyone who's aware of any hosts which goes slightly above that price with all the features above, please leave a message. I'm tired of browsing the WHT forums and I'm very interested in ultraunix.net, they've great solutions and feedback, but I would preferably go with a company that's not in Malaysia (no offence) due to the possibility of Malaysian authorities exerting pressure on Malaysian hosts to access server logs and such, which would violate the privacy of veritas.

I need a reliable host quick, visitors increase each month and so does bandwidth usage. 40k visitors a month with my large front page size = killer bandwidth fees. Oh right, the hosting company must not have daily caps on visitors since I get over 1.3k a day. I have no use for multiple email accounts and mailing lists but a catch-all address is mandatory. I have my own domains, so free domain offers are not necessary, though it's a plus. Oh yeah, PHP, CGI, PERL, custom error pages, access to raw visitor logs and MySQL databases (not looking for "unlimited" but a reasonably sufficient number) is a must. I also don't need extras like scripts, FrontPage extensions, eCommerce stuff etc, I'm basically just looking for a UNIX/Linux/FreeBSD host with cPanel and I need phpMyAdmin too. Reasonable rates (US$ 3 or lower per GB) for excess bandwidth would be good. NO SHUTTING DOWN THE SITE FOR EXCEEDING BANDWIDTH! I would not go with a host who does that. SSH access is a big bonus. Where are you all hosted? Thanks in advance!

Posted in by Huai Bin at 06:30 AM Permalink | Comments (15)

graceshu sends postcards! ;)

Scanned image of the postcard - front.

I just got another postcard from graceshu [pixelphobia.net] today. :) This was sent from Penang. She's actually back but post tends to have a greater latency than people travelling. Anyway, I just got back from work - last one to leave, it's quite creepy actually to turn off all the lights. Heh. Anyway, I'll post again later and reply all the comments. I won't be sleeping tonight coz I have to go early tomorrow to sort out this last bit of ASP code. I have to go to work on Saturday too. Oh well...

Scanned image of the postcard - back.

Dopaminergics = Sleep is for the weak!
Gabaminergics = Hey, it's 5:30 pm already! :)

Hmm...is there such a word as "gabaminergic"?

Posted in by Huai Bin at 11:59 PM Permalink | Comments (5)

A stack of postcards from graceshu

I got a stack of postcards from Grace [pixelphobia.net] today. :) It was all bundled up when I got home and consisted of a total of 5 postcards rubber banded together. The first four are McDonald's postcards, each one having a single letter - FOR, WHAT, ITS, WORTH. They actually double as a coupon for a free something with a purchase. The back of the postcards actually fit side by side to make a large banner with "i'm lovin' it"!

Don't worry about it if this all sounds puzzling. "McDonald's vouchers" and "i'm lovin' it" is an insider thing between us. Something like our private joke, except only the first one is funny and the second one isn't. :p Anyway, the 5th postcard is mailed from Cameron Highlands during her camp:

Front of the postcard.

It reads:

Hi,
Camerons was freaking cold
as it rained all day & night.
Had some freezing & sleepless
nights during the camp. Other
than that, all was fine. They
had pretty good strawberry farms & shortcakes
there too! As usual, ate a lot.
Will write again when am in Ipoh!
Take care!

Grace
24/10/2003

Back of the postcard.

Thanks Grace! :) She's the greatest, taking time out to mail postcards.

On another note, I have been notified by The People From Above (otherwise known as TPFA) that updating my weblog during work hours is unacceptable, even during lunch hour, and while I'm known for being subversive, I shall accede to this. I can understand how management can interprete this as a loss of productivity so I will not be updating the site, replying the comments or even visiting my own blog(s) during office hours.

However, I will update daily as usual, when I get back from work. The first person who accuses me of giving in to The Man gets a hefty kick to the balls (or to the general region for females). ;)

Posted in by Huai Bin at 10:22 PM Permalink | Comments (19)

Isabelle's Chicken Sandwich

Ramuan: Roti segar, sayur segar, cili berempah, bawang, lada hitam, lada sulah, majerin.

Does this look familiar? The packaging is similar to the Mega Chicken Delice [sixthseal.com] and it appears to be visually indistinguishable. It's made by the same company too and it's at the same price range. However, Isabelle's Chicken Sandwich seems to have superceded Mega Chicken Delice as the latter could not be found anymore. This is a real shame because the ingredients are different if you look closely.

Isabelle's Chicken Sandwich does not have cheese, and it doesn't have mayo! Sacrilage! It tastes positively bland in comparison with the Mega Chicken Delight, which will sadly be missed. The new chicken sandwich is just too dry and bland compared to the previous one. R.I.P. Mega Chicken Delice.

Posted in by Huai Bin at 01:34 PM Permalink | Comments (7)

Thanks ryuu!

I just got your mail with the note and the RM 50 donation passed to me at my workstation. It's very much appreciated indeed! :) It would help with the bandwidth excess charges that's for sure. ryuu is the second person ever to donate to sixthseal.com. I didn't think anyone actually would but he did. Thanks a lot buddy! :)

Anyway, my workload is still very heavy so I'll have to reply the comments when I get back home tonight (which would be late), sorry people, I don't mean to neglect the feedback, but I have a project due tomorrow.

[Edit: Link removed upon request.]

Posted in by Huai Bin at 12:04 PM Permalink | Comments (12)

i'm lovin' it

I'm lovin' it. Don't you just love the McDonald's ad campaign that has replaced the "Makan" (with the golden arches replacing the "M") one?

I look at the banners and I feel all warm inside.

My apologies for the lack of updates. It's taking a lot of effort just to post this one.

I'm entering my quarterly serotonin depletion stage aka "I'm depressed. I want to sleep all day.".

But I look at these banners and think, "Hey! I'm loving it!" and it's alright again. Oops...I forgot my sarcasm tags. i'm lovin' it.

Posted in by Huai Bin at 09:58 AM Permalink | Comments (28)

New "About me" page

The long due update for the "About me" page has finally been done today. I've not changed it since my Monash University days and I took some time out to write some new stuff in there to reflect my current status. Like all "About me" pages, it might seem a little self-indulgant, so don't read it unless you don't mind "About me" pages. :)

Read it here [sixthseal.com] or at the persistant sidebar.

I have to go out now, later people!

Posted in by Huai Bin at 03:59 PM Permalink | Comments (5)

The Weblog Review - The Imdateless.Com Website

Original review done for The Weblog Review:
The Weblog Review [theweblogreview.com].

The Imdateless.Com Website

The first thing I thought when I saw ImDateless.com is that it's one of those match
making sites. The banner ad on the bottom of the splash page IS from a match making
site and I was wondering how this got into The Weblog Review. The site's splash
page uses Flash, but there is an option for a non Flash entry page. I clicked on the
Flash intro and the animation reminded me of the Star Wars intro and while it's not
as professionally animated as some Flash animations, it has a nice charm to it. It is
entertaining, if you have Flash, I suggest you watch the animation.

When I entered into the main page, I still thought it was a dating site, but
reading on shows that it is indeed a weblog, recounting experiences of this 24 year
old part time Retail Manager and university undergraduate student. The blog is in
the news section and it makes interesting reading, if you're into personal blogs. I
find his writing easy to read since he somewhat writes in the same style as me and
he structures his paragraphs well.

Even though this is a fairly new site, it has a lot of content from his writings. I
found that the most interesting aspect of this site. He writes about a lot of things,
from his travel diaries to religion. I particularly enjoyed reading his trips around
Europe. He writes a day by day recount of his experience traveling and that is a
major attraction of this site if you like traveling stories.

Design wise, the site navigation is a little unusual, but the Expand All and
Collapse All dynamic navigational change does help in this aspect. However, I
found the sidebar too cluttered when it's expanded. I also found the Membership and
Shopping pages to be distracting, although I can understand the need for it, since I
pay a lot for excess bandwidth fees as well. The site's design isn't exactly the best
out there, but that's not the point - the content more than makes up for this.

Back to the content, a whois lookup revealed that the domain was registered on
the 12th of August 2003 and his blog begins on the same day! Even though it seems
like there is a scant 2+ months of entries, don't let that dissuade you from visiting -
he has a lot of other writings to occupy you for many hours. He says he is a
"ubiquitous storyteller" - and I agree, his stories would entertain you.

I'm wondering what the hell this site is doing on my computer screen though. ;)

P/S - Read the 4th October 2003 entry if you didn't get that one.

This site was reviewed on 2003-10-23 by sixthseal.
They felt this site belonged in the Entertainment category.
sixthseal felt that The Imdateless.Com Websit deserved a rating of 4.0

Link to site: The Imdateless.Com Website [imdateless.com].

Link to original review: The Imdateless.Com Website [theweblogreview.com].

Posted in by Huai Bin at 11:27 AM Permalink | Comments (6)

Hello November!

I've done some minor tweaking on the site to optimize it. Stats analysis found out that the CSS sixthseal.com is pulling is ridiculously bloated, so I removed unnecessary functions from it. There are other aesthetic changes eg trimming the rather long blog list and adding several blogs into the "More blogs!" that I read but never got around to adding them. Anyway, the front page links works this way - if I've linked and read you since a long time ago, the link will still be on the front page. New blogs that I've just started reading recently are added into the expanded list.

The emails for myself and veritas has also been removed to avoid the site appearing to be too "spammy" too Googlebot. The email links are in the About pages anyway, which I need to update since it's way out of date. The PoTD won't show up in archive view mode too and neither will the "Notable Posts", unless they're navigated to from a post marked notable. I've rotated the sticky posts somewhat too, there are too many. BTW, the notable posts are supposed to be the better posts in sixthseal.com so that was why the decision was made to make it sticky. It's still spammy but I'm aiming for SERPs rather than PR anyway.

I've also added a copyright notice on every page, it wasn't clear in the blog before. There's also a bit of SEO work done, thanks to Steph [unadorned.org] of dandruff, a fellow Sarawakian (born there anyway) who actually replied my email about how she managed to get a PageRank 7. :)

Update:
Here's some stats that might be of interest:

October 2003
Unique visits per day: 1397 (average) 2134 (max)

Top 3 referrers: Yahoo, Google, Erowid

#1 search string: kehidupan seorang pramugara yang terlampau (1042)
Permutations of the above accounts for half of the Top 20 keywords, with the other half being drug related search strings.

Countries:
Unresolved (37%)
Network (18%)
US Commercial (17%)
Australia (9%)
Malaysia (3%)
Singapore (3%)
US Educational (2%)
Canada (2%)
UK (2%)
Japan (1%)
Other (6%)
This is more balanced than previous stats (when I was in Melbourne) where Australian visitors dominates at around 40%.

Bandwidth used:
sixthseal.com - 12 GB
castitas.com - 9 GB

My excess bandwidth bill:
sixthseal.com - 12 GB - 5 GB = 7 GB
castitas.com - 9 GB - 5 GB = 4 GB
Total = 11 GB excess @ US$ 5 per GB
Amount = US$ 55 or RM 209

RM 209 is more than 1/7 of my monthly paycheck. Help! :p

Posted in by Huai Bin at 07:10 AM Permalink | Comments (11)