Month: May 2003 (Page 1 of 2)

Sometime in mid 1974, a husband and wife pair got real horny one night
and nine months later on the evening of May 29, 1975, a baby boy was
born. According to some almanac, that was the day Bob Hope
celebrated his 72nd birthday. Not that the kid will eventually become
like Bob Hope when he grows up. If John F. Kennedy
were still alive that day, he would have celebrated his 58th birthday.
No, the kid did not turn out to become like John F. Kennedy either.
Okay then, closer to home, two years prior to that day, Tan Sri P. Ramlee,
passed away. Nope, absolutely nothing in common with him. And the kid
didn’t grow up to be another national badminton player like Razif Sidek
either. So what’s the point then? Absolutely nothing really. The
kid went off tangent a tad since he dropped himself on the head as a
child and remained off tangent ever since. He’s thankful that he’s
still able to see the living daylights till today though.

Despite the advances that our country has made in terms of having the
tallest this, the biggest that, the canggih-est apa-namas, etc., we, the
people as a whole, have not progressed much and in fact, dare I say,
regressed. The achievements made so far merely serve as beautiful
shells to empty or ugly innards that hides our lackadaisical attitude
and lack of civility. Where’s the value of having the world’s tallest
building but yet having trouble keeping its toilets clean? Our Putra LRT
is reputedly the world’s longest, fully automated light rail transport
system but we still have commuters pushing and shoving their way in
with no regards at all to the elderly or pregnant during those rush hours.
Service providers can take pride in the number of subscribers they have
attained but do they really make the numbers when it comes to
customer satisfaction? Even at the basics, we are building more smart
homes now but can we really enjoy truly clean, odorless, colorless water
supply coming into our taps without having to install those additional
filters? Our Deputy Prime Minister diagnosed it spot on not too long ago:
First world infrastructure, third world mentality.
Have we come to a point where we have become a bunch of people who
are concerned of losing out and losing face at things that only possess
little face value? Some of the developed countries in the world do not
even possess the latest, greatest thingamagics in the world but yet, they’re
much orderly, civilized and advanced when it comes to things that are
fundamental in the day to day stuff where it matters most. Progress
would have a more significant and relevant meaning if the quality and
standards of its people improve in tandem with their advancements in
skills and aptitude to build those state of the art whatchamacallits.

Wired interviews John Carmack
and John Gaeta,
both technical geniuses whom I look up to and have great admiration
for.

And Poodle Hat
is released! The opening track, Couch Potato,
(audio stream available here)
which parodies Eminem’s “Lose Yourself” is already cracking me up good
at this hour! Shame that Em’s denied Al
from directing an accompanying parody music video.

Update (12:02pm): The lyrics to the parodied songs
have finally been posted. There’s Trash Day
parodying Nelly’s Hot In Herre, A Complicated Song
spoofing Avril Lavigne’s Complicated, eBay
from Backstreet Boys’ I Want It That Way. Finally there’s the obligatory
Angry White Boy Polka
medley. I want this album!

Using Screamyx
is like having an online equivalent of kidney stones really (it’s still not
out yet, by the way). I don’t know about the rest, but I’ve been
consistently getting stuck download sessions on all the machines I have
in my house. Like hapless others, I can only scream, shout and rant
but it will all be in vain and I’ll still have to pay for the subscription at
the end of the month. I can never do a full CVSUP session (to update
the source and port trees) or a proper port install on my FreeBSD
running laptop and God forbid that I even attempt to do any
WindowsUpdate.
A quick ping to JARING
yields an average response time of 630ms, double the response time
if I were to dialup to JARING and ping to a
node in the US
(a server at my alma mater). If only the government doesn’t have that
much stake in Telekom
so as to break its monopoly in the market and give them (Telekom) a
run for their money. They could also cut down on their Siti Nurhaliza
promos. Those horny old gits sitting at the top of Telekom’s
management should really try getting their spending priorities right.

Should there be a “right time” to do any particular thing? In the past,
I’ve been known to do things out of spontaneity and I couldn’t care
less whether the timing was right or otherwise, but of late, I find
myself doing less and less of that. Things are getting too predictable
these days and I really could use some kinda distraction. No, I don’t
need a vacation nor do I want any big changes. Just something to
throw me off this loop I’m in.

Many congratulations to Suria
and Hadi
on their tying the knot at Purdue University
today (tonight in Malaysia). Make it good the both of you! Sorry can’t
be there at this time on this joyous occassion of yours but I’ll be sure
to claim the nasi minyak when you guys come back briefly this
summer! ;)

Now playing: Frou Frou – It’s Good To Be In Love
(On Su’s recommendation!) ;)

Hmm. That tooth extrication thingy didn’t turn out to be much of a big
deal after all (the pain went away in the morning after and I was happily
eating nasi lemak for breakfast!). But something else came up. Back in
1999, I had my first case of kidney stones.
Since then, there has been two other occurences in 2000 and 2001. I
don’t know what gives, but my water intake has been like two bottles
of water from the 1.5L sized bottles everyday at the very least, I don’t
eat much meat if at all (only on occassions like weddings or
thanksgiving kenduris) all this while. Yet, I’m getting another occurence
of it right now. It’s been two days I’ve been dealing with this cramping
pain on my left side and back that’s been happening on and off at
various times of the day, especially in the wee hours of the morning till
noon. It’s still making its way down to the bladder and it’s the most
painful phase. Once it’s in the bladder, it’ll be much of a relief then. I
passed out two stones the size of two rice before so at least I won’t
have to worry about any case of a “pebble stuck in the garden hose”
so to speak. Clean pipes
at the end of this ordeal. I hope.

The timing couldn’t be any better though. Missed the chance to catch
The Matrix: Reloaded.
I’m gonna shove that kidney stone up anyone’s urinary tract if anyone
ever comes close to spoiling it for me. Then again, perhaps a
showing of that movie is just what I need right now. Spoonfork
says he wetted his pants
watching it. Perfect solution to my current predicament really.

Just got that problematic wisdom tooth extricated earlier tonight and
I’m wide awake from the throbbing pain now. Good thing this week is
a rather short week since today and tomorrow is a public holiday. This
is the first time that I won’t be working on a public holiday. Heck. I
might take Friday off even. Imagine that. My first official day off.
Whoo!

Listening to: Weird Al Yankovic – Cavity Search

Got the ISO.
Installed it on GILOSH.
Tweaked the make.conf file. Downloaded the latest ports collection.
Make install clean cvsup-without-gui.
CVSup’ed src, ports and doc. World is being rebuilt as I’m typing this.
Whee.

Update (05/13 @ 0100 hrs): How can that selfish, spoilt, swimsuit
model Jenna win??

My momma so dope, she passed the dope test with flying colors!
Happy Momma’s Day, Mama and all other Mommas (real mommas,
big mommas, hothoochimommas, etc. etc.) out there!