Talk about this year, it's been like a roller coaster.

First half of the year was quite peaceful. Was still a helpdesk and life has not much of surprises.

I was addicted to drama series and movies - watching online - thanks to ppmate.

I once watched 10 movies in a weekend. 

Then visited Singapore in June. I thought it was quite meaningful - seeing the colleague at that time whom I've always been talking on the phone.

But in reality - I visited 4 Singapore hospitals, because they are working in hospitals :)

In July, it's a roller coaster in my life - I met a girl whom I got crazy with - it took us 3 weeks to get together but another week to break up.

But I took roughly another 3 weeks to recover.

Since then it was all about work work work work work work work work.

Yes, starting August, it was non stop working season. But i'm grateful that I could learn a lot!

This year it's the most inspirational year - I wrote no less than 10 compositions.

This year I met some new friends. Among them, I'd say it's lucky to get to know Yin Fong. She lives just 300m away from my house but she's going to Singapore.

Basically my life nowadays had settled back to the 'normal' mode (actually it looks more like 'loner') - like the one in the first half year - I watch movie and go shopping alone, but I feel fine cos I can do what I wanna do anytime and anywhere.

The reason why I said settled back was because - after the break up I had gone thru that 2-3 weeks of, well, suffering. Luckily I've got kitty to help me to get thru this.

Not to forget, Nicole a.k.a SanPo and Ron as well. They listened and chatted a lot with me during that tough time.

This year is also a year when I sort of discovered occultism - I become interested in Horoscope and Zodiac sign (western and eastern ;) ) 

My Malay speaking improved.

The last day of the year was sad cos my grandma passed away. 

But it's ok. It'll be 2008 soon, and it'll get us stronger.

New Year resolution? Hope everybody stays healthy and happy.


Here, referring to my mum's mum. Somehow, I found myself wordless while typing this - and sorry for the bad English.

She's a 大埔客.

According to my mum, she was one of the prettiest woman in her village.

And maybe because of that, she's serious about her look.

Even when my sis took a photo earlier this year, she asked my sis if she looks fat or bad in the photo.


According to my dad, when I was just born and took out from hospital, it was raining heavily.

He said that he won't forget the moment - When we arrived at granny's house, my granny took over me from my dad's arm.

According to my parents, my current Chinese name 焙元 was adopted with the help of her from the temple - my original name 禾粦didn't give me good health.

My granny was good at making the Chinese food.

It's a must to praise her Hakka cuisine :)

Yong tau foo and especially Abacus Beads (read an article HERE, I wanna try it next time when i'm in SG!!!)

Abacus Beads

It was quite some time ago when we last tasted her Abacus Beads, mainly due to her leg problem.

For festive season, she would make rice dumpling, Chinese mooncake (I particularly like the Shanghai version than the 'ice skin').

For my choosy mouth when I was small, she once advised me: 有得吃就吃,有得疴就疴 (Literally translated as "Can eat, eat. Can shit, shit" means don't be picky)

Another sentence that I would recall is "食屎疴飯" This is used when she jokingly scolded my aunts.

I like her soup. But it's partially my grandpa's help as well - apart from her really tasty soup, my grandpa, who is quite thrifty, would add in the instant noodle seasoning packet (chicken flavour, of course) instead of salt.

My grandma was popular among the direct sales persons. She could be easily convinced. And that's why, she had been spending a lot of money on those products - even though my grandpa was always unhappy of that.

Her Rheumatoid arthritis (it's easier to known as 風濕病 ) got worsen in recent years.
That constrained her mobility.

There's a photo earlier that I lost a chance to take, which I thought was very loving. - when coming out from the lift, my grandpa was holding tight of her hand to assist her in walking - just like those young couples

A month ago, there's some pus in her leg - and yes, she's a diabetis patient - my grandpa brought her to a clinic. The doctor took out the pus, but the wound had never recover.

Then few days later, the wound got worsen and she was admitted to hospital.

It was until two weeks back, my godbrother(who's a doctor) mentioned that her right leg need to be cut because the wound will never heal.

So two weeks ago her leg was cut.

Psychologically, we understand how she feels - for a person who's once very pretty and serious about her look.

She refused to eat and to drink.

And until last Wednesday, she suddenly spoke a lot, and was energetically scolded some people :P (now we know that it is 回光返照 [lightning  before death] )

After that, she can't speak anymore.

Few days back, doctor mentioned that many parts of her organs were infected - especially her lung.

That made her impossible to speak and in the past few days, we knew that she tried very hard to speak - but just couldn't.

She was sleeping most of the time. When she opened her eyes, she tried to look around anxiously for my grandpa.

Today, at 3.15pm, she passed away.

The whole case evolved a bit fast - it all happened within a month - which she had gone thru the painful process.

When I heard the news, I was in the meeting. Right after the meeting, I walked to the emergency staircase and cried for a while - I don't know why, I just can't help it.

Maybe it's not easy to lose someone close. Or maybe I'm happy that her suffering had come to an end.

I hope my grandpa can be strong on this.

Rest in peace, grandma. We love you and we will miss you much.







Composition: 2007

My granny, oh poor granny.

Her diabetic disease got worsen, there'll be an operation either tomorrow or on Tuesday.

She'll lose her right leg after that.

At the moment, she's quite weak, when we visited her this afternoon, she was sleeping.

When we were about to leave, my grandpa had to whisper at her ear, and touched her hair before we left.

I could only pray, that there'll be a lucky star protecting her - to get through all these.

And this Christmas, like my sis, I only have one wish - to have my granny recovered.

I hope, my composition can help. Dear God, please help her.

Download






The starting of the movie was quite slow and boring.

While watching the movie, I kept recalling 28 Days Later as well as 28 Weeks Later.

But as the movie progresses, it's getting better in the middle and I'm quite satisfied with the ending - hence the movie title :)

While it's cool to watch, but I have to say, 28 Days Later is better, and even 28 Weeks Later is more action packed than this movie.

But after all, he's a legend, no doubt about that.

Rating: 3/5




I do find some simlarity between this movie and the Shrek series.

Shrek was being quite sacarstic to the fairy tale, Enchanted made the actor/actress bringing fairy tale into real life -_-

The movie was funny, that's no doubt. At a time I thought I'm watching Bollywood movie (you know, when they started singing and dancing on the field)

The ending was still "Happily ever after" but it's a twisted one ;)

But I thought it does carry(interpreted by myself actually) quite a good message:

"You can't be too realistic(pessimistic is the better word) about the life, neither you should be too naive about it."

Rating: 3.5/5

(explanation to the above statement: Robert insisted there's no fairy tale, while Giselle insisted there's something called "happily ever after")


It's been the stress-iest month,

maybe busiest is the better word cos me and my colleague had never been home earlier than 9PM, daily.

And perhaps the scariest month, due to the incident happened last Friday.

Quite sad as well, cos my granny's diabetic disease is worsen.

I'm glad that, this weekend, I have Epica Award winning adverts that cheered me up quite a lot :)



Some portion of the ads were featured in the Ad Day Issue#16

I hope you could enjoy as much as I did.














Something happened last night, which made me feel that living in Malaysia is NOT safe.

I was on call - server at my client side had issue. So I had to go out at 1AM something.

What happened was on the highway, I didn't realise there's a fast coming car from my left, when I was about to turn left.

That car managed to have emergency break, so I continued driving.

Then that car tried to overtake from the right, I had to make emergency break and it was so close that my car was gonna hit their car.

There were two Indians in that car. The one sitting on the front left made the hand signal to ask me to stop at the road side.

I thought my car really hit theirs,

I stopped my car in front of theirs and two of them came down from their car and approached my car, one on my left the other on my right.

They straight away tried to open the door of my car.

Luckily they were locked.

The guy on my left shouted "KELUAR!!!" ("GET OUT" in Malay) and I saw there's a beer bottle in his right hand.

Without hesitation, I turned to first gear and quickly drove away.

That guy threw the bottle on to my car.

At a time, I drove at 140km/h.

I was scared, apparently.

Once I had arrived at the client side, I checked on my car - there's no 'wound' on my car - it really makes me wonder if that two fella were trying to create 'accident'

I could only recall their car plate's alphabet - WKT, a kelisa, and that's it.

Imagine if i stepped out of the car at that very moment, I could have:

1) Lost my laptop (there were so many work related, important data inside)
2) Lost my car
3) Lost my handphone
4) Beaten up
5) Hospitalised

I really lost faith in this country, after the incident. What happened was so real, and I do feel for those victims featured in the newspaper, for the similar incidents.

Few 'luckily' things I did in this incident:
1) I didn't step out of the car
2) I initially wind down a bit of the window, in order to talk to them, after seeing their intention, i close the window straight away
3) I stopped my car in front of THEIR car, which made me easier to drive away
4) I stopped my car but didn't turn off the engine
5) I stopped the car and temporary ended the possible 'chase'. Then they approached my car and they needed time to go back and drive their car(which didn't really seem to be the case cos when I left them, they were standing there), in case they wanted to chase after me.

What's next? I think it's really time to plan for my future, wisely. I must admit, I feel hopeless about the safety of this country.




The communication part has hit me hard this time :) ( it's actually T_T ) 

The worst part is, on top of the weak communication I've established, I've made assumption.

Those assumptions caused confusion, delay, frustration, dissatisfaction and most importantly, a massive stress burden on my shoulder.

I'm a person who has a lot to say than done - that's another fatality as well...

Moving forward, three things I've gotta always keep in my mind

1) Communicate as much as possible
2) Don't make assumption
3) Walk the talk. (especially the two items I've mentioned above)






Congratulation!! FINALLY, this is the moment for you!

After Mclaren's appeal was over, Kimi is confirmed to be the WDC of F1 2007.

For many years, Kimi had been struggling to be a #1 - even he can drive fast + nice.

Now, finally, from the third possible WDC, he won the championship by just 1 points extra of Hamilton and Alonso.

Now this time, this the moment.

I saw him almost cried during the press conference.

Posted in

This is one of my favorite songs from Radiohead's latest album - In Rainbows

The guitar plucking was cool and soothing. The melody of the strings are a bit strange but the combination is nice.

Read more about it HERE

Lyrics:

One, two, three, four.

Wakey, wakey, rise and shine
It's on again, off again, on again
Watch me fall like
Dominoes in pretty patterns
Fingers in the blackbird pie
I'm tingling, tingling, tingling
It's what you feel now
What you ought to, what you ought to
Reasonable and sensible
Dead from the neck up
Because I'm stuffed, stuffed, stuffed
We thought you had it in you
But not, but not, but not
For no real reason.

Squeeze the tubes and empty bottles out

Take a bow, take a bow, take a bow
It's what you feel now
What you ought to, what you ought to
An elephant that's in the room is
Tumbling, tumbling, tumbling
In duplicate, and duplicate,
And plastic bags, and duplicate and triplicate
Dead from the neck up
I guess I'm stuffed, stuffed, stuffed.
We thought you had it in you
But not, but not, but not.
Exactly where do you get off?
Is enough, is enough.
I love you but enough is enough, enough
And now stop - there's no real reason.

You've got a head full of feathers.
You got melted to butter.



Music:



Picture taken on my birthday eve :D 24/8/07

She's considered my neighbour. I knew her since 1998 but we only got closer this year since August.

She's one of the friends who'd been walking beside me thru the hard times - which I truly appreciate it.

She's going to Singapore to further her studies next year January - and I have every reason to foresee that she'll be working over there - and settling down over there.

It's a bit late to know you, Yin Fong. I know I'm gonna miss you.

I wish you all the best for your future.

Good luck, kitty. :)


7 Keys to Success is a project management method that is currently adopted by IBM.

The training was interesting and in fact, it gives me more idea in how a project should run.

The keys are as follow:

1) Stakeholders are committed

2) Business benefits are realised

3) Work and schedule are predictable

4) Team is high performing

5) Scope is realistic and managed

6) Risks are mitigated

7) Delivery organisation benefits are realised

Read more about it HERE


It's been a wonderful 3 months experience in IBM. 

Personally, i think it's a cool company. It's a huge organisation - matrix organisation is a better description and you may have never discovered the total number of the departments in IBM.

I guess most importantly, working in organisation like this - first thing is to understand their system - else you won't understand and you may even whine on why you need to do something that may not sound make sense to oneself.

I still remember the three things my manager's manager told me:
1) IT operation
2) Securiy 
3) Project management

While security is considered #1 priority in IBM operation, I thought a training on project management I attended earlier on was very beneficial.

The 7 keys to sucess is interesting.

I feel there are more to discover about my company. And yes, I feel interesting.


Quiz #1

Question: Four "10" - guess a Beethoven's famous piece

Quiz #2

Question: One day, me, WeiHan and Agatha walked past a fruit tree in a forest. We saw a fruit - that we've never seen before. No one knows the name but Agatha is able to tell the name of the fruit.

Guess what's the name of the fruit?

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Answer for Quiz #1: Symphony #5 in C minor - Ten Ten Ten Ten!

Answer for Quiz #2: Wild fruit

Posted in

Title: HiStory III (demo 2)
Melody + Lyric: 2007
Short Description: Erm... HiStory II was skipped cos the lyric has never been finished -__-

This song, melody part was inspired when I looked at the nice view of Genting, while enjoying the cool breeze.

Lyrics part - I wrote it in train, during the way back home from office (can't recall how many journeys though)

btw, I plan to make this song a full version - piano, guitar, drums, strings...It will be the first full version composition - to pre-celebrate 10 years anniversary of song writing? (muahahaha)

Thanks to Monkey in advance :)

Same as HiStory I - this song is dedicated to all the people, who still can't recover from the previous relationship - all the best, tomorrow is always a better day :)

DOWNLOAD

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Lyrics:

Would you stay the same?
I thought it's you who made me to change.

Could you stop the rain?
I saw it pouring down from your face

Give me your precious time and listen to me
I may not be as kind as I've used to be
You could be one of the strangers that was found on street.
Who would care about what they would think of me?

Could you spell my name?
Cos you (only) called me 'honey', but not my name.

Love will find the way,
But love has no use when you beg one to take

Would you stand beside me,
Watching the plant blooming as the sun rises?
Could you send the message in the bottle,
And give my luck a hard try
Should I wave you goodbye
After you took away all of my pride?

Would you lie again?
God knows what you were hiding from me?

Love can heal the pain,
But words that you said hurt me like mad.
Cos you made the blame.
I feel the pain




In the first album, her style was teenager + innocent style
Second album - quite a rock style
Third album - doll style

I guess in the coming album it will be punk style?

Yellow is Kaela's second single since her last album - Scratch

Yellow is a cool rock song
No Reason Why is a Britpop song, written by British band Farrah
Dejavu... didn't really pay attention cos the above two songs are good enough to listen to :P

This single was released on her 23rd birthday itself.

Rating: 3.5/5

Yellow MV (psychedelic!)








Yesterday Kuan Yew called me for yamchar.

I was in Genting.

So I told Kuan Yew: "Sorry la, i'm in Genting"

Kuan Yew: "Wah, so syok ah!!"

Me:" No la, alone leh"

Kuan Yew:" Wah, so pathetic
(痺) ah??!"

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

See, the wording part (which carries only 7% of total message of human could deliver, according to research) can make such a B-I-G difference



I went to Singapore few months ago. June, in fact. But I kept forgetting to blog about it.

I stayed at Fatimah's house. The first time and the last time.

That trip is not exactly a trip - more like a colleague visiting trip - I visited four hospital in total - I was perfectly fine - to visit my ex-colleague.

It was nice meeting up the colleague whom I had been talking over the phone.

By the way, before that, the last time I really visit Singapore was years ago. This time, the perception of Singapore's food has changed a bit - their JAPANESE FOOD ROCKS! FRESH AND JUICY! YUMMY~~~~!


Dahao, me and Sarah - taken at Clarke Quay



Francesco in Singapore!


Francesco with the lion status (outside the delicious taiwan porridge restaurant - thanks to Denis for the intro!!!)


Francesco eaten by the lion

BIG THANKS TO DAHAO and SARAH for thier hospitality! not to forget about Denis and Jerome :)



Er koestet - zwanzig Ringgit.

Es war teuer. Und ich wirde essen nicht mehr

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++=

That was to practise my rusty German - and it's very much broken still.

I tried this prawn noodle with Nicole (my ex-colleague cum san po cum best m***h in h***en)

It cost RM20 per bowl. If you want extra soup - it cost RM4 for an extra small bowl.

Taste? Nice, the soup was cooked with the pork ribs. That's why the tasty.

Next time? I don't think I'll pay a second visit - it's bloody expensive ok! (Champ's is located in Central Point, PJ)



Hari Raya made the weekend a bit longer, so I extended my stay in my grandparents house :)

Activity is basically the same - eat, sleep, watch drama series


But well, before I went up, I went to FRIM to have a walk with Weihan and Agatha.

It's a walk but it's a 1 hour 45 minutes walk. A lot shorter than the usual woman shopping time though

Here's the proof



Preview: There'll be a new Korean restaurant opening, just beside my uncle's shop. The price... erm erm... no comment - I wonder if they can really sustain? (according to the Korean tauke, they can, because there are about 100 Koreans coming up to Genting, daily, on average)


That day I tried out my uncle's shop's curry pork rib noodle. The taste? The soup was nice, but the pork ribs were a bit dry.



Sunday morning: My granny heated the curry puff I bought from Ikea. My cousin brother, who saw me eating - wants to eat to. He asked me if it's hot (my cousin bro can't take hot food) I said if you wanna know, you need to try.

Muahahahaha. I did 'big' him, i said, "You scared ah" Then he picked up and eat.

While eating, his got his tears and snot dropping.


And had to go to washroom to clean up.


My grandpa was amazed by the sight - it's not usual to have so many houses lightened up. Thanks to the long weekend.


Francesco in Genting - taken while my grandparents went to sleep. (yeah, I don't want them to have the 'cultural shock' by my bear)


Going down the hill on Monday afternoon.





This is a funny song, I think I blogged about it about 3 years ago. But it's just funny to listen again.

Look at how Londoner rant about their underground train - what shall we do with ours?

WARNING THE LYRICS USE VERY STRONG LANGUAGE


Some people might like to get a train to work
Or drive in in a Beamer or a merc, 
Some guys like to travel in by bus, 
But I can't be bothered with the fuss today 
I'm going to take my bike,
Coz once again the Tube's on strike.
The greedy bastards want extra pay
for sitting on their arse all day
even though they earn 30K .
So I'm standing here in the pouring rain, 
Where the fuck's my fucking train? 

London Underground
London Underground
They're all lazy fucking useless cunts
London Underground
London Underground
They're all greedy cunts I want to shoot them all with a rifle.

All they say is "Please mind the doors", 
and they learned that on the two day course,
This job could be done by a four year old.
They just leave us freezing in the cold.
What you smell is what you get
Burger King and piss and sweat
You roast to death in the boiling heat, 
With tourists treading on your feet
and chewing gum on every seat, 
so don't tell me to "Mind the gap" 
I want my fucking money back. 

London Underground
London Underground
They're all lazy fucking useless cunts
London Underground
London Underground
They're all greedy cunts I want to shoot them all with a rifle
LaLaLaLa
LaLaLaLa

The floors are sticky and the seats are damp, 
Every platform has a fucking tramp,
But the drivers get the day off when we're all late for work again, 

London Underground
London Underground
WaWa Wankers , They're all Wankers , 
London Underground
London Underground

Take your Oystercard, and shove it up your arsehole.

Music:
Download the mp3
(via http://solo2.abac.com/themole/london_underground_song.htm)

Video:



Belgian Chocolate... yummy

This morning I went to Bangsar Village II to have the Häagen-Dazs all you can eat session. (I was on leave but I didn't purposely take leave for this)

I ate 12 scopes in total. I think 7 out of 12 were Belgian Chocolate.


I purposely took the photo above to show that the amount I ate was real (I missed another 6 scopes, though -_- )

12 scopes may not sound much for some people. But it's enough to explain why I look round :)



Special thanks to Kexin for the on dutch session


Screen grab from Radiohead website
Taken from BBC: Shopping cart of "In Rainbows" album

Radiohead's latest (7th) album is optionally available free, online.

Why optionally?

Cos in the website, you can pay between 0.00 to 100.00 pounds to get the digital copy of the album.

I paid 0.00 and I got the download link for the album :)

It's not their best album, but it's definitely one of the best album advertising :)

Get your copy from the website: www.inrainbows.com

Tracklisting:
1. "15 Step" – 3:57
2. "Bodysnatchers" – 4:02
* 3. "Nude" – 4:15
* 4. "Weird Fishes/Arpeggi" – 5:18
5. "All I Need" – 3:48
* 6. "Faust Arp" – 2:09
* 7. "Reckoner" – 4:50
* 8. "House of Cards" – 5:28
9. "Jigsaw Falling into Place" – 4:09
* 10. "Videotape" – 4:39

Rating: 3.5/5



This is a song about my previous relationship. It was a long, memorable and an important one. Was pity that it was over, but definitely, I believe we both gained a lot from it.

Thanks.

Lyric: 2006, 2007
Music: 2006

Download

Lyric:

Good Morning and good evening,
Though you might be sleeping.
Can't you wake yourself with the sunshine?

It's pity that it ended,
Though it's complicated.
Maybe we were sick with the white lies.

Isn't it fine?
Isn't it right?
Would that be nice?
Would that be kind?

You wake me up,
You shake me down.
We made what life's for,
Walking down the street of light.

We let the life (move) on,
There's so many left in past
We'll be fine.

Would that be right?
Thinking back, stepping back with
So many, so many doubt

Would that be ok?
Slipping back, turning back with
So many, so many sigh.

(Definitely not)

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Dedicated to everybody, who still can't recover from the ex-relationship





You know, the reason why I switched from Opera years back, to FireFox was because:

1) It didn't open ('render' is a better term, btw) the page as fast as FireFox
2) It hangs frequently when opening heavy pages like picture rich, or jave-based website
3) It lacks the customisablity like FireFox

Now, I don't know why, starting from FireFox 2.0x, I feel that FireFox has some sign of not doing its good job anymore.

And for some reason, I tried Opera 9.5 (Preview version), it reminds me the good memory when I switched from IE -> Opera about 10 years back - the light but fast web page loading software.

It blows off my mind :)

Starting from Opera 9, there's a good function called "Speed Dial" (Firefox fan had create a similar extention, which you can find it HERE)

Opera 9.5, at the moment, is recommended who intended to try the new stuff at risk. It's still at Alpha Preview version (yes, not even Beta version), so if you wanna use it at your own risk, grab a copy at HERE

Else, stick to stable Opera 9 @ www.opera.com

The picture below shows the DSK-customised Opera 9.5 ;)


Big thanks to Zmin, who enlightened me that there's even better options to download video from site such as YouTube.

I DSK-ed, and found an exciting tools, yes, better share it out

It's called VDownloader 0.61

Using the software is easy, but I'll share the personal preference below:

1) When you launch the software, go to Download section and select "Output Format" as "ORIGINAL FILE (NO Conversion).

The default setting is "AVI", but I don't like it because it:
i) Generates larger file
ii) Conversion takes time, I can't enjoy the movie instantly


See the bigger picture below :)

Then, proceed to SEARCH section, and search for a video.

The result appears, and as an example, I just double click on the first result - Sophie's Me and My Imagination

Here, I only focus on YouTube (i.e. I deselected all the other sites option, as shown in the picture).

And the download window will pop up!

Last but not least, et voila! The downloaded file in .flv, hot and ready to be playback :)

Look, you don't have to rename the file from get_video to bal blabla.flv, like in the Keepvid.com

Installation Guide:

1) Download from SoftPedia

http://www.softpedia.com/progDownload/VDownloader-Download-51327.html

2) Extract all the files to a folder.
3) Create a shortcut of VDownloader.exe in the deskstop if you wish
4) Run the VDownloader.exe
5) Enjoy