That Thingy Beside the URL

I am a simpleton simple person.

Simple person derives happiness from simple thing.

Like my favicon (favourite icon) finally showing up.

that's me icon, yes sir it is!

When that website was fresh and new, I looked up the html for the favicon, searched high and low for a graphical software that can produce the .ico file. I tried and tried, and then tried some more. Yet despite following the html to the letter, my favicon refused to work.

Disappointed, I gave up. That was six years ago.

Either Internet Explorer 7 had an update, or more likely Lycos Tripod had an upgrade in the past few days, for my favicon suddenly appeared!

Wah lau, magic!

Me is happy. =)

Remembrance

You were in my thoughts all day today
it's a sombre day
Late yesterday night I started thinking of you
without prompting, without reason
It has been two years since you left us
your departure broke me, changed me
I know you are in a better place now
smiling down on us, guiding your younger sibling
Hsiang has been a good boy today
was it your doing?
I just want you to know that
we would have loved you with all our hearts

Model Extraordinaire

After making me pose for her in a previous outing, she had the chance to return the favour in a more recent outing.

May I present to you, model extraordinaire*, Miss LL Ong!

like, totally the same...ish

Besides looking at the wrong direction, hands a bit off, not wearing as sexily, different hair style... you can easily hardly tell the difference!

Full mark for her sportsmanship (sportswomanship?) in agreeing to pose and allowing me to share this wonderful photo on the blog.

You da star, gal! You da star!

* as in software simulation that kind of model

Bookworms ahoy!

Sharing of the books I read in May.


The first book is a Chinese Mandarin book a colleague of mine lent to me titled 处女座的医生是这样的 (This is How A Virgo Doctor is Like) by author 欧阳林. A direct Manglish translation of the title is "A Virgo Doctor is Like This one".


image source

It's a realtively thin book containing several short stories revolving around a male clinic doctor in Taiwan, who is also the author of the book.

It's a light and easy read. It is just like reading a personal blog really, only in good old hardcopy instead of on monitor screen.

The stories are interesting and about the right length for a quick relaxing read, like when doing business in the loo. =P

Comparing it to blogs, I would say it's about as good as Mr Iron Rod's, slightly better than Kenny's, and worse than mine.

*ehem* =P


I am a big fan of the Dragonlance series of fantasy novels, and I have been slowly going through my collection according to the time line of the series after my shipment of stuff from England arrived last year, and after I have gotten my lazy arse to unpack and sort out the books.

So far, I have gone through The Meetings Sextet, the Preludes (only 5 out of 6 since I don't have the 4th book, yet), the Chronicles Trilogy, and the Legends trilogy. Most of them were rereads.

Yes, I reread story books, novels, comics...

The two Dragonlance books I have gone through this month are rereads, and both by my favourite authors Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. Any book from these two is a must read. =)

The Second Generation picked up the story after the War of the Lance. It contains five stories introducing the offsprings of the Heroes of the Lance and bringing the readers up to speed with the happening in the world of Krynn.


image source

A little excerpt from The Second Generation that I like:

"He's my son. Those draconians- I was afraid-" Tanis gave up. "How could you understand? You've never been a parent."

"If degenerating into a mindless idiot is what it means to be a parent, I shall certainly take care that I never achieve such a dubious distinction."

The Second Generation is a must read for all Dragonlance lovers, especially those who don't want to miss a thing when reading the following novel.


Dragons of Summer Flame, while following the naming convention of the Chronicles Trilogy, really doesn't follow the Chronicles directly. Do go through the Legends trilogy and The Second Generation before Dragons of Summer Flame.


image source

Forces of good and evil banded together to fight the father of all Gods for the survival of Krynn, that alone should be enough to get Dragonlance lovers to pick up the book, if the death of at least one of the Heroes of the Lance is not sufficient to draw the attention.

I said 'at least one' because this is a reread and I have read books further down the time line of Dragonlance series and found out about the truth of a certain "death" in this book. I won't spoil it here, of course.

After all, don't you want to find out why the Gods depart Krynn and about the end of an age? The story that led to the beginning of the Age of Mortals without the magic as Kyrnn known it.

Here's a little excerpt from Dragons of Summer Flame that I really like:

"Why do I keep lying to him?" she asked herself miserably. "One lie on top of another. All tiny and harmless to begin with, they seem to be growing in size."

A tiny pile of sand had changed to a mountain of boulders. She had to labor* to keep them in place, for if one shifted, they would fall, tumble down and crush her. Yet the mountain of lies was now a barrier, was keeping her seperated from Palin.

Don't lie, kiddo! Especially to someone you love.

The return of my favourite character, Raistlin, in both Second Generation and Dragons of Summer Flame, is enough reason to mark them as must read but really, Margaret and Tracy delivered again in these books. They are fantastic.


* yes, silly American spelling.

Random Bits & Pieces

A few days before the Bowling Queen's birthday, this happened...

yup, me is scaringly ugly

After the birthday celebration and when I had finally hauled my lazy arse to get the blog entry done, I sent a shameless plug heads up to the colleagues.

To which the birthday girl replied...

erm... yea... 21

=P

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Come on people, give face and put something in the comment leh!

=(

"boh liao"

Giant size noodle?

I want!

I am in the world of giants!

Making a fool of myself is what I am pretty good at.

=P

Find your own world of giant wall papers at your local Secret Recipe restaurant. Hope you go to one that doesn't require you to wait for an hour before the food is ready.

*cough*QueensbayMallPenangBranch*cough*

Sorry, must be the giant size chilli.

Happy Birthday Bowling Queen!

I have hesitation in posting this entry (read notes at the end for details) but decided that in the spirit of Great Place to Work I shall risk tarnishing my non-existent goody Mr Nice reputation further, just to share this recent birthday celebration that happened in the office.

A lady colleague turned the wonderful age of 27 21 a few days ago. In celebration of such joyous occasion her generous colleagues had banded together to shower her with presents.

A LCD monitor, a telephone, a head set, a keyboard, a docking station, an ergonomic chair, a jacket, a white board, and even a packet of sour plum powder!

All wrapped nicely (in newspaper) a day before the birthday.

Taking the day off a day prior to your birthday is not a good idea

By the way, the items were conveniently available in the cubicle already, Santa Claus must have been awarding the well-behaved colleagues earlier this year.

That's the sour plum powder, oh, and some expired coffee powder

Tagged on the monitor was a birthday wish signed by the colleagues, also served as a note to say "Ha ha!".

=P

Nothing says cheap sincerity better than a home made greeting card

I didn't know how the birthday girl reacted when she came in on her birthday. By the time I got to her cubicle all the "presents" were already unwrapped.

A half-sphere cake was bought after going round the island looking for one that resembles a bowling ball.

Why bowling ball?

Well... the birthday girl is a dedicated bowling player with bowling gloves and all that, don't play play! This "fact" is unknown to most people (probably includes the birthday girl herself).

If you look closely, you can see three bowling ball holes

Colleagues and friends gathered around her cubicle and sang her the birthday song, so energetic and involved we were in singing that the song turned out rather like a funeral song...


Da birthday gal, Lay Ling "Bowling Queen" NG

Hope you enjoyed your birthday, Lay Ling!

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It is most disheartening that colleagues are automatically associating me with any pranks that happened in the office, despite me being a victim. There are photographic proofs of the REAL pranksters in action in that entry leh!

While I play the role of the messenger since I like to share and I write blog, that doesn't mean I am in any way involved in the prank lar.

I am veli the nice one!

*innocent look*

Unless you have photographic proof* of me in action in any prank that I might or might not have been involved, I deny all charges! =P

* I reject all your photographic proofs since I am sure they are all faked using Photoshop. =P