Satelit Puaka

A Worthwhile Xperiance

2011-01-08T00:38:00.005+08:00

Alas, I've bailed out from trying to repair this phone of mine. You see, problems started to occur on the X1 a few months ago, mostly regarding the hardware keys. At first, it was just little key repetitions, but then it became overwhelming until very recently it started registering ghost key and button clickings. That was when I began to tinker with the hardware, to no avail apparently.

Cleaning up the keys and reflashing new ROM and radio didn't help at all. Today, when the phone finally lost its reception due to my fickle hands screwing up something, I thought I might as well give up. And here's to looking for its replacement.

There goes my budget for a Gingerbread.

Ada Budak Nangis Kat Sekolah!

2011-01-03T21:04:00.003+08:00

We took an extra week of leave to see to Alyya's first few days of her new school. Well, her first few hours weren't so assuring.

Bienvenue, 2011!

2011-01-01T22:50:00.002+08:00

A year without a blog post -- at least that is one resolution I managed to fulfill, albeit a nonsense one. Others, like learning Mandarin, all went to the drain. Oh well, 'guess I have to carry those into this year then.

Anyway, to recap a rather uneventful 2010: the Missus managed to get herself on TV, we got a Canon S90, went prawn fishing, went to Bagan Lalang twice, got into (minor) automobile accident twice, got Unifi and finally to top it all, got to setup an HTPC to complement the 40 inch (and the materials I got via the 20mbps). The winner is me!

2010 wasn't the best year for gaming, at least for me as a PC Gamer. A lot of disappointments altogether. Notable games for me would be Fallout: New Vegas and Call Of Duty: Black Ops.

As for movies, I got nothing to say other than to present to you Quorra from the biggest movie disappointment of 2010.

Au Revoir, 2009

2009-12-31T23:55:00.001+08:00

With just a few minutes to 2010, I'm proud to proclaim that I had managed to achieved 1 out of 2 resolutions I had for 2009. 50% success is not so bad after all, considering past years' accomplishments (or lack thereof).

So what did I achieved?

1) I didn't get to boost my computer's resolution to 3840x1080, but there's always next year, with price reduction (or better monitors) to boot.

2) I acquired a new skill! I just wish I could accomplish more in 5 months, but learning piano/keyboard late in the game is such an arduous task due to priorities, lack of focus and such. However, I'm glad I'm somewhere now. I first planned to record myself playing Apologize (Timbaland) and put it on Facebook, but with only one part of the song and still fumbling here and there, I thought better of saving myself from shame.

2010 resolution would be myself completing #1, and to continue my own tradition I would strive to acquire a new skill for next year. That would be learning Chinese (probably Cantonese).

PCI Expression

2009-11-30T20:18:00.005+08:00

I mentioned before that my PC is problematic. Well, that was all behind now. Turns out, it was never Windows 7's or Nvidia's fault. It was in fact Gigabyte's. All along, I was affected by PCI Express x1 Bug. This bug, as it happens, makes the system reports the PCI Express express slot as x1 instead of the full x16. When this happens, the graphics card will not function up to its intended speed. For comparison, in my case, my 3D Mark Vantage score was 4416. But when I managed to fix it, the score went to a staggering 9690. So what does this means in real world? For one, there's no more stuttering of audio in Windows 7, especially in full screen Youtube. Most importantly, I'm now able to play all my games at the maximum settings! w00t indeed!

Now I am to apologize to Windows 7 and Nvidia for all the curses I gave them all those times (yeah Microsoft have had enough curses from me throughout all the Windows iterations).

So what happened? Somehow I decided to download GPU-Z and check my system, and from there did I see the Bus Interface as PCI-E x16 @ x1. Further digging brought me to an article at Tech ARP, but unfortunately none of the solutions fix the problem. Much digging later brought me wading through forums, and I decided to follow a few suggestions to reseat the card and all. I'm not entirely sure what happened, but these were in my last ditch effort:

Uninstalled and cleaned the system from any remnants of Nvidia drivers (using Driver Sweeper)
Reinstalled a beta driver that I was sure was giving me performance (195.39)
Reseated the GTX260
Reset the BIOS config to fail-safe default

For the record, my motherboard is Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3. I was sure I was going to kiss it goodbye, but well, I guess I can get to keep my money after all.

Now, even the nvlddmkm.sys-induced BSOD was gone. I can safely say that my system is fault-free! I just hope that the problem will stay fixed, lest that Core i5-Nvidia Fermi-6GB DDR3 system I was dreaming about would seem inevitable...

Level 18 Hunter

2009-11-05T11:19:00.004+08:00

I was happily leveling up my Mordecai in Borderlands when Bam! came Dragon Age: Origin sprawling in magnificence at my doorstep. Can I haz tyme?

The Mystery Of Slow Win7 GUI

2009-10-28T01:29:00.005+08:00

While waiting for WinXP being reinstalled via boot camp on the MacBook (due to a missing hal.dll), I've made another trip via Google to research for this particular Windows 7 problem of mine. You see, after I started using Windows 7 exclusively for the past 3 months or so, I cannot help but be ticked off by certain GUI 'unacceleration' problems that are still happening even now. As it goes, GUI functions and videos seem to lag and the audio seems to stutter and crackle. At first, I thought it was my GTX260+ being underpowered, therefore I upgraded my PSU to a 650W one. But there went some 400 bucks as the new PSU didn't seem to improve anything. I was so sure that my card is problematic.

I was beginning to consider buying a new card until I came across this:

Windows GUI rendering still almost 5 times slower than XP GUI rendering

and from there I went crazy reading into this particular problem. It seems Windows 7 has only 10% or accelerated GDI, and therefore, as I understand it, any components or Windows application relying on GDI for rendering will not be hardware-accelerated. This explains why I cannot run Youtube HD in fullscreen without stutters, or recording audio in Audacity without pops and crackles, even when I have a high-end card.

And I thought I was going to plunk an extra 500 or so for an HD5870.

So what does this mean? It means, until software developers have all move from GDI/GDI+ to WSF/Direct2D, I will be having a lot of this slow GUI redraw problem (hell, even Windows 7 itself uses some GDI for rendering). I wonder if this applies to all the open source cross platform windowing library or just wxWidget only. Else, I would steer away from them for time to come. Hell, I would sorely miss Audacity but damn I cannot have any perfect audio recording done on it at the moment. Damn you wxWidget!

Some solutions would be, of course, 1) revert to WinXP and miss all shiny new OS and most importantly DirectX 10 support in games that I play now, 2) revert to Vista SP1 and pray that I would love it for the abomination that it is (FUD, I know), and 3) revert to the last WDDM 1.0 NVIDIA driver. Now, the last solution seems the better choice, but I would hate that something would break due to the driver not supporting Windows 7 fully. But it's the easiest and immediately-accessible choice. Maybe I'll do it one of these few days. Maybe.

Next, I'm left to figure out what's causing the nvlddmkm.sys BSOD on cold boot problem.

Hanlon's Razor

2009-10-10T22:23:00.002+08:00

Right now, I'm torn between Batman: Arkham Asylum, Resident Evil 5, Red Faction Guerilla and Risen. 'Thing is, my PC isn't portable and my notebook isn't powerful. Can't I have best of both worlds, so that I can game during my sleep?

Eid 2009

2009-09-25T21:50:00.002+08:00

It's good to be back home.

2009 Tahun Malas Menulis

2009-08-30T12:50:00.004+08:00

Menulis ke menaip ke, we tread on very thin line these days. Bak kata Rodek, "blah blah blah unggrook", dan aku setuju dengan kata dia. Maka dengan membaca blog dia yang 18sx, tersasul aku meniru lenggok bahasa dan gaya berperinya. Cuma cara dia lagi stylo. Aku tak boleh nak ikut macam itu. Walaupun dia dah jadi idola aku sekarang ni.

Apa aku nak tulis tadi ha?

2009, aku ingat nak potong rekod tahun 2007, kononnya nak tulis banyak entrylah, tapi aku dah lagha dengan benda-benda lain. Recently I bought a keyboard (bukan papan kekunci elektronik yang digunakan untuk menaip) tapi mendalah yang berbunyi macam piano secara defaultnya tu. Itu pun satu. You know, azam aku untuk tahun ini nak tambah skill baru. Dan kononnya aku nak follow Tapai join kelas vokal (serius ni) tapi akhirnya aku tak mampu nak luangkan masa. Jadi budget tu aku guna untuk beli mendalah PSR-E413 ni. So far so good. Maka tercapailah salah satu azam tahun ni. Cuma malangnya belajar muzik tatkala dah besar panjang ni you only tend to play the parts that you like, instead of, well, belajar satu lagu. Masa muda remaja dulu, tengah hangat nak belajar gitar, lagu Metallica tu dengan part solo pun ligat nak menghafal dan master. Biarlah gitar kapok tak cukup fret sekalipun. Kalau boleh, satu album And Justice For All tu nak dimain sampai habis.

Sekarang ni, dapat intro pun jadilah.

Memasak pun satu hal. Daripada hobi, dah jadi benda yang dibuat setiap hari. And we bought an oven. Konon nak buat kek dan biskut (dan cream puff) tapi entah bila nak mula. Barangan pun dah ada complete. Apapun tercapai juga hajat untuk bakar ayam dan ikan instead of stir fry macam selalu. It's something I have to get used to, memandangkan kebanyakannya aku eksperimen je. Malas nak baca resepi. Tapi sedap je di tekak aku sefamili, itu yang penting.

Main game pun dah kurang. Pun konon nak buat review, entah bila la nak buat. Ada la sedikit sebanyak yang aku dah main separuh (macam Call of Juarez, Overlord II) dan sampai habis (macam Zeno Clash) dan yang tak boleh habis (MMORPG macam Free Realms dan Runes of Magic, Sims 3). Lepas tu Street Fighter IV yang hilang skill (main easy pun kena belasah ni!). Ya, walaupun senarai tu agak banyak, tapi secara relatifnya kurang berbanding dahulu. Walaupun aku dah beli Gigabyte GTX260+ semata-mata nak max settings untuk setiap game yang aku main. Walaupun Razer Deathadder aku dah terkorban sebelum waktunya gara-gara clickfest yang menggila.

Lagi satu aku perasan, dulu aku selalu jugak tulis blog ni sebab aku nak post illustrations yang aku buat, tapi sekarang ni aku dah kurang motivasi nak melukis. Nantilah, bila aku dah jumpa model untuk ku kartunkan.

Sekali tulis, panjang la pulak. Sigh.

Cooking Is Not Exact Science

2009-07-25T22:23:00.002+08:00

There are these words that are desperate to get out of my head onto this virtual paper. But most disappear each and every time I began to type. I wonder.

Welcome To Our Lives

2009-05-13T00:41:00.008+08:00

Papa, when I came out crying 5.22 pm that Monday, you already know I am a girl, don't you? Sorry, but I can't share a birthday with you because I went a week early, just because I wanted to see you guys so bad! And Mama, with me weighing 3.35 kilos altogether (including my lush black hair!) don't you just feel relieved you don't have to continue carrying me in your belly anymore? Think again! Now you still have to cradle me all night long! (I am clingy like that).

Please-please-please-pretty-please do not stop loving for me with all your hearts, you guys! I need your affections as much as I can have them, like my big sis. Yet don't be jealous, Sis Alyya, they only seems to care for me more now because I'm still small. I'm just one day old, remember? (I can't wait to be on my hands and feet so that I can play with you day and night). Seriously, can I even compete with their love towards you? They love us both equally dear! No competition, really. Isn't it wonderful?

Born To Be Wilde

2009-05-10T20:09:00.002+08:00

Apparently the writers of House had taken the length to shove up to our faces the fact that their show had finally jumped the shark. However, even when there is nothing to look forward to, House is still my top show, next to Lost.

Mak Jah Kata Hari Buruh Itu Untung

2009-05-03T18:20:00.003+08:00

I was pretty sure I was about to do something stupid, but I glad I went over myself and got through with it.

Sure's something interesting will turn up tomorrow (I hope).

Xperiance

2009-04-30T22:36:00.006+08:00

After two years, my Softbank X01HT a.k.a 838pro finally failed me, just in time when I have enough to afford a new PDA phone. How convenient.

After quite a while deciding between HTC Touch Pro and SE Xperia X1, I decided to go with the latter (also after much persuasion from the Missus) just because it has larger resolution and much-much alluring body design. Mind the picture -- I got one with a black finish. It looks sexier that way. So now it's already a week, and so far, I'm loving it.

With All That Kicking Inside

2009-04-15T22:04:00.005+08:00

Ever gotten something that is most certainly life-changing? Well, I do. To be exact, two, in fact. Forget all the fancy guitars with the accompanying gadgets, or even the desktop computer with its state-of-the-art peripherals. These hardware that I spoke with wonder are actually; a) a vertical clothes steamer, and; b) a clothes dryer.

The first one is a Princess clothes steamer that we bought some time in 2005. Next to folding clothes, I always hated ironing, and I hated it with a vengeance (venjens, says Rodek). So, when I was a bachelor, I got myself a cheap plastic spray iron that sprayed mostly continuous steam, and I loved it. No more waiting for heat cycles, no more accidental burning and most importantly, it made ironing less of a hassle. So cheap equals easy-to-break, and it was history. When we got married, I thought of getting another since I don't want to burden the missus as I'm the DIY kind of guy. She likes the idea, but instead suggested that we get a proper one like those we saw used by the salespersons in Jusco and the like. After much research and survey, we got one at Metrojaya. It wasn't cheap, but hey, it worths every Ringgit. Why do I think it is life-changing? It does its job so well, saves much of our time, saves us all the hassle, saves space and most importantly, helps me to help the missus. I know of one benefit of using a press iron and that is when you want to have that pronounced side creases on your clothes, but I never needed it and I think I never will.

The second, is a cheap Haier clothes dryer we bought end of 2007. I can't really say how life-changing this thing really is to you and how much better the quality of your life would become, but all I can say is that, those who don't have it think that they don't need it, but those who do can't live without it. It has certainly transformed our lives. I was also skeptical at first, but surprised I was. And I still am. No more unwanted hassle and wasted time. No more dreading rainy days. No more need for abundance of hangers and pegs. No more special day for washing clothes, because now, I can wash my clothes and get them all dried up ready to wear at any time of the day or night. And that fancy retractable clothesline we bought when we settled in has now become pigeons perch. Truly, a fully automatic fuzzy-logic-laden washing maching and a dryer are an unbeatable combination! Had I been any smarter from day one, I would've bought the washing and drying machine all in one! That would save even more time during all the loading and unloading phases.

We also have an Osim Mermaid, a water-based vacuum cleaner we got long before Alyya. Since I'm susceptible to dust, the device works wonders, but I wouldn't put it in my list of life-changing equipments, just honourable mention.

Now we're close to having quality time and quality living. If there is an automatic clothes folder, then consider me sold. Seriously, with all these in place, it will be a long time before I would consider having a maid.

Senaman Cinnamon Si Manan

2009-04-11T03:55:00.005+08:00

It's 4am. I can't sleep. I just finished watching XIII part 2 and suddenly I feel the urge to blog. Yet, I don't exactly have any ideas on what I suppose to write about. Oh my.

Perhaps I'll write about this particular interest of mine -- cooking. I admit that I'm a lousy cook, but I love preparing food. Some would frown upon my style of cooking; I use instant ingredients wherever and whenever possible (note: chicken stock). Or recently when the missus craved pancakes, we bought ready-made pancake mix instead of mixing flour on our own. I thought, why trouble reinventing the wheel anyway? If I need to be creative, the cinnamon powder, vanilla or whatever essence are always nearby.

It was curiosity that made me cook in the beginning. It is curiosity that made me cook until today. A month ago, I cooked apple fritters just because I was curious on how other fruits would taste like on being fried.

I mostly stir-fry nowadays. Next to chicken stocks, I can't really cook without shallots. At the supermarkets, I will always look for clams, prawns, squids or even dory or salmon fillet for the lauk (not to forget crabsticks) and then asparagus, kangkung and/or mushrooms for the vegetables. For mushrooms, I go for shiitake or enoki mostly.

Having Jamie Oliver firmly in mind, I always try to aim for minimalism. As for Mr. Oliver, I seldom watch AFC nowadays, as Youtube would give me a lot more that I ever need. As for minimalism, I once prepared just rice, scrambled eggs and a makeshift soup (shallots + chicken stock really) yet already a complete meal enough to satiate Alyya's hunger and mine. But that was before I went into that "strictly no rice weight-watching plan" lah.

Do you know the trick to make the best scrambled eggs ever? Don't stop stirring until the eggs are fully cooked. You'd get the most fluffy-textured scrambled eggs you would ever get; ones that glide over your tongue and linger full of taste. So, about that arm of yours that is hurt from all those continuous stirring? Well, it is worth it.

Okay. Now that I've read all that I've typed, I wonder if there is any specific point that I need to tell.

Ah yes. Now I remember that I need a new frying pan. A 24cm Tefal frypan, to be exact.

People Do Crazy Things For Love

2009-03-23T00:23:00.004+08:00

I was on my way to LCCT when the missus messaged me telling she was disallowed to board her flight. The AirAsia flight attendants wouldn't accept the doctor's letter since it was only valid for a week, saying it is their policy to abide. It is all a good policy, I admit, except for the fact that THE DOCTOR IS IN FUCKING KL AND NO OTHER DOCTOR CAN SIMPLY WRITE ANOTHER LETTER. For godsake, he already wrote the letter to vouch the first trip, and I bet enough to cover for the return trip, especially it was only a week in between.

You know, Tony Fernandez will be hearing from me on this.

Now, the pregnant missus and the daughter were stranded in Kangar with no immediate solution. Other than trying to get another consent letter from another willing doctor and fetching another return flight on the whims of another pms-stricken check-in attendants, or, spend excruciating many-hours' bus or train trip, my mind began plotting ridiculous thoughts.

So there I went to begin an overnight fetching trip to Kangar, that fateful evening.

I was out of my mind. I never thought I could reach Perlis in 4 hours including refueling stops. But crazy things happen. Began my trip at 5.30 pm, arrived at 9.30pm, rested until about 11, reached the apartment at 3.30am. Gila. I'm thinking if I am to repeat such feat, it will either be that I won't, or the most probable, I can't. Whatever adrenaline that kept me vigilant for the entire course of the trip was the most weird thing.

A mostly silent journey where I didn't bother to turn on the radio, my eyes were peeled to the road. I overtook cars like crazy, and those that couldn't, well, I did anyway. There were times that I thought I'd falter -- the narrow corners, the stubborn cars -- and somehow would be the end of me, it never came. My mind was occupied entirely with the mission objective, so to speak.

This entry may seem a bit melodramatic, but having to stare at the darkness unable to sleep, I do wonder whether I did fail that one narrow corner, and all of this just an elaborate out-of-body experience.

You know, I shouldn't have watched Groundhog Day. Sigh.

Knights Of The Nine

2009-03-17T01:35:00.002+08:00

Friends find my games reviews to be boring, since the likes of them don't play that hardcore of a game anyway, and that they can't really fathom or connect with them. However, since there aren't any new PC games that are noteworthy in vicinity, I think I won't be writing a new one any time soon.

And then there is that Grand Theft Auto IV, but the hassle of getting it to install (with Games for Windows, Rockstar Social Club, 13GB worth of setup files, etc.) turned me off completely, even if it does boast a near-perfect score in every games reviews I could find on the internet. For the moment, I think I'll settle playing TES4:Oblivion until I've finished every mission and explored every nook and cranny. Right now, I've already clocked some 100 hours into the game with no sign of stopping.

Week Daze

2009-02-22T23:57:00.000+08:00

I just had kind of a full weekend, marked tonight after I had just returned from a night-out, makan at Kampung Baru with a dear friend of mine, Yusman. Just today, the Missus, Alyya and I went out to Midvalley for our second viewing of Geng which doubled as a small friends get-together. Not to mention that yesterday we had a swimming get-together here at Fajaria with Rumet, QZ and Arianna, of which we get to close with Canadian Pizza dinner plus movie viewing session along with Tapai who came a bit later. Not to mention that just a few hours before that, I had a sleep-over session at the Data Center (which I didn't even get any) working.

Incoherent as I am typing this right now -- yes, I had my weekend full alright.

Wa Shing Ka

2009-02-16T00:14:00.003+08:00

I once had the idea on replacing the Proton emblem on my Waja with a nice, solid and bevelled logo of the Autobots, thinking of how cool the car would become with all the Transformers' vibe and such.

And then I thought, perhaps I should just wash my car.

Display Dismay

2009-02-08T10:46:00.002+08:00

The financial physicist in me asked me to abide the Law of Financial Thermodynamics. Thus, Rule of Conservation of Budget won me over and I had to postpone my 2009 resolution until later this year. Oh well, I guess I have to be content with half of it.

By the way, that's a 23" Samsung 2333SW LCD with 1920x1080 resolution, next to a 17" cap Ayam (FTec) CRT with 1280x1024 resolution. I am a multi-monitor freak alright (besides the already countless others something-else freak).

Leap Of Faith

2009-01-28T15:00:00.007+08:00

I had said that I'll do game reviews as part of 2009 contents, hadn't I? So I am going to do that now, and what better thing to do than to play games during this plenty of time of holiday?

I sat down in front of my PC, installed Mirror's Edge, played and finished the game clocking around 10 hours overall.

My first assessment: nauseating. I must admit, eventhough I see myself as a seasoned FPS gamer (I played FPS since the days of Wolfenstein 3D and Doom alike, and have never grow bored of such genre) I'm still affected with the fast motion and camera panning. Mirror's Edge is a game that go to length to incorporate the sense of you being there yourself. Mostly a game with the premise of free-running or parkour, you are expected to jump, swing, wall-climb, roll on the ground and basically do what third-person platformers would do, all in first-person mode (you can even see your body and feet! How many FPS games do that?). Therefore, you can expect the camera spinning with high-degree of speed and freedom to reflect the perspective that you would normally experience in real life. This, will easily induce motion-sickness, and if you are one of those who are easily affected even by the relatively tame Half-Life or Counter Strike, then do keep a puke bag handy.

Since there are already tons of review of this game on the internet, I will not explain what this game is or how it looks like (you can google it or find youtube of it in action). I will only tell what my likes and dislikes about it.

Mirror's Edge

Likes:

Surprisingly fun
Fast action and immediate objective keeps the game from being tedious
Beautiful, clear and functional graphics
Interesting story and premise
Puzzle element (finding routes and shortcuts) makes it much more interesting
Feels like and plays like a unique game altogether
The well-scripted (gameplay-wise) and exhilarating ending

Dislikes:

Too short
Routes are not immediately obvious to me so I had to make a few trip to youtube for a walkthrough
Can be a bit dizzying and nauseating at times
Some jumping parts like in chapter 9 are frusting and time killing (fortunately you'll be spawned somewhere near so you don't have to repeat too much)
The story and its elements, while interesting enough (especially the end part), contain plot holes, sounded a bit cliche and a bit predictable (not to mention having an over-the-top premise altogether)
The ending. It was too quick. I didn't even realize I was already at the ending. Immediately after the cutscene, I had prepared for another fight with the supposed remaining enemies but... well, I won't spoil the ending but it did feel quirky
PhysX, although not required, was turned on by default and made the game slow down to a crawl. At first, I didn't quite make it since the it didn't occur until chapter 2. When turning down the graphics settings didn't improve it, it was then that I realized turning PhysX off made a whole world of difference. Turns out I could max out the graphics settings and my 8800GT could still handle it without a hitch. And the best part, I couldn't even discern the distinction of having PhysX on or not (although the benefits can be shown via some of the youtube videos, it never had any impact on my experience anyway)

I admit I had underestimated the game at first. When I read initial reviews about Mirror's Edge, my preconception turned me off, but I glad I went past it and played the game anyway. It may not be perfect, but overall it is a fun game, proved by the fact that I played it until the end. And that was all that mattered to me. I've read somewhere that Mirror's Edge will have sequels, so that might explain some issues that I have with the story elements and characters themselves.

Summary: A nauseating experience of a first-person platformer.

Verdict: Excellent

I Don't Want To Set The World On Fire

2009-01-19T05:16:00.005+08:00

In early 2008, I bought a PC with the primary purpose of gaming. While I do not see myself as a power gamer, gaming had become a definite preoccupation, and I find myself getting to try to play each and every new (popular) games on their release.

So a thought did occur to me: Why didn't I make a review on those games, not unlike Cipok's review of each of his watched films? Why not? A 2009 resolution perhaps?

I think I'll start with the next new release. But for now, I guess I'll reminisce on 2008.

Disappointments

Personally, 2008 had full of disappointments in PC gaming. I had anticipated on a lot of games, mostly through reading of previews, only to be frustrated on release. For instance, take S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky. I had a blast playing the first game on vanilla, then came Oblivion Lost mod which took the game to a new height of experience as originally intended by the developers. So naturally I thought the prequel would expand the idea of the Oblivion Lost, polish it up, incorporate new details while maintaining the same exact feel. Boy I was wrong. The environment felt a little different, but what killed it for me was that glitches made the difficulty uneven, apart from making the game crashed here and there.

Assassin's Creed is a totally different game I expected it to be. Although already somewhat a sandbox game, the gameplay is not freeform. Perhaps I was wrong to expect it to be a medieval (IO Interactive) Hitman, where you can have multitude of ways to assassinate people. Instead the tasks were a chore, being too repetitive for my taste. But overall, the graphics is beautiful, the environment is believable, that I end up wandering around for no purpose most of the time.

I'm quite fond of the Dungeon Siege series. To me, it is a Diablo game I always wanted. So I thought when Gas Powered Game released Space Siege, the same exact feel would be retained. But nooo, the developers messed up indeed. RPG elements were taken out. The action elements were generic and uninteresting. The story... well, there is no story, or at least not that interesting or genuine either. The graphics were so-so. The level design was bland. It was that bad.

I admit I didn't play much of Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction to begin with but overall reviewers gave it a collective thumbs up. Naturally, gamers will bank on Mercenaries 2: World In Flames to up the ante. Naturally, sequels suck. The entire time I played it, the game felt stupid, and I'll leave it at that.

SPORE is a game that looks fun and feels fun. That is, until your third playthrough, which unfortunately is not that long to reach. It didn't occur to me until my fifth playthrough, but by then I saw the unpolished and unrefined aspects. The game is too simplistic to start with, your action doesn't shape your gameplay much, and you'll find that you play the game just for the novelty's sake. And when the novelty wears off, you'll find yourself playing a boring repetitive kids game and you will be left scratching your head in disbelief. That is when you exit the game and fire up Sims 2.

The biggest WTF in 2008 gaming is definitely Far Cry 2, and I can not help but to think that Ubisoft bought the reviews. It received praises by multitude of reputable gaming sites, citing its true open-endedness and such. But when I do play it, expecting a STALKER-type game, I was dumbfounded. What in the hell is a game where you travel for 15 minutes in a bland environment to an objective, only to finish it up under 1 minute? Not only that, you are forced to babysit certain things that I thought non-sequitur: your malaria infection, excessive respawning enemies, jammed weapons and road navigation. When a game feels like a chore to me, I find myself quitting the game more often than not.

Honorable Mention

If it ain't broken, don't fix it. Crysis: Warhead maintains the feel and mechanics of the first game while de-emphasizing the bad parts of it (i.e. fighting aliens in zero gravity). In the sequel (parallelequel?), you play as Psycho, which I thought a far more interesting character than the first's Nomad.

Knights Of The Old Republic I is among the best games I ever played, so Mass Effect had my anticipation for the longest. It never did disappoint, and I finished the game under one week just because it was that good (and short, unfortunately).

Valve's Left 4 Dead is a novelty to begin with, and I find myself firing up Hamachi each night for two weeks just to find play sessions. And then it got old, but I had fun while it lasted.

Prince of Persia 4 surprised me the most by being the only Prince of Persia game that I managed to complete. Although panned by forumers for having too simplistic and easier game mechanics (e.g. no game over, single enemy battle), it became the plus point for me. Without that auto-restart feature called Elika, I think I would've end up halfway like the previous games.

I don't like racing games that much but I find GRID and PURE appealing enough that they deserved some playtime. Great graphics, great game mechanics -- I only wish I have enough patience for this type of games to give them another sitting.

Game Of The Year

Fallout 3 bar none. And I wish to give it another playthrough any time soon.

That's about it! Here's hoping 2009 will be a great year for PC gaming.

Menyumbang

2009-01-02T03:17:00.005+08:00

Late at night and I've just finished printing these invitation cards that I designed for our internal karaoke competition. It goes without mentioning that it has been my job from year to year as the internal miscellaneous propaganda designer, which I can't never complain.

You may notice how corny it is - Voice of Stars. Name it what you will, but you can't never hide the fact that it's just some karaoke singing contest. But I agree that naming it officially as "KARAOKE COMPETITION" is dull as hell anyway.

I am still considering whether to take part or not, since I never really settled on the selection of song that I wish to sing come Monday. I really hope I won't make the same blunder as last year, where I picked up a Nasyid song at the last minute. I'm aware that I can't really sing anyway, but a Brothers' song? Up until today, I still can't quite make it of what came over me on that particular day.

3840x1080

2008-12-20T01:58:00.007+08:00

While I'm not counting days towards new year, I have finally set my 2009 resolution, which I'm going to achieve as early as January.

Stupefied

2008-11-12T23:20:00.005+08:00

Recently someone did relate me a story of an AGM of TM where in a presentation by Sony, managed to get all upset, out-loud claiming he had never heard of this obscure thing called 'PSP' before and concerned of its marketability (or lack thereof) that he's going to associate his company's product with it. Now, if this story is true, I really do not know which cave did this so-called AGM crawled out of, and I would like to remind everyone that being ignorant is not a good excuse for being stupid. Especially when your company is suppose to lead the technological advancement of the nation. Especially if you are suppose to be leading the company's marketing department!

Next I heard, he also had never heard of Windows Vista. A slap on the forehead indeed.

Kindgirls

2008-11-10T22:48:00.007+08:00

People have told me that big things are about to occur. Yet I told them, things have been happening around us for a lot longer, and some things are strangely for the better.

So I sighed and they sighed agreeing that crying ourselves to sleep will not make us any happier.

EDD 19-05-2009

2008-11-01T11:20:00.004+08:00

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.

2AM Chat

2008-10-16T03:12:00.007+08:00

I want my old job back. Seriously.

On the other hand, I can vouch that there are no ghosts here in this office, only miserable people.

I Watch Sepi For Vanida Imran

2008-10-05T23:07:00.004+08:00

After watching the over-simplified yet convoluted mess called Sepi on DVD tonight, I felt I need an excuse. Why-oh-why when I thought I would trust someone who created Cinta, this abomination came and wreck the whole ship to kingdom come.

How Aidilfitri Destroyed My Diet

2008-10-04T23:55:00.004+08:00

I was finally 65kg when I left KL earlier this week. 3 months of weight-watching (with the added bonus of Ramadhan) made me lose around 10 kilos altogether, but nooo, the ketupat and rendang wouldn't let me get away just yet.

4 kilos of bulan Puasa's worth are down in the drain.

Aku Nak Balik Raya!

2008-09-26T22:07:00.004+08:00

10pm and I'm still torturing myself staying at this data center of ours late at night, which had become a routine of mine for these past few days. Grimly, I tore the piece of paper that said "Note to self: Don't work too hard".

Because of these last minute works, I had to take a flight back to balik kampung. The missus and her siblings are to go home early without me accompanying, come tomorrow morning. If they were to wait, they would then wait for good three days only to procrastinate.

On the plus side, I now know Solaris-fu! Or at least I now know that those Sun keyboard made for their hardware is there for a reason. The first time when I'm baffled on how to boot the system from an Install CD, Google gave me "Press STOP-A then type boot cdrom". And I spent half an hour later figuring out on how to issue such command from normal keyboard! Thank whatever Almighty, someone managed to keep the original keyboard safe and sound in one of the boxes.

And installing Solaris 9 was a breeze.

Another plus side would be that I won't have to spend some 8 hours driving this time around. Definitely a plus!

Tentang Diarrhea

2008-09-14T12:29:00.001+08:00

Tentang Dira

2008-07-30T20:53:00.002+08:00

Setinggan Fire Incident

2008-07-14T01:02:00.004+08:00

By the time we got ourselves on our way home from the 'usual' badminton session, I got a disturbing call from my aunt, saying that "Fajaria's on fire!" or something similar to that tone. However, I kept my composure and held my foot from hitting the pedal, although Alyya did voice out her worries and fell asleep during the process.

By the time we were on NPE, we finally saw the billowing smoke by the Menara TM, and I joked that we would have to make ourselves comfy sleeping in a tent for months to come.

Well, long story short, my aunt's and alyya's worries were unjustified, but still the fire was no mere incident. It was a tragedy. Our deepest sympathy goes to the affected nonetheless.

And so my camera went to work until later that day, and I even snapped pictures of what I thought was the YB. I guess it is always a good thing to have something like a 12x zoom handy.

Wuxi Finger Hold

2008-06-24T08:09:00.004+08:00

So we managed to bring Alyya for her first Movie Outing. After toying with the idea a few times, making plans after plans including the so-called plan B if anything doesn't go well, we brought her to see Kung Fu Panda. You see, Alyya is never the one to sit tight, usually restless most of the time. To our dismay, she still is, but perhaps we were able to keep her down to a minimum bearable level.

One that really ticked us, was when it was all silent, and there was Alyya suddenly laughing out loud. Talk about non sequitur.

As a conclusion, despite a few mishaps, we think that Alyya is well-behaved enough to deserve her second. Wall-E, I spoke to the missus.

Our Littlest Fairy Garden

2008-06-19T01:49:00.000+08:00

To satiate the missus' sudden urge in gardening, I drove her all the way to Sungai Buloh (somewhere near the Hospital Sg Buloh exit) as per recommendation of her colleague. There are lots of nursery there, but we didn't waste any time comparing prices. We stopped at the first nursery that we deemed decent but with less crowd.

She prefers flower plants and those with large leaves, but ferns appeal me the most. I like how these Pteridophytes present themselves -- in somewhat ancient and mysterious way. Just before we left, Alyya picked a plant of her own, which could be almost anything that features pink.

I guess it's time anyway that we stop neglecting the balcony. Perhaps with this small patch of flora, we could start to decorate the seemingly huge wasted space. And just maybe, I could throw in garden chairs and table as well, next time.

Hocus Pocus

2008-06-18T00:03:00.000+08:00

Did I mention that I can't wait for weekend to come? Correct, correct, correct. Tonight I squeezed in another two hours into Mass Effect. Lucky for me, the missus was occupied with watching Korean drama.

Mass Effect

2008-06-17T00:14:00.001+08:00

Thanks to Ephol, I finally got my hands on Mass Effect. 10 minutes of gameplay already got me hooked, and I played for two hours straight. If only tomorrow was Saturday!

I guess I will render myself sleepless this coming weekend...

Analytics

2008-06-16T10:19:00.004+08:00

I've been using Google Analytics for quite sometime now (after which the measuring did take quite a break after my layout change because I forgot to add in the code back) and I observed some amusing numbers:

I get an average of about 13 visitors per day
A large portion of my blog's visits (72%) are by referral links, the most are from Rumet's and Cipok's with a close second
15% are from search engines, with most are by 'betina sundal' keyword. Funny thing, that, but more of that later
Only 13% are by direct traffic (yes, that means only so few would type in satelitpuaka.blogspot.com directly in their browser)
I got the highest hits mostly on Mondays, which correlates with people's surfing (and working) habits
Most people still love their IE

I like the 'betina sundal' part. The numbers are too significant to ignore (as oppose to 4 traffic referrals I got from 'rodek redza'). As you can see, when you search for 'betina sundal' in Google, my website would not even turn up after 10 pages or so (and I would dare venture a guess that no one would even bother after the 3rd page). However, this page would turn up as the second in Yahoo. Just wow.

If you ever wondered what the entry is all about, perhaps you should listen to Panic At The Disco! - I Write Sins Not Tragedy.

Your Witch Is My Command

2008-06-15T21:51:00.005+08:00

Got somewhat caught by the missus with keeping a folder with pictures of scantily-clad women. Frozen in awkwardness, I didn't even bother explaining the "me = illustrator = need reference material" connection. Like anyone would believe that anyway, right?

What Is My Necklace Made Of?

2008-06-08T02:07:00.002+08:00

I have just completed watching season 4 of House. I immensely enjoyed the finale, each and every minute of it. I can only conclude that the writers of House are brilliant a-holes, each and every one of them.

2.704

2008-06-05T15:48:00.002+08:00

I did a quick sketch (my pencilling has been rusty due to the digital move these days) on what I thought of the recent happening. In the same spirit, Tapai wants to cycle to work as a protest of some sort. He is suppose to arrive at Menara TM at 4.30 pm today (he took a leave today -- a protest also I assume) but at this time of writing it is raining heavily not unlike the previous day. I really hope he will keep his words or will he just pull the same trick as with the resignation letter? News at 11.

Lim Kim Pak

2008-06-03T23:57:00.004+08:00

Mr. Lim adalah seorang yang tidak bertanggungjawab. Dan saya berani mengatakan begitu dengan penuh yakin. Kenapa? Kerana saya dah tak tahan dirotan.

Ya. Rotan yang memedihkan tatkala hinggap di kulit saya tu dah tak sanggup lagi saya nak hadap. Memanglah saya selalu dapat bawah 20% dalam ujian Add Maths, tapi pada saya dia tak ada hak nak rotan saya. Birat-birat kat punggung, telapak tangan dan betis kaki ni bagaimana saya nak jelaskan? Saya dah fed-up!

Memang benar waktu Bapak jumpa dia awal tahun, dia sendiri pun bagi kebenaran. Pukullah anak saya, asalkan dia belajar bersungguh-sungguh jadi orang yang berguna. Saya diam saja waktu tu, sebab saya tak berani lawan Bapak. Kuntaunya lagi hebat. Kalariparatnya membuat hati tersayat. Maka Mr. Lim jadikan itu sebagai lesen untuk dia belasah saya cukup-cukup.

Kadang-kadang lepas dirotan tu, dia senyum saja. Add Maths senang saja, tak habis-habis dia kata. Senang kepala bapa dia!

Meluap-luap hati saya bila masuk kelas dia. Tak pernah senang duduk. Saya tahu dan dah akur yang walau betapa tekun pun saya menghadap Add Maths, saya takkan dapat lulus ujian. Formula satu jadah pun tak dapat saya hafal. Saya tak faham!

Saya ni bukannya bodoh sangat. Malah saya dapat A1 dalam ujian BM dan Matematik Moden sebagai bukti yang saya ni tak adalah bebal semacam. Tapi Add Maths tu bukanlah secawan kopi buat saya.

Namun, Alhamdulillah, beberapa bulan kemudian atas berkat usaha saya berjaya dapat 63% dalam ujian. Mr. Lim bangga dengan saya. Tapi dia tak tahu yang saya masih dendam dengannya.

Maka hujung tahun tu, sehari sebelum kertas Add Maths bagi akhir penggal, dia datang pada saya. Nak bagi pesanan terakhirlah konon. Add Maths senang saja, ujarnya tersenyum lagi. Geram punya pasal, saya tayang jari tengah betul-betul ke muka dia.

Yang anehnya dia tak terkejut. Senyumnya pun tak hilang. Dalam berani saya tu risau juga kalau-kalau dicapainya rotan!

Rotanlah, saya cabar. Dia geleng.

Saya bukan guru disiplin, jawabnya. Saya guru Add Maths kamu. Saya akan rotan kalau kamu gagal dalam ujian saya, tapi bukan untuk perkara-perkara lain.

Saya tersentak dengan jawapannya tu. Serta-merta tangan saya jatuhkan.

Sebelum dia berlalu, dia tinggalkan suatu pesanan yang meremangkan roma di leher. Pesanan itu saya ingat sampai bila-bila.

Kamu cuba sedaya upaya dan sampai sejauh ini, tapi akhirnya ia tak penting lagi.

My Car, My Trip and My Wardrobe

2008-06-02T10:35:00.002+08:00

My Car

You know what I love most about my car? The repair bills. They make my bank account scream like a little girl.

My Trip

I just got back from one week holiday and a family trip to boot. The trip went like this: KL -> Kampong (Perak) -> Cameron Highlands -> Taiping -> Bukit Merah -> Kampong (Perlis) -> Kampong (Perak) -> KL. All 2000 or so KM in less than one week. I only could achieve that mileage after two months last time. You could really say that I kinda miss that kind of mileage. So, what did we get from the trip? Massive expenditure, really.

My Wardrobe

There's nothing wrong with my wardrobe, apart from the loose hinge and rails which made the slider doors get stuck now and then. Sigh. I need to post pictures and illustrations, and I got lazy these days. Again.

Chaoyuen's Fart

2008-05-14T11:44:00.002+08:00

I'm going to miss this team. Although nothing's confirmed as yet, I'm sure I'm going to miss the perks that I got working under application development. What perks? I try to remind myself. Well, I got to utilize and enhance my skills, do something I know I am good at, control all the variables in the getting the job done, set my own hurdles, restriction, limitation and target and on top of those, I got plenty of free time to boot. Throw in a charming, pretty lady as the boss and I'm sold.

In my regular mailing list (bluesbred-9397) there is this on-going lengthy discussion on job satisfaction that I never take part in. The reason was that satisfaction is too individual to pinpoint. My personal take is that, right now, bar the big boss, I got the satisfying job that I want for the reason that I'm doing what I love, being very good at it and finally having nearly no pressure at all. Especially when I got virtually no stress nowadays on the trip to work, sometimes I look forward to be in the office. Hell, I go to the office on my leave just because I was bored being alone at home.

I guess too many friends had asked the same old question, "Why don't you leave?". I replied that I failed too many interviews, but deep inside I know that I never got to leave just because I never really wanted too. To me, getting extra moolah and being rich and/or famous wasn't to the top in my list, but being content and stress-free was right there at numero uno. And no doubt I already have that.

However with the changing season that is dreadfully slow to happen, I daresay that everything about me is about to change for the worse.

Berenang Di Lautan Biru

2008-03-27T19:42:00.010+08:00

The bonus payday is only tomorrow, yet I already got a few messages from friends to claim their 'open-table'. One even blogged about it. Sigh. So I thought what harm can a roti canai breakfast at Mamak bring. Everything's okay as long as I don't get any call from anyone asking to join their MLM or anything.

On that MLM subject, I sensed a great unease came creeping into the organization, not so much of the company I'm in, but of some of the colleagues I've got to know. Apparently there's this new silent-moving cult called Lamb Burger or something like that, recruiting young and naive people to invest some 30 or 42 large into their organization. Seeing how easy they can get a person just started working not 2 years to get loan for that amount, I wonder if they already have their people working inside the banks.

I'm amazed on how close they are being a pyramid scheme and that how they are seemingly easy to toss moral and ethics down the drain. And they are ready to lose a few if not most of their friends with their undecided too-hostile (on recruitment) and overly-defensive (on insisting what they are doing is right, etc) behaviour. Taking their current jobs for granted, some even manage to haughtily send in 24-hour resignation letter just to show that they can.

So a few of them called the rest of us losers for not joining, procrastinating on our way to their success. What the hey, I guess. Whatever floats you boat. I wonder how they can manage to sleep soundly at night anyway. Rather than going through all this marketing plan bullshit, might as well you take these money straight from my wallet. Best yet, why don't I give you my keys and my home address and just take anything you like? Now let's see whether I can find 3 or 4 other suckers to join this take-anything-you-like-from-my-house networking plan, then helping them to find even more suckers of their own towards world domination. Ah, that would be great.

Enough of this Lamb shit. Anyway Cipok tipped that Amirhafizi is back online. I guess I can get his link back up. I put my friends' blog links back up if they can keep their blog going, and I hope Sme would do that to me too, if that's not too much to ask.

I began this Maya Karin tracing the other day but couldn't manage to finish touching it up. I believe she can be all so sexy a mermaid, but to be family and censorship friendly, I noticed the costume was tuned for decency. So poof went my fantasy of looking for all but a pair of little bits covered by shells.

And so I made this illustration to vent my frustration (not that I'm going to watch the movie, not before TV3 Aidilfitri Special at least).

Makal Sakti

2008-03-10T17:18:00.002+08:00

Wow, I'm impressed. Staying up late until about 5 in the morning, pressing F5 on Malaysiakini's 3rd mirror every 10 minutes or so, I felt somewhat excited. Well, I couldn't believe anyone who didn't.

My brother got into his tees and went looking for Nurul Izzah's poster, supposedly for his locker back in his hostel. I told him to be careful, not because of supporters would mistaken him as a troublemaker and beat him up or anything, but because of that it was dark and he might brought back Shahrizat's instead.

And I yelled 'Cinta Sakti' into the dark of the night.

Insured

2008-03-07T01:03:00.000+08:00

Just the kind of insurance slash investment that I need.

Jagung

2008-03-06T21:41:00.001+08:00

Al-kisah maka tersebutlah kisah, di sebuah negeri yang sesak lagi menyesakkan oleh saknika kenderaan, ditambah sesak dengan kesesakan yang berlipat-ganda, terbit permasalahan dek jagung-jagung yang datang berkumpulan. Tapi jagung ini bukan sebarang jagung; jagung ini jagung luar biasa, datang berkoyan-koyan untuk satu perjumpaan yang entah berapa mustahaknya, entah apa berita yang pentingnya. Macam tiada negeri lain yang tumbuh lagi sesak lagi menyeksakan. Pendek kata, yang maha sesak jualah ia.

Itulah dia peristiwa, mesyuarat jagung luar biasa.

Lynn Zyllo's Hand

2008-03-01T23:06:00.000+08:00

I now have three in my collection. And counting.

3 Months Hiatus

2008-02-15T23:07:00.004+08:00

After so long, I finally went nuts and decided to post an entry. So, what have you all missed? None major, apparently. But as an update:

Bye bye 2007, welcome 2008!

Alyya turned 3, and finally got a place in TM Taska as of February 2008

Bought a CIF-modded printer (Brother DCP-130C). Instead of ink, paper now became the concern

Became acquainted with a hobby that I always fond of but never get to indulge in: RC vehicles. For a start, I bought an Auldey 1/28 Peugeot 207 RCUP, which doesn't have a visible antenna. It look so nice inside its display case, it already doubles as a scale model display on my computer desk. And the best thing is, I am also going to start exploring a hobby that I never get to enjoy as yet: collecting figurines and scale models. Buying this RC car in fact killed two birds in one stone. How gratifying! Meanwhile, I already looking forward for my next buy, a Q-Steer

Obviously 2007's resolution for a job upgrade wasn't successful, so instead of pursuing the same thing this year, I wish to fill up my time and utilize my skill to the fullest by pursuing freelancing jobs (and building up a portfolio)

Bought a new PC: C2D E6750, 2GB RAM, ASUS 8800GT and a WD 500GB. To celebrate the purchase, I've finished Half Life 2 Episode 1 (which is obviously short), got quarter-way in Call Of Duty 4 and halfway in Crysis. Of all I enjoyed the latter the most, being the most photorealistic (or is it videorealistic?) game available currently, while maintaining a good gameplay that stood on par with its visual department. Contrary to various gospels on various gaming forums, it surely isn't overrated. For me, it is a testament of what current hardware technology can already achieve. Sure, most people can't probably run Crysis smoothly on High, nevermind Very High or "Ultra High" for that matter, but this is game that can look beautiful and compare well to any game of its time even on Low. I say this is a game that can't easily be considered old even in another 2 or 3 years' time. I thought that I always admire the effort of the gaming community in doing graphics upgrade on old games, say Deus Ex (with HDTP and John P's project) or Duke Nukem 3D, but I think Crysis won't need a facelift for years to come

So there. Are you happy now Cheepox?

Gorgom & Iena's Wedding

2007-11-12T12:04:00.000+08:00

Sunday, 11th of November was Mohd Fahmee and Siti Zurina's wedding. Took some pictures with the S3 IS with mixed results. But anyway...

Immediately after, with ad-hoc invitation, a few of us went away to Beny's house for a small get-together.

Open House @ Ayil's

2007-10-29T15:30:00.001+08:00

I guess I'll let the pictures do the talking.

Obligatory

2007-10-11T17:28:00.001+08:00

Selamat Hari Raya Maaf Zahir Batin everybody!

Dr. Ika

2007-10-05T17:53:00.000+08:00

A friend told me I can't always get away with posting a picture without any accompanying text for an entry. Well, tough luck, guys.

Story Telling

2007-09-21T09:29:00.001+08:00

Come Ramadhan, I always has the eager to write. Something. Anything. But not blog entries, mind you. In this particular month, stories seem to weave themselves up inside my mind, all by themselves. I remembered waking up one morning, obviously missing sahur, having a story that seemed to echo loudly inside my head. The story didn't quite make any sense, which is why I never quite remember how it went. But a bit of detail that still kind of vivid was that a dragon (the main character of the story) was playing a game of catch with a cop (played by Denzel Washington) because she burned down a mamak stall all because of a 50 cents change dispute. Funny thing is, it wasn't what I dreamt that night.

Then, the Rumetrix series, which I never got to finish. I slowly lose bits and pieces of story and later bereft of motivation altogether. If anyone wonders, the ending goes something like this:

They went into a building with the Apek keymaker -> battle with the guards and agent -> Rumet goes into the room and instead of Architech he met the Contractor (played by Cipok) -> talk about some internal funny stuff -> Rumet quickly left the building ala Flying Neo (he couldn't actually fly, luckily he brought his hangglider with him which conveniently fit his pocket) but not before snatching a CD from Cipok's desk -> mission accomplished! -> back in Axion, debriefing in front of the council, the cd was played -> lo and behold the song is Suasana Hari Raya by Syarifah Aini -> the end.

Bosan kan? But I kinda regret not having to proper compose it till the end.

Rummaging through some old documents a few weeks ago, doing backup and whatsnot, I notice several text documents of unfinished stories. One was named "The Dragon Aida" (what's the fascination about dragons anyway?). Inside, is a sentence that was meant to be an intro of some sort:

The dragon stood by the lake longing into the moon, all bereft of what she once had. One dire hope that she had put up against all odds now lay withered inside her barren heart.

I wondered what was on my mind when I typed those words, since I cannot remember how the story should go.

And what about this txt called "Marisa's The Rabbit Made Me Do It"? Since it was quite long, here's a snippet:

Marisa was woken up that night by a series of eerie, ghoulish grunts. The strange noises were disrupting her sleep - her dream even. She was all along happily picking up candies from the lush candy garden, playing with huge yet cuddly rabbits when all of the sudden the rabbits paused and stared at her while giving out harsh growls. That was when she startled out of bed.

Immediately the sound stopped. The little girl peered all around her to a blanket of blackness which covered her eyes to no end. She then traced her hands and saw only silhouettes. The darkness seemed so excruciating.

The electricity was out, it seemed, as she glides her fingers on the side table, flicking the switch of the night lamp to no avail. Luckily she remembered keeping a flashlight inside the drawer and had no trouble finding it. Guided by the feeble light of the battery-powered torch, she made her way out of the room.

The parents were undisturbed by the light that the girl shone over them. Dad was sleeping soundly, cuddling and curling inside Mum's arms like she herself would. What a lovely sight she thought, and that the seven year old quickly thought of not disturbing them. Obviously the grunts were not of her dad's, as he was not known for snoring. Marisa indeed remembered the snores of her mum, but she knew how it
sounded like. It was sort of like she was breathing heavily, short in succession but long in duration. Funny though, it sounded like she was in pain-

There was a tap on the window.

And there are few more, but I guess those are for later. Well anyway, I think I need to finish something. Perhaps a far shorter story?

WCG '07

2007-09-09T17:19:00.001+08:00

After so long shooting the guts out of each other, one of our regular CS players got the brilliant idea of registering a team of selected 5 of us into this year's WCG. Having the keyword 'free' firmly in mind, I said, whatthehell, let show 'em what we've got. Needless to say, we never really have anything to show anyway that our game should go without any mention. Just for the record, my personal kill was 7. Yes, a bloody 7 for the entire game. Only.

So we left the tournament hall early, getting back to business of collecting whatever goodies we could get our hands on. Then, keeping my eye firmly on the tall, slender Leng Lui cosplaying an elf of Lineage II with genuine longish ears to boot, I waited for the crowd to reduce a bit so I can get into turn for a quick photograph session. Luck was not mine, since she quickly disappeared along with the crowd (I think somebody managed to kidnap her instead) so we settled for the jovial, cosplaying group of Ragnarok characters.

Well, at least I had fun while the day lasted.

Moving On... Again

2007-08-29T08:19:00.001+08:00

It's not even a year and I had to move again. But now, since it's my own house, I just hope won't be moving again any soon, perhaps only after I have enough money to buy a house complete with the furnishings. Moving was so tiring, quite a lot of things never got out of their boxes from the previous one - which, was good, since less things needed to be packed. 'Less' is of course, a relative sense. It's "climb 43 levels of stairs instead of 47" kind of less.

So it's already two weeks into a life of stress-less and exercise-full commute to work (thanks to Alyya insisting me to carry her all the way to her new babysitter's home). The healthier feel is almost immediate. But of course, more walking means more leg cramps and aches for the missus, therefore more masseur works by yours truly.

And to think that I'm not buying into those sorts of massage products...

Bosan-Bosan Tunggu Bini

2007-07-12T20:15:00.000+08:00

While it was still outlines, I showed it to a couple of friends. To my dismay, they exclaimed, "Angelina Jolie!". So much for going Bollywood.

My Newest Toy

2007-06-27T10:03:00.001+08:00

I'm glad that I finally swallowed enough courage to take the plunge and cough up a hefty sum to treat myself with a new phone. What's more, it's a PDA phone! What's even more, is that I didn't get one, but two, another for the missus!

What started from a small talk in my usual mailing list brought me to Lowyat.net forum to an acquaintance with one who sells cheap Dopod 838 Pro variant called the Softbank X01HT. The variant's build is definitely HTC Hermes', with differences that of the logo and a function-unknown, japanese-character-laden keypad (it's a Japan product anyway). The seller is kind enough to preload the device with Windows Mobile 6 so I don't have to flash it by myself.

To call this baby "a toy" is definitely an understatement, as it does replace an act as so many things. It's already our second day using the phone and Jue has already been singing praises to it, citing how she'll never have to keep a separate planner, for one. But she needs extra time in getting familiar with it, as she has never used a PDA before.

So that's that, one of my new year resolution being fulfilled. To the newly wedded Ajon & Dali, you guys can view this as your gift to us, actually.

Snappily Happy

2007-06-24T11:38:00.000+08:00

To me, photography just needs good pair of eyes, appreciation for the sight that those eyes would give, a little bit of creativity and fine sets of trigger fingers to go with it. As you go along amassing your experience, you become a good photographer eventually.

But talent is what makes one become the best.

If all else fails, all you have to do is get an exceptionally good and fast camera, a spacious memory card and huge stash of batteries. If you snap aplenty, it's hard not to have enough hundreds good pictures from a pile of thousands. And that was what I did last time! :)

Lamento d'Arianna

2007-06-22T09:36:00.001+08:00

I found something that had been tucked away for quite some time. It is a sample of Arianna's caricature that I had made for Rumet & QZ for her 1st birthday cake but was never used. So I thought it is already time to post an entry anyway.

P/S: If you fancy opera music, Claudio Monteverdi's work can be soothing to the ears.

Malas

2007-06-13T17:07:00.000+08:00

Pemalas!

Punyalah banyak cerita untuk kau taipkan tapi kau tetap malas! Apa susahnya cuma hidupkan komputer dan akses internet (yang memang dah selalu kau hidupkan dan onlinekan internetnya itu) selepas tu klik ke laman blogger dot kom dan walla! Loginkan namamu dan taipkan perisa dan rencah pelbagai rasa!

Tapi kau malas!

Cerita apa lagi? Berita engkau yang sudah masuk 27 tahun? Cerita sang Faisal yang telefon kau untuk ucapkan selamat menyambut hari lahir yang kononnya telah lambat sehari (dia sangka hari lahirmu jatuh pada hari sebelumnya)? Berita tentang engkau yang menjadi bidan terjun si jurugambar untuk majlis perkahwinan Kanda Azizul dan Dinda Huda? Berita yang engkau menginap bersama si Rizal di atas teratak di tengah sungai? Mati kutu kemudiannya diratah nyamuk?

Maka apa lagi ceritanya?

Cerita yang kau ingin berpindah lagi, kali ini dekat dengan rumah keduamu (yakni pejabat)? Cerita yang bonus pekerjaanmu telah masuk tetapi gagal kau tunaikan keinginanmu (yakni mendapatkan gajet berbentuk Dopod 838 Pro)? Cerita tentang tiada sekelumit usaha untuk kau bergerak keluar dari kandang keselesaanmu (yakni pekerjaanmu sekarang yang menyesakkan)?

Dan kau terus malas, saksinya berapa ramai sahabat-sahabatmu yang kian lesu mengintai dada blogmu.

Malas dan memalaskan!

AWOL

2007-04-25T10:19:00.000+08:00

It has been awfully quiet around me these days. No events, no accomplishments, no let-downs, no mishaps, no oh-noes, no singing-in-the-rain, no warming-up-the-tongue-twister, no anything whatsoever. Even Abang Ben's weekly badminton sessions are nowhere to be seen (that, or they simply cut me off the line lah). Altogether, there is nothing for me to actually get my lazy hands to punch a entry into this blog o' mine. But I sense things are about to change, as I could somewhat notice the storm that is brewing not far from the horizon.

So I got my lazy arse up and decided, what the hey, a lil' entry couldn't be that bad. At least I could show you casual readers out there that I'm still alive and kicking shits.

Anything interesting? Lemme see. I finished God Of War 2, which I thought are far cooler than the first, albeit much more simpler (and could be finished in like what, a single sitting?). Either that or I finally got my gaming form back. Back from when I was a kid, that is.

Yep. That's about it. All that is interesting in my life. For far more interesting things, I suggest you head over to Tapai's with 'em gloating and envy. Tenk you veddy much.

Festive Greetings

2007-02-14T23:36:00.000+08:00

'Bit too early for CNY, but what the heck, since I haven't an entry to put up anyway.

Asyiqah Albar

2007-01-28T13:01:00.000+08:00

Menggelabah Di Kelab Dangdut

2007-01-28T09:32:00.000+08:00

Oh! Cuba korang bayangkan!

Sewaktu aku dan rombonganku berjalan menuju ke masjid untuk bertemu Tok Kadi, aku tidak boleh tidak terdengar jugak suara-suara sumbang jiran kampung yang sakan mengumpat.

"Indahnya perkahwinan ini!" kata makcik tua kepada anak perempuannya, "Tapi sayang, pengantin perempuannya tu betina sundal,"

Aku pun terus jerkah, "Hoi, korang ni tak paham bahasa ke? Tak reti ke nak rapatkan pintu rumah korang tu?" Pada aku, ada baiknya aku hadapi hal-hal yang semacam ini dengan perasaan yang saksama dan berasas.

Pada hakikatnya, kalau aku lihat kembali dari segi yang ini, secara teknikalnya perkahwinan kami telah pun diselamatkan. Jadi tunggu apa lagi? Kita minum dulu!

Manjalina Rajoli

2007-01-24T00:07:00.000+08:00

Since It's Already Official...

2007-01-23T17:20:00.000+08:00

I thought of posting this some time ago but decided not to indirectly go against the 'gag order' of some sort. But hey, it's official, now, so here it goes.

In an unrelated news, I finally got the promotion or the so-called grade upgrade, after more than 4 years of going through cycles of industriousness and do-nothingism. Yet, I didn't even feel a pinch the desire to celebrate.

Maybe I never will.

(Under)Cover Work

2006-12-28T17:24:00.000+08:00

Recently I was asked for a favor from the HR Dept to design the cover for the company's coming Staffs' Guidebook or Buku Panduan Anggota as it is called. Naturally, I am never to say no for this kind of work and happily took upon the task. I was brieved for the objective of the book of course, and was showed some samples that people did for the other subsidiaries (location of the logo and such consistencies, etc). They noted the very plain and straightforward those covers are and wished that ours would get a stylistic treatment.

To quote their words: "Kalau boleh kitorang nak something yang lebih menarik di mata dan mudah didekati oleh staffs" and told me to use photos to necessity. But they did put on some limit to my creativity, of which the design should incorporate the blue and gold of the company's logo. With that in mind, I put on my designer hat firmly in place.

They asked for some samples, but I got carried away anyhow.

There I was spending my afternoon experimenting with some styles, albeit limiting my brainwork to something formal-looking. After all, it is still a corporate guidebook.

After making a dozen, I emailed them away and never heard from the guys until somewhat a week later. I was then called and told that a design had been chosen, but with some slight changes. I wondered which design was selected and the so-called changes.

Life is never without irony, I guess. After that talk of "mudah didekati staffs" and out of some 13 to 14 artworks, who would've thought that they would select the most formal one? Not just that, but I've to make it even more formal than before! They did away with any accompanying images and illustrations!

Nevertheless, I complied. It was not that they are being charged a cent, much less 50 grand. Still, dozens of designs went to the bin. Next time, just say that you wanted a design for BUKU PANDUAN HUKUMAN GANTUNG MANDATORI 1978 and I'll get the point.

Perhaps, I could use those leftovers as a portfolio should the opportunity comes. And for the fineprint, this post is simply to cover up my ass should someone point out that it was I who created the book cover.

Merah Merah Jelita Miau Miau

2006-12-19T21:00:00.000+08:00

Sep Sep Sep
Mi Mi Mi
Ola Oli
Ku beri nama
Saudara saudari
Cikebum cikebum!
Malam malam minggu
Siang siang hari
Disko disko!
Putih-putih melati ali baba...

...and to those reminiscing, you'll get the rest. Me here, can't get the song out of my head. Alyya nowadays can sing the full verses all by herself, she can't help but sing all the time. All the while stuffing the lyrics into my head.

And now it can't get out no more.

As of today, she's two years old. Yet we didn't celebrate. And got only kisses for her presents. Being unwarrantly thrifty, we would only wait for her Tok and Wan to spoil her with all the tricycles and other large toys. Oh, the joy having loving grandparents!

I registered an account at Jobstreet today and filled in a resume. Finally, after so long whining and repeating ad nauseum that I'd pack up and leave, I've made it a point today by doing the inevitable. All the while I've let myself be comfortable with my little niche down there, minding my own business and pretending that everything's okay, I find myself being so relaxed. So dangerously relaxed that I was so damn confused when I found out one day that my friend list and hate list had totally switched.

I was like, "When did this good-for-nothing fella become so easy to work with? And when did this lovable guy here become such a pain in the ass?"

Things are so getting jumbled up that I felt my office isn't a healthy place anymore. Not one bit. But perhaps, I'm only the 100th person that took notice. It is as though leaving the company is so the in-thing these days. Regretably, those who chose to pack up were those who I thought could make a change for the better for the company. A.k.a. young, energetic fellas. Yet, like small children they are only seen but not heard. Hence, they sigh no more.

I guess I'm all out sigh, too.

Eating Blind Salary

2006-12-04T11:09:00.000+08:00

On a side technical note, apprently they have change the mechanics of Blogger (or perhaps Blogger Beta only, not that I confirm of) where uploading images is no longer to the same, consistent specific directory or folder. And refering directly to the full-size image from the front page would return a nada. Zip. Zilch. Fidge. Fucking Fidge. Oh well. Looks like I've to finally submit to their lousy thumbnail system anyway...

UPDATE 6/12/06: It seems that bp2.blogger.com is a redirector (?) and that the full size images is actually hosted at lh5.google.com (at least, for these images). I wonder when will these break too.

Moving On

2006-11-23T15:27:00.000+08:00

Last week was hectic. We were busy packing stuffs -- the household, in fact. We were actually preparing to move to Shah Alam due on the weekend, as our tenancy term is nearing its end.

Since the missus got transferred to the State Capital for a few months now, I had been contemplating through some future financial plans I've hatched up and finally thought that renting somewhere near her office should be the best plan.

Not to mention Shah Alam is also one fine place.

We never felt so fortunate to get one very close to the office. The plan is that if she were to tread on her feet, she won't even drop a sweat. Alyya's nursery is also in a walking distance. We registered her name in before we even got a house; that's how enthusiastic we were to dwell in Shah Alam. Now she is already on her third day in the new nursery, there were indeed some difficulties, but that one has its own story to be told.

A few friends chimed in in enquiry of this one apartment that we're supposely buying, and I told them that we would rent away the place instead. Should the financing drag us down later, we could simply sell it off.

Or so I had planned.

And so, yes, living in Shah Alam is swell enough. Apart from some quirks regarding the house (I guessed that it already aged more than a decade) I am very much satistified. One thing that I quickly realized is that suddenly I now have more time at home. Waking up in the morning was all too natural and fluid; no rushing was ever needed. We could take all of our sweet time and get out at around 8 with me mysteriously reaching office just before 8.30. Going home, I could reach home as early as I could. I wonder.

Perhaps it is due to the coincidentally dwindled traffic (due to the school holiday) and my preference of using the NPE on the way to work. Even perhaps, let's throw in that 150km/h speed limit too. Compare that of what it was like before we moved, I can never leave late and arrive early, no matter how many shortcuts I took and how close the pedal got to the metal (of course, the only closed pedal was the brakes, because of the many traffic jams encountered).

Well, I may never save much on the travelling costs, but at least I am no longer stressed about getting to and fro the office, that's for sure!

But let's give a few months before saying anything too soon, I reminded myself.

Oh, did I mention last week was hectic? I discovered that, when I declared that packing was one hell of a work, I should've waited until I do the reverse...

WIP - Spongebob'ed

2006-11-15T15:05:00.000+08:00

Karma Wijaya

2006-11-13T17:33:00.000+08:00

I was in the middle of doing a lil' graphics work when I heard a loud yelling from the front of my apartment. At first I thought some people were fighting, but to my confusion I saw that the multiple screamings came only from a single ahmoi.

Befuddled, I asked my wife who was also looking awkwardly confused and not entirely amused. Apparently she had been speaking to the ahmoi through the locked door grill. She explained that the young girl conducted a small survey and as a token of appreciation, then did a lucky draw. To her surprise, it turned out to be a cash prize worth RM 1.5 million!

Thus, the screaming like an orang gila!

My sensitive nose smelled a scam (the infamous scratch-n-win quickly came to mind) but it was too late, the wife had let the ahmoi inside.

So I thought I'd play along just to get a name or two.

I maintained my indifference while I let my wife do the entertaining. The amoi asked my wife to call a number to let somebody from the company know about the winning, and not much later another man (alleged to be her supervisor of some sort) walked into the house. After getting the company name - GLOTRON MARKETING SDN BHD - I excused myself, but not before mentioning to my wife that there must not be any payment involved in any way or another. I thought that I should do a quick *research*. Good or bad, the company name must be mentioned somewhere on the internet, or else.

Sure enough, a google of GLOTRON MARKETING returned with SCAM ALERT hits. Apparently the company was formerly known as WIJAYA MARKETING which used the same marketing tactics (conducting a survey and amoi terkinja-kinja seperti beruk are their infamous tricks). There is even a website called the Wijaya Watch dedicated to informing the public about the scamming company. I then built my composure and returned to face the salespersons.

As expected, we were indeed required to buy some products to enter the lucky draw. Now I was ready to call it quits, but the guy that did all the talking was one hell of a talker. He never let us have our chance to speak, maybe perhaps, other than to say "Yes, we'll buy your scheme". This guy (which I purposely forgot his name) even *challenged* me to call them or their company bluff even before I said anything. You could say he was anticipating that from me due to my indifference, but then perhaps it have always been the standard script. He then anticipated another counter-argument and went on to produce his IC. Best of yet, he said the original IC was lost and gave me a temporary IC instead. So much for being authentic, I thought, and never did register any of the details into my mind other than that he was 16.

So I constantly said no to his offer throughout the conversation. I also said that I didn't believe the largish newspaper cuttings that they produced saying that I never believed in advertisements anyway (the 'news' inside the newspaper was a whole-page advertisement made to look like an actual news page. Therefore, the cuttings can be genuine as what they claimed. Inside it was narrated the story of Pak Abu, the winner of Toyota Vios who at first pooh-pooed the agency but then tried his luck. There was also the picture of all the other winners). After 10 minutes of na-ahs, noes, nopes and doewans, they finally surrendered and with that I politely showed them to the door. They were deathly silent on the way out, the exact opposite of what they were on their way in previously. It was as if they had totally stripped out of their friendly suit. If they're selling that suit instead, I'd buy one!

So what did we get with all of that politeness? Almost an hour late to Ayil's not-so-open house alleged to start at 8.00pm. Not that much late, later I discovered.

Pontianak Haghum Hasghy Haghun

2006-11-10T10:12:00.000+08:00

Not related to Ceng whatsoever. It's Payan's wife, if anyone wonders. Originally made as a favour.

Sedang Ingin Bercuti

2006-10-29T23:07:00.000+08:00

Besok kerja! Tidak!!!

Rumetrix (Part V)

2006-10-19T21:06:00.000+08:00

Suasana yang suram menyelubungi ruang gudang itu. Kelihatan dua orang manusia duduk menghadap masing-masing, manakala yang seorang lagi mundar-mandir di ruang tersebut. Rasa gelisah mencengkam jiwanya.

"Aku ingat kita ni dah cukup lambat. Sekali mamat ni pulak lagi lambat daripada kita," Ayil mengepal-ngepal penumbuknya. QZ menghela nafas panjang. Rumet menggaru kepala yang tidak gatal. Yang pastinya, perasaan resah itu sudah lama dikongsi bersama sejak sejam yang lalu.

Masa yang semakin berlalu semakin menyempitkan keadaan.

"Kalau dia datang, aku nak tumb-"

"Syhhh!" QZ yang tiba-tiba sahaja bangkit dari duduknya memberi isyarat amaran. Pendengarannya yang tajam telah menangkap suatu bunyi yang asing. Lantas mereka segera bingkas beredar ke tempat persembunyian.

"Ada orang di luar gudang ni," ujar Zaki kemudiannya, memberi penjelasan. Matanya terpaku pada skrin komputer. "Berbasikal. Seorang,"

"Mungkin itulah dia," Ayil meneka. QZ menjulang bahu.

"Mungkin juga perangkap," tutur Rumet.

"Tapi kalau ejen, tentu diorang dah serbu tempat ni, tembak kita semua,"

"Hoi korang ni tak reti senyap ke?" QZ menjegilkan mata. Rumet dan Ayil terkedu.

Kemudian keilhatan satu susuk tubuh manusia masuk melalui pintu yang terbuka dan bergerak perlahan-perlahan ke ruang tengah gudang sambil memimpin sebuah basikal tua. Daripada susuk tubuh dan raut wajah, mereka pasti bahawa itulah orangnya. Orang yang mereka kenali dengan nama-

"Tukang kunci!" teriak QZ, memecah kesunyian.

"Tauke! Lu apa pasal lambat?" sambut Ayil kemudiannya, keluar dari tempat persembunyian. Yang lain segera turut serta menghampiri lelaki cina itu.

"Wa punya customer ini hari sangat banyak," jawabnya seraya menurunkan tongkat basikal. "Customer always right maa,"

"Kami pun customer jugak, tauke," Rumet mencelah. "Kitorang sudah tunggu lama, you tau ka?"

"Sorry, sorry," Lelaki cina itu segera melabuhkan punggungnya di atas kotak yang berdekatan. Mengeluarkan saputangan, dia lantas mengelap peluh yang membasahi wajah.

"Tauke, back to business,"

Dengan serentak mereka mencari kotak masing-masing lantas duduk menghadap Tukang Kunci. Kemudian dengan sabar, mereka menunggu lelaki itu menyalakan rokok, meletakkannya pada mulut, menghisap dalam-dalam dan kemudian menghembuskan asap ke udara. Kelihatan QZ menekup hidung dan mulut sambil mengibaskan tangan.

Kemudian lelaki cina itu mengeluarkan sebatang kunci dari poket baju.

"Wa sudah siapkan ini kunci. Sekarang wa ingat lu orang boleh masuk itu bangunan, guna ini kunci untuk bukak sama itu Forbidden Room,"

"Betul ke, Tauke?" Ayil seperti tak percaya. Tangannya segera mencapai kunci tersebut, lantas dibeleknya dengan tekun. Kemudian, seperti sudah berpuas hati, dia mengangguk sendirian.

Rumet menyeluk sakunya untuk mengeluarkan sejumlah wang, tapi cepat sahaja ditahan lelaki yang sudah berusia itu.

"Jangan susah-susah. Kira ini, sudah bayar hutang sama itu Morfin," katanya kemudian.

"Morpheus, Tauke," QZ segera membetulkannya.

"Sorry, sorry," ujarnya seraya menepuk dahi. "Morpheus. Anggap wa sudah settle sama itu hutang,"

Kemudian, mereka mula bangkit dari duduk masing-masing. Tugas mereka di gudang itu sudahpun selesai. Kini ada tugas lain pula yang menanti mereka.

Tugas yang lebih sukar, detik hati Rumet.

"Thank you, Tauke. Kita jumpa lagi," Rumet menghulur tangan untuk berjabat. Tauke mendengus.

"Lu orang ingat, kita, tak pernah jumpa punya," lelaki itu keras bersuara, mengingatkan. "Good luck sama lu orang lah,"

Kemudian mereka bersalaman. Sebelum beredar, dia bergerak ke arah QZ. Sempat pula dia memberi pesanan dan sesuatu yang istimewa.

"Lu mesti hati-hati. Wa ada hadiah mau kasi sama lu,"

Rumetrix (Part IV)

2006-10-19T12:09:00.001+08:00

Segalanya berlaku dengan terlalu pantas.

Sebaik sahaja terjenguk kepala lelaki berkacamata hitam itu di tingkap (seperti ingin melihat dengan lebih jelas), di waktu itu juga satu penumbuk hinggap di wajahnya. Ayil langsung tidak menunggu untuk berbicara, melihatkan keadaan tidak begitu berpihak kepadanya.

Dua lawan satu.

Lelaki itu terhumban ke belakang, menekup muka yang kesakitan. Rakannya lantas bertindak menghampiri pintu kereta, cuba menangkap lengan Ayil yang masih lagi terpanggung di luar tingkap kereta. Umpan Ayil berjaya - sebaik sahaja ejen itu hampir, dengan segera dia menendang pintu kereta yang keras sahaja melibas dan menghentam tubuh lelaki itu. Ayil segera keluar dan lantas bergerak menghadapnya. Sang ejen yang masih lagi dalam keadaan terkejut, menerima satu tumbukan berat pada rusuk.

Ejen yang bernama Faisal itu mengerang di atas lantai, membatukkan ketulan darah. Dengan geramnya Ayil segera memberikan dua tiga tendangan saguhati pada ejen tersebut. Setelah puas, dia mengalihkan pula pandangannya pada ejen Jasmy yang masih lagi pening-pening lalat dek hidung yang remuk.

Tumbukan berbalas tumbukan. Namun semakin lama Ayil semakin sedar yang kemenangan awalnya hanyalah disebabkan oleh serangan hendap. Nampaknya ejen-ejen ini lebih tangkas dan berbahaya dalam keadaan siaga.

Satu tendangan hinggap di belakang Ayil, menyebabkan dia hilang tumpuan. Lalu serangan yang seterusnya daripada Jasmy gagal ditangkis olehnya dengan kemas, mengakibatkan dia hilang rentak pertarungan. Jelas sekali Faisal telah pun pulih daripada kecederaannya dan kini turut serta dalam pertempuran.

Ayil dihimpit pada dinding bangunan. Dia semakin terdesak.

+ + +

"Dia nampak tak berapa bagus," lelaki di hujung talian itu berbicara. Dahinya berkerut-kerut.

"Berapa jauh lagi?" tanya gadis itu pula kemudiannya. Dia memang tidak berhenti berlari untuk sekian lamanya.

"Aku rasa kau pun dah boleh nampak,"

Kata-kata sang operator memang ada kebenarannya. Ketika itu QZ mematikan langkah lantas memerhatikan blok bangunan di hujung cerun yang kini berada di hadapannya. Walaupun agak jauh, dia dapat mengesannya batang tubuh manusia yang padanya sedang 'bertumbuk sakan'.

"Yang pastinya aku tak nak bertumbuk. Leceh," katanya kemudian, separuh kepada dirinya dan separuh kepada lelaki yang berada di hujung talian. Kemudian dia mengukir senyuman. "Aku ada ini," sambungnya seraya mengeluarkan sepucuk pistol .35".

"Err... QZ. Ada sesuatu yang perlu aku beritahu," Pang seperti teragak-agak.

"Pang!" Gadis itu terjerit. Seperti dia tahu sahaja ada sesuatu yang tidak kena. "Apa pulak kali ini? Kau lupa nak bubuh peluru? Atau-" QZ meneliti senjata tersebut.

"-pistol ni bukan pistol betul," Seketika itu, suara mereka berpadu. QZ mengacung senjata itu ke arah dinding bangunan dan menarik picu. Satu letupan kecil lantas kedengaran namun peluru yang keluar bukanlah logam besi yang dia kenali.

Bebola getah berlantunan ke sana dan ke mari.

"Kau nak aku bunuh cicak ke apa dengan pistol ni?!"

"Aku mintak sorry sangat-sangat,"

" Kau ni memang gilalah!" teriaknya dan menghumban senjata itu jauh-jauh ke udara. Rasa marah menebal di dada.

Tanpa membuang masa, dia kembali berlari menuju Ayil. I will deal with you later, dengusnya.

Pang menelan liur.

+ + +

Pertarungan kini adil. Dan QZ yang berbekal tahap adrenalin yang tinggi seperti mudah sahaja menewaskan lawan. Si Ayil pula tercungap-cungap mencuri nafas yang kian pendek.

Akhirnya tubuh badan ejen-ejen tersebut bergelimpangan di atas kaki lima. Ayil memerhatikan mereka dengan rasa jijik bercampur puas. Lega rasanya dapat menewaskan mereka. Sejenak, rupabentuk ejen-ejen tersebut kembali berubah kepada tubuh asal manusia yang telah dihuni oleh mereka.

"Ejen-ejen ni memang tak ada rupabentuk fizikal. Untuk berada di dalam dunia Matrix, diorang main ambil saja tubuh badan sesiapa yang berhampiran," si operator cuba menerangkan.

"Kitorang tahulah," dengus QZ. "Kau ingat kitorang dah berapa buat kerja ni? Sehari dua macam kau?"

"Er-"

"Kau tahu tak Ayil," sambungnya, mengalihkan perhatiannya kepada lelaki tersebut, "Pang ni dahlah hantar aku kat tempat yang salah, kemudian bagi aku pistol getah! Aku tak tahulah macamana Sidang boleh lepaskan dia ni jadi operator aku?"

"Ok lah aku senyap,"

"Korang ni sudahlah," operator Ayil pula mencelah. Zaki memang tahu sangat hal si Pang. Lebih-lebih lagi dia sendiri pernah mengendalikan latihan yang disertai oleh lelaki tersebut. Dia kenal sangat cara Pang bekerja. Biasalah, orang baru. "Kita dah rugi dua jam lebih. Lebih baik kita tumpukan balik kerja kita. Apa kata korang masuk balik kat kereta korang dan kali ini aku yang bagi arahan untuk ke gudang tersebut. Amacam?"

Ayil dan QZ tidak ada bantahan dengan kata-kata Zaki. Mereka akur yang misi mereka perlu ditamatkan malam itu juga. Masa tidak menyebelahi mereka dalam hal ini. Mereka segera bergerak ke kereta.

"Aku tak sangka pulak Ayil pakai Evo," Yang nyatanya gadis itu kagum dengan Evolution VII yang diguna Ayil. Lelaki itu cuma tersenyum.

"Hanya dalam Matrix lah kita nak bergaya pun," balasnya kemudian. QZ mengangguk setuju.

"Eh, ni siapa pula ni?" gadis itu terkejut kemudiannya, mendapati ada dua lagi tubuh manusia bergelimpangan di atas jalan di bahagian sisi bahagian penumpang kenderaan tersebut. "Takkan ejen jugak kot?"

"Taklah," balas Ayil seraya menghidupkan enjin. "Itu orang yang datang nak tarik kereta,"

Ayil tersengih. QZ mengerutkan dahi.

"Aku dah 10 bulan tak bayar installment,"

Recap

2006-09-29T17:35:00.000+08:00

To anyone who do give an effing care (looks like Tapai does, for one), I'm going to post the next chapter of Rumetrix in a couple of days, and just for the sake of doing a post, here's a recap of the early chapters:

Part I
Part II
Part III

Hopefully I might end the series, and get these stale ideas off my mind at last.

Somewhere In August

2006-09-24T22:36:00.000+08:00

I posted my last entry somewhere in August. Nowadays my posts have been reduced to once per month, and that is entirely good. In that spirit, I try to make it for the month, hence this post. You may also say that I am very afraid that Cipok would move me off his links.

So whattodo whattodo. As Cipok put it, I work an hour per day. To me, that is an overstatement. I'm so lazy and underworked, I try to make it up to myself by finding things beneficial for me to do. Now, I plan to revisit some of the old hobby I left at the Uni, like programming. Programming for work and for hobby is entirely a different league. Work's programming tasks were like so kacang, I slept on the job, literally. But anyway, those nosey peeps will now look at me fiddling, frowning, cursing at the codes, they would all glad thinking I worked up my ass hard for the company! Take that you fools!

Sent Jojo back to Kampung to live with my parents, for good. To me, it is not a good call, but apartment life was never suiting a hyperactive cat like him. Note to self: next time you want to keep a cat, find a Garfield.

Gone to Bangkok and back. Cipok got that covered.

Tapai went away for international partying. EVERYONE got that covered. Arib even got the video. And EVERYONE cried. Except himself-lah, the macho guy Tapai.

After many years, I went back onto the stage with the guitar. I know I know, a so very small show, but this rusty skill should be oiled up now and then. As usual, I became the committee member for the Family Day and I fought the urge to chicken out like Rumet did. And I was kinda glad.

And Ramadhan came. I look forward to pumping up stress this month due to enormous traffic and all. On a side note, maybe I should continue the Rumetrix series. After all, the series is made for the Puasa atmosphere. Maybe I'll work up a few ideas. Just maybe.

That's that! Now that was not that hard, was it?

Somewhere In Time

2006-08-09T00:04:00.000+08:00

Anatomy Of A Picture

2006-07-11T23:09:00.000+08:00

Inspired by Rumet's little trip down memory lane, I decided to ransack the pile of old backup cd collection of mine to see if I got anything similar. Unfortunately I remembered digicams only become cheaply available 3-4 years of late, and that my search would be futile indeed.

But I did, however, have a small collection of scans. And instead, I found those. Little that I remember having them in stash.

Now, I particularly like this one picture, I decided to detail it down.

Yes, this one was taken during the Hoya-Hoya Night of 2002, the one with a sequel that never came. I thought of loosen up some screws up there and look to the picture as if I was there, that very night. Ah, madness came alas. In that picture, I saw couples galore. And before I begin my awkward little trip I would first like to make an excuse if anyone would be offended anyway!

See those peeps on left staring at each other so affectionally? If I haven't known better, I'd say they were dating.

Oh and how about these two? Somehow Mr. Punz right here was trying to sneak a "Copperfield"? Last time I heard one already became a mom and one still attempts to hold his girlfriend's hand.

This couple also looked so affectionate as one would think. However, with that devil's look and matching pairs of evil eyes, we know that he was up to something. You can say that it is his nature anyway.

And we got Naim here having a showcase of his latest, state-of-the-art mobile phone, with duotonic ringtones that would make your friends green with envy. Also comes with an array of blinking LEDs that would surely turn your neighbours blind!

Never mind the rightmost guy (I think he had mouthfull of chickens that night) but what about the guy next to him? I can say he made a special appearance that night! That was the last time we ever heard of him.

What can I say? The night started well and ended well. I'm still waiting for the sequel to rear its head though.

Recolor Mondo

2006-07-08T04:59:00.000+08:00

The milieu was silent. Except for occasional hammering on the wall courtesy of the idiot-neighbour (a.k.a. arsehole), the inhibitants of the apartment have already tucked in to their beds, lulled by dreams and nightmares intertwined. Whilst I - already had a fair share of sleep through the dusk today - will never get these eyes heavy any time soon. I thought I'd grab ahold of the PS2 controller and fought through a few levels off Onimusha.

Now my head are spinning like crazy due to the immersiveness and silent-cursing my slow fingers.

Half past three in the morning, I jumped back onto the seat, waiting eagerly for the PC to boot up, after a while paving a way for the nightly browsing. As usual, the blogs.

So, Tapai got there in one piece after all. What is this halal *meat* he was talking about? Future housemates? Meat? Bla?

I see Arib's day was full with cursing the idiots at the ATM. I truly feel for him, though. I have had my share of the experience once in a while, just when I thought I had enough already of idiots of the streets pumping full my veins.

And *GASP*, Mizi updated his blog after all! For what have been like years! Hey, maybe I might be surprised with Ajon's too?

...nope. Not there. And don't even mention Ceng's or Zaki's. It speaks wonders Blogspot even keep their pages alive.

Yes, you may say that the kettle is calling the pot black here.

Dancing Under The Pale Moonlight

2006-06-25T22:21:00.000+08:00

So Rodek told me he bosan already hitting my page - the same old unupdated content. Well shucks, I guess I'm just lazy.

Too lazy to even start doing our little animation project! I've done the initial filming thanks to one shy dancer (I intend to do rotoscoping anyway) but yet to start the actual drawing (other than the top sketch). I'm so lazy, I just wish the whole thing would somehow draw by itself!

On another note, we decided to get a cat for the family. So there we were at the SPCA last two weekends, browsing through the "live catalogue" to find the perfect one.

It was no surprise that the most expensive ones were the prettiest (yes, you pay to adopt the cats. What do you think the SCPA is? Charity group?). You may very well say that we fell headlong into that trap.

Now, being part of the family, we thought that, while it was not too bright of us, it is best to suit the rythmic set of names: Papa, Mama, Yaya and Nono. We thus bestowed him Jojo. Not to be confused with Jojo Struys. If it's her that you're looking for, as always you can get the nude pictures here.

One whole week we tried coaxing him to eat packed food to no avail. Finally we succumed to giving him his favorite delicacy - boiled chicken meat - the only thing that he would want to eat.

One more mouth to feed, then.

A New Toy To Play With

2006-06-08T21:17:00.000+08:00

My toy arrived today in her modesty - the Graphire4. Finally I can spend more and more time doing insignificant graphic works on the PC, and with that updating this Blog more often than not. Or even get my lazy ass up to finally do the silat-animation-demo thing. Or that one stalled project of Rodek's. Or maybe I could race with Rumet in Shutterstock submissions (in different area of expertise I guess). Or I could do more of that private *kind* girls illustrations and finally sell them to pr0n sites for profit not even ten-fold zakat could cleanse.

Ah, so many things, so little time!

On the other note, I got 7370 for Jue and 6280 for myself for my birthday the other day. Who could have known that my kind of Nokia could have so many fans? Now the office are full with 6280 users, it's not even funny anymore. Maybe I should change to Dopod900 already and see if I can laugh out loud at Rumet's face once and for all.

Hanafiah

2006-05-05T15:14:00.000+08:00

I raised an eyebrow when I saw a featurette on Silat Cekak Hanafi in a local newspaper the other week. I guess martial arts do not get much exposures anyway especially of ours, but when we do, get the name right! Cekak Hanafiah? What the kedehell?

I decided not to get involved anymore with the Persatuan after leaving MMU. Now, after 3 years, a few of us decided to crash into an event anyway to see what's up, just for fun.

Satelit Puaka

2006-05-03T22:49:00.000+08:00

Satelit puaka lu diibaratkan
Lu saksikanlah lu punya dosa
Lu renung ke bumi sedar diri sendiri
Lu taburi pasir batu di rongga
Apakah salah dosa
Adakah kerna lu berkuasa
Lu terlalok lupa
Lu terlupa

Lu taburi janji temberang
Janji hancing dan kotor
Adakah terlalu berkuasa
Terlalok lupa
Lu terlupa

Do You Brush Your Tongue Today?

2006-05-03T18:04:00.000+08:00

Aphrodite

2006-04-24T01:12:00.000+08:00

A preview of something I'm working on with Rodek. At one deathly snail pace.

Mini Me

2006-04-21T17:16:00.000+08:00

Saw something interesting on Drawn! today. It seems that faking miniature model photography is the in-thing recently (or not-so-recent; just that I had just so realized now). So I tried to do a thing of my own. Unfortunately Paint Shop Pro doesn't have those automatic features and shortcuts, so I had to do tedious nitpicks to finally have an output of decent look. But then, I guess they don't look convincing enough. Tough job!

Idea=Zero

2006-04-19T00:14:00.000+08:00

I wonder why I streamed TM Awards Nite last weekend, other than curiosity itself. Anyhow I was particularly amused by this so-called "Top-Management Band" formed by Dato Wahid and his peers. It was somewhat cool though, having these old friends which are Datuks (Dato's) themselves grouped up and playing bands; their playing was not that bad either.

I wonder if I were to be a somebody myself in the future, would I be able to pull a neat trick like that, teaming up back again with Datuk Md Nor on the drums, Dato Khairil on the rhythm, Datuk Arif on the bass and finally Tan Sri Redza on the vocals, performing in front of awed and bewildered audiences?

To think that by that time I would be able to shred those frets up to speed, finally.

Tetris Wisdom

2006-03-28T21:53:00.000+08:00

Got this from Slashdot:

Apart from being a fine game, Tetris is also a perfect mirror of the human condition. For a while the game is entertaining, and we seem to have mastered it and are having fun. Then, something goes wrong -- a rash mistake, or an unfulfilled wish, and we're fighting to repair the damage, but we've been thrown off-balance, and everything is piling up. Blocks that were once orderly and harmonious are jumbled and filled with holes, and our cup is on the verge of running over. There's always a point at which we stop planning for the future, and realize that we don't have one -- all we can do is cling to the present and concentrate, focus our minds on what it's like to be alive, to play the game, before it's all over.
You were waiting for a four-by-one block that never came.
Sometimes we resist to the bitter end, moving blocks left and right without thought or care, just to hang on, and sometimes we accept the inevitable and pull the blocks down to us, smiling inwardly at the great joke. The rest is silence.

Faced Off

2006-03-18T01:22:00.000+08:00

Congratulations are in order for the blessed couple Rumet & QZ on their baby girl, Ayil for his career embarkment, Ceng & Along for their 5-times akad remembrance day today. The future are reserved for Tapai for his academic pursuit, couples Arib & Dila, Gorgom & Wallahualam and Mama & Whatshernameagain for tying the knots.

All in the world of my friends.

Overheard

2006-03-08T10:52:00.000+08:00

Q) If they were to catch those bigfoots and put them somewhere where everyone can see, and design all those rides and other attractions around them, what would they call the amusement park?

A) Mawi World

Pickets Went Wrong

2006-03-07T08:40:00.000+08:00

Might As Well Print My Own Money

2006-03-03T09:45:00.000+08:00

As of yesterday, my financial is totally screwed. As if the 30 cents hike wasn't enough, the parking operator of where I usually park decided to raise the ticket from the already costly RM4 per entry to RM3 per hour capped at RM8. If I were to park there still, I would get a sudden RM130 hike of monthly expenses (inclusive of gas), not quite justifiable by the recent salary raise.

I was made even miserable this year by the sudden increase of cars on the road that led to horrible traffic. Vehicles seem to double every other school holiday, more so after the year end's. 2 years of living in Bukit Jalil had me witness the decrease of my latest-departure-time-to-arrive-squarely-at-8.30am from 7.40am to 7.15 to the most recent 6.40! During that period, I can't even count how many times I had explored alternative routes just to find the most optimized ones. Those, however, are not without tolls, which are another expense that I might add!

Even more, these traffic jams aren't all that exciting for my health - my BP especially. The meager time I get to spend at home relaxing isn't really suffice, not to mention the time to spend with my Jue and Alyya. Now gone the dreams of getting a landed property in the outskirts of KL; what good is a dream home if you can't get enough time to lavish anyway?

The Pantai Panorama solution is getting more and more viable. But money talks, as always.

Smelled The Damn Coffee

2006-02-26T11:48:00.000+08:00

I can't seem to enjoy (excerpts from) Wake Up and Smell The Coffee much to my dismay; I think the topic in the speak didn't quite reach me at all. Malik Taufiq performance, however, was really good. I think his best would be where he enacted the airport scene, particularly the get-in-queue-and-don't-mind-my-language part. A doubleplusgood indeed.

Meanwhile, Toast! gave me great laughs; the comic and wordplay are of Rodek's signature after all. However I was distracted by some unnatural, out-of-place smallacts; one scene would be where Isnin trying to talk about promotion and stuffs with Mr Lim, you could not help but notice the big guy unconvincingly searched for stuffs while waiting for his line (MacGuffin quickly came to mind). Another thing would be where Nandhini kept looking at her handphone while waiting Isnin to finish his lines.

All in all both the plays were good, though much can be done to make better. The best actor awards are for both Malik and Qahar. Thumbs up!