Old Record

Okay, I don’t really have anything to write about (did I ever? :-P) but just want to put up another post before we move to August.

The Full Monty by marcshort at deviantART

I’m still excited about The Simpsons Movie I watched last week and I saw the above on dA. The Full Monty was one very funny movie as well, though when I watched it half the time I really had a hard time understanding what they were saying.

At the moment I’m expecting a few DVDs from Amazon – the final Season 10 of Stargate SG-1 DVD set and Babylon 5 – The Lost Tales. The latter is a newly released (okay, I pre-ordered it) follow-up ‘anthology’ of the Babylon 5 television series.

Some may call me old fashioned for still buying CDs and DVDs, even stupid for paying a lot of cash (‘a lot’ is relative, by the way) to buy original CDs and DVDs when we can buy the pirated copies for much cheaper or even download them for free. Whatever. Many people openly and proudly say that they buy pirated music and movie.

I just think that if you really like something, and truly appreciate the value of it – regardless of what others may think or say about your shitty taste – then you should be willing to do the right thing and pay for it. It is plain bullshit to say you’re into a particular music or movie but buy a pirated copy because the original is ‘too expensive’. They aren’t like food that you’ll die if you can’t have them so you ‘have’ to steal them. And parents who buy pirated CDs and DVDs for their children are actually teaching them that stealing is okay. (Yeah, no wonder kids nowadays are so messed up!)

The bottom line is exactly as I wrote previously about the fuss over Astro fees – if you think it’s too expensive then don’t buy. And don’t buy pirated work.

This message is brought to you by RIAA, MPAA, PPFM etc.

;-)

Broken Window

My home desktop PC died, which was really annoying, although I really cannot say that I didn’t see it coming. Over the past month or so I’d had to come home and plug the stupid thing onto the wall socket and turn on the switch, and go have my shower, dinner, watch some TV etc, and come back after a half-an-hour or so later before I can get the PC to start. At first I thought that it has something to do with the PSU, but a talk with the university technician turned the attention to the mobo. Anyway, last weekend it wouldn’t start at all over two full days so I figured that it’s finally, totally, definitely, dead. I don’t think it is worth spending any money to revive a four-year-old PC with a new mobo, so I took out the HD to be put into an external casing and let my brother take the memory modules.

So it’s just the notebook now. :-(

It just sucks that now I have to think about buying a new PC – this notebook is about the same age as the desktop and has started making some strange noise as well – on top of the other things I’m thinking of buying as well, like a new pair glasses, prescription shades, camera, video camera, mobile phone, stereo… (macam lah banyak sangat duit)

Why do things have to break down? So [whoever makes them] can make a living, says the typical wise old man. Well, not so wise actually, as famously illustrated by Bastiat.

But it’s definitely a convenient excuse to go buy stuff, isn’t it?

Typical Windows Error....Kinda by Garith-Aerlin at deviantART

Where the @#$% is Everybody?

Where is everybody?
It’s July – the middle of the year!
Where the @#$% is everybody?

>

My students cannot buy their textbook. A new edition has just been released, but the US-based publisher is embargoing the textbook until after the new fall semester begins in the States some time in September, lest copies of the *cheap* international edition they sell here find their way back to the US. FINE, I’ll switch to another textbook!

Damn capitalists!

>

When was the last time you received a mail – snail mail – other than bills or banks statements or some official URUSAN SERI PADUKA BAGINDA letters? I figure that it would be nice to receive an actual mail once in a while, or write one, though the problem here, just like nobody remembers phone numbers anymore, is that nobody remembers, or keep records of, addresses anymore. SIGH. People still send wedding invites the old way, though, which tells when your friend – like Azrai – suddenly asks you your mailing address. With weddings so obscenely expensive nowadays it puzzles me why people don’t do the logical thing – send electronic invites.

>

The tribe has spoken: we’re buying a new car. But wait, why buy just one car when you can buy two? So we booked two cars. YAY! (?)

Two cars?

1. We want to support the domestic auto industry in particular and the Malaysian economy in general.
   
   
2. Car #1: the last-century Kancil my brother is driving is such a hazard that George W Bush would go to war over it; or get the CIA to sell it to Osama so he’ll die (if he hasn’t already, so much for US *intelligence*) in a car crash. That’s definitely more cost effective than putting a $50 million bounty over his head.
   
   
3. Car #2: “Dapat kereta baru!” – my father. So we can have a new car!
   

Withheld

Last Fight
by Velvet Revolver, from the album Libertad (2007)

Time feels like I’ve been back in jail
Like when I was doing time or even killed
Spend all night on a bended knee
Just to beg for something to believe

Left home with a pack of clothes
Without a family tree

This fight could be the last fight
No giving no winning
One time could be the all the time
Should we decide to end the misery
Time heals all of the burned out bridges
Filled with nothing more than misery
I wear the mask of the embattled son
Trying to beg for something to believe

Break the chains of featherweights and giants
With disdain for everlasting liars
They’ll refrain when we spit out the fire
And start living, living, living my friend

This fight could be the last fight
No giving no winning
One time could be the all the time
Should we decide to end the misery

^Song of the week.

It's the first week of a new Semester 1 of a new 2007/2008 academic year, and the department is just chaotic.

I’ve been getting calls on my mobile from some withheld number the last couple of days that I simply ignore. Tough luck, dude; I don’t like to use the phone in the first place so if you won’t even show me your number then don’t expect me to pick up your calls!

PFFT!

News of the Day

Smoke by Tarelkin at deviantART

Excise duty on cigarettes is set to increase by 25% beginning Monday, and tobacco companies are announcing corresponding increases in the price of cigarettes.

...

Federation of Sundry Goods Merchants Associations of Malaysia president Lean Hing Chuan was quoted as saying that the sale of cigarettes always dropped when the price was raised.

http://www.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2007/7/5/nation/18215474&sec=nation

DUHH! I couldn't help laughing when I read the statement in The Star today.

I don't smoke so personally couldn't care less how much they charge for cigarettes. However, I am quite interested to find out how much exactly smoking-related illnesses contribute to our annual public healthcare bill. Let's say the amount comes up to RM5 billion. Then the government could increase tax on cigarettes to cover the amount. Just make sure the money goes back to healthcare.

It’s July!

Classes begin next week!

There is a sofa bed at IKEA that I want to buy but have been putting it off, until last Thursday when I went down to Mutiara Damansara only to find that they've run out of it. Just my luck, I guess, though my father did get that armchair he wanted.

The car is done, with a RM2448 repair bill that thankfully goes to the insurance company. It was in the news just last week that the insurance companies are seriously considering increasing premium charges because claims are increasing. I wonder how much risk profiling our local insurance companies do when setting the premium. Not much, I suspect, which is largely unfair to the public in general for having to pay relatively high premiums, but quite advantageous for us in the typically designated high-risk gender and age groups.

Again having to do with cars, my brother was told by mechanics – of which he saw quite a few for second, third opinions – that the wheels of his hand-me-down Kancil might just come off one of these days. That piece of candid evaluation of the sorry state of the car totally freaked my parents out that they decided that it is time that we buy a new car, or two!

Blog surfing, by clicking on the ‘Next Blog’ button on the Blogger Navbar isn’t as fun as it used to. Sure, there are some pretty interesting blogs out there (unlike this one!) but many blogs are now made only for the purpose of collecting money from advertisements.. It’s not that I have a lot of time on my hands to blog-surf. Besides, having both NoScript and Adblock Plus installed means I don’t see all the ads anyway. People just can’t stay away from the prospect of getting easy money, can they?

What do you think of the new colors?

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PS: Ferrari wins at Magny-Cours, and big-time world champion Alonso finishes seventh. YAY!