Creeping towards 2009

Its 4½ hours to 2009 and for the first time (in a long time) it will be spent at home. I'm kinda grateful for that though ... no longer will there be fights over parking spaces, crowded parties, foam sprays, screams, shouts, trash everywhere ... all in all a big relief. At least I still get to see the fireworks from 1U and Ikano (there are benefits to loving so close to these places) and I can hear the traffic horns as I type this.

Had to make this last post in just for the fun of it, so ....

Yeah ... 'borrowed' the graphic 'cos I'm too lazy to make one. Happy New Years 2009 everyone!

Wanna see something crazy?

uTorrent eating all my bandwidthThis is uTorrent at my workplace running off the internal campus tracker (hence the Class-A IP address as the URL) and no, your eyes aren't deceiving you - the bottom torrent IS downloading at 7.9MBs

Upload speeds are greatly affected though because current harddisk is a first generation SATA without NCQ so it trashes like crazy during downloads but with 4++ GBs downloads in around 8 minutes, can't really complain much. Too bad connections to the real world (aka. Internet) is slow as heck.

P/S: Don't bother trying to connect or asking me how to get to this tracker - its on an internal network and VPN connections are passworded/logged.

Merry X'mas — Feliz Navidad — Selamat Hari Natal — メリークリスマス — 聖誕快樂

Haven't had a Christmas tree put up at home for ... uhm ... 15 years I guess, but the offer at the local Tesco's was just a little too tempting. It really shows how the economy has slowed down when fake Made-in-China trees are going dirt cheap (3 feet for RM2.98 / US$0.86 and 5 footers at RM9.95 / US$2.88). Kinda makes you wonder what the actual cost price is at wholesale.

After rummaging through the house, I manage to locate the old decorations and used those to decorate the tree. Need a new set of fairy lights though but couldn't find any other than ones in ugly pink colour. The ones on the tree now are actually from the Chinese New Year decorations with the pieces pulled off!. Still haven't learnt my lesson though as I still meddle around with the tree with the power switch on ... yeah, I got electrocuted once on a tree (and thrown back around 7 feet maybe) and still have the scar to prove it :)

Anyways, Merry Christmas to all and a very Happy New Year 2009!

Four weddings and a funeral ...

It's been a wierd bitter-sweet past few weeks.

Firstly, congratulations to the four happy couples who have had their wedding dinners and cemeronies (you know who you are eventhough you may not ever read this post :D). What I've noticed that in Malaysia, we're lucky to be able to experience a multitude of wedding ceremonies and traditions. I love the pomp and circumstance of Malay weddings and how guests are treated with little souvenirs of bunga telur as a memento of the occasion.

A.Sinclair & B.C.LestariChinese weddings have their own traditions from the jockular bride claiming ceremony (something sweet, something bitter etc ...) to the filial tea ceremonies. The downsides are the actual dinners which resemble mini reunions for family and friends and take forever to end. Ooh! ... attended one yesterday in which the restaurant provided gift chocolates in the shape of japanese carp to match their decor. A unique touch in comparison with other places that usually give either fruitcake or those heart shaped chocolates. Another thing that seems to be in fashion is to give gifts of bowls and chopsticks which I personally find a bit troublesome :P

Y.W.Low & W.Y.MahHowever eventful, the happiness in the weeks have been toned down with the death of a friend. Commiserations and heartfelt condolences go out to the families of a classmate of mine who suffered (from what news I've received and yet to confirm) a heart complication in HUKM. It's times like these that make me wonder how long do I have and who do I know, who do I ask forgiveness from, who do I need to contact/recall ..........