I did the worst thing I could have ever done today. I started playing and RPG. A trilogy series RPG.
While pretty much spells the end of my rock star ambitions, I must say that this is one hard hard difficult lots of patience required game together with cheats and walkthroughs. But its really well done. You get to pull of spectacular combos, you get really strong and poewrful opponents, who btw happen to kick my ass most of the time, you get nice blades and spikes all ready to dice through you. Pretty much following the revelutionary release of the 1st game. Oh i think i forgot to mention the title. It's Prince of Persia!! I wanted to upload a picture here but the internet connection is so bad so i think i'll just screw the idea.
I bought myself a new 40gb external HDD yesterday in a bid to reformat my comp and get it running properly again. Much to my dismay my laptop refused to cooperate and instructed the DVD drive not to work. As a result my auto recovery disk can't be read. And hence the %*!#!@ thing can't be reformatted. Blah!
I think I need to stop playing PS2 and DotA and start putting in more hours of practice on my guitar. My tempo (or lack of it) still haunts me (actually, not really). But point is, I should start doing more useful things. Bah and I'm leaving to London next week and havent read up crap yet on my FYP. I have this feeling thats it's gonna be another long long year ahead.
Today, is merdeka day. Looking outside my house, there doesn't seem to be much of a merdeka mood going around. Even last night on merdeka eve, i think the celebrations were reduced to a damp squib to the thunderstorm that came hurtling down. Can't really complain though...rain always brings a good night's sleep :D I half wanted to write a long long entry on merdeka day, but I think i'm just to sleepy to do it. Maybe next year, else i'll get more randomness than content.
I seem to be typing crap anyway.
Blah. I'm off to take a shower and eat dinner.
Thursday, August 31, 2006
Wednesday, August 30, 2006
wait for me(part 2).....
At least this time the title is not totally irrelevant and depicts how i feel in some funny way...
Anyways, I got back from subang yesterday. I'm beginning to miss the people there already. But a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do. So london here i come. Next sunday though.
And my phone had a collision with a kembara with totally killed its display. And my camera refuses to work too. Bummer man.
10 more days to go before i fly back, and I have a ton of things to do at the moment. Been clearing up my room and getting back my contact list the whole day, and about 3 games of DOTA where i was totally pawned. Man i'm so out of practice.
I actually had a hundred and one things to blog about but somehow for the life of me i can't really recall any of it now. Maybe its a sign that i need to go get more sleep.
And i'm lazy to go on so i guess i'll just leave it at here.
Anyways, I got back from subang yesterday. I'm beginning to miss the people there already. But a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do. So london here i come. Next sunday though.
And my phone had a collision with a kembara with totally killed its display. And my camera refuses to work too. Bummer man.
10 more days to go before i fly back, and I have a ton of things to do at the moment. Been clearing up my room and getting back my contact list the whole day, and about 3 games of DOTA where i was totally pawned. Man i'm so out of practice.
I actually had a hundred and one things to blog about but somehow for the life of me i can't really recall any of it now. Maybe its a sign that i need to go get more sleep.
And i'm lazy to go on so i guess i'll just leave it at here.
Monday, August 14, 2006
Wait for meeeeeee......
I love titles that are totally irrelevant to the article.
Anyways, I pretty much confirmed my return flight home already, which will be on the 10th of September, via Malaysian Airlines, 12pm from KLIA. So i'll be flying off together with Ding, Sze Chuen and Chia Wei, barring anymore threats of bombs or whatever. It's gonna be a pain as it is if they don't lift the "NO CABIN LUGGAGE OR ELECTRONIC DEVICES" restriction when I fly. I bet my laptop will never leave KLIA if i put it in the baggae compartment. Some idiot's bound to steal it. But then again, satistically, if everyone brought laptops and put their laptops in the check in baggage, that would mean the risk is pooled and each of us will have less chance of having our laptops stolen... But that's not the point. I want zero risk.
As it is, I've sort of confirmed my topic for my final year project. I'm planinng to do some reaserch on VaR and Tail-VaR, but the other day and I wrote to a potential project supervisor and asked whether he'd be interested in overseeing the project. All he said was "drop by my office and we'll talk about it", and although I pointed out that i couldn't do so because I am not in London at the moment, he then just told me to see him when I get back. So I get this feeling that my project is hanging in the balance waiting for some sort of approval. While in the meantime, do I go looking for another project or what? I hate uncertainty. And I'll hate it more if I have to go looking for another final year project to do 2 weeks before term begins. Somehow things like this always happen to me. Sigh. Third year looks like it's gonna stick a big big knife up my butt already.
A song that played in my head this morning when I woke up:
Fill my eyes, O my God
With the vision of the cross
Fill my heart, with love for Jesus
The Nazarene
Fill my mouth, with thy praise
Let me sing though endless days
Take my will, let my life,
Be wholly Thine.
I just hope I don't end up being another hypocrite. I probably already am one. Well I guess nobody ever said that life would be easy.
Moving on, time has really flown during my stay back here. In two weeks time I'll be leaving Subang and heading home to Melaka to spend time with my family for another fortnight, and then I'll be back to London for my final year of studies. But I must say it's been a really good time back here, meeting up with so many old friends, even though some of them have taken different paths, but nonetheless, its still great to know that at the end of the day we're still like brothers and sisters. And so many new friends! It has been really really great to meet and be freinds with so many awesome and wonderful people. Life's a lot better with them around.
I'm still wondering how best to spend my second last week in subang. Tomorrow night I'll be heading off to church after work to try out a song with Enoch (hopefully I don't screw it up again) and then on Weds going to the Malaysian Philharmonic Orhcestra to watch Fourplay (HURRAH!-note to self: do not forget to bring tickets). But I guess tonight would mean practicing till my fingers bleed (or I get the tempo thing sorted out, whichever comes first) so that everything will be smooth flowing tomorrow. Friday night would then be either futsal or meeting up with Kenneth Chan aka Lord of Madness or both, depending. Thursday night I might have to head of to One U to get that VaR book. And Saturday night is church, Sunday night has something on but I can't remember what. Looks like the week's quite well filled up.
Lat night I was watching a concert DVD that Enoch passed to me till about 2am, all japanese music. I'm only like 10% through it, but my goodness. I wanna be Japanese. I mean I wanna play music like they do. There were these two funk/jazz bands that were playing, Casiopea and The Square. Didn't manage to see much of Casiopea yet, but I caught about 20 mins of The Square, and the only thing that felt like a square was my head. They are soooooooooooooo good. Another CD added to my "must buy" list. Which probably brings the list to a grand total of 20 CDs or something like that. I smell something burning. And I think it's my debit card. But like Enoch said, you only live once. What the heck. Retail therapy is the new health for me.
And I'm still waiting for my paycheck from Bank Negara. It's like 15 days late. Sometimes people don't realise that when they don't do things properly they're tarnishing more than just their own image. I want my paaaayyyyy........so I get that cool jacket that I saw too. Which will set me back by another Rm180.
I think I've finally got over my addiction of FM2006. But I haven't deleted it of my comp yet, so that danger is still there. Blearghh! It's a love hate relationship I tell you.
Sometimes sitting here in the office with absolutely nothing to do makes me wonder what the heck am I doing here. But yet I justify it by saying this is the only way I'll get to spend my summer in KL with my friends. And at least there's some semblance of work. Else I'd really rot. To the point where I'd pick up a pen and think its a new apple product or something.
So here's to the last 2 weeks in subang for the year. *sigh*
Anyways, I pretty much confirmed my return flight home already, which will be on the 10th of September, via Malaysian Airlines, 12pm from KLIA. So i'll be flying off together with Ding, Sze Chuen and Chia Wei, barring anymore threats of bombs or whatever. It's gonna be a pain as it is if they don't lift the "NO CABIN LUGGAGE OR ELECTRONIC DEVICES" restriction when I fly. I bet my laptop will never leave KLIA if i put it in the baggae compartment. Some idiot's bound to steal it. But then again, satistically, if everyone brought laptops and put their laptops in the check in baggage, that would mean the risk is pooled and each of us will have less chance of having our laptops stolen... But that's not the point. I want zero risk.
As it is, I've sort of confirmed my topic for my final year project. I'm planinng to do some reaserch on VaR and Tail-VaR, but the other day and I wrote to a potential project supervisor and asked whether he'd be interested in overseeing the project. All he said was "drop by my office and we'll talk about it", and although I pointed out that i couldn't do so because I am not in London at the moment, he then just told me to see him when I get back. So I get this feeling that my project is hanging in the balance waiting for some sort of approval. While in the meantime, do I go looking for another project or what? I hate uncertainty. And I'll hate it more if I have to go looking for another final year project to do 2 weeks before term begins. Somehow things like this always happen to me. Sigh. Third year looks like it's gonna stick a big big knife up my butt already.
A song that played in my head this morning when I woke up:
Fill my eyes, O my God
With the vision of the cross
Fill my heart, with love for Jesus
The Nazarene
Fill my mouth, with thy praise
Let me sing though endless days
Take my will, let my life,
Be wholly Thine.
I just hope I don't end up being another hypocrite. I probably already am one. Well I guess nobody ever said that life would be easy.
Moving on, time has really flown during my stay back here. In two weeks time I'll be leaving Subang and heading home to Melaka to spend time with my family for another fortnight, and then I'll be back to London for my final year of studies. But I must say it's been a really good time back here, meeting up with so many old friends, even though some of them have taken different paths, but nonetheless, its still great to know that at the end of the day we're still like brothers and sisters. And so many new friends! It has been really really great to meet and be freinds with so many awesome and wonderful people. Life's a lot better with them around.
I'm still wondering how best to spend my second last week in subang. Tomorrow night I'll be heading off to church after work to try out a song with Enoch (hopefully I don't screw it up again) and then on Weds going to the Malaysian Philharmonic Orhcestra to watch Fourplay (HURRAH!-note to self: do not forget to bring tickets). But I guess tonight would mean practicing till my fingers bleed (or I get the tempo thing sorted out, whichever comes first) so that everything will be smooth flowing tomorrow. Friday night would then be either futsal or meeting up with Kenneth Chan aka Lord of Madness or both, depending. Thursday night I might have to head of to One U to get that VaR book. And Saturday night is church, Sunday night has something on but I can't remember what. Looks like the week's quite well filled up.
Lat night I was watching a concert DVD that Enoch passed to me till about 2am, all japanese music. I'm only like 10% through it, but my goodness. I wanna be Japanese. I mean I wanna play music like they do. There were these two funk/jazz bands that were playing, Casiopea and The Square. Didn't manage to see much of Casiopea yet, but I caught about 20 mins of The Square, and the only thing that felt like a square was my head. They are soooooooooooooo good. Another CD added to my "must buy" list. Which probably brings the list to a grand total of 20 CDs or something like that. I smell something burning. And I think it's my debit card. But like Enoch said, you only live once. What the heck. Retail therapy is the new health for me.
And I'm still waiting for my paycheck from Bank Negara. It's like 15 days late. Sometimes people don't realise that when they don't do things properly they're tarnishing more than just their own image. I want my paaaayyyyy........so I get that cool jacket that I saw too. Which will set me back by another Rm180.
I think I've finally got over my addiction of FM2006. But I haven't deleted it of my comp yet, so that danger is still there. Blearghh! It's a love hate relationship I tell you.
Sometimes sitting here in the office with absolutely nothing to do makes me wonder what the heck am I doing here. But yet I justify it by saying this is the only way I'll get to spend my summer in KL with my friends. And at least there's some semblance of work. Else I'd really rot. To the point where I'd pick up a pen and think its a new apple product or something.
So here's to the last 2 weeks in subang for the year. *sigh*
Tuesday, August 01, 2006
Life at Work
Lazyness got the better of me , so I didn't blog for the past months.
Anyways that was a pretty lousy intro for a blog entry, but lets move on.
So here I am sitting in the office of Bank Negara Malaysia in the insurance supervision department. I found that as as intern in Bank Negara you are usually overpaid and underworked. So to keep myself from falling asleep, I shall spend time telling you all about life in the past month.
Lets start off with work. Working life is...well..cool? I dont't know. It definately has its pros and cons, but I think as far as this job is concerned, whatever pros that I foresaw as a student for a working person has been completely blown to bits. All because i buntut gatal and decided that I wanna study Actuarial Science and be an actuary. (And by the way, to that smart ass, no, actuarial science has NOTHING TO DO with botany. Unless of course one day some insurance company decides to insure your durian tree in your ah kong's dusun, but thats another story.)
Back to my point. Well you see, the main complain I had as a student is the endless amount of studying which I am supposed -but never did- to do... you know, like after you get home from Uni at 7pm, cook your dinner, then you gotta start reading about todays class material, assignments, etc. Thats a pain. Working life -I thought- would mean just getting up early in the morning, brave the rush hour, work till evening, brave the rush hour again, then you're home scott free for the rest of the evening. Well that still holds true for most professions. I mean, even if you're an auditor being overworked and underpaid in PWC no rest for 24 hours 7 days a week 6 months of the year, well heck....you don't need to do anything once you get home from work - I just realised my auditor anology is not going to work but I'm too lazy to think of another one - As for this field that I'm in, coming home would still mean bringing fat textbooks with you, studying, preparing for actuarial exams, understanding what other new mathematical/statistical methods geeks like you in the industry have come up with and so on and so forth. Where's the social life man??? Like I said, the auditor analogy doesnt work cos most of them take their CAP papers to become chartered accountants.
Well so much for working life. Its still fun though. I'm beggining to see all the math and stats that I've learnt in the past 2 years fall into application, and just somehow its gives a little bit more meaning to my life when I'll be sitting down in front of books reading theories and math that I don't really understand much about. So thats a little bit more motivation to study harder. Not.
I take the bus to work -yes, you heard me right. THE BUS- everyday. And I must say, the much maligned Malaysian public transport system isn't that bad after all. Well at least for the buses and the area I'm in, it's pretty decent. I've been living in SS13 subang Jaya for the past month, and taking the no 10 and 13 metrobus -talk about metro guys, we've got metro bus- to work. Well before this I was taking the KTM, and also the yellow mini buses to get to the KTM station. And heck they are good. So far everyday, every 5-10 minutes there'd be a metrobus coming along to take me to KL. So too for the yellow buses. Very good service. The KTM is pretty decent too, only that a train comes every 15 mins. If they improved the frequency of it or added some extra carriages it'd be much better.
I actually took the time to write an email to the KL Urban Transport Department, praising them for the existing bus service that I use -I'm sure almost all 26 million Malaysians out there would disagree with me- and also outlining some suggestions on how to further improve the existing system. I actually wrote it on a feedback page on their website, and the whole thing took me 45 mins to write. Unfortunately for me, when I clicked the "send" button, the next thing that appeared was an error screen. When I think of that even up to today, words still fail me. Here is this guy taking the trouble to PRAISE the authorities for the PUBLIC TRANSPORT SYSTEM and the blasted webpage gives me an error message. Talk about ungratefulness. But it's more likely that 26 million malaysians out there are spamming the site with hate messages and death threats (which would be the reason why it got stuck...so I guess I'll blame them instead. Heh.
In the headlines today it was announced that Malaysia Airlines, under its restructuring program, will increase its domestic airfares effective in 2 weeks time (which I assume would be somewhere mid August). First thing when my dad saw it in the news last night was to call me up and ask me to hurry up and get my plane ticket before the international fares went up too. Did my research first thing in the morning today.... and guess what I found.
Flights to London (one way, inc tax and fees):
MAS RM3100
Emirates RM2400 (transit at Dubai)
British Airways RM 5100 (transit at HK via Cathay Pacific)
Thai Airways RM 4098 (transit at Bangkok)
Qantas RM 2300 (from Changi)
SIA RM 2200 (from KLIA-transit at Changi S'pore)
SIA RM 3300 (from Changi)
Seems to me like SIA is doing some serious predatory pricing on MAS's ass here. Talk about friendly relations. If I were Singaporean I'd buy a plane ticket with SIA from Malaysia and fly to London from KLIA. Take a train or a coach up to KLIA. That way you'd still save at least RM500. And Thai Airways better be giving some Thai massage onboard to justify that price. BA can just fly home on their own.
I'd regard myself as slightly more patriotic that the average Malaysian citizen out there -heck the fact that I praised the transport system should make me the most patriotic one already by default - but paying RM 900 more isn't my idea of competiveness. MAS better get their pricing strategy right. Or sabotage SIA. Else someone's gonna need another bailout soon.
I'd like to stop blogging now but I'd have too much free time on my hands then an don't know what to do with it so I guess i'll just continue on with another couple of paragraphs.
Oh yeah, exams result came out like a month ago. I did pretty alright. In fact it was a miracle considering the marks that I got. All glory to God. He truly is faithful when I am faithless. All that desperation, sleepless nights, prayers, emotions, trauma... gosh. Seems like a lifetime ago. But i guess I'll be in for another round in my third year. Funny how exams can shape you so much. Now I won't have to go back early in august and resit. Don't think I'd be able to survive the resit if I had failed the first try.
Another thing that's been going through my mind not too long ago was concerning this too. There's plenty of folks out there like me, who by God's amazing grace, at the point of failure, went into an exam hall, came out with distinctions or marks that they can only dream of. But what about those who DID fail? I won't dispute the fact that God is gracious and He is sovereign, He knows and controls it all, and everything that happens is within His grand design if things, good or bad, that's a fact and truth that is infallible - well unless you don't believe God exist or you believe in a version of God that's quite different from mine, but that's besides the point- I mean, what do you say to these people? What can you possibly say to console them? This whole thing has caused me to be a bit skeptical about the whole go-up-in-front-and-share-your-testimony-about-your-exams-results thing. Sure, I rejoice with you when you do well, but what about that brother or sister in the same room who just failed the exams even after trying so hard, if not harder? But I believe in some things the "why" is not for us to know. But nonetheless I'm a bit careful nowadays with whom and how I tell news like this to. Just something to think about. Cos there are more serious issues in life than exams which will have similiar scenarios.
Well.... I think thats a nice blog entry that'll make up for all the laziness so far. Heh. Till later.
Anyways that was a pretty lousy intro for a blog entry, but lets move on.
So here I am sitting in the office of Bank Negara Malaysia in the insurance supervision department. I found that as as intern in Bank Negara you are usually overpaid and underworked. So to keep myself from falling asleep, I shall spend time telling you all about life in the past month.
Lets start off with work. Working life is...well..cool? I dont't know. It definately has its pros and cons, but I think as far as this job is concerned, whatever pros that I foresaw as a student for a working person has been completely blown to bits. All because i buntut gatal and decided that I wanna study Actuarial Science and be an actuary. (And by the way, to that smart ass, no, actuarial science has NOTHING TO DO with botany. Unless of course one day some insurance company decides to insure your durian tree in your ah kong's dusun, but thats another story.)
Back to my point. Well you see, the main complain I had as a student is the endless amount of studying which I am supposed -but never did- to do... you know, like after you get home from Uni at 7pm, cook your dinner, then you gotta start reading about todays class material, assignments, etc. Thats a pain. Working life -I thought- would mean just getting up early in the morning, brave the rush hour, work till evening, brave the rush hour again, then you're home scott free for the rest of the evening. Well that still holds true for most professions. I mean, even if you're an auditor being overworked and underpaid in PWC no rest for 24 hours 7 days a week 6 months of the year, well heck....you don't need to do anything once you get home from work - I just realised my auditor anology is not going to work but I'm too lazy to think of another one - As for this field that I'm in, coming home would still mean bringing fat textbooks with you, studying, preparing for actuarial exams, understanding what other new mathematical/statistical methods geeks like you in the industry have come up with and so on and so forth. Where's the social life man??? Like I said, the auditor analogy doesnt work cos most of them take their CAP papers to become chartered accountants.
Well so much for working life. Its still fun though. I'm beggining to see all the math and stats that I've learnt in the past 2 years fall into application, and just somehow its gives a little bit more meaning to my life when I'll be sitting down in front of books reading theories and math that I don't really understand much about. So thats a little bit more motivation to study harder. Not.
I take the bus to work -yes, you heard me right. THE BUS- everyday. And I must say, the much maligned Malaysian public transport system isn't that bad after all. Well at least for the buses and the area I'm in, it's pretty decent. I've been living in SS13 subang Jaya for the past month, and taking the no 10 and 13 metrobus -talk about metro guys, we've got metro bus- to work. Well before this I was taking the KTM, and also the yellow mini buses to get to the KTM station. And heck they are good. So far everyday, every 5-10 minutes there'd be a metrobus coming along to take me to KL. So too for the yellow buses. Very good service. The KTM is pretty decent too, only that a train comes every 15 mins. If they improved the frequency of it or added some extra carriages it'd be much better.
I actually took the time to write an email to the KL Urban Transport Department, praising them for the existing bus service that I use -I'm sure almost all 26 million Malaysians out there would disagree with me- and also outlining some suggestions on how to further improve the existing system. I actually wrote it on a feedback page on their website, and the whole thing took me 45 mins to write. Unfortunately for me, when I clicked the "send" button, the next thing that appeared was an error screen. When I think of that even up to today, words still fail me. Here is this guy taking the trouble to PRAISE the authorities for the PUBLIC TRANSPORT SYSTEM and the blasted webpage gives me an error message. Talk about ungratefulness. But it's more likely that 26 million malaysians out there are spamming the site with hate messages and death threats (which would be the reason why it got stuck...so I guess I'll blame them instead. Heh.
In the headlines today it was announced that Malaysia Airlines, under its restructuring program, will increase its domestic airfares effective in 2 weeks time (which I assume would be somewhere mid August). First thing when my dad saw it in the news last night was to call me up and ask me to hurry up and get my plane ticket before the international fares went up too. Did my research first thing in the morning today.... and guess what I found.
Flights to London (one way, inc tax and fees):
MAS RM3100
Emirates RM2400 (transit at Dubai)
British Airways RM 5100 (transit at HK via Cathay Pacific)
Thai Airways RM 4098 (transit at Bangkok)
Qantas RM 2300 (from Changi)
SIA RM 2200 (from KLIA-transit at Changi S'pore)
SIA RM 3300 (from Changi)
Seems to me like SIA is doing some serious predatory pricing on MAS's ass here. Talk about friendly relations. If I were Singaporean I'd buy a plane ticket with SIA from Malaysia and fly to London from KLIA. Take a train or a coach up to KLIA. That way you'd still save at least RM500. And Thai Airways better be giving some Thai massage onboard to justify that price. BA can just fly home on their own.
I'd regard myself as slightly more patriotic that the average Malaysian citizen out there -heck the fact that I praised the transport system should make me the most patriotic one already by default - but paying RM 900 more isn't my idea of competiveness. MAS better get their pricing strategy right. Or sabotage SIA. Else someone's gonna need another bailout soon.
I'd like to stop blogging now but I'd have too much free time on my hands then an don't know what to do with it so I guess i'll just continue on with another couple of paragraphs.
Oh yeah, exams result came out like a month ago. I did pretty alright. In fact it was a miracle considering the marks that I got. All glory to God. He truly is faithful when I am faithless. All that desperation, sleepless nights, prayers, emotions, trauma... gosh. Seems like a lifetime ago. But i guess I'll be in for another round in my third year. Funny how exams can shape you so much. Now I won't have to go back early in august and resit. Don't think I'd be able to survive the resit if I had failed the first try.
Another thing that's been going through my mind not too long ago was concerning this too. There's plenty of folks out there like me, who by God's amazing grace, at the point of failure, went into an exam hall, came out with distinctions or marks that they can only dream of. But what about those who DID fail? I won't dispute the fact that God is gracious and He is sovereign, He knows and controls it all, and everything that happens is within His grand design if things, good or bad, that's a fact and truth that is infallible - well unless you don't believe God exist or you believe in a version of God that's quite different from mine, but that's besides the point- I mean, what do you say to these people? What can you possibly say to console them? This whole thing has caused me to be a bit skeptical about the whole go-up-in-front-and-share-your-testimony-about-your-exams-results thing. Sure, I rejoice with you when you do well, but what about that brother or sister in the same room who just failed the exams even after trying so hard, if not harder? But I believe in some things the "why" is not for us to know. But nonetheless I'm a bit careful nowadays with whom and how I tell news like this to. Just something to think about. Cos there are more serious issues in life than exams which will have similiar scenarios.
Well.... I think thats a nice blog entry that'll make up for all the laziness so far. Heh. Till later.
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