Rut

It's the last day of the CNY break, I haven't finished ANYTHING I started. I still have half a document to translate and two articles to write. I fooled around on Saturday and worked Sunday. Yesterday I went all the way to Putrajaya so that I could row, after about what? One year? I was lucky there were two other people to help me on and off that boat. I had totally forgotten how to deal with the thing. I even put the oars on the wrong sides! Next time we go, I'll take a kayak so that we can paddle around in a band. That would be so much fun.. Then we went over to Lan & Aizan's place, getting quite lost in the process, and had a whale of a time figuring out their coffee maker and stuff. Came back and met up with the girls sampai malam. BTW, if anyone is at the Curve, check out the cakes Zabalion and Nueve in Empress Cafe. They totally rock! Was going to work last night, but rowing and bowling rather wore me out, so I slept instead. So now, it's the last day of the break, and I'm still not done. In a way, I'm happy I got to do some fun things, but I feel bad other things are not completed. It's my sister's birthday and I so don't feel like going out. I wish all this is done so I can go back to being a lazybutt who sleeps and reads all day instead of stessing out about work all the time. Ugh. And this computer's cursor is jumping around too. I so hate it when that happens!

Madness

I'm pretty much exhausted. Have a project to work on, but forced to go to office on a Sunday. Boss wants research and write up (2 different projects) by tomorrow and of course I have yet another shoot to deal with. It's just before CNY and hairstylists are hard to come by. To top it off, just managed to get hold of a celeb and she bloody told me off for calling on a Sunday. Yeah, I love going to the office and calling people up on a Sunday when I could be cleaning the house and watching TV instead. My room looks like a war zone. There's clothes everywhere and I haven't had time to do my washing yet. screw you! I'll need to beg for an extension on my project. There's no way I can finish all this work AND complete my project in less than 24 hours. I am SO taking a break after this!

My first video..

With Naz's help, manage to cobble together my footage at the wedding into something watchable :-) So proud of myself :D

Crying wolf

Israel is sick. They invaded other people's territory, blocked their way, destroyed their lives, and then claim to be victims when their victims lash out in frustration.

They are the true terrorists. They are like the heartless moneylender in "The Merchant of Venice" who is crying for his pound of flesh. But there is no wise judge to stop him from spilling blood. So they continue with the carnage while America stands guard against anyone who wants to help quell the monster.

I wish I could bodily pluck the bastards from the territory. Throw them into space or somewhere. They certainly have no right to set foot on this planet. Not when they have no respect for anyone else in it.

I know it's a complex issue. I'll write about the other aspects when I can find time. Over and out.

My Day

What can I say? I'm tired. started off with a photo shoot of 8 people AND the interview. Degil guy makes me feel like strangling him. Nasib baik he behaved this morning. Came back, needed to do research for something. Something I'd promised to submit by today. But you know what? I'm just too tired to do it.

Skipped birding yesterday to deal with this task. By the time I finished cleaning up the upstairs of house, it was already eleven. Had brunch, then went to office where I promptly fell asleep, sitting up. It was a lost cause. Went home and watched a bit of TV before attempting it again. Ended up working on my personal project until 4 a.m.

Today, managed to get somewhere, but still not complete. I'm tired. I want to go home, eat something, and continue with the other project. What about this one? God knows when I'll be able to complete it. I need to work on something else tomorrow, with another deadline on Wednesday. Will need some more pocket money, waiting for people to pay up. Am reluctant to dip into savings again. I'm essentially working two jobs at the moment, and I'm exhausted.

Reading news just annoys me no end. Gaza, Palestine, Israel, Terengganu... everything goes round and round in stupid circles. With some equally stupid comments thrown in. I'm lost for words to talk about the state of the world. I'm concerned about the state of my world. I'm tired. I'm going home to rest. Will deal with world tomorrow...

Congratulations, Chris & Loretta

Woke up early on Saturday morning and still managed to be late meeting up with Ee Phin to go for the church wedding. Typical me! Arrived just before the bride's party made their way up into the hall. I was happy to see many familiar faces already there. Liz and Bruce flew in from Brisbane, Daniel made it from Singapore, there were Eleanor & Chen, Teck Wyn & Cindy, Rhett in his kilt, and a bunch of other people from MNS, ex-WWF and TRAFFIC. Someone commented it was like a conservation powwow going on.

Chris looked so cute in his glasses. In his nervousness, he had forgotten to take them off! Loretta looked fabuous in her Grecian style gown. When she made her entrance, I almost cried. It was amazing to see them married after all these years. It was also fun to meet up with old friends I hadn't seen for a while. It felt like those days when we were always hanging out at the house aka illegal immigrant center!

Yumiko arrived in the afternoon and we went together with Ee Phin to the evening party. It was held in Hartamas Regency where Lillian & Jack lived. It was really nice too. Tables were labelled with different animals, 6 Malaysian, 6 Canadian. The birders were at the Duck table. I choked when Holly, Chris' sister read out all the touching messages from their family in Canada. It was a pity his parents could not come for the wedding.There was plenty of food, and we milled around talking long after the management switched off the lights. Hmm, probably they were trying to make us go home... :p Mark's kids even took a dip in the pool at eleven PM.

At some point, I started a conversation with some guy based in Acheh, and ended up with a lengthy conversation about how the kongkang has been split into many species. He even rounded up Vincent, who is a primate expert and I got a lecture on the many spesies and subspecies of tarsiers found in Asia. It was kind of bizarre if you're not into environment, but you know, I prefer it to people who asked me lame questions like "asal mana" and "berapa umur". Even worse when they decided I wasn't worth talking to when they find out hold old I was. Please la. You ask me overly personal questions, yet you have no intention in knowing me as a person. I find that so disappointing. Better someone who talks about general interests and lets personal info stay personal.

Anyway, it was great fun, and I hope I can meet up again before they all go home to their respective countries. To Chris & Loretta, I wish you all happiness and everlasting love. IOU your wedding gift. Am rather broke right now... sorry!

Keep Going...

(Miraculously) managed to scrounge up enough cash to buy myself a new machine yesterday. Went to Digital Mall after dinner and just managed to grab a decent Acer for less than RM2K. Tried to install my Windows XP at home, but got stuck by some complications. Linpus Linux had been pre-installed and was stopping windows from installing. The OS is Greek to me, and I couldn't figure out how to get around it.

So frustrating when you have all the necessary equipment, yet cannot install the tools you need. It's like a roadblock that stalls your efforts. Hrmph. Called the guy this morning but it still didn't work out. Brought it back to the shop and the guys helped to install my XP and the driver while I was at work. Great! Less hassle for me. Nasib baik office dekat.

So now I have a working machine, I hope I can continue working on my project. AND I don't have to stay back late at the office to get my work done. Other than the fact that I'm now broke, life is normal again. To a certain extent. Phew.

Dealing with it

Managed to squeeze in a bit of time to deal with things tadi. Took the comp to HP and they confirmed that the motherboard was dead. Hard luck la. Time to get a new machine. Hopefully I can get one that doesn't give me trouble this time. Wanna get one that's faster, got more space and a DVD writer.

Extracted the hard drive and bought external drive casing for it. It worked fine at the shop, but didn't boot at the office. Will need to figure that one out somehow. At least I have my precious data! Plus that half-finished project file I've been working on!!

Still haven't picked up replacement SIM for K Ayu. Leceh betul la. Just because the account is under my name, I have to go pick up the replacement. She's not allowed to get it herself. What? I'm her mother ah?

Am waiting for the money to come in from Indonesia. As soon as I have that, I can pool my resources and get that new computer. Not the best time to buy a machine, but can hardly stay up late working on my personal projects at the office, can I? It's rather frustrating. Sometimes I feel like I'm moving one step front and two steps back... Let's hope that this is the last of the nonsense for a while.

Cheers, guys. Have a good week ahead :-)

Dugaan...

They say trouble comes in threes. So I thought I can relax a bit la after a spate of expensive screw-ups. But I guess *fate* wasn't quite done with me.. Sigh..

The other day, I accidentally scratched someone else's bumper. Paid up instead of running off. Tak bayar karang bad karma la pulak. Keta sendiri tak repair lagi tu..

Then my sister's bag got stolen, with the house keys and phone in it. So I had to fork out $$ for the locksmith and new set of locks. Plus some pocket money until she could sort out her ATM and stuff.

Then si Leo pulak sakit. Bawak gi vet, kena RM190 for surgery to clean up the abcess. After a week, he's still not well, rupanya flu la pulak.. so another RM50 to the vet. At this point dah sedih dah tengok my bank account. Baru masuk taun baru dah tinggal sikit duit belanja.. sob sob..

Over the weekend didn't switch the laptop on much. Only checked my emails on Saturday. Semalam try pasang, tengok dah tak bernyawa dah! No indicator lights, no nothing. Completely lifeless. Ayoo.. memang ingat nak backup computer baru. but not RIGHT NOW!! Adeh.. Nak beli baru ke? Nak check kedai la kalau2 boleh repair. Maybe something terbakar ke, hopefully boleh la hidup balik. Baru aje tukar motherboard tahun lepas.

Some other money is coming in, so hopefully can cover for the earlier damage. I hope that's the end of my money draining problems... I seriously need to save up for my new pad!

Happy New Year! Again...

Maybe it's age. New Year? what's the big deal?
Party at Souled Out? Aiya.. never mind. I want to spend time with Leo. You all pergi la.
Fireworks? Kata got depression, no money, financial crisis. So who's money did they blow up at midnight? The big bangs sounded freakishly like bombs going off. Quite unnerving.
As we speak - am in the office, aiming to finish reworking an article. Besok ada benda lain pulak nak siapkan. Better clear it off today.
Am a little cranky today. Went to OU to buy one thing and ended up with a few things. Expensive things. But one thing I found out about expensive things is, most of the time, they're worth buying. The place was chock full of people. Was forced to go to Parkson because the Jusco counter ran out of stock. Had to weave through the throng literally all the way from one end to One Utama to the other. It seemed that every bleeping couple was tengah makan angin dok bercinta kat tengah jalan. Jalan la! Nak beromen pi carik bilik. Menyebok ajer... Shee. See. Told you I was cranky.
Then kat Parkson, all the counters were manned by clueless boys who barely knew what they were doing. Then some stupid chinky couple nak tukar barang pulak. Hello! Tak nampak ke orang dok beratur panjang2 nak bayar satu dua barang, dia lagi nak kacau budak tu. Nak tunggu supervisor la, hapa la.. leceh betul. In the end, I paid on another floor where the people weren't quite so moronic.
It didn't help that they had some voucher discount system which was totally inefficient. After buying your stuff, you had to go to another counter to redeem your vouchers, then if you had something else to buy, you had to queue again at another counter to pay. It took me probably an hour to pay for a RM12.50 water jug. I got a RM10 discount, but man.. what a waste of time!
However, I have a feeling that the year will turn out all right. It's just hormones making me a l'il bit cranky. And craving for sambal udang petai la pulak... Hmmm. That will be for dinner tonight kot. Cheers, guys! Wishing you a great year ahead :D Muahs!