Do Tell?

How do you tell someone that they suck, or are otherwise associated with something that is?

My father is playing an awful CD of some terrible unknown singer singing covers of rock’s greatest classics. It was a free CD that came along with the stereo system. He just does it from time to time – my father – playing the organ or spinning some CD very loudly in the middle of the night for the whole village to hear. And of course, nobody in this house dares say anything about it. LOL. Being the man of the house certainly comes with some privileges.

Avril Lavigne – not exactly the kind of music I'd usually tell people I listen to, but I have both her previous albums, and have this latest one pre-ordered from Amazon.

The CD is just another evident that if you’re bad, you’re bad. No amount of makeup, expensive clothes, or in this case, great music can change the fact. And when I say the singing is bad, it is bad. Three years of music lessons didn’t really leave me with a particularly good taste in music – my brother is the more artistic one – but I can still tell bad music.

So I have my headphones on. It's Letters to Cleo.

How do you want people to tell you?
(Man, you suck! Dude, your fly is open! You girlfriend/wife/child is ugly! Psst... you have body odor!)

They'll certainly make life more interesting, don't you think? Or not.

80’s Flashback

Don’t Dream It’s Over
by Crowded House, from the album Crowded House (1986)

There is freedom within,
There is freedom without,
Try to catch the deluge in a paper cup

There’s a battle ahead,

A Trip With Hippo by kenikenikeni
on deviantART

Many battles are lost,
But you’ll never see the end of the road
while you’re travelling with me

Hey now, hey now
Don’t dream it’s over
Hey now, hey now
When the world comes in

They come, they come
To build a wall between us
We know they won’t win

Now I’m towing my car, there’s a hole in the roof
My possessions are causing me suspicion but there’s no proof
In the paper today tales of war and of waste
But you turn right over to the T.V. page

Hey now, hey now
Don’t dream it’s over
Hey now, hey now
When the world comes in

They come, they come
To build a wall between us
We know they won’t win

Now I’m walking again to the beat of a drum
And I’m counting the steps to the door of your heart
Only the shadows ahead barely clearing the roof
Get to know the feeling of liberation and relief

Hey now, hey now
Don’t dream it’s over
Hey now, hey now
When the world comes in

They come, they come
To build a wall between us
Don’t ever let them win.

/.Eighties mood./

Exam week: the calm before the storm.

Wild World

Wild World
by Cat Stevens, from the album Tea for the Tillerman (1970)

Now that I've lost everything to you
You say you wanna start something new
And it's breakin' my heart you're leavin'
Baby, I'm grievin'
But if you wanna leave, take good care
I hope you have a lot of nice things to wear
But then a lot of nice things turn bad out there

Oh, baby, baby, it's a wild world
It's hard to get by just upon a smile
Oh, baby, baby, it's a wild world
I'll always remember you like a child, girl

You know I've seen a lot of what the world can do
And it's breakin' my heart in two
Because I never wanna see you a sad girl
Don't be a bad girl
But if you wanna leave, take good care
I hope you make a lot of nice friends out there
But just remember there's a lot of bad and beware

Baby, I love you
But if you wanna leave, take good care
I hope you make a lot of nice friends out there
But just remember there's a lot of bad and beware

Yes, I heard it first by Mr Big. Great song by a great singer-songwriter, to end an awesome first season of Skins.

Designated

They recently provided the department with a flatbed scanner, and I was the first person to use it. Since then, and coinciding with my appointment into the computer committee, I find myself becoming the department’s designated scanner and organic tech-support. We actually do have technicians who are paid to do all the technical stuff, but they aren’t exactly always available when you pick up the phone and call them, for one reason or the other. Since I’m not particularly very fond of the telephone, I would always walk to their station whenever I need something, and get served reasonably promptly. But for the rest of the staff who do things the normal way – by picking up the phone – the technicians pretty hard are hard to a get hold on to, so they turn to the next best thing – me.

I had to cut the article up into four pieces, scan the pieces separately, and recombine
and retouch the digital image files using Microsoft Digital Image 2006 Editor and Picasa.

I don’t mind helping others with the scanner or troubleshooting some problems they have with the computer – anything that can get me away from doing actual work. Most of them are things I don’t think you should bother the technicians with anyway, like finding a lost file on the computer, setting up the computer for the network printer, updating the antivirus program, and scanning and inserting a material into PowerPoint to be used in teaching; but I draw the line when somebody asked me to have a look at their home computer that was infected with a virus. Yes, somebody did ask me to have a look at their personal home computer that was infected with a virus. Come on, I’m not paid for this! I bet the guy didn’t even have an antivirus program installed in the damn thing.

PFFT!

Do I do tags? I don’t (usually) do tags, and Mon knows me well enough to not ask me to do tags. Usually they are about things I don’t care to spend more than three seconds to think about. But I don’t really have to think about this one, so here are the things I ate (and drank) today:

1. Nasi lemak for breakfast;
2. … with instant coffee.

Then,

3. Sips of lemon tea throughout the day. I don’t usually have lunch.

And,

4. Rice for dinner;
5. … with mutton curry;
6. … and scrambled eggs;
7. … and water.

And finally,

8. some Nestlé La Cremeria almond pecan ice-cream I’m eating right now.

Do dietary supplements count? If they do, then I also took a Centrum multivitamin tablet in the morning, and a 6000mg 21st Century Ginkgo Biloba capsule and 1000mg chewable orange-flavored vitamin-C tablet after dinner.

The Break-In, part II

Theft by Skatefreak14 at deviantART

My office was broken into, again. Two other offices were broken into as well and the computers, among other things, were carted off. I haven’t had my PC replaced since the last time, so I was a bit lucky in a sense. One colleague lost all her research, while the other lost all photos of his children. The thief, or more likely thieves, got away with an external hard drive I’ve only got for about a month, an old flatbed scanner that I haven’t been able to use because nobody could locate its driver, a cheap made-in-China USB port, and a 128MB flash drive from my office; all of which were university properties. They also took my university-issued blazer, track bottom, and sneakers, as well as my old calculator from high school, stapler and paper puncher. From the other rooms, they also got away with a brand-new microwave oven, transistor radio, mirror frame, printers etc.

Since the last break-in when the thieves broke into the offices by breaking the small glass window on the door, the university has reinforced them with a centimeter-thick piece of Perspex. This time they broke in through the rear glass window, so I have broken glass all over my floor. As a colleague commented, we can install metal grills on the windows and turn the offices into fire traps, and they’ll break through the ceiling next.

Seriously the university has to do something about the security situation. Once is one time too many to have your office violated and plundered.

End of the Line

All the fans already know about it – it’s finally the end of the line for Stargate SG-1 after ten wonderful years. Stargates SG-1 and Atlantis are by far my favorite shows on TV, and it doubly sucks because the story is far, far from over.

Stargate SG-1 gave, in my opinion, the coolest science fiction villain ever featured on television – the Replicators. Replicators are quite like the Borg in Star Trek but far more dangerous, and may I say again, way cooler. Unlike the Borg, who are part organic, Replicators are fully synthetic. They are machines that are essentially driven by the urge to replicate and self-preservation, absorbing superior technologies along the way, making them virtually unstoppable.

And it is definitely sad to see the end of the Asgard.

The meat grinder (Michael Fassbender/Warner Bros. photo)

When watching a movie based on a historical event, one must always remember that movies are essentially works of fiction. I first read about the Battle of Thermopylae years ago, and was delighted to watch the documentary Spartans at the Gates of Fire on Discovery a few years ago. So, as much as I hate watching a much hyped-about movie, I had to watch 300. Well, I really can never stay away from a war movie, anyway.

About the movie, the only real character is the Queen. Other than that, the story of the Spartans’ stand against the massive Persian army basically tells you the value of a small number of professional and well-trained fighting force against a horde of conscripts.

Excuses

The semester is over – almost – classes end today, YAY!. The finals will come later, and after that there’ll be no classes for most of us till July when the new academic year begins. There were talks earlier that the university is scrapping the totally unnatural ‘third’ semester but some of the other kulliyyahs apparently objected to the matter so the third semester stays, for now. PFFT!

My sister broke the digital camera during her trip to Indonesia. She dropped the thing while being chased by street peddlers. The damn thing still works – the shutter release button came off – but I don’t want it anymore. I want a new camera. It’s fun to be looking for a new camera, reading up specs etc. In actual fact I don’t really care much for a camera. I bought the A75 mostly because my mother wanted to see how I was doing in Boston. Other than that I just played with the thing when I was bored, at work or at home.

On the other hand, I’m really starting to grow bored of the white and orange W800. I suppose that it’s a fair enough reason to start looking for a new phone, right?

Die, alien scum!

Ah, superficial me! The computers are looking really old as well, but I mentioned that already. I may be a bit too old to be thinking about games, but it’s really been a while since I held a joystick, since the old Sidewinder 3D died on me a few years ago. I wonder if they still sell copies of FreeSpace 2.

What is it that’s so appealing about spending your money?

Yeah, like we really need excuses to consume.

Pain

... is finding out that your students can't even define a simple linear function. [ARGHHH!]

+Mr. Pain+ by Jack666rulez at deviantART

And they say that the SPM results are getting better every year.

Fast Food

Just for the heck of it...

Instant Karma!
by John Lennon (1970)

Instant Karma’s gonna get you
Gonna knock you right on the head
You better get yourself together
Pretty soon you’re gonna be dead
What in the world you thinking of
Laughing in the face of love
What on earth you tryin’ to do
It’s up to you, yeah you

John Lennon by iheartmanga
at deviantART

Instant Karma’s gonna get you
Gonna look you right in the face
Better get yourself together darlin’
Join the human race
How in the world you gonna see
Laughin’ at fools like me
Who in the hell d’you think you are
A super star
Well, right you are

Well we all shine on
Like the moon and the stars and the sun
Well we all shine on
Ev’ryone come on

Instant Karma’s gonna get you
Gonna knock you off your feet
Better recognize your brothers
Ev’ryone you meet
Why in the world are we here
Surely not to live in pain and fear
Why on earth are you there
When you're ev’rywhere
Come and get your share

Road Karma

I saw a real-life traffic accident right in front of me on the way to work yesterday morning. The driver in a red car in front of me wanted to turn right into a street so gave the signal, waited for the incoming traffic to clear, and went. I was about five to ten meters behind when a motorcycle zoomed past me on the right – the wrong side of the road – and crashed into the red car in front. BANG! (Well, actually it was more like a BOK!) I only saw the rider dropped down onto the ground as I drove past; a few motorcyclists behind me didn’t stop either. It was a busy two-way street and obviously at that time everybody wanted to get to work on time.

Admittedly, I generally don’t have kind thoughts for motorcyclists; at times I wanted nothing less than to just knock and run over them on the road like rabid dogs. However yesterday, instead of saying “Padan muka – serves him right!” – I actually felt sorry for the guy, a fellow human being; so much for my closet dream of becoming a hired assassin. :P

I believe that the way a person drives – definitely not the car that he or she just happen to be driving – reflects their true character and personality. Malaysians are supposed to be polite and hospitable, but perhaps on the road riding on a motorcycle or behind the wheel of a car makes people forget that they are still interacting with other people, also riding on a motorcycle or behind the wheel of a car.

Just remember that every time you push your way into a lane without so much of a signal, jump queue, hold up traffic etc people curse at you. Sooner of later all those curses, all those sins, will come back and bite you in the ass, or crash you into a wall, or a pole, or a monsoon drain, or a ravine, or an eighteen-wheeler…

__________
PS: I don't mean to call motorcyclists dogs, rabid or otherwise, and I certainly do not enjoy running over dogs or any other furry or non-furry animals, except perhaps a Chihuahua, but only because I couldn't see it.

Shut Me Up

Being a member of the computer club in school supposedly makes you a geek. What then, if you are made a member of the computer/IT committee at work? I went to my first IT committee meeting today to find out that I was appointed kulliyyah webmaster, since last year! Isn't that just great? After complaining all the time about the terrible state of the kulliyyah website, I simply couldn't say no. I should have kept my big mouth shut and be merry.

So now I am the practical training coordinator, student advisor, IT committee member, and webmaster. I might just as well dig a hole and bury myself in it. There is only over a week left in the semester, and I still have the assignments from aeons ago unmarked. The students certainly don't complain to my face about not receiving their assignments back after so long, but I'm sure that they'll definitely burn me in the TER.

__________
PS: I was NEVER, repeat NEVER, a member of the computer club in school. Honest!