Tuesday, October 28, 2008

End of Semester 2, 2008

Group pic with Dr. Mamun after our group's presentation in International Management 375 on Global Staffing Strategies, one of the best :D. This semester 90% of my presentations are pushed to the last day of teaching, it's both a blessing and a curse for this craziest semester ever.

Finally semester ended, and just like that. This is the most craziest semester for me, and just glad I made it through safely.

At the beginning I thought the units I took for my 2nd year first semester for this semester 2 2009 was easy, from observations of other second year seniors who looked very eng. But I was wrong.

Had a tough time juggling my time between academics, JCLA and personal life with all the projects and group assignments the semester threw at me. Managing 6 groups was an uber challenge, and I only have two hands. Sacrificed a lot, A LOT, of my personal time to get things done correctly and clean up all the SNAFUs (A LOT OF THEM as well) along the way. End result: A freaking survivor who almost went nuts whahahaha.

Anyways now that semester ended, gotta give focus on finals that is coming up in mid November. Can't get too cocky now. Gambate to everyone for the study week! Haip!

Monday, October 27, 2008

Biting Fingernails


Ok I admit it, I have onychophagia; a habit of biting my finger nails. I'm one of the 23% of young adults who compulsively put our hands at our mouth and then start to chew off the tips of our nails. It's a decade-old habit that I've decided to stop cold turkey at the end of this semester to avoid being whacked by someone.

What makes me bite my nails? Anxiety is one, and then there's the perception that I can bite my nails way more curvaceous than a stainless steel nail cutter. And then there's the subconscious need to chew on something, something like my subconscious craving to eat Pringles for their crispy potato chip-ness. Anyways here are several tips on how to get rid of this (I don't like the word bad, it's so biased) habit:

  • Keep your nails trimmed and filed. Taking care of your nails can help reduce your nail-biting habit and encourage you to keep your nails attractive.
  • Have a manicure regularly or use nail polish. Men can use a clear polish. Wearing artificial nails may stop you from biting your nails and protect them as they grow out.
  • Try stress-management techniques if you bite your nails because you are anxious or stressed.
  • Paint a bitter-tasting polish, such as CONTROL-IT or Thum, on your nails. The awful taste will remind you to stop every time you start to bite your nails.
  • Try substituting another activity, such as drawing or writing or squeezing a stress ball or Silly Putty, when you find yourself biting your nails. If you keep a record of nail-biting, you will become more aware of the times when you bite your nails and be able to stop the habit.
  • Wear gloves, adhesive bandages, or colored stickers whenever possible to remind you not to bite your nails.
  • Snap a rubber band on the inside of your wrist when you start to bite your nails so you have a negative physical response to nail-biting.
(Source: http://health.yahoo.com)

I don't practice any of the above, I just used mental discipline. It may have been a great stress-relieving habit, but yeah so far I've stopped biting for a few days already minus several bitings that went on without me noticing.

Sunday, October 26, 2008

Camping at Goodday

So I got a few assignments that need to be done and I decided to camp at Goodday just for kicks. It was nice, with free air-con, ASTRO and free Wi-Fi (too bad can't connect online). And off I went with my assessments for that Saturday, accompanied by some trance (can't watch the TV anyways, the Bengali dudes were watching their favourite channel).


Apparently I was not the only one being busy at the cafe. Check out who's beyond my crosshair...


Wahaha kantoi. Either me kacau daun or it's the other way around. But they're not pak to-ing or anything they're studying and doing their assignments as well. Anyways got a few % of my assessment done in Goodday. After 1 RM3.50 chocolate shake, a cheap RM5 30x sticks of fries and 3 hours later, I went a few rounds in LAN with Irwin until dinner time at 6.30pm, where we were joined by the other h3666 denizens.


I'm coming back to camp here again a few more times next week. Then it's home to Kampua Town for the study week and then come back for finals. Boo-yah baby!

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

The World Finance's Darket Hour, and We're Still Arguing About Who Should be the Next PM

Yeah WTF indeed.

For the past few months after the fateful announcement of election results on 8th March 2008, Malaysia has been dumped into a crazy political roller-coaster ride. Meanwhile outside Malaysia, one by one businesses gulung tikar, big entities like the Lehman Brothers declared bankruptcy and Finnish government tried to save their national banks with their $72 billion rescue package and in the US billions of dollars worth of bail-out plans were rolled out and rejected. Heck, now AUD1 is now RM2.20 compared to RM3.00 back in July. That's a sharp drop, and all of them are happening too fast, way too fast. Big countries like US are able to recuperate (barely), but the Pakistan, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Argentina are not faring very well and may face bankruptcy [read more]. Inflation is looking great around the world, from Malaysia's 7% to Zimbabwe's 231,000,000% (imagine paying $1,000,000 for a diet coke, and here we are complaining about a RM4.00 mee goreng basah) [read more].

This is the worst global financial crisis, even worse than the 1942 Great Depression or the now-insignificant 1998 Asian financial crisis. This is the end-world scenario not covered by Hollywood or by most fanatic eschatologists. Nations around the world facing bankruptcy and banks falling down bringing along the world's standing economy with them will surely turn you and me on each other as we seek to survive after the thing called money is taken away from our lives. This is potentially the end of the civilized world...

And what's happening in our local daily newspapers? 94% of the pages are full of political craps about government change, Mongolians, sodo mee, racists dudes who call other people pendatangs, babi-name callings, political poster shreddings, I-Simply-Arrests, and some Street Fighter actions in the Parliament and UMNO proceedings. Then it's 5% comics and other entertainments and 1% others. C'mon la macha... what the hell is this?

Quotes from Harold & Kumar Escapes from Guantanamo Bay:
Harold: But, listen, to be honest, after all the sh*t we've been through I don't know if we can trust our government anymore
Bush: Trust the government?
Harold: Yeah
Bush: Heck. I'm in the government and I don't even trust it. You don't have to believe in your government to be a good American. You just have to believe in your country.
Kumar: Exactly

Thursday, October 16, 2008

The stuck-in-the-head-for-half-a-sem song: Let Go

This song has been running half of the semester, a true stuck-in-the-head song. I found out it wasn't the usual trance beat attraction that made this song so prominent in my head, but it was actually the hidden meaning of the lyrics in the song itself... and my subconscious mind was addicted to it. Here's Paul van Dyk - Let Go



I can't get it out of me
It's breathing inside of me
It's reaching inside of you
You're feeling infected
You're being affected
It's just like a cold
A kiss on your lips
Now you're taking control
I feel like a criminal
I'm falling apart
We're leaving for Venus
In a getaway car
Cause no one can save us
There's no need to try
I'm looking for saviors
Before they all die

If you wanna try and save me
Then take my heart don't hate me

If you feel you can't let go let it go...
[x2]

I feel like a criminal
I'm falling apart
We're leaving for Venus
In a getaway car
You say that you hold me
But you don't really know
You clinging to fingers
But you gotta let go

If you wanna try and save me
Then take my heart don't hate me
If you feel you can't let go let it go...
[x2]
Let go, let go, let go, let go...

If you wanna try and save me
Then take my heart don't hate me
If you feel you can let go let it go...

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Updated Google Earth: I Can See Sibu (clearly)!

Wow I didn't realize Google Earth was updated until my roomie informed me about it. So I quickly hover over to see good old Kampua Town and guess what? I can see the whole town clearly now (and my house!) weeee. Check it out:

It may not be like it, but once zoomed in you can see a detailed version of Kampua Town. Heck I even tagged my house (the yellow pin near the river, complete with backyard, the mango tree, the lil' old ferry boat and all the other details). Sweet! :D This updated version is way more useful compared to the 2005 version as seen below, it was all pixellaty and JPEGnized (if that's even a word).

You can download your own Google Earth for free at http://earth.google.com/ and being your own 3D mapping of the world. I personally found it useful when I'm looking for the directions around Oil Town haha).

Saturday, October 11, 2008

Marketing: Packaging and Branding

All marketers and non-marketers have a common sense on how a product should be packaged, branded and described in order for it to sell. I found two of these products that may not be well received here...

With the melamine scare still fresh in the minds of parents with nursing child, I doubt this party set won't be seeing any party anytime later.













This box of glassware won't really sell in towns where the folks uses the brand's name as one of their 167 swear words. However those with a sense of humor or really attracted to the name might buy it. And take note how the N is being stressed, just like how the real word is pronounced..

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

So Many Quests, So Much Time

After a week of freedom I must go back to the front lines to the north. As expected I did not managed to complete ALL the assignments during the free week; unstressing comes first, it's Eid month!

So I was packing up and *popped* a new stress pimple at my neck (that's how stressing it was, and I was removed from all manners of pimples and stress marks from the soothing healing weather in Kampua Town). Then I caught the 11:30pm bus on Sunday night so I can catch a 10:00am class on Monday the next day. It's another one of those grueling 7 hours night trip (Sarawak has one of the best roads in Malaysia thanks to honest government funding :D), and by the time I arrived at Oil Town at 6:45am I was dead woozy with a mediocre hang over. My cousin picked me up and sent me back to h3666, and it was business as usual.

With assignments and tasks from both academic and non-academic piling up, I had to switch over to micromanagement and tend to everything in a tit-bits manner.
The situation; 10 vital things to do & 4 major groups to manage.
The lease; two weeks.
The problem; only have two hands.
The stimulus; procrastination.

Procrastination is some kind of primordial body-response to stress (from what I've seen and experienced), so hopefully my new "My Weekend is My Weekday" program will solve the issue cold turkey. I'll use the "My Weekend is My Me Time" policy after the dust has settled. And now I better get going planning and making things happen.

p/s: As explained earlier, it's a pimple, A PIMPLE! Not a nasty love bite X(

Friday, October 3, 2008

Melamine Scare; Got Milk?

With the word melamine entering the vocabulary of common folks here, I wonder why is it becoming such a big deal.

One of the big tainted product was baby milk powder. Okay so we have tainted milk here and there, causing a widespread panic to parents with child who still depends on milk since there's been 100,000 babies getting sick from melamine-added milk. So I was wondering why don't they opt for a free-er alternative; breastfeeding.

No seriously, even after the scare was rampant, some mothers still resort to milk from goats, cow and whatever milk-secreting animals they can find [read here]. If they say they're busy with work-life, can't they can't spend 5 minutes sitting down and breastfeed their child. If they say breastfeeding causes body problems like sagging and what not; does that mean they love themselves more than their child? C'mon, I've seen more pruning in Sunsweet Stoned Prunes and I don't think anyone can be at that level (unless you soak yourself up in hot water for 6 hours). Lady, there's a reason why women were created with breasts and they are not there as accessories.



And for the dudes, you guys can do your part as well. Did you know men can breastfeed and lactate as well? No? Well check out this Sri Lankan dude who's been breastfeeding his two daughters [read facts]. Or you guys can Google for a number of other dudes who are now proud breastfeeding dads who's helping out to ease moms' duty. In my view this may be contradicting with some dude's macho-ness policy, but do remember the macho-ness won't go any further after you got your first kid, unless you got plans of spending those macho-ness on a new girl/wife. Remember, nothing beats the original flavour.


Eid 1429: Not Happening...

This year's Eid Mubarak wasn't happening at all. I mean yes, I've been getting the feeling it's getting less and less lively partly due most of my buddies are not in Kampua Town to celebrate it together AND the fact that I'll only be in town for 2-3 months only in a year (feeling apathic).

Family gathering was nice, somehow I don't feel the happeningness of the same level compared to new Year and CNY gathering. Hmm... I guess the >7% inflation has done much damage to the festive mood. Hopefully it won't be as bad for the next few years (you know who's in charge of our country's finance now la).

Thursday, October 2, 2008

Mercenaries 2: World in Flames

Huzzah! I got myself my copy of Mercenaries 2: World in Flames for the PS2 as my own personal birthday gift (I need to treat myself as well right?). Now I can check this game off the list after being in my Wish List for almost 2 years weeee XD

My heart was screaming Viva la Revolucion! when I obtained a copy of World in Flames

The game the way I perceived it while I was waiting to get my hands on it;



And what did I get in the end? A very buggy, boring empty game. I mean, I had more fun in the first game Playground of Destruction which had a great storyline AND long game play. World in flames? Bought it on Monday, played for 4 hours, then on Tuesday another 4 hours and presto I've killed Solano. I've completed the game before I could completely get engrossed in the game. Total missions was 16 (main storyline) and I only used the old usable GOD MODE cheat from previous game during the last 2 hours before the game ended. Here's how the PS2 version looked like;



Okay so maybe the EA logo that popped up in the beginning broke me down (I didn't realize it's under EA now) so my hope was still up since I had good history playing Pandemic games. But the curse of the EA strikes back, and I was served with cold gun sound bug, random game crash (thank goodness only once, but it was mid of a long mission FTW) and seemingly degraded graphics. North Korea in the first game looked like a real war-torn country with a sad ambient that gave me goosebumps experiencing the horrors of way, whilst Venezuela in Merc 2 felt like the backyard of my house; damp, muddy and rainy. Owh and the songs sucked too, I was expecting something central american-ish with passion that keeps you shooting and blasting, but... yeah.

World in Flames have dissapointed me big time :/ but I'll give the PC version a try just so I can positively look at EA-nised Pandemic games in the future. My rating after bombing Solano's reinforced bunker with a nuclear bunker buster bomb? A 3.5 out of 10.

Plot:

Hey I understand what a guy who got shot at his ass (or upper thigh) feels like, AND didn't get paid for a big job well done. So a vengeance storyline is a-ok with me, sadly it's just too plain and simple. I mean by the time China and the Allied Nations decided to invade to stop the chaos I was so hyped up by the big war (seeing the Venezuelans, Guerillas, Universal Petroleums, Pirates, Allied Nations and the Chinese battling it out at the streets just turns me on, I love urban warfare XD). Alas the mood was killed when I find myself watching the credits of the game after I nuked Solano's bunker a few hours later...

Graphics:

Sadly for the PS2 version, not much noticeable improvements... biasa jak... in the first game seeing the carpet bomb for the first time made me go all 'O' but now... haihz...

Sounds:

Eargh, covered the music earlier, it's just not "ummph!" enough. Was looking forward to an intense passionate Spanish guitar-ish theme song playing in the background while you yee-haw at everything that moves and empties that AK-47 rounds with a B52 soaring overhead dropping megatons of fun. But sadly the song and sometimes the in-game dialogues hang or lag for a while as it tries to load (could be my aging PS2 or just the game, I think it's the game).

Gamplay:

Nothing new since Playground of Destruction. The map is smaller (for me) compared to the first game which had Korea split into two maps. Now it feels like Ulu Lanang riverside. I thought I will be brought to another part of Venezuela or something as I progress but... yeah.

Longevity:

Once you've completed the main storyline there's not much left for you to do. I'd rather replay Playground of Destruction all over again.

General Ham suggests:
SERIOUSLY AVOID Mercenaries 2 for the PS2
Play the first Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction
Try PS2 Just Cause

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

The Second Decade

Wow, it's been 2 decades that I have walked the Earth. Has it been that fast? Well it's the end of Ramadan as well, and the beginning of Syawal, so I guess things really are waiting for anyone. No rest for the wicked :/ But hey, this is my first birthday in 3 years time that I get to celebrate with families AND the last birthday to fall during Ramadan.

Anyways thanks for all the birthday wishes :3 How's the Eid you might ask? I'm tired from the first day actitivies so won't be covering that up :p Salam Eid Mubarak to all, forgive any physical and spiritual (especially batin!) mistakes :)