Baby Talk

His Royal Highness King Baby Hsiang is 1.5 years old. While he can understand most of what we say, he can only say a limited number of words so far.

Below are the words he can say now, I probably miss a few and hopefully my wifey will chime in.

mama (mother)

mum mum (gimme food!)

nen nen (gimme milk!)

papa (father)

bao bao (pick me up, hold me)

nana (grandmother - mother side)

woa woa (dog)

nai nai (grandmother - father side)

pop pop (grandfather - mother side)

down (put me down)

there (used along with finger pointing when we ask him where)

duck duck (his shower rubber duck)

mei mei (beautiful, usually commenting on clothes)

yeh yeh (grandfather - father side)

blead (bread)
pleee (please)

no no (no is no lar, ah boh then?)

vroom vroom (vehicle)

mo moe (no more, used with shaking of his hand - and yes he says mo moe)

da (hit, used along with hitting)

Finally met Nelson's girlfriend, Miss Money today. Here's hoping she will pull Nelson back from the pink side and breaks Nelson from his brokeback mountain inclination.

Oh, and they are lovely together! Best wishes to them. =)

Book Review (Jan 09)

Read seven novels since last review.

Given my gold fish memory, I have forgoten most of what I read, so here's whatever I manage to remember. =P

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Four Blind Mice by James Patterson

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I think my better half has bought this book quite a few years back, I never bothered to read it thinking it was some mushy romance girly novel.

It's Black Market, another book by the same author that I read a while ago that made me realised Mr Patterson writes nothing girly at all, he writes manly stuff!

Know what's better? He writes page-turning fantastic manly thriller!

Four blind mice is not the fairy tale of little girl with her pet mice that I thought it was, it's about the action-filled investigation by detective Alex Cross of his closest friend's friend's (not a typo, it's really friend of Alex's friend) framed murder case.

Alex is pitched against three highly skilled killing machines who are backed by military authorities. Great read and as far as I can remember, no mouse was harmed in the story line.

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The Rise of Solamnia trilogy by Douglas Niles

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Back to my favourite fantasy world of Krynn, the world of Dragonlance. The Rise of Solamnia's story line happened after the War of Souls and it centred on Jaymes Markham, a knight turned fugutive turned knight turned emperor.

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The story of the rise and fall and redemption of Jaymes spanned across the three novels: Lord of the Rose, The Crown and the Sword, and The Measure and the Truth.

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Magic, swords, shields, pikes, cannons, battles, castles, sieges, romance, love potion, corruption, deceptions, et cetera. What's not to like?

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The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman

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This is the last volume in His Dark Materials trilogy, and it's a reread for me, the only reread out of the seven novels this time round.

His Dark Materials trilogy is a great read, the movie version is nothing compared to the novels, as usual for movies made from novels. Probably the only acceptable exception is The Lord of the Rings trilogy, and even that, the novels are still better.

I won't go into detail about this novel specifically since His Dark Materials trilogy is a complex piece of work. I will say though it's a great read and fantasy genre lover should definately go through the trilogy.

This is my second or third time through this book and still the same paragraph gave me a pause and the urge to quote:

"I used to be a nun, you see. I thought physics could be done to the glory of God, till I saw there wasn't any God at all and that physics was more interesting anyway. The Christian religion is a very powerful and convincing mistake, that's all."

Bold words from Mr Pullman, I like it.

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Judge & Jury by James Patterson and Andrew Gross

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Another great read from Patterson (and Gross). I love the short chapter style, a few pages per chapter, short, to the point. If I ever write a novel (hey, one can dream!), I have to remember to use this style.

Judge & Jury is about a caught mobster who hired killer to kill all the juries so he won't get convicted. The one and only jury who survived a bus bombing murder attempt was a mother who lost her son in the bombing.

The mobster later escaped and the mother went after him with the help of a detective. There is romance thrown in between the detective and the mother, with hot steamy sex scenes (not really, just my imagination).

Gripping story line, fantastic thriller.

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Mandrake by Paul Eddy

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Another thriller, kind of like James Bond only instead of Bond, it's Flint. Grace Flint to be precise, a beautiful heroine thanks to the miracle of plastic surgery.

Story is about an operation to trap a financial manipulator that went horribly wrong, with Flint determined to track down the person responsible for the cock up as well as dishing her form of justice.

Absorbing plots of undercover, deceptions, double agents, spies, treachery and all those goody goody stuff that makes great thriller.

currently reading: Dead Man Riding by Gillian Linscott

Just another day

Chinese New Year, the year of the Ox.

Public holiday Monday and Tuesday and I took three days off to complete the week. Main purpose is to rest and relax since I have been feeling low on battery recently.

The thing is, no real rest and relax thus far. Busy doing nothing.

No relatives to visit, not really in a visiting mood to be honest. In fact, not really in Chinese New Year mood, hasn't been "in the mood" for a decade or so.

Rather just stay at home read some books, play some computer games, have some quality quiet time. As I have mentioned before, bliss is reading a novel on the bed, having a chilled soda and some junk food, undisturbed.

Guess I am just an antisocial solitary geek, or something like that.

Oh well.

Driving to KL in a few hours, think I best get some rest.

Happy Chinese Moo Year!

Just had my "reunion dinner" with father, younger brother, wifey and His Royal Highness King Baby Hsiang.

Buffet dinner at Cafe Laurel, Evergreen Hotel, Penang (Malaysia, Asia, Earth, Solar System, Galaxy...). Stuffed my face full, Hsiang helped in wanting a walk around every so often so the exercise increased my digestion, erm... yea, something like that.

It's usual for my family to not have the whole family together for the so called reunion dinner ever since my eldest brother went overseas to study oh-so-many years ago, followed by my second elder brother, and then me, and then my younger brother.

Understandable with Chinese New Year always being at the examination period and not during university holiday period.

No biggie.

It's actually the norm to not have the whole family together since that day oh-so-many years ago, even big occasions like all the weddings so far would have one or more of the family members MIA*. Only the younger brother's to go now, maybe, just maybe, his will have the whole family attending.

*MIA = missing in action

Anyway, good thing I wore my long pants for the dinner or I would have been underdressed by comparison to all those customers who put in quite a bit of effort in their attires.

I had half a mind to wear my knee length shorts to the dinner, changed to long pants last minute (phew!). Hard Rock Cafe collar t-shirt and the pair of slacker shoes that I always wear to work on Fridays completed my attire.

Casual and no fashion sense whatsoever, go me! (what lar, genuine Hard Rock Cafe t-shirt from Barcelona one ah!)

You know, actually I just wanted to post a Chinese New Year greeting, ended up with so much rubbish talk pula, ops...

Happy Chinese Moo Year!

May all of you have a wonderful and prosperous Ox year!

Indicators

These are my indicators (out of 100) at this very moment:

Chinese New Year mood = 5

Holiday mood = 70

Pissed-o-meter regarding Mr Memory's "vanishing act" = 30

Amusement from Mr Memory's e-mail exchange = 55

Tiredness = 95

Depressed for no apparent reason = 25

Pissed-o-meter regarding Live Messenger error = 15

Chinese New Year anticipation = 10

Holidays to rest and sleep like a pig anticipation = 200

00:30 to 02:00 hours meeting anticipation = -100

Creativity for more indicator category = 0

So, what about your indicators?

Come on, share share! =)

I am...

doing what slacker extraordinaire does best, of course!

Trust

I forgot to touch on trust in the previous entry.

The spur of the moment that led me to write the previous entry has passed though and I am just not in that frame of mind at the time being.

That said, I do want to write about trust so I will just put in words whatever goes through my mind now.

Of course, similar to the previous entry, I am simply sharing my personal take on life, on relationship, my own beliefs and the principles that I uphold. Do apply your own discretion.

Trust in a relationship builds over time by simply being our genuine selves, no deceit, no pretence, no hidden agenda. And of course, by always keeping our promises.

Don't make a promise if you do not intend to keep it.

Trust is a sacred thing. While we continue to build and maintain our trustworthiness, it's not something that we withdraw like a bank account.

Any abuse or violation of trust will mar it forever, like a scar that can never be erased. A single violation of trust will plant the seed of doubt in a relationship and it will never be the same again.

After all, if a person has abused the trust once, how do we know said person will not do it again? Say bye bye to trust as doubt and second guessing poison the relationship.

Do not ever violate the trust if you value the relationship, and your reputation.

This is not a dare, this is simply my advice to those who want peace of mind in their relationship, who want a relationship that can withstand slanders, who value the sense of security with their love one.

Trust me, don't maltreat trust.

The Key of a Relationship

To me, it has always been about two things:

• Honest, sincere communication
• Trust

Communication has to be there before a relationship starts, then it helps to flourish the relationship, while trust builds up, and then both communication and trust sustain the relationship.

When I was still single and available, any of the fairer species who has no foundation in the Mandarin language is an automatic zero for "potential girlfriend". Period.

You see, my mother tongue is Mandarin, even though it has gotten rusty over the decade I spent in England, I could only express myself fully using Mandarin all those years ago. So if a lady couldn't understand Mandarin, I don't see how we could develop a healthy long term intimate relationship, when we could not communicate without barrier or obstacles.

Don't get me wrong, I have many friends who don't speak Mandarin, a few of them are really close friends. It's just my belief that if a lady and I could not communicate completely, I couldn't spend a lifetime with her, there would just be something... lacking.

Good thing I found my love one back then, else with my current rusty Mandarin skill and crappy English skill, I would be single forever! 0_o

Anyway, I am writing about this simply to share what I believe is important in a long term relationship.

If you are facing a bump in your relationship, find a suitable time and place to have a heart to heart with your love one. Healthy relationship and communication are alike, they are a two-way thing.

Listen empathically, share sincerely, tell honestly.

Is your love one aware of the problem? Does your love one acknowledge the problem, since you know, in a relationship, it's not your problem or my problem, it's our problem.

Communicate till you get to a solution that both are happy with, if the solution is only satisfactory to one of you, then the problem is bound to come up again, and again, and again...

And you know what's the worse part?

Unresolved problem has the tendency to not only not go away, but to snow ball into even larger, nastier, more complicated problem over time. If left it snow balling long enough, we would find the problem so massive with so many layers that we no longer see the root cause.

Oh, if your love one doesn't care what you are concerned with, then you gotta ask yourself: do you really want to be with him or her for the rest of your life?

I should really do a book review as I am one-fifth of the way into my seventh book since my last review.

I have already forgotten most of what I read! Go go my goldfish memory! =P

鸟人成仙记 Introducing Nelson

江边一只大话鸟

There's this bird beside the river that's full of shits (the bird, not the river)

男女通杀

Attracted to both genders

我男女都爱因为…我像神酱，博爱世人！！

I love both man and woman because... I'm like a God, I'm all loving!!

鸟神 (God of Birds)

Nelson

As I have said I like to promote Nelson more this year, the next Nelson promoting entry will most likely be titled:

"There is something about Nelson"

Stay tuned (but don't hold your breath).

=)

Finally completed my documentation and spammed sent it to the relevant people.

Here's hoping that's the end of it.

Who am I kidding?

While writing the document I already had another "hmm, what if..." moment and had already started on another 24 cases to quench my curiosity.

Oh well, 'job security'!

=P

This is a rant

Jeez, first entry of 2009, and it's going to be a rant.

This is so veli da MEH!

I have been going to bed after 02:00 hours everyday since entering 2009, starting the night of 2nd of January, Friday.

The reason?

I have been working every night until I simply had to hit the bed, including weekend.

And guess what I did on New Year's Day when everyone was celebrating?

Work, work, work.

Remember the 80ish modelling cases I said I have to redo, and that I would be cutting corners down to 50ish cases?

Well, I have completed all the simulations, a grand total of 128 cases.

So much for cutting corners...

I only have myself to blame, I think I got carried away with the "hmm... what if..." moments. >.<

So I have been post-processing all those cases, analysing the data, and working on the documentation which is supposed to be dued, erm... last week.

What a way to start a new year. Great, just bloody freaking great.

=\

In order to save this entry from a complete moronic rant, it's of great pleasure to know that there will be (at least) two July babies from my colleagues this year.

And while she hasn't announced it and we didn't ask (not knowing if the parents-to-be want to keep it a secret still), it's obvious from the Christmas gathering that a high school friend of mine is going to have a baby (or more!) this coming, hmm... June? July? Maybe May even! (my bulging tummy pregnancy duration judging skill is veli da meh!)

Congratulations! =D

Oh, and here's my grocery shopping list, sorry bananas and watermelons, get someone to translate if you are really interested. =)

improvise when you forgot how to write a word! =P