Burmese hand signals: dodgy...

Went to a petrol station last night to get a can of Coke from the shop but got there about 10pm - right when the attendants locked the doors for the night. However, he'd just let someone in about 10 seconds earlier so I thought he'd let me in as well.

And so I gestured at the attendant inside the shop (whom I assume to be Burmese) that I wanted to buy a drink - using the universal hand signal for "drink" (i.e. holding an imaginary cup up to my mouth and tipping it).

Unfortunately this gesture probably meant something else in Burmese - the guy didn't get it and kept directing me to the payment window where you'd pay for petrol.

I kept gesturing, and he kept pointing. So I went to the window, and gestured again only to draw blank stares from the group of Burmese attendants, all of whom were beginning to look rather nervous.

This has led me to two possible conclusions, either:

1. The universal hand signal for "drink" means "I want to pump petrol" or (according to Elaine) "I've planted a landmine in your front yard so you better lock your front door" in Burma.

OR

2. The Burmese are just shit at hand signals...

"Wait! WAIT! I meant trim my sideburns some more... *URK!*"

Of course, it's all probably yet another case of me getting poor service in situations where it's normally impossible to get poor service :)

Better late than never, I guess...

My baby sister turned 18 a couple of months ago, which means that she's reached the legal age for drinking. Which also means that I'm getting old because when I finished secondary school, Kat was just entering PRIMARY school...

*Life flashes before eyes*

Anyway, here are some shots of the celebrations:

"YAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaa..."

Guinness puts hair on your chest. Yes.

"Why the hell am I drinking a salad? With vodka in it?"

Kat drinking a big, girly drink...

"Come Kat, down down down DOWN!!!"

"What? Me? Dance? Hahahaha! Oh, you're serious..."

"Mmmmm.... *hic!* Nice, warm and comfy here..."

"I love you, big sis... NYAN!!!"
"Umm... k"

*mumble* *mumble* dunaskmeididn'tbringhershejustfollowedme... *mumble*

Be a man! BUY MY T-SHIRT (part 2)

Ello everyone...

So far, my attempts at selling T-shirts have bagged me exactly USD 0.00

The good news, though, is that I've got nowhere to go but up. To commemorate my first non-sale, I've come up with another T-shirt. Buy a thousand of these and I'll have enough to buy a new laptop!!! Buy! Buy! Do it naaaaauogh! (click here to buy)

For sprinklers...

Super camcorder?

Today, my colleagues were watching the following YouTube video about some sort of missile defense system:



And after that, one of them ran to me and had the following conversation with me:

Keith: "Hey, Chris... do you know if there are any video cameras on the market that are designed to track mortar in the air"

Me: "Huh? You mean the mortar that you drop into that barrel and then goes *kapow!* and shoots into the air?"

Keith: "Yeah."

Me: "Consumer video cameras?"

Keith: "Yeah."

Me: "..."

Keith: "...?"

Me: "You're asking me if a consumer video camera has a special mode settings like "daylight", "sports", "landscape", "snow" and then "MORTAR-TRACKING"?

Keith: "Umm... yeah?"

Me: "..."

I highly doubt that Canon has a camcorder in the market that fulfills such a niche. However, if they did have such a setting, it would probably look like this on the mode dial:


NO no no no... You're in APERTURE-PRIORITY mode, silly!

Of course, what I found funny was that my colleagues were more interested in how the hell they caught live artillery / mortar / rocket rounds on video, rather than the laser technology itself :)

Car pix!

I've just updated my Flickr album with more photos! Yay! This time, it's a bunch of car photos I've taken. Hope you like it.



I've got a ton of other photos but I've yet to sort them out. Hopefully, I'll find time to upload them as well. Click here to see the album.

Be a man! BUY MY T-SHIRT

Dear friends,

My laptop is starting to act funny - resetting itself randomly (or whenever I happen to be doing something important on it). Because of this (and the fact that it weighs 2 tons, has a battery life of 45 mins and is really starting to get on a bit), I am now in need of a new one.

Which is why I proudly bring you the "Be a man! BUY MY T-SHIRT" campaign (a.k.a. the "Help Chris to buy a new laptop" charity fund). All proceed will go into a shiny new Apple Macbook, which currently goes for about RM3,999)

We'll start with this T-shirt design, called "The Stephen Oxley":



Click here to go directly to the product page.

Be a man; do the right thing!!!

Under the coconut shell

Bladee hell! Didn't know that there's a new version of the 50 Ringgit note since Jan 30!!!

Looked bewildered when Elaine whipped it out of her wallet to pay for something.


Goes to show how often I've been reading the newspapers these days... -_-

"Eh? What's this, then...?"

More than just hair wax...

Happy new year!

I'd like to begin 2008 with a really nice entry. About my predictions for the year, my new-years resolutions and maybe some display of incredible foresight.

Unfortunately, I'm not any good at writing that sort of thing so I'll leave you with a short video I shot and edited for some online contest:



No, this has nothing to do with it being a new year. Enjoy :)

Hello 2008 (a.k.a. Getting back on track)

It's been a funny month, December.

I quit my job as a journalist and got a job in a local games development company (though I'm only scheduled to start in the 2nd week of Jan). Being between jobs, this also meant that I've had much more time to myself than usual.

In the past month, I've been busy getting my life in order - running all sorts of errands and doing stuff I otherwise wouldn't have time to do while I'm working.

I've also had plenty of time to think, and to reflect on the many things that have happened to me the past six years or so (i.e. ever since I left university).

Forgive me if you've heard this rant before (click here for a refresher) but this post has a lot to do with my career.

Long story short: I went to university with a rather odd dream, an unconventional for the time. I wanted to make videogames, by becoming a games programmer. Then I came out of university, bummed around for 9 months while unsuccessfully trying to come up with some game demo to boost my employment prospects.

Then I got into a relationship (which necessitated a job - it's expensive stuff, mind you). After thinking for a bit, I ended up becoming a tech journalist. So yes, it was a detour.

A bittersweet one.

I loved the life of a tech journalist, getting to do all sorts of stuff I'd otherwise never had the opportunity to do (such as traveling all over the world, interviewing big names in the IT industry, meeting all sorts of characters and crashing an expensive German sedan into a field).

I loved the work environment too, especially all of my fantastic colleagues.

And all the while, I kept telling myself that this was what I wanted. I kept telling myself I should be happy - after all, plenty of people were envious of my job. Yes, I was happy, but I kept longing for my original dream.

I asked myself whether I was blessed or just being foolish.

But now, looking back, it was a hell of a journey but the path eventually led me right back to my original dreams.

In a chance encounter, I heard about a potential job opening at a local games company. I had long thought that this ship had already sailed, but then God decided to throw a curve ball and gave me a chance to get back on the right track.

What surprised me was how difficult a decision it would be. I was very comfortable in my job as a journalist and I would be giving up a lot to pursue a career in game development.

I cast my net and - surprise - it turns out that I'm qualified to be a game programmer all along! Of course, it probably helped that I knew the guys at this company from some previous interviews I had conducted.

The irony of it all was that all of my experimenting with Pocket PC and J2ME mobile game development was unnecessary. I had what it took all along. I was much better than I thought.

If there was one thing I learnt from my previous job, it was that I could punch above my weight and push boundaries. I learnt that my attitude towards work was different from about 90% of the workforce. I was more passionate and more eager to try out new things.

So here I am, about to continue a journey I had abandoned some 5 years ago because I thought I wasn't good enough. I'm finally getting back on track. I'm going to become a games developer :)

I'm both excited and terrified at the prospects of beginning this new job, though. I've got loads of catching up to do and so many new things to learn.

I feel empowered. I feel like I've finally gotten my life back.

I am blessed.

Here's to a cracking 2008.

Just a comic

I've got a bit of spare time, so I decided to draw a four-panel comic. Do pardon the shoddy artwork :)

If God drove a 4-door sedan...

...He'd drive this:

A Honda Civic Type-R FD2

I had the pleasure of trying out the new Honda Civic Type-R in Sepang Circuit, courtesy of Honda Malaysia.

Now, I've not driven that many cars before, but I highly doubt you'll ever find another FF (Front-engine, Front-wheel-drive) car that'll outperform this on a race track. Though it looks a lot like a regular Civic with some lame spoilers, skirts and air dams, it's a completely different beast.

The rear end will be a familiar sight on highways. There's a rear diffuser below the bumper.

Welcome to heaven. Check out the manual gearbox - when's the last time you saw one of these???
The 2.0-litre Honda K20A iVTEC engine churns out 225BHP at over 8000RPM. PHWOAAARRRR!!!!

The engine is super smooth and supremely powerful, the suspension is perfectly set up for track work so it corners with God-like amounts of grip and its 6-speed manual gearbox is soooo darn precise, you have to wonder why Honda doesn't include it with regular Civics (for that matter, I don't see why any car nut would ever one to go back to an auto box).


And thanks to its advanced LSD (that's a limited-slip differential, not the hallucinogenic drug), it's almost impossible to induce understeer in hard cornering - even if you've got your foor buried on the throttle.

Speaking of which, the pedals in this car are perfectly positioned for nifty heel-and-toe downshifts, aided also by a well dampened clutch and superb throttle response.

In a nutshell, this car provides so much feedback and is a delight to the senses - you can feel every corner and push harder and harder towards the car's limits, unlike any other FF you've probably driven.

I tried Mercedes' entire 2005 AMG range (apart from the SL55, which I didn't get a stab at) at Sepang Circuit a few years ago and even though all of those cars sported much more torque and horsepower, none can come anywhere close to providing this much excitement and intimacy.

The only problem is, I only had four laps in the Type-R (after three in the regular 2.0 Civic) and was just starting to get comfortable with doing four-wheel drifts before running out of time.

Heading out of the pits

Whatever it is, I'm completely smitten. For less than RM200k, this is definitely the best car in the world. Buy one now! NOW! If I could sell a kidney to finance one of these, I would. After the session, I was giggling like a little girl for a good 10 minutes :)

(I hear the waiting list goes all the way to 2009, though - and I might not last that long sans a kidney. Also note that Malaysia is the only country outside of Japan to have this Japan-spec Civic Type-R officially available).

How the mighty have fallen...

Honda's ASIMO - former million-dollar stair-climbing robot...





...now reduced to secondary PDA cradle support:

Where's that little robot?



"Me want to climb stairs instead!"