Earth Hour 2010

Since 2007, every year on the last Saturday of March, those who care about the climate change that's affecting our Mother Earth will observe the Earth Hour.

It doesn't cost you anything. In fact, it will save you a bit of electricity. But that's not the point, the point is to raise awareness on the climate change, and that we all need to do something about it.

If you would like to participate, it's very simple, just turn off all non-essential lights and electrical appliances for an hour, that's all.

This year, the designated hour is from 20:30 to 21:30 hours (8:30 to 9:30 pm), local time, and last Saturday of March 2010 falls on the 27th.


it's supposed to be the teeth of a person in pitch black, but my drawing failed =P

Since I know Pandora is just Cameron's creation and am not delusional enough to become depressed and suicidal because of living on Earth, and I know that Earth is our one home, you bet I am going to participate this year, just like I did last year.

I urge you to participate as well, and for those afraid of the dark, don't worry, bogeyman will be away watching the stars. =P

Immigration Office Efficiency

Going to do some work related travelling in the near future so I went to extend my passport today.

Well, basically getting a new one but keeping my current one since I still have valid visa in it. Current passport will expire in May and generally we will need to have at least 6 months till expiry date to travel.

After dropping off mom at the market, I arrived at the Immigration Office at 09:30 hours. I intended to track the efficiency so I kept note of the time.

Queued up to get form, filled in the form (and helped translate for an aunty), queued up to get photo taken, queued up to get number took 40 minutes.

So, 10:10 hours, I got number 1133, and the number being served at that moment was 1076.

56 people before me, hmm...

I lingered in the Immigration Office for a while to get a feel of the time it takes to proceed in the queue and soon concluded two things:

1. I won't be served until at least an hour later

2. I would need to top up my parking meter, the 2 hours I paid for would not be sufficient

Alrighty, breakfast then. =)

On my way to a nearby kopitiam, an Indian/Malay/mixed race lady driver in a dark brown Proton Iswara refused to stop at the pedestrian crossing even though it's already red light for her, good thing I noticed the idiot before she could run me down while I was crossing the road.

10:36 hours, back to the Immigration Office after breakfast, number being served then was 1092.

Alrighty, I went to top up the parking meter. I parked at the far side of Fort Cornwallis since the car park next to the Immigration Office refused to let me in. For season pass holder only, they said.

Back to Immigration Office at 10:52 hours, number being served then was 1107.

There's nothing else to do but to wait. I passed the time by observing the people around me.

There were two ladies with the "I am good looking, look at me!" attitude, whom I purposely ignored and there was this lady who is good looking and trying not to draw attention, whom my eyes rest on every so often after roaming through the room. =P There was a kid who ran around the room laughing, he got my attention everytime he passed in front of me.

11:27 hours, my number was called. 5 minutes to go through my documents, two scans of my right thumbprint, a scan of my left thumbprint, and a good old hardcopy of my right thumbprint.

Sat down to wait some more with a slightly blackened right thumb, no amount of rubbing with the provided tissue could get the ink out completely, need some water and probably soap.

11:42 hours, called to settle the payment and was given a receipt to collect my passport after 13:45 hours. I decided to collect tomorrow and went to work instead.

Alrighty, let's see...

- 2 hours 12 minutes for the whole process (not including production of new passport and collection of new passport)

- processing the application with three counters serving took on average 77 / 56 = 1.4 minutes (note: there were people who took the number but left, so actual application processed is less than 56)

- so the average time to process an application per counter = 3 x 1.4 = 4.2 minutes, I think this efficiency is fair

- processing application for me took 5 minutes, this is probably closer to the real average time to process a single application, which is still alright

The lengthy overall time it took me to get this done was due to the large number of people applying, to reduce the wait time for everybody, Immigration Office would have to reduce time to process an application or increase the number of counters processing the application, or both.

Chance of that happening? Heh...

Note to self: get to the Immigration Office early tomorrow for the passport collection as tomorrow is Friday, the day Muslims go to the mosque to communicate with their Higher Being (I am not using the "A word" else I might get into trouble *snigger*), so working hours would be shorter in government institutes. Plus some people believed that when they communicate with the Higher Being, they are above the law, illegal parking becomes legal for them, and riding a motorcycle without helmet becomes legal as well, so the traffic would be bad near to the communication hour.

=(

I love photography, but I don't own a DSLR.

Being the sole bread winner for a family of four, non-essential expenses like tool for a hobby has to be justifiable.

And truthfully, I cannot justify spending so much money for a DSLR when I know I don't have the time to fully utilise it since I doubt I will have much time for photography. Also I know that I will want to spend even more for some good quality lenses because after some comprehensive testings I know my existing lenses are just not up to the standard I like.

There is no shame being poor and I can openly acknowledge that with my current income this hobby is just not viable. Even if my imcome increased dramatically, I would also hope to try for a daughter first instead of getting a camera. If wife's willing, of course. =) Sadly as much as I love to have a daughter, current income just cannot afford a third child.

Past experience has taught me to get the right camera the first time round instead of getting one that doesn't meet my requirements albeit cheaper and upgrade later, it will end up more expensive in the long run.

Since I am not new to photography I know exactly what I am looking for in a DSLR body:

- manufacturer: Canon, I am already sold on Canon a long time ago

- sensor resolution: I want something between 16 to 20 megapixel (or better) since that is equivalent to 35mm film scanned and I can get 300ppi (photo quality) prints at 12R size. Plenty enough for my usual need of 4R or 8R size print so I can take photo with cropping in mind

- full frame sensor: I want my wide angle to be wide angle, thank you very much. Extention tube for telephoto is much cheaper than getting the real wide angle lenses. Fisheye lens with only 1.6x the widest angle? No thank you!

- handling: something similar to EOS5, as I am used to that and it's comfortable for me

- functions: manual, shutter priority, aperture priority, focus lock, exposure compensation, bulb and 1/2000 seconds is plenty enough for me, FPS is not critical since I don't take much fast action photo, ISO 50 to 800 is sufficient for my need

- build quality: no plastic body, need to be metal alloy or some sturdy composite for good wear and tear as well as good sealing for the environment. Shutter life at least in the 100k cycle range

Back in September 2008 I already know what DSLR to get, if I ever get one. Been following the releases of new models from Canon but none of the new bodies tickled my fancy.

Anyway, I am writing this as a long-winded way to rant because an old friend of mine refused to discuss camera and photography with me because I do not own a DSLR.

Given that I was discussing camera and photography with a bunch of strangers while waiting for Accom to put my QuadCore together last week, my old friend's stance is like a slap to the face.

Me sad. =(

瓜之家

那天看见朋友 Live Messenger 里说要寻找傻瓜
我便问她找我有什么事？
她说我不合格
于是我便告诉她我家里的瓜瓜们

大儿子的其中一个乳名是大瓜
小儿子是小瓜
而我就是傻瓜咯
（但妻子叫我老瓜）

朋友问我妻子是什么瓜？
我告诉她妻子不是瓜
妻子是照顾瓜瓜们的瓜农
她告诉我，我妻子该叫做甜瓜
我想想也好
总好过西瓜，冬瓜，南瓜，木瓜等等的

大瓜，小瓜，甜瓜和（老）傻瓜
这就是我的瓜之家

SoulBot-IV

After months of saying I want to build a new gaming machine (home computer) to replace the current temperamental one, I finally did it yesterday. Thanks to the recent bonus that made this possible, else I would still be waiting for the fund to slowly build up from monthly saving.

For my fourth computer, I decided not to reuse any old parts and went with brand new stuff besides the monitor, keyboard and mouse. Actually I am thinking of getting a new gaming mouse as well since the current one is iffy after my son dropped it a few times too many, but that will have to wait.


SoulBot-IV in Rambo casing. Don't mess with it!

So, spanking new motherboard for the QuadCore, 2GB of DDR3 1333MHz memory (mobo only supports up to 1333MHz), 500GB SATA hard disk, my first ever DVD-rewriter (been recycling my CD-rewriter), new casing, CPU heatsink, 510W power supply, and the graphic card that made up the lion's share of the total cost: my prized GeForce GTS250 256bit 1GB DDR3.


There you go, RM1518 worth of stuff

All that without the QuadCore processor summed up to slightly over RM1.5k, purchased and assembled at Accom Technology in Bukit Jambul Complex, Penang.

I am giving Accom Technology a free advertisement for the customer service I received, and for deducting the price when I informed them I found cheaper price of the same motherboard and graphic card listed online, and because instead of selling me two 2GB DDR3 memory like I wanted to, adviced me to just get one and wait till the end of March to get the other since DDR3 price will drop then (but DDR2's will rise).

I was thinking of putting the box together myself but Accom has kindly did that for me, saving me the effort.

The graphic card is a beast, it took up two back panel slots while its heatpipe cooling system covered the neighbour PCI slot. It requires dedicated power hence the 510W power supply.


GeForce GTS250, my precioussssss...

I am going to turn all my game graphic settings to max now, muahahahahaha!

Initially I wanted to install the old SoundBlaster audio card I got since SoulBot-II but the onboard audio seems to be good enough. I did installed an old 40GB IDE hard disk and made a 10GB paging file on it. Read on gaming forum that having the paging file on another hard drive instead of the system hard drive can give a performance boost.

For the other geeks that would like to do this, this is where to do it on Windows XP: Control Panel > System > Advanced > Performance - Settings > Advanced > Virtual memory - Change

Oh, my new gaming machine is called SoulBot-IV. And yes, it's for GAMING. =)




This entry is written and posted using my new gaming machine, which still has no game installed thus far, so I am going to fix that! =P

It's just a shirt, really

It's so rare that I get commented on what I wear except the "urgh, you look ridiculous/hideous/horrible in that attire" variety so when it happened today, it warrants an entry.

There should be no doubt that I have no fashion sense whatsoever, I just don't.

It would be nice to say I got complimented (*gasp!*) for the shirt I was wearing today but that would not be true, think I will stick with "my attire today garnered a few comments".

Wifey actually said I look good in the shirt before I left home this morning, she's my wifey so she is bound to say something nice to give me a cheerful start for the day. I supposed.

But then three different colleagues commented on my shirt, and didn't sound like the "urgh, ridiculous" variety so I guess it must be something.

The gist of their comments were:

"Oooh, is that a new shirt?" (Note: it's 'oooh' instead of 'urgh')

"You look young and cute in that shirt" (Argggggh! Cute*! The horror! >.< Okay, this might be the "urgh, ridiculous" variety)

"Are you really CK?" (since CK has no fashion sense, I am taking this as a good thing!)

* wanted to write about this 'cute' thing for a while now, but I need some images to go with the entry and am too lazy to look them up. Yay slacker point +1! =P

Not sure what to make from these comments, but the fact that the shirt actually attracted attention is blog-worthy enough for me.

I would love to claim that it's me who picked the shirt that prompted 4 comments (record!) but then it would be lying. See, though it's a new shirt for me, it's not a newly bought shirt. It's a hands down from my brother-in-law. =)

So all credits to him and I remain the guy with no fashion sense. ^_^

On a totally unrelated note:

Saw a motorcycle with PAN8888 number plate on my way home today. Wonder how much more did the vehicle registration number cost compared to the motorcycle?

Holiday Stress?

Thought I would sleep better after coming back from KL.

Nope.

Last three days I finally went to sleep between 05:00 and 07:00 hours, simply couldn't fall asleep before then.

Besides the insomnia, these two days I am also feeling antisocial, suffering from IBS, day long tiredness, constant depression, generally irritable and down.

In other words, I am experiencing signs and symptoms of stress.

But I am in holiday leh, for goodness sake!

Lousy holiday. My gaming machine died for the n-th time. Didn't get my QuadCore built because the computer shop I frequented was closed for the week. Didn't get my annual comic set bought because QueensBay was so packed I turned around when I saw the queue for parking. So no gaming, no comic. =(

I ended up watching movie on the work laptop, sad sad sad.

Since no matter what I did I couldn't revive my gaming machine, I went the "kacang solution" of reformatting the hard disk and rebuilding the system. Took me two days for all the patching and reinstallation of essential softwares. Well at least my gaming machine is up again. For now.

If only I was not so tired and restless most of the time I might actually enjoy a game or two.

Meh!