2010 in Numbers

125 blog entries
Check the number of entries for 2008 and 2009, I am consistent if nothing. =) Besides consistently writing rubbish quality entries, I am also consistent in being ugly, consistent in getting balder, consistently slacking in style, et cetera...

9724 Scribble Pad visits
That's from 23:58 hours on 6th of January to 21:33 hours on 31st of December. What I didn't record is the number of my visits out of that 9724. =P

17428.9 kilometres covered
Distance commuted to and fro ulu place and home.

322 hours 30 minutes drive
Time taken for the 17428.9 km stated above. That's 13.4 days of my life wasted on totally unproductive activity, plus the added "bonus" of griefs from idiotic drivers. And people wonder why I don't join the Great Place to Work committee anymore.

1279.11 litres of petrol
Amount of petrol consumed by my MyVi from 3rd of January to 30th of December. Note this includes personal usage and not just the 17428.9 km above.

24 PowerPoint
Number of formal presentations I created this year for work.

34 models
Number of CFD models I generated this year. Catwalk baby, catwalk!

75 badminton sessions
Playing with cock is fun and healthy. All should play cock! Shuttlecock.

9 missed badminton sessions
Either sick, urgent family issue, or outstation.

34 novels
Number of novels read. Averaging 10 to 11 days to read a book, sounds about right.

348 hours 30 minutes of virtual life
Amount of time spent playing World of Warcraft in the 5 months I subscribed to this year.

33, 6, 3, 1
Important numbers to me this year. ^_^



Happy new year everyone, here's wishing you a fantastic 2011!

A few words on relationship

Nobody is perfect, so relationships are not perfect, and the road to happiness is strewn with ups and downs.

No relationship can be perfectly happy all the time, but please don't hang onto an unhappy relationship.

Be mindful that there is happy relationship with the occasional bad moments, and there is unhappy relationship with occasional sweet moments. The former is healthy, the latter is not.

Not everyone is cut to be one half of a couple, and a relationship is not a compulsory element of a happy life. If you keep dipping a toe into dating but never quite feel comfortable with it, perhaps you are better off single after all.

What's the point of being in a relationship that makes you sad and miserable most of the time?

Life is too short to be wasted on unhappiness.

Just a sharing, and not all words are mine, some were taken from stuff I read.

蜗牛找家

蜗牛在找家
一个负担得起的家
一个简单舒适的家
一个甜瓜喜欢的家
一个大小瓜爱的家
一个属于我们的家
一个温馨快乐的家

Christmas Eve at Straits Quay

Godsister-in-law brought us to Straits Quay on Christmas Eve.



Straits Quay is on the reclaimed land behind Island Plaza, Penang. It's still relatively new with most of the shops still not open for business.


this image is taken by His Royal Highness King Hsiang

Most of those already open for business are cafes and restaurants, and since it's Christmas Eve, most of these only serve thier dinner set, which was around RM150 per person.

Yea, it's like robbing or extortion. But strangely there are still people who are willing to be slaughtered instead of boycott this kind of ridiculous seasonal inflation.



When will people understand that consumer has the power to stop this kind of greedy action? Boycott the establishment until the businessmen learn that the consumers are smart and will not let them just steal our hard earn money because someone died or was born so many years ago.


we were in giant candy land!

Oh well, who am I kidding? There are just so many filthy rich people who don't give a damn about the increase in price of the same old same old food served any other day.

And there are just so many of those hopeless romantics who think it's super duper romantic to spend a lot of money on things not worth that value on a public occasion, not realising that most of these are just hypes and cons the businessmen made up that has nothing to do with the original intention of the occasion.


imagine how many people that doughnut can feed if it was real

Just go look up the origin of Christmas and say, the businessmen all time favorite Valentine's Day (forever known as Businessmen-con-you-day by yours truely).

And really, do you have to be dictated by public occasion for that "special day"? Come on, special day with your loved one can be any day of your choice, a public occasion doesn't make any day extra special.


this is not the way to take photo of fountain. Fountain, what fountain? =P

Oh well, I can shout and gripe all I want, still come the next public occasion, same thing will happen. Some people never learn, some things never change.


slightly better shot of the fountain, to the side or sitting down would have been better

Anyway, after enquiring a few restaurants in Straits Quay, we ended up having our dinner in Dome, and it's slightly less than RM150 for three adults and a child. =)

Most of the people there that day were like us, drawn there due to the novelty of it.


huge Christmas tree

There was a stage and some performers with painted face, we didn't stay and watch, were just there for the dinner really.


cheeky Hsiang in the giant doughnut

Christmas decorations were plentiful, with a huge Christmas tree.


this is the Christmas tree viewed from the second floor

Parking was still free the day we went, so it's a good time to check out the place. =)

Munchkin!

This is an invitation.

Well, kind of. =P

Who would have thought that an offhand purchase while I was on business trip would end up getting me so involved.

Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to introduce you to the card game called Munchkin.

As a principle I usually do not do advertisement on my blog, but I like this game so much I just have to spread the word and hopefully get more friends hooked so I have more people to play with. ^_^


image source

Psst... Steve Jackson, feel free to send me a few of the expansions for advertising this for you. =P

Munchkin is a three to six players card game that will take about an hour or so to play. The aim of the game is very simple: be the first to get to level 10.

It's the process of getting to level 10 that I like veli the much. You see, this is not a care bear game, you curse, steal, backstab, step on your buddies to get ahead. Don't you worry, they will do the same to you too! No hard feelings, it's just the way the game is. =)

Such wicked, sinister and devilish game, I likey! ^_^


Yes I am evil in case you haven't noticed =P

The game is turn based and quite easy to get a hang of, there are even videos on YouTube that teach you how to play Munchkin.

I am an engineer so this is a flow chart I made to explain the turn phases in Munchkin:


new Munchkin players, feel free to use this as reference

Anyway, to those who know where I stay, it's holiday season and we have a couple of long weekends coming, interested in a game or two? ^_^

And to my colleagues who are interested, we can probably squeeze in a game during Friday lunch time... =D

Oh, talking about holiday season...

Dear Santa, as you know I have always been a good boy, *cough* would you mind stuffing the following Munchkin expansions into my sock this Christmas?

Munchkin 2: Unnatural Axe
Munchkin 3: Clerical Errors
Munchkin 4: The Need for Steed
Munchkin 5: De-Ranged

Er... I will prepare a HUGE sock. =P

Yo!

Wifey bought a yo-yo for His Royal Highness King Hsiang, who couldn't wait to get it out of its wrapping while in the car.

Only to find that there simply isn't enough space for him to try out his new toy, and the following conversation occured:

Boy: *exasperated* mommi, there's not enough space to yo!

*wifey laughed out loud*

Dad: Not enough space to play yo-yo, Hsiang, not not enough space to yo.

Mom: Hsiang Hsiang, you cannot just make up a word.

Boy: Oh, okay.

Yes indeed, I am back

The warmth of my wifey.

The laughters and noises of my sons.

The comfort of my bed.

The variety of delicious food.

The snail speed "broadband" internet.

The rude and idiotic drivers.

The compulsory "free" wake up call from the mosques.

Aaahh, yes indeed, I am back in Malaysia.

Where's my t-shirt?

Arrived home Saturday evening. Home sweet home.

Pretty much slept the whole Sunday away.

By the way, where's my I barely survived the 36 hours flight marathon t-shirt?

Multibillion company, yet the employees can't even get on business class on their business trips. I wouldn't mind the short flights, but seriously, give us a break with flights more than 6 hours. Or at the very least, let us get on direct flights instead of multiple hops and transits.

Do our work hours worth so little that the 10+ hours wasted on the multiple transits matter none?

Bah! Gimme my t-shirt and please don't send me on business trip for a long while!



On a totally unrelated note, found out about this ground-breaking, earthshaking, deeply impactful news today:

McDonald's has landed in ulu place!

Oh. My. Goodness.

Does this mean ulu place is no longer ulu?

This change has profound consequences and should be hotly debated over a Value Meal or Happy Meal. Rather this than the joke and often shame that is our politics.

Word.

Home Going

Just one more night. Tomorrow, I will be on my way home.

My long way home.

You know, just four flights spanning over 32 hours.

Okay, make that my loooooong way home. =\

21:20 hours of that 32 will be in flight, 10:40 hours of it in transit.

And that's not including the time it takes to get to the airport, the waiting time before the first flight, the immigration and luggage waiting time after final arrival, and the time it takes to get home from the airport.

I don't know about you, but this is probably the number one reason why I hate travelling.

On top of that we have the motion sickness, jet lag, cracked lips and dry skin...

Good grief I hate travelling! >_<

Really, I just want to go home.

Can someone invent teleportation already?

想家

想念我的妻子
想念我的孩子们
想念我的床
我想要回家

My Time is Not Mine

Slacker month is over. =(

Ironically I was darn busy in slacker month so it's a good thing I only write 4 entries in November. Else I would have been posting crappier than usual rubbish instead of high quality rubbish, hehe. =P

Initially I intended to write a good length entry about my business trip so far today but thanks to my shopaholic colleague who has to shop everyday, it's already 22:30 hours by the time I got back to hotel room and took my shower. =\

Despite directly expressing my wish to get back to hotel room as soon as possible after dinner since I have much work to do, we still ended up getting back to the hotel near 22:00 hours.

Bugger.

Not everyone has nothing to do and just want to get back to hotel and go straight to bed one you know?

Dammit for cost saving car-pool, I can no longer take charge of my own time.

What a cheap company, bollocks.

*Grumble grumble grumble...*

Oh well, nothing beats starting a new month with a rant. =P




Nope, I didn't blog while working, slacker extraordinaire has principle one! It's not office hours this side of the globe, in fact, I am going to sleep now. ^_^