Sampah Nonsense

Updates for July

- Trashed by SampahMan @ 12:45 AM

It's 25 days since my last post, and it's already near the end of the month. Haven't been posting much lately because:
1. I have been lazy to write. There's no issue that I want to discuss (ok, there are simmering issues, but I guess I'll just keep my mouth shut because Big Brother might be reading. Not that you can't read about them in the papers anyway).
2. Nothing exciting happened to me this month. (Ok, lots of exciting shit went on, so refer to Reason 1.)
3. I'm not pissed off enough this month to write something good(as vindicated by some colleagues of mine) :D

I've been having thoughts about what I will be writing for this post, so I'm just gonna condense the interesting stuff in my life for the past 25 days. (And because I am writing this while I am not pissed(either angry or drunk), the following accounts might be pretty mundane).

Speed records on the NSE
So I was driving up to Penang on a Thursday evening, and traffic on the North-South Expressway was pretty non-existent. Happily jamming away to my Britney Spears songs (ok, I'm lying. I HATE her), I eventually realized I was doing 160km/h along a straight stretch. Now, I wasn't meaning to speed at all, I wasn't even in a rush for anything, but realizing I was going at 160, I had this sudden urge to go faster.

Previous high-speed record(me behind wheels): ~165km/h on the Sentra
New high-speed record: 170km/h

I was actually gunning for 180, but Mr. Proton Waja just had to cut in front of me for NO reason. Realizing that I wasn't about to risk my life changing lanes and overtaking Mr. Waja using the slow lane, I suddenly dropped my set of balls and applied the brakes.

Apparently I forgot to pick my balls up later. I stopped by Ipoh, changed into my sister's Proton Wira, and headed straight to Penang. Story picks up during my return journey from Penang. Weather conditions were bad because of the heavy rain and all (I was caught in a flash flood while having dinner earlier). Driving at high speeds in such weather was practically impossible due to the slipperiness of the roads and my own personal phobia of Proton Wiras and rain(a close encounter with death 5 years ago), so I discovered the best speed to drive on was 60km/h. Even then, I felt like I was floating on water, a phenomenon described as aqua planing, and very nearly lost control of the vehicle a couple of times. Tips

Previous low-speed record(me behind wheels, and on the NSE, constantly for at least 1 hour): ~70km/h
New low-speed record: 60km/h

How bout that? 2 speed records in 2 days. For those who are going to comment and tell me I haven't learnt my lesson, please keep it to yourself. Thanks.

Dinner In Penang
Colleagues in Penang took me out for dinner(you know who you are. Thanks! :D)
This is not going to be a comparison on why Penang food is not as good as Ipoh food(cuz honestly, it's hard to compare due to the difference), but I got to say, I loved the pig intestine porridge. Yum yum. Especially under rainy weather. I forgot where it's located(I just know it's near Komtar), so if you're reading this and you brought me out that day, leave me a comment :D
Walking in the flood wasn't too bad an experience either.

Birthdays
The birthday was this month. To those of you that were there for the celebrations, my heartfelt thanks to all for the dinner and karaoke, and especially just for being there. It was a fun-filled night. Too bad we didn't sing till 5am. :D
What really got me thinking was this. I have been celebrating birthdays for 20+ years of my life. Have you ever actually wondered, like me, on the day you were born, what your parents were doing? Was your mum in pain? Was she already in the hospital waiting to give birth or was she at home and she had to rushed to the hospital but had to give birth in a taxi? What was your dad doing? Was he pacing around in the hospital corridors, waiting for the good news? Or was he having his morning "yum char" sessions with his friends? Was he even there?
Anyway, that got me realizing that birthdays are one of the most selfish celebrations out there(for me anyway), because most of us only see it as the day you were brought into the world, but fail to add an extra dimension by seeing that it was the day your parents brought you into the world(with the help of experts, I hope). So on your next birthday, show your parents your appreciation by saying thanks, or just doing what you always do to show appreciation.

My First Aquarium
I never mentioned it, but I can finally declare that I have set up my first aquarium successfully. When I started to set it up, I just thought it was gonna be fun, but after having it set up, I find that looking at the fish really makes me mellow out and peaceful, so that's really a big bonus for me. With this new aquarium, I've finally managed to replace my previous housemate that just left. I miss her in a friendly sort of way, but I guess she'll never understand our relationship since she doesn't even speak English. Anyway, enough of the nostalgia.

Current tank population (type if known in parentheses):
5 Neon Tetras (Tetra)
1 Orange Panchax (Killifish)
2 Neon Zebras (Danio)
1 Green Cory (Cory Cat)
2 Albino Flying Foxes (Suckermouth Cat)
5 Cold Mountain Tetras (Tetra)

I think I might have overloaded on the population, so I guess I'll just let Darwinian theory take effect if necessary.

Will post some pics later, but don't expect anything as nice as this.

Work Stuff
Well, everyone knows that I don't like to talk much about my work(yeah right, you liar!), but I just have to say, the project I have been working on for the past 7 months is finally near completion! I am really relieved, because I would really like to move on to do other stuff, since the learning curve(coding wise) has pretty much plateau-ed(ok not really, but it's pretty flat). Well, I still learn new things once in a while (who knew that "On Error Goto 0" would actually clear the Err object), but my personal knowledge base is not growing as fast.
Would really like to venture into the world of searching(like search engines), because I think this is actually one of the most challenging topics out there in the world today. Searching also deals with a lot of disciplines, to name a few, stuff like database optimizations and design, natural language processing, and certainly some artificial intelligence thrown into the mix. Fascinating stuff, and certainly would be challenging for me(so that I have something to bitch about). I guess I will have to learn about it in theory, but really, that's not fun is it?
Anyone who can and is willing to offer guidance on this topic, please let me know because I am a dummy.
Thanks to Yong for some of the links you provided earlier. :)

TM warns against porn
There have been radio ads by TM warning against the dangers of porn sites(seems to cater towards the financial reasons). Before I continue, please visit this place that sells T-Shirts in Bangsar Shopping Village. It's in the lower levels, same level as the underground car park. The t-shirts really spoof a variety of things, ranging from Malaysian corporation branding(see how a t-shirt describes TM) to politics (haha, some are laugh out loud).

Case in point:

Picture of George Bush (leader of USA) and Jiang Zemin (former leader of China) talking to each other, possible during a previous APEC summit meeting.
Bush: How often do you have elections?
Jiang: Every morning.

While you're there, try out the Vietnamese food(same level). The beef noodles are yummy! Great service too. Really GREAT service. The boss kinda looks like a friendly version of the company CTO as well.

Alright, back to my story, where was I? Porn. Yeap, not that I will ever forget this sort of topic.
Ok, TM's ad got me thinking, how porn has evolved over the centuries, and how the world has become a bunch of prudes.
For example, Michelangelo's statue of David, genitalia and all, was commissioned in 1501. Back then, it was art. People paid to get it made.
Carve a nude statue of Britney Spears now, I think people will see it more as porn rather than art.
Closer to this century, probably in the earlier 1900s, pictures of women in one-piece swimsuits would have been pretty offensive and outrageous to the Victorian mindset(blame the 1800s), while in the year 2005, pictures of women in lingerie are no longer considered porn(well, it depends on who's reading it(haha, yeah, READ), and I don't want to know what the sticky stuff on the Victoria's Secret catalog is).
What kind of porn do we have these days? To name a few categories of porn, stuff like bestiality, milfs, bukkakes, or German shit-eating. Or maybe some old school stuff like bondage, exhibitionisism, voyeurism, or maybe some sado-masochism.
Anyway, I think it's too extensive a topic to talk about, maybe I will post something more detailed later. You can really feel how passionate I am about this ;)

Well, that's my 25 days of thoughts, at least the interesting ones. I might have missed a few, but hehe, I'll keep some to myself.

Trash me baby one more time.

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