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 Don't really have anything to say. Just surprised that blogger.com still exists...

Stay safe, tell your loved ones that you love them, and be kind.

Safari auto-suggest FAIL...

I started to type in "Can you..." into the search bar on the Safari browser on PC, and got the following suggested searches:

Click to see bigger image...

Halloween 2009

Over the years, it's been a tradition at Gamebrains to dress up for Halloween. This year, there was even a themed lunch to match the celebrations.

Unfortunately, only 4 people wore costumes this year... This would be the first year I'm dressing up as something, and I decided to dress up as:

...my boss.

Unfortunately, Brett (the boss) wasn't around that day, which robbed us of a chance to take a side-by-side photo. Maybe next year, i suppose.

And then, there's Jeff:

...dressed as a butcher from Cheras.

And there's Javier, who dressed up as:

...a gay elf (Link)

Jeff asking for a raise.

And then, there was Eugene, who's photo I haven't got. He basically wore a fake dagger poking through his head.

We then walked to this restaurant called Departure Lounge for our themed lunch.

The only drawback with my costume, is that i had to remove the mask to eat.

Elaine and James joined in as well. Elaine's supposed to be a Jester and James is a tiger.

Eeeeeee... so cute!

We were offered severed fingers/penises for appetizers

Jeff eating the said severed finger/penis

Our swampy beverage...

So, yes... that's my Halloween.

Where old Formula 1 teams go to die...

Poor Minardi. God bless its battered soul...

A movie i would pay money to see...

Fiat 500 lands in Malaysia!

Spotted this Fiat 500 at the Fiat Service Centre in Keramat. Apparently, this is a unit for the mechanics to toy around with.

"Say my name... SAY MY NAME!!!"

I'm not sure if it's actually on sale yet, but the guys at the workshop say it'll be priced between RM120k to 140k, which is ridiculous when you consider that you can buy one for just 8000 Pounds in the UK. Even after the over-inflated taxes, it should still cost only about RM90k at most. Me thinks the local distributor is trying to milk as much out of the 500 as they can...

Needless to say, i love this car. Will test drive one once i get the chance :)

Microsoft being funny...

I'm currently downloading the release candidate for Windows 7 (that would be the next version of Windows, in case you've been living under a rock. Like me).

It would've been a routine thing if it weren't for one tiny thing (click on the following photo to see the full-sized version):



Microsoft is using JAVA to distribute Windows 7!!! (Note the little Java icon on the smaller window).

This is quite ironic, if you consider how Microsoft routinely bashes Java in favour of their own C# language and .NET runtime environments. I've been to a couple of Microsoft TechEd seminars in Malaysia, and they'll always have one session that shows just how superior C# and .Net are to Java.

Funny how the world works... :)

Good things come to those who wait...

This year, for the season of Lent, I had decided to be a very good Catholic and fasted.

Of course, the Catholic definition of fasting is somewhat conveniently abstract - unlike the Muslim month of Ramadan, where you can be punished for eating or drinking during daylight, most Catholics fast during Lent by means of 'abstaining' from something of worldly pleasure. Stuff like smoking, drinking (alcoholic beverage), playing videogames, sex, etc...

I decided to give up the one vice i rely on the most:

Coke Light

No joke, Coke Light is my cigarette / coffee / cocaine. Prior to Lent, i was drinking Coke Light at a rate of about three cans a day - that's roughly a litre of the black stuff each day. And if you think THAT'S bad, i used to do the same with full-flavoured, sugar-rich Coke. I did it while I was in university and while i was working in the Star. And it made me fat.

So i switched over to Coke Light and - would you believe it - i prefer it to normal Coke. It's even supplanted Vanilla Coke as my favourite variety of Coke. This is a very big deal, especially if you consider my tastes a couple of years ago (Click here for my diet-Coke shootout)

Anyway, back to Lent...

Yes, fasting.

I gave up Coke Light for the entire season of Lent this year. Except for weekends when I'd take a swig from a can that I'd asked Elaine to buy... and except for that one time at work where I'd bought myself an 8 ringgit bottle of Dr Pepper Zero (which is actually pretty good too) as a substitute. And that one time in McDonald's.

But yes, i fasted. And i swear i started feeling some sort of withdrawal symptoms - neither coffee nor sweet drinks could quench my thirst, and whenever anybody nearby drank an ice-cold can of Coke Light on a hot day, it shook the very core of my soul. It was difficult. it didn't really do anything spiritually for me (other than leaving me in a semi-vegetative state for most of the day).

Although it has reminded me of something - that good things come to those who wait.

So Good Friday came and went, followed by Easter Sunday. And then, i rewarded myself with the Coke Zero that I had asked Caryn to buy when she was in Singapore.





Coke Zero?

Yes... if there's one thing that i probably like even more than Coke Light, it's Coke Zero... which is widely available in Singapore, of all things. And after the local Coca Cola boys started putting the 'Zero' branding on Coke Light, I was dreaming of the day that Coke Light would officially come to Malaysia - so I wouldn't have to plonk down 5 ringgit for a can (that's almost THREE times the price of regular Coke Light).

Anyway, back to the end of Lent.

Yes, I've since consumed half the 1.5L bottle of Coke Zero, about a third a 1.5L bottle of Coke and about four cans of Coke Light in the past 48 hours. And after all that fasting and restraint, the Coke actually does taste a lot better.

So i guess the moral of the story is... erm....

We should be thankful for Christ's ascension into heaven (which is what Easter is about, in case you didn't know. It's got nothing to do with bunnies and shit) because He makes Coke... erm... taste better?

There! I've made a connection between Jesus and the Coca Cola company.

Happy Easter.

Never meet your childhood heroes...

If you know me well enough and started a conversation about cars, and asked me what's my favourite car off all time, i'd say it's the Honda NSX:

An original 1990-spec NSX (picture from Wikipedia)

This has literally been my dream car ever since 1990 (when i was 11 years old). I first saw it in an issue of Car and Driver and fell in love with it, and i was overjoyed to see one in real life in the first KL international motorshow a year or two later.

I love this car because of the motivations behind it, its history and the technology that went behind it. Honda had just won several constructors' championships in Formula 1 and, i guess, they wanted to show the world that they could do a kickass sports car too. I think one of the original goals was to beat Ferrari at its own game (which it succeeded in doing - the NSX was superior in every way to the Ferrari 348 which was released at about the same time. Rumour has it that it was the NSX that spurred Ferrari to make a decent car for a change, coming up with the awesome F355 in the process).

During the design process, the car was tuned using feedback from the great Ayrton Senna (the best F1 driver EVERRR) - who was a huge Honda supporter. You can see a YouTube video of him testing the first NSX Type R around Suzuka Circuit here:



The technology behind the NSX was really impressive too - it had a lightweight, normally aspirated 3.0-litre V6 with variable-valve timing (rare for a production car in those days) and could generate 270BHP, do 0-60MPH in 5.7 seconds and had a top speed of 168MPH (I quote all these figures by memory, so pardon me if they're slightly off). Some say this is still the best sounding V6 ever made.

The car's advanced, all-aluminum chassis and suspension was (and still is) a thing of wonder - it allowed the car to achieve a low kerb weight of about 3000 pounds (or about 1,340kg), which was very light for a sports car of its profile. It's also one of the most rigid monocoque chassis designs at the time. The original 1990 model didn't come with power steering either.

I remember how car magazines of the era waxed lyrical about the NSX's handling and performance. Even though turbocharged and bigger V8 / V12-engined cars could outrun it in a drag race, few could take corners as well as an NSX. Few cars were as involving. Even when as the car finally went out of production around 2005 ( bowing out with the awesome NSX-R), motoring journalists were still impressed with its handling against newer cars such as the Ferrari F360 and the latest incarnations of the Porsche 911.

Plus, i love the way it looks, of course. It's a pretty understated car, which means that it has aged pretty well.

God, I love this car...

Which is why it was really frustrating when i tried to sit in one the other day AND COULDN'T FIT INSIDE!!!

There's a 1993/94 model currently on sale for just RM148k in a showroom in SS2, Petaling Jaya (near the roundabout) and I just HAD to take a closer look. I giggled like a little girl as I climbed in, leaned back, and had my head wedged against the roof.

Fine, I'll just recline the seat, then. I did. And my head then hit the rear glass screen. The seats were already pretty low, and didn't offer any height adjustment either. Dammit!

This was all a shock to me because I had sat in an NSX in the Birmingham Motorshow, UK in the year 2000 and it fit in fine - but then, I remembered that it was the targa-top version of the NSX. And I hate Targa tops because they compromise the chassis' rigidity and generally come with detuned engines. AAARGH...!!!

I guess that's one more dream car to strike off my list...

However, speaking to the guy in the showroom, I managed to gather some interesting facts about the NSX in Malaysia (though I'm not sure how accurate they are).

There are only about 20 to 30 NSXs in the country and only TWO of them have manual gearboxes, which means that all of the others (including the one in this showroom) were Hondamatic models with the detuned version of the 3.0-liter V6 (producing only about 250BHP or something).

So there you have it - never meet your childhood heroes.

My new toy...

If there's one reason why the iPod touch is cool, it's because it let's me blog while lying down.

Being a regular mobile phone web browser user, I must say that Safari on the iPod touch / iPhone is the best handheld browsing experience at the moment. The way it displays pages, zooming in and out seamlessly, puts everything else in the market to shame - and it's been in the market for almost TWO years already.

And from the looks of it, it's also a pretty viable document editor - the on-screen keyboard is incredibly easy to use, thanks to its clever auto word correction algorithm. Haven't tried it out with google Docs yet but so far do good - at least it's good enough for me to write this blog entry :)

Just got this iPod a few days ago, actually. It's supposed to replace Elaine's aging Palm Zire and so I can watch movies, play games and surf the web while I'm doing a number two. I'm pretty sure I'll find something to hate about it soon enough but so far, so good...

OH... I've got one: I hate how the ipod touch doesn't seem to have a file system, so I can't save files from the web other than photos. And how you can't receive files from phones via Bluetooth. And you can't upload stuff either - like photos.

...

Gee, that didn't take very long...

(UPDATE: I tried the iPod touch with Google dogs - it doesn't work... T_T )

Complicated injuries...

I played basketball last night for the first time in... ages, and managed to get myself a little souvenir within the first 5 minutes of play:

"Oww..."

Looks rather nasty but it doesn't really hurt that much. In fact, it doesn't really bother me at all - until you ask me how i got it.

I fell on a net.

...

And yes, this is precisely when people start asking, "How the hell did you manage that?"

And that is exactly the trouble i've been getting with injuries, lately - i seem to be getting injured in such incredibly complicated and unusual ways, that I often end up sounding like I'm making things up. Which is annoying, of course. Don't believe me? Try this:

I intercepted an inbound pass but tipped the ball out of the court. So i ran for the loose ball, jumped before the out-of-bounds line, caught the ball with one hand and tried swinging it back into the court before my foot touched the ground. Which would have happened without incident if there wasn't a futsal court next to the basketball court. Now you see, futsal courts have these nets wrapped around them to keep the ball in - and i was about to land on one of these nets. Usually this wouldn't be a problem if I was approaching the net square on since i could just land on it. Unfortunately, i was approaching it at an angle, which meant that I'd scrape diagonally across it unless i landed on my feet. Which I couldn't because of a long, thin, wooden plank that fastens the net onto the floor. i couldn't step on anything without risk of breaking my ankle because - with the hard and strong net fastened to it, it had formed a VERY uneven surface beneath my right foot. So i tried shuffling my feet as i was falling, but still couldn't get a foothold - and all the while, my whole body weight was supported by my right elbow, which was now scraping itself diagonally across the net as i fell down into a crumpled heap. Which is how i got this massive scar...

There! You SEE? It sounds like I made it up!!! The problem is that I can't just say "I fell on a net" and leave it at that because it sounds stupid, and I can't just say "I got it while playing basketball" because people will then ask if I fell down, I'd say no and I'd then have to tell them about the net, which would lead me back to square one.

AAAAAARGH~!!!

My previous injury was also basketball-related: I sprained my ankle because someone fell on me...

...

"How the hell do you sprain an ankle that way? Don't you have to step on an uneven surface or jump and land wrongly? Or trip while running?"

"No," I'd respond. "My teammate ran into a screen, bounced off it and landed on my leg right below the knee - laterally. With his whole body weight."

You see the trend here?

And years ago, I managed to fall into a huge drain because my mum or dad (can't remember) parked too close to the drain and as i got out of the car, my mum told me not to fall into the drain, thus diverting my attention from the ground at the precise moment where paying attention to where i was stepping would've been quite important.

You see?

Why can't i just slip and fall like other normal people? Sigh...

The year that was. The year ahead

2008. Where do we begin?

Looking at the statistics on the right column, it appears that I've only posted 14 blog entries in 2008, which is a record low (and about a third the number from the previous year). While the casual observer may see this as a sign of this blogs demise, i have a a couple of good excuses:

i) i DIDN'T have a convenient Internet connection at work for most of 2008 (due to security concerns, our office desktops were isolated from the Internet).

AND

ii) i actually got a proper job - meaning one that actually requires your full attention from the moment you step in at 9am right till you walk out at about 7pm. Or 8pm if there's a deadline. Or later...

So yes, this blog is still very much alive and kicking-ish. And to make up for all the lost time, here's a summary of the most significant things I've done in 2008 - in approximate chronological order:

1. I got a new job.

Gee, did I mention this yet? On a more serious note, this was probably the biggest fear I'd ever overcome in my whole entire life. Not only because I was leaving a very nice, comfortable job, I was also setting myself up for possibly the biggest failure in my life.

You see, I'm deeply passionate about videogames - all aspects of it. From playing them to making them. As a kid, I used to scrutinize my Sega Megadrive games and tried to make sense of why the games were designed the way they were - from an artistic and technical point of view. I even went to university and studied software engineering for the sole purpose of making games when i came out.

The problem, however, was that this was a dream job for me. What if I didn't like it? What if it turns out I'm a rubbish programmer? I was really dreading the prospects of living my dreams and actually hating it.

"This office is dark..."

Well, it's been about a year since I first joined Gamebrains and so far so good. I've done one Nintendo DS title (though it's still in the process of being translated into several European languages and published) and played a rather big role for a first-timer - I did most of the user-interaction and gameplay logic in the actual game. Although whenever i look back at the code, I'm quite horrified at some of my early architectural decisions (it was after all my first game - and thank God I'm a fast learner!)

Since then, I've dipped my toes in Wii development and have since moved over to PC/Mac casual games - because it makes a lot more economic sense than console titles these days. I would love to do iPhone/iPod touch games because of the possibilities that platform provides and I've been dropping hints to my boss every now and then. Hopefully, he'll let me give it a shot.

The working culture here is also completely different to my previous job too. From the moment I step into the office, I'm running at 100% until I go home. Although it sounds stressful, it's actually quite addictive, because programming is like playing a giant game of Sudoku - after you've finished one puzzle, you just have to do another one.

And if it seems like I'm hiding stuff, it's because we have non-disclosure agreements. Yep. 

2. Tipped the scales at an all-time high of 98kg

Not exactly sure how it happened but I managed to get really fat at the beginning of the year - to the extent that my shirts weren't fitting and I could wear my size 38 trousers without a belt. The following photo was actually taken quite recently - after I've put on weight again (due to me eating the stuff that Elaine can't eat during her pregnancy). 

At my peak, I was worse than this....

"Goo goo gaa gaa dee dah Han Soooolo..."

3. Voted at the general elections for the first time.

Yay! I helped make a difference this year and managed to deny the ruling Barisan National party a two-thirds majority in parliment for the first time in 50 years.

Usually, I wouldn't have bothered so much. Until I started seeing ad campaigns like this in the local newspapers by Barisan.

The best advice from BN ever. There was really only one choice, but it wasn't BN...

The level of arrogance shown by the ruling party was incredible - they even listed a whole bunch of things that they've done for the country, as if to say "You should be grateful to us" rather than "Here's what we can do to improve the country"

They also clearly had more money than the opposition, and had ads like this EVERYWHERE, each costing tens of thousands of ringgit. And so, it was obvious that a power shift had to happen. It didn't matter if the opposition parties were inept, the fact is that it had come to a point where the ruling party were behaving like rulers rather than public servants.

I was also spurred by a movie, of all things: V for Vendetta. In particular, the one quote from Hugo Weaving:

"People shouldn't be afraid of their governments, governments should be afraid of their people."

And so, I voted for change. Hopefully, in four years time, there will be more like me - first-time voters who decided that enough was enough, and that our country needs to change. That's because I love this country and I cannot stand idly and watch it continue to rot.

Holy crap, I'm patriotic! Who would've thought...?

4. Ran a half marathon with Elaine.

This was a rather funny experience because - for some reason - Elaine and I thought that practicing on a threadmill for 20 minutes would prepare us for a 21km run. It didn't.

"My gawd, my knees hurt..."

And yep, we'd like to do this again. It seems like every year, we must put ourselves through some sort of physical test as a couple. We climbed Mount Kinabalu in 2007, ran the KL international marathon (half-marathon group) in 2008, and in 2009, Elaine shall experience childbirth...

...and she'll be squeezing my hand (possibly crushing it into itty bitty little pieces) while she's at it.

5. Drove a bunch of fast cars...

Did a bit of freelance motoring reviews throughout the year, though it seems to have slowed down recently - I simply don't have the time. Didn't drive anything particularly good this year apart from the Civic Type-R (which I drove up to Ulu Yam, but didn't blog about it - there might be some photos floating around in my Flickr photostream).

Bone-shattering though it may be (it's got a similar suspension set up to a pair of roller skates), I absolutely love the Type-R and it is still the car I'd buy if I had about RM200k to spare. In any case, it's much better than the Jaguar XF I'm kicking here:

"Take THAT, you stupid British car..."

6. Married Elaine.

Yippee! As I write this, we've been married for about 8 months now and things have been great. While it's a good thing being able to get along with someone you're dating - that we've been living under the same roof and still look forward to horsing around, talking, laughing and having $#% every day since is great.

Us and our frens...

Oklah, not every day. Of course, it also helps that I love Elaine to bits. Feel like squeezing her now... :)

7. We moved out into an apartment.

We've been living together in this apartment ever since we got married. It was previously inhabited by my brother but he moved out just as we were looking for a place to stay.

Me moving in a birthday present from the wife :)

Although we're finally settling in, the funny thing is that we'll have to move back into either of our parents' houses soon because we'll need loads of help once the baby comes along.

8. I learned how to cook steak properly.
Pan fry for 3 minutes, drain juices, flip to the other side, fry for another 3 minutes... and you're DONE...!!!

9. I got Elaine pregnant.

Grow, my spawn. GROW!!!

(photoshop courtesy of soon-to-be-aunty Joy)

10. Flossed my teeth for the first time.

I never knew it, but flossing your teeth can be one of the most satisfying things you can do to yourself - apart from something that's frowned upon by most religions...

11. Didn't go on our honeymoon (due to the aforementioned pregnancy)
We were hoping to go to either Japan or Europe for our honeymoon during winter (so we could catch some snow). Looks like that'll have to wait a bit...

12. Finally bought a new Mac
Yes, I finally took the plunge! In spite of being a self-proclaimed cynical proponent of the Mac, I've been banging around in my ancient Power Mac G4 since 2001 (which was my 2nd Mac - the first one was destroyed after an unfortunate incident with some bitch).

It's the new, late-2008 MacBook! My first new Mac in 7 years!!!

The new Macbook is brilliant - it's got this new, fantastic multi-touch trackpad that's almost easier than using a mouse. It's also got amazing colours from its LED-backlit screen, though the viewing angles are a bit poor. It's also pretty damn fast - been doing some HD video editing on it, RAW photo editing and some programming on it and it's been, well... fast.

Oh, and it's also super light and portable. Only thing I hate is the lack of a FireWire port, which more-or-less makes my DV camcorder obsolete...

End word

So that covers just about all of the important bits. Except for my brother and Michelle giving birth to Ethan, which would of course make me an uncle. And me shifting to a new office (with the rest of the company, of course).

Ooh... ooh, how about 2009, then? Predictions? Resolutions?

Well, let's just see what happens, shall we?