7 days in Port Dickson

I left civilization for a week and headed to PD for
1. Shell Family Day celebration in Guoman
2. Industrial training assignment and stayed in corus

No internet, no friends, no family, no larnee. When i was staying in Corus for the week, i had buffet breakfast by myself everyday. Dinner buffet by myself. Some days were just too depressing so i resorted to room service food.

Here are the few meals i ate. As you can see im really bored in the hotel all alone and spent most of my time taking pics


Pic of the bed


The other half of my room



And the view outside my window


View of the beach



Food i ate at the hotel

Er.. beef steak with scallops, william potatoes and asparagus with horlicks


Spaghetti Bolognaise, carrot juics and a tropical platter



Khoo Fatt fried rice with carrot juice


Finished eating the chicken rice. and the tropical platter again with coconut water.



What was i doing the whole week?
Well, this rail tail wagon vessels need to be re-qualified every 10 years to ensure that its safe to use and transport liquefied petroleum gas (yes cooking gas). The plant in pd is the main plant and redistributes the LPG to Johor and Ipoh through the railway track for filling in other states.

Pic of the vessels that need requalification


The process, free the gas from the vessel. Flush it out with water. Gas test and oxygen content test to ensure safe entry for cleaning. Magnetic partical ink test to ensure to crack propogations and hydrotesting (pumps the vessel to a certain pressure to ensure its safe to use, uses either nitrogen or water. this case water coz nitrogen too exp) and non destructive tests

Picture of Joseph gearing up


Picture of the the contract worker's first entrance emergency rescue procedure simulation before given approval to start work.



Pic of Ravi double checking Joseph's breathing apparatus



Pic of the maintenance shed where the vessel will be towed to for requalification


Pic of the baffle plate that reinforces the vessel. Can you see the rust? doesnt mean that the vessel has been gas freed and flushed with water and it still isnt dangerous. The rust scales might have trapped some LPG gas inside them or have reacted with LPG to form some pyrophoric compound.





Pic of the KTM routing control board



It my sound easy but there are alot of safety procedures to follow to ensure that people dont blow themselves up. I mean ALOT and they are VERY stringent.

What was my role?
I had to make sure they dont blow themself up. I had to make sure all the equipment were explosion proof(torch lights,2 way radios etc). Ensure that they dont simply smoke and use the handphone in the maintenance vicinity. Keep a daily log and report activities to my superior. Liaising with the KTM, contracted re-qualifiers with Shell. In short i was the ear, eyes, mouth and hands of Shell stranded in the middle of the railway track.


Fun while working?
yeah man.. i got to ride the engine around the refinery track when they were towing empty operational vessels for filling.

Pic of me in the engine


The gear changer of the engine. and the reverse lever underneath it.



Rare signage irresistable camwhoring moment




Besides that, at night the contractors took me out in aid to fend off boredom to me. So they bought me drinks, food and also a few games of pool which Ravi trashed my ass. Thanks Mr. Choo, director of Risen Engineering. Had a talk with him on how his started his business and how he manages it and the potention in engineering jobs. He took me to 2 bars which featured filipino live bands, the one in Corus and the other in Royal Adelphi in Seremban. Drinks i tried, magarita, singapore sling and santa's something. hahhaa. and beers of course. Didnt drink much coz the next day i had to work and i need to be on top of my game to make sure nothing stupid goes on.

Ravi promised to take me out fishing on his motor boat if i come back to PD the following week after christmas to oversee the rest of the project. But i told him, whether im coming back or not relies entirely on Mr. Zaid (Shell engineering manager for LPG sector)

So.. how much did Shell spend on me?
Well, internet charges, room service, dinner buffets, breakfast buffets, laundry services were paid for.



A spanking total of 1119.90 ringgit. feeling guilty? yeah, abit. Feeling fortunate? hell yeah!

What have i learnt?

Well, liaising with the contractors, and the KTM workers is not an easy thing. Most of them only have secondary highshool education and some primary school. being a young kiddo that goes there and supervises them is kinda uninvited for. Plus im just a trainee. So what i had to do was to bring myself down to their par, converse with them like i know them for ages..communicated humbly and friendly. The best ice breaker for these simple fold are, "sudah makan ker belum?" in a very friendly manner. In return they will offer you coffee, biscuits or a story. At first i was intimidated by their presence being the only chinese among the indians and malays. but later to my suprise they are all very friendly ppl who doesnt care less about who or where you come from, it didnt take me long to get used to the scenario.

AND engineering stuff of course. Regulations, saftey procedures, risk that accompanies petroleum industries, technical knowledge, mechanical knowledge on gate and ball valves.

4 years of knowing, loving and being with you

Today will be our 4th Anniversary, yes..4 years..this day marks 1461 days of sharing my life with you. i wonder how the days went by so fast.



Thank you for all the times we had together. Thanks for all the times you made my heart race. I am grateful for you being there for me during my ups and downs. Thank you for holding my hand and being with me while i step into the real world with you. Thank you for always talking sense into me when im a wreck. I enjoyed doing all the crazy things with you. I enjoyed doing anything and everything with you. Thank you for living my life with me. Thank you for painting the colors in my black and white masterpiece. Thank you for showing me what life is all about and what really matters to an individual.

You are the wisest person i know about life. Thank you for being my mentor in many wonderful things you have interested me in. Thank you for showing me what it means to live and to be alive. Thank you for always putting persepective in whatever i do or whenver i am lost.

I am what I am today because of you, growing all these years with your company and knowledge and your influences. Behind every man's success there is a woman, and clearly you played that role in my life and i thank you for that.

Thank you for staying strong this year for being apart for almost a year now without seeing each other. Thank you for having faith in our relationship. Thank your for making this long distance relationship to work. Thank you for the times you reassured me when i was on the verge of giving up.

Thank you for being with me for 4 years. Will be looking forward to celebrating our anniversary in Melbourne.

Shell Annual Dinner@KL Hilton follow by Poppies

Its about time I blog again.. been busy busy busy. Yeah, so the theme for the annual dinner was PIRATES!!!

Well, only permenant staff was invited to go, but some of my colleagues wife didnt want to go and there were a few empty spaces and voila..free makan!

It was soo cool to see so many people actually were sporting enough to adhere to the theme. I wish I could too but i just found out about it the day before about and empty slow. Oh well.

This is what the stage looks like. Its kinda amazing they actually built half a ship just for the event.


Picture of the "switch dancers" performing some tribal dance


This is what the table setup looks like. We had free flow of beer and the chinese food was great. First time i actually liked hotel food. Everything was so fresh. Hilton should get me a cut for commenting on their good food since the dim sum post. The waitress at my table was so damn efficient, you get everything you want and straight away and she never fails to return a smile. Ok clearly KL Hilton should have this kinda service, all the others should follow suit.



Me and Josephine. I like your dress la..its nice laa stop saying u look to mature or old in it..ishh.


A game of being tied and trying to tie a scarf around your team mate using anything but your hands. Thats Zairi in purple paired with Azrin. Look kinda scandalous from other angles..im sure everyone thought that it was Zairi's baby. hehe


Josephine, Raj and me. Raj won best costume for the night. He had too many beers and was fumbling all over the stage during the parading of his costume..it was hillarious..hahhhaa..effects of free flow of beer and when you put an indian next to alcohol.. you get a drunk person, duh






Where the hell was poppies at?

After the dinner, sl and i decided to head down to poppies to have some time off and chill. For those of you reading this and know you ffk...i dont blame you guys because i told you in kinda...ok very short notice. Anyways hope to see you all sometime again. Ok ok pictures.

Here's a great looking picture of sl and soo chee. hahahaha. Ahem*




Finally a decent picture with sern liang. Its been fun spending time with you. Glad distance didnt change anything. Its going to be sad leaving you behind again..i guess ill just have to stick with JC. hahahhaa. Thanks for still being a great bro.





From rags to riches story.

Anyway, the story was like this. Knowing that paying cover charge and buying drinks wasn't really cheap..so we decided to to buy a bottle and keep (me and sl) for next time. The bottle costs 280. Bot of us had just about enough money for it.. then the girl said that she forgot to charge the mixers which was 11 bucks..so that brings us t a spanking total of 291..which we were 7 dollars short (sl had 1 and i had 3 dollars). We shyly took back our 280 and asked the girl where the nearest atm was.."down the road turn left". So we walked from poppies to hong leong bank 2 blocks away AND..all their ATMs were temporarily out of other.. all 10 of them. GREAT.
On the way to the bank, we saw police fighting with a few guys next to their patrol car and km told me that there would be roadblocks. So we were now skeptical about going to poppies.

So with out minds all set to go home, we decided to at least have a drink at a mamak before heading back in dissapointment. Decided to tell soo chee and her friends that we had no money.
Before leaving we met up with her and her friends. So after telling her our sympathetic story. She brought is in for free through the backdoor after being labelled VIP on our hands. OMG...from depressed to happy.. mix emotions. We even got a table..not exactly a table la..but we were happy, coz you know poppies is packed and we were sharing with her friends.

Somehow at the end of the day, things will end up fine, always?

Trip to the PD Shell LPG filling plant

Last week, Zairi took me to PD to tour the filling plant.

This is a pic of me and Hanif. The new employee in Shell LPG. Very humble and open. Had a few interesting discussion with him, mainly about islam and christianity. hahhaa. Me wearing helmet, construction boots and a shell jacket.. i already feel like an engineer.hahaha






Did you know that the fire lighted at the tip of the chimney is to burn the waste of the petroleum? some engineering dude told me that.

Another thing. Did you know that every century like years with 2000,2100,2200; is a leap year regardless whether it has or havent finished its 4 year cycle? Thanks to Mr.Chuah..things you learn in shell.


More picture of the plant

Shell..earlydays as an intern

20th Nov 2006
I was supposed to report to office at 9 am to meet the person in-charge of my internship. Wanting to give a good impression, i reached there early..toooo early..i reach at 8.15am. My superior only came at 9.20am. He briefed me on what he expected of me and what i should learn and i was to be placed in the engineering logistics department. His name is Md Zaid. He told me that he wants my internship here to be a fruitful one and not photocopy stuff and make coffee. He was telling me about how i should cherish my experience here and learn as much as you can from it and enjoy my internship.

I was then passed over to the HR manager for Shell LPG Msia and Spore to get my RFID tag and also was briefed on the fire escape routes and what i should do. AND i was briefed on the whole company structure and going through every department and who was the head of dept and who was under them..and what they were in charge of. I was soooo sleepy and im trying to hard to remember everything.. all the abbreviations for each department and what they stand for and who is what in the chain of command. I have never woke up soooo early for such a long time (7am). Then i was taken around the WHOLE officeand introduced to everysingle person from the security guard, to the receptionist to the finance staff. I was having a fun time trying to introduce myself in different ways. After that...i was supposed to report back to Zaid for a briefing. He had my job description all written our and a Gantt chart of my learning pace and targets. I have to write a weekly report on what i have learnt and also give a presentation on what i leant throughout my internship at the end of it.

THEN!!!i was thrown 2 manuals to read. 90 pages all together, A4 size by the way. I was to learn the scientific fact of LPG. Then in those 2 manuals i had to understand the engineering standards on how LPG should be kept and hazards it succumbs to and stuff like that. 90 pages of new stuff. it felt like i was crashing for exam. Was trying very hard to stay awake and give a good impression and actually getting some reading done.

I followed the whole office to Bukit Aman to eat sup daging. Was very confused with whos doing what and what peoples names were. Everyone was very motivated with their jobs and was happy with what they were working for in shell..everyone was so happy to explain what they do for work in shell and its not like a single line or a single paragraph description. it was more like a 5000 word essay. Before the day was done, i was thrown 2 more manuals but this time on equipments in the LPG filling plant for read up. This was relevant to my course.


21st Nov 2006

I came to work early, a few guys from the HSSE department grabbed me to have breakfast with them. Got to know some people better and realized how the world was so small. Viz, when i was having a joint troop meeting with MBS and he was one of the scouters present that time. Headed back to my second manual and finished it just before lunch. Headed for lunch with the guys from HSSE and went to Maarof to eat at banana leaf. It was good shit la..Nice fried bittergourd, yummy!! When i came back i started on the new manuals.. and yes..by the end of the day.. i got somemore stuff to read.. MORE manuals and a project tender (cant say what, not allowed to) to study so that i can assist him in Kuching some time december i guess. I got to have a proper conversation with some of the people there today because i was finally finished introducing myself to everyone. I met Vanessa, she sits a table away from me, shes a Chem eng and doing sales. Excellent! waste of course study. Anyways, i keep asking people why they dont exploit our expertise and they said its because they like the way engineers think compared to other students. Cause and effect mentality and efficient thinking...CHEWAH!! Then an intern josephine invited me to join all the new ppl (the new gang) and interns for breakfast to socialize. That was nice.

22nd Nov 2006
I came to work later compared to usual because i left the house slightly later then the past 2 days.. yes yes..the cause and effect of traffic congestions. Went there and met the new gang and socialized with them during breakfast. Met a few senior staff there also, they were plant managers and sales department manager. Shared a long conversation about life and the mentality of people nowadays and how society has changed. Interesting topics which sometimes became dull when he elaborated boring stuff.
Went to the office and headed back to reading the other manuals..total i have 6 folders of stuff to read up to date about 300 pages total i guess. Then i was told that i needed to do some "engineering cataloging", which was of course...rearranging his engineering records, files and stuff. basically becoming a librarian. Finish reading the 2nd last booklet of stuff and headed for lunch. Followed the HSSE guys to lunch with a singaporean employee. He was here for briefing on his new job and a tour of the plants. We went to Hilton KL and ate in a restaurant called Chynna. It was the most luxurious chinese restaurant and restaurant ive been to so far. Waitresses were dressed in cheong sams that costs 1k ringgit, cutleries used were the dining cutleries of tradional chinese dining with crafted chopstick rests. We were served ginseng tea upon arrival, it was poured by an employee which was flown all the way here to pour the tea from a 20 cm long spout or longer. We had dim sum for lunch. the prawns was soooo fresh that you can feel the texture when you bite into them. Its like biting into a pomello but with prawn taste..the scallop too was soo fresh that it would just melt in your mouth when you put it in. everything was soo good. i had the best dim sum in my life..i had scallop chee cheong fun..omg.. heavenly..soo fresssh!!! I was soo tempted to take a picture of everything but i didnt want to act like a jakun infront of everyone. The bill came to 300 ringgit for 4 people for dim sum..damn nice price also. Had a long lunch.. soo full.. and tried to read my manuals again.. and i couldnt.. so spent the rest of my time arranging the files and records in the store room. I wasnt soo tired compared to other days. was getting used to the early and long hours in the office. Guess its not so bad. infact.. it was great. i love shell.. work hard and enjoy life and work

getting there

I decided to spend my weekdays with my parents while i can before starting work. So in order to do that..lets play golf... We have scheduled a golf game on friday with my parents and Uncle Desmond at the Rahman Putra Golf club, not sure where it is. Anyways, i have been to the driving range at Bukit Jalil twice this week. My parents have been making sure i forget all the stupid things my useless coach thought me and tried to instill the proper techniques which she picked up from coaches and books. I guess i can hit fairly well, was kinda suprised i could hit like that actually. I learnt how to use my torso and my shoulders to swing instead of my forearms. Its all in the swinging motion, not the forcing motion. Have a look

Here is a video of me hitting with the 5 iron (s-yard)





Here is the side view




Another video but with me hitting with the 5 wood (big bertha)

Back home

10th November

When i stepped out of the airport, i was already sweating and it was raining. Suprisingly it had rained for a month religiously during the evenings. I was happy that it wasnt so hot and it would be better for me to cope. Yeah and its bloody humid. You roughly feel like a dim sum in a steamer in Msia. I was happy to see my parents, they have aged. I somehow feel sympathetic for them being older and less capable. Wish there was a cure to aging. I got home, looked for my dog..and he was gone..he ran away.. :( . I wonder where is oreo now. The last time my parents saw him he was at sri petaling and my parents took him home and he ran away again. Sighs.

Guess what i ate for dinner, my first meal in KL was.. SATAY!! My dad packed it for me and i ate it at home with ketupat and cucumbers and the sweeeet satay sauce.

I came back to my room, it was all stuff and dusty. Smelled like a store room. Every corner of my room reminded me or larnee. Her presence there previously or something she gave me was nicely displayed on the tables, side tables. SIGH

Another dissapointment was my cousin. He ripped off the whole wireless setup which i fixed at home just because he could not find away to connect the xbox through the wireless router and made my dad REWIRE the whole house again an bought a Gateway modem/router thingy.. ass..Im sure there was an easier way then to implement CAT5 cables again...IDIOT...simple analogy like the malaysian education system, malay to english and back to malay.

11th November

Went out to buy some essentials and met my juniors at the St John's Scout den. All of them looked so different with piercings and stuff. Unfortunately no one from my batch was there. They had a potluck barbeque thingy going on using firewood and charcoal. Cool shit. Smelled like firewood when i came back at 7pm. Here's what we worked with





Met up with Sern Liang at the LRT station to meet up with Monash friends (chee kang, melvin,derek,chee ming and aik) at the curve laundry and the later ate at some restaurant which had a wireless call button for customer service. We had such a great time talking cock that overflowed through every hole of our body. Everyone was still the same.. no one changed.

12th November

Woke up late and met SL in the evening for a game of snooker and played the XBOX360. Supposed to meet up with Chiong and Ken. But Chiong and SL was sick ..so Ken and i decided to meet next week, hopefully before i start work at shell. So i spent the rest of the day familarizing myself to my room and my environment..no laptop..sobz




13th November

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KIT MEY!!!
Happy 20th Birthday Kit Mey, sorry i have no picture to put up now because my laptop has it all. Im sorry i wasnt there to make you birthday more interesting if you know what i mean. Anyways, enjoy your birthday celebration in Sydney and tell me all about it when i see you again. All the best in your future endeavours. You have been a very nice person to talk to, down to earth, tolerant and cheerful. Take care!!! Cheers!


Headed down to Glenmarie with my dad to send my laptop in for some minor warranty claims. My fan was not working very well..my sd card had some problems deleting contents and my battery clip spring came lose. Later I then followed him to Angkasapuri for some job. I went into Wisma TV(the actual place where they manage the airing of TV1 and TV2). They were having a buka puasa thingy. It was soo crowded in the building with food stalls everywhere (food sucked). I was wondering how come there was sooo many people operating these 2 channels and yet the quality is soo STUUPID? For the quality airing they are providing now i think you can hire 50 ppl to run the TV station. 10 for finance, 10 for IT and maintenance and 30 for production and editting. Have you recently watched TV1 or TV2? yes...feel the dissapointment....

After that we headed down to Old Klang Road to see the someone in the driving school and handed in my suspension forms to get a consult on how to attain my new license.

Later in the evening, my parents and i headed down to the driving range to help me brush up on my swing so that ill be fit to play on friday at rahman putra i think. I was hitting really well after coaching from my mum. My stupid coach last time thought me all the wrong techniques when i was young..now im slowly correcting my bad "habits".

14th November

Slept almost the whole day,sleep was interlaced with activities. woke up..at breakfast..slept...woke up.. ate lunch watched house..slept...woke up.... I dont know why i have been sleeping so much and feeling awfully latargic.(is that how you spell it). I think because im depressed. depressed that something or someone is missing. oh well.im going to cook dinner for my parents and relatives. going to cook lambchops..hope all goes well..

Melbourne Cup at Joanna's House!!!

Jo out of no where invited me to her place to "celebrate" Melbourne Cup. She told me it was a public holiday which i had no clue of. Melbourne Cup is a day commemorating the many years of horse racing in Australia. This is when Australians family and friends come over to a relatives house to bet and watch the horse race. Or go to the race course and do the same. I had a first hand experience in Jo's house. What we did was wrote down all the horses for the ceremonial race and then put it in a jar, and then write down the names of the people who wants to be in seperate pieces of paper. Then the children picked the names out, and then picked the horse. This was a randomized bet among each other. So it was good fun. My horse was Dizzele which came out 17th out of the 24 horses..dammit..So the winner won 75 Aud and i lost 5 aud. Oh well.. it was good fun.

Besides that.. i had LOADS of food. Prawn sambal...lamb curry...spare ribs...stir fry veg...noodles. For desert was lime cheese cake, some crackers with basil leaves with tomatoes, cheese, jam and some weird looking dip. The food was good. Thanks Aunt Odette for the meal and Unc Phil. The drinks accompanied me throughout the day were, Malibu with OJ andChampagne with OJ.

By the way, Jo's house was nice. I wouldnt mind spending the rest of my life in it. It was a double story sorta corner house. Top floor was all rooms. Ground floor was a kitchen, entertainment room and a dining area. Outside the dining area was a wooden deck with a table and sofa's around. It was an open air lounge with a heater.. The deck was overlooking the garden and a park not too far away.. it was gorgeous. After we stuffed ourselves enough that day, Jo took the guitar out and people took turns to play for each other while slowly enjoying their drinks. I was definitely enjoying my Malibu OJ.. We then went to the park and took Jo's cousins around. After that, Jordan, Thayne and I went to a public primary school and played basketball. Being all sweaty and after having a shower at her place, we then met up with my friends at Glen to watch Saw III. The show was quite disturbing.i wonder who actually sat down and thought of all the ways to torture ppl to put it in the movie. Sicko...

Anyways, THANK YOU SOOOOO MUCH JOANNA for having me over. It was nice being in an actual Australian home. Havent been to a home for almost a year now. Will be going home to my home soon. :) WIPPIE!!

Texas hold 'em poker

One of the weekends before my exams we (Aiks, tots and Jc) signed up for a social poker tournament in at Glen organized by the ASEAN club. The entrance fee was 10 AUSD and the first prize was the xbox 360 and the second an Ipod Nano. The ASEAN club is not an international club its a Australian Born Chinese club.. Its damn irritating to see chinese that looks like you who talks with a slang. Somehow we Msians find ABCs damn bloody irritating. And the best thing is.. they say they are chinese but they cant speak a word of it..of any dialect. Oh well. But people there were quite friendly eventhough they sounded arrogant..but that my misconception.

The setup was very professional, they hired a few professional dealers and they had the huge digital display to tell you when the blinds are going to change and how much. There was the nice smooth carpeted tables with nice padded arm rest. It was a good atmosphere. Very tournament like.

Here a shot of me at the professional poker table with real heavy chips and trying to shuffle chips.. which i can now i think :)





Heres a a macro shot of the nice smoooth carpet that enables the cards to slide to an arrangement.




Unfortunately i didnt win, because i went all in on a pair of jacks and lost to a pair of kings.. oh well...it was a memorable experience to compete professionally.

Selamat Hari Jadi Kecik!!

Kecik sekarang sudah berumur dua puluh. Zaman remaja kamu sudah lalu dan masa menjadi dewasa yang betanggung jawab dan insan yang berguna. Saya ingin mengucapkan terima kasih kerana menjadi kawan yang saya hormati dan untuk masa-masa yang lucu dan seronok selama ini. Walaupun kami baru berjumpa, masa saya menjadi jiran kamu adalah pengalaman yang tidak boleh dilupai. Semoga harapan anda ditemui dan mulailah masa dewasa anda dengan hati yang tabah dan minda yang tajam

Is your windows XP starting up slow? tweak it

Yes..i have exams and i still have time to do something like this..im sick of studying and somehow everything else seems more interesting..

Anyways, by tweaking the registry and the task scheduler for the system tray in the taskbar, my startup and running has been quicker.

The one i found that made most difference and has no risk at all if you follow instructions is tweaking the windows prefetcher.. dont be afraid.. its kinda easy


Tweaking the windows prefetcher.
By adjusting this, it assigns more resources to the system to prefetch application data during the startup of windows.

first open the run window by holding down (windows key + R)
key in "regedit" in the open field
Then click OK.
Then browse your way through the directory tree to

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SYSTEM \ CurrentControlSet \ Control \ Session Manager \ Memory Management \ PrefetchParameters]

Once you get to that directory, you will be able to see a file named "Enable Prefetcher".
Double click it, and a window will come out with fields for a value name and a value data
Change the value data to 5, the preset setting was 3, change it to 5. Dont change the base settings, let it remain in hexadecimal. Click Ok and close the window. Restart your system and notice the difference.

Verdict - Extremely fast windows startup times (Jc, i really recommend you do this to speed up your startup)

Removing unwanted background programs in the system tray

This removes all the stupid irritating program running in the background that is sucking up the system resources. If you can't remove those programs manually at the bottom right of your screen by right click and setting it not to start up when the system starts(called system tray),
this is what you can do to get rid of it once and for all manually

Windows key + R
In the open field - key in "msconfig"
a window will then popup
click the Startup tab
uncheck all the stupid irritating programs that always sucks up your resources at start up
becareful to only uncheck programs that you know and which is the one you want to remove.
do not remove any system files.

Verdict - Starting up at faster speeds, remove stupid programs irritating at startup.


There are other things you can do, but i think these 2 are the simplest and the most effective.

Other tweaks i have done, remove thumbnail cache
This is kinda tricky and you have to follow carefully and you might screw up..so proceed with caution from the site link. How does this improve your system speed? when you have a folder full of videos or pictures, windows xp stores all those picture in cache and it may take up lotsa memory, and system cache is important so it rather be storing some other important files than thumbnails. So by editting this, the system only opens the thumbnail when you open the folder and its not preloaded.

Verdict - Slightly faster system performance, if you have lotsa images and vdos, i think it will make more difference to you



For a full explanation and guide go to
http://arstechnica.com/guides/tweaks/sgp-tweaks.ars

haphazard cogitation

thoughts of you never left my mind
your presence reside in my conscience
wanting nothing but you beside me
to be whole again, together and whole again..
the feeling inside is numb and dull
the need to fulfill a void
a void deeper than my soul

taking a day at a time
begging for mercy from seconds
wishing the future would fly past
to a time where everything can be constant again

things doesnt feel so good anymore
satisfaction and pleasures are all temporary and shallow
i guess there is a deeper meaning in life
a meaning where being alone is insignificant

wish things could be how it were. dont you think so?

Black Jack Birthday!

11.25 pm 19th october

Jian Cai and smalls came to my room. They said, "its time". I told them i need to change(hehe, but i took a bottle of baby oil) They were escorting me to a certain death. I was walking the green mile to my celebration..my doom... The walk from my room to the Richo games room was a long one. I stopped and checked every corner making sure no one ambushed me. or threw something at me.. It was as if i was playing live counter strike with my life at stake.


11.30 pm
Games room. The gang was there. (Aik, Tots, Li Yee, Joleen, Boon Kiat, David, Kit Mey). I was expecting them to throw flour at me when i least expected it..but noooo...they had something worse..They made me sit on a chair. They tied me down with lashing, bounded my hands to the arm rest, legs to the legs of the chair. The hell began..From what i overheard when being tied down was...lets start the first stage now..

I guess li yee was incharge of this..she took out a make up kit.. applied eye shadow, blusher and lip gloss. They were making me a drag queen. Then out of nowhere, they took out a bra...i guess it was A cup, but all of them didnt know whos was it.. And it smelled like grass, not nice.. They then took out huge ribbons and tied me down firmly to the chair.. When they were done with their make up..Tots said, "Stage 2!!!"

Stage 2 comprised of
- EVERYONE tickling me simultaneously
- Random ppl pinching and flicking my nipples(mainly boon kiat...sick sick)
All this was done when i was bound to the chair. I couldnt run, i couldnt move..and i was at their mercy. I laughed so much till i wasnt ticklish anymore. They then decided to give me a break..and continue tickling again when my nerves were refreshed.

Stage 3
When they were all done, they carried me to the lake, yes together with the chair. From the games room to the lake, it was about 200 meters. Yes they carried me. I felt like a victim of
some tribal sacrificial ritual.


We passed by the security guards and strangers, i was yelling "help me" from the chair. hahaha. and they just ignored me..what if i was really dying or getting kidnapped? So next time if you wanna kidnap someone, just say its their birthday and laugh along with it. They put me down on a jogging path somewhere beside the lake. Then they had their revenge. Aik poured a whole packet of flour (he got floured on his bday).




Tots poured vinegar on me(to even scores with the gravy i poured on his bday), more like splashed it on my body, i didnt know what vinegar will do to my delicate organs below, so i was like bracing for a burning sensation..luckily there was nothing, . Jc threw a rotten egg at me and book kiat threw a fresh one. The rotten egg.. looked like lotus paste..like some coffee jelly..OMG...Btw im still tied down to the chair.

By now,my underwear was soaked with vinegar, i looked like a sourdough bread with eggs..and make up that made me look like a rape victim.




11.55pm
Stage 4
When they were done with all that. They carried me and the chair nearer to the lake. and they laid down the chair with the back rest on the ground and me looking into the sky.


They waited to 12, then they lit the candle and placed it on a krispy kreme doughnut (which i didnt eat, coz it was contaminated with all the stuff they baked me with). They sang happy birthday AND they put me into the shallow part of the lake with the chair(david,boons and tots revenge for throwing them in the lake). My feet to my shin was submerged with lake water. Then they left me there to bake in the lake for a few minutes. When they figure out i was ready, they came back and decided to untie me.. but everyone was reluctant..scared that i would chase them. Tots said that it my birthday wish to chose who i want to untie me. So i chose him. Hahahaa. but i didnt do anythign to him because he was removing the knots. I tried to splash water from the lake out to the other..but i failed..Tots was having problems removing the knots, so they called hui wen to bring scissors down when she joined us. While waiting for the scissors, we decided to burn the lashing loose..so he did from under the arm rest..and...yes yes..it caught fire.. and tots looked at jc and ask him what to do when my hand was going to catch fire. Then tots decided to splash lake water on the fire.. good thinking man...i was glad he didnt run away. =) . Sooooo when the scissors came, tots cut me lose and pretended that he was still cutting me lose, he was telling me who i should chase and we were discussing my plan of attack. I decided to catch the mastemind, JC first.. then go for the faster ppl then chase the slower ones later. tots counted to 3, (i grabbed the baby oil from my back pocket and uncapped it). I ran to jc, squeezed a fair amount on him and hunted down everyone and sprayin everyone with it.. Joleen ran and fell, so..i rubbed all the flour and egg on her. while i hugged the rest. hahhaha
that was fun. We then headed to the games room for a post mortem.





I told larnee all these, and shes said "They must really love you to plan all this and the fact that you let them do it, you must love them loads too"

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Dinner time till late



The twelve of us went for dinner at a hot pot place at Glen Waverly (aik, tots, joleen, li yee,smalls,kit mey,boon kiat,david,hui wen, yee vonne and Jc). Buffet style which was kinda ok. Kinda sad that we didnt make reservations and had to sit at 2 seperate tables but luckily next to each toher. Then there was the cake and champagne.

Hot pot..


Group shot



Another group shot


Some of us at PI


look who i found at the city? sorry brenda, owe you a picture next time



The mastermind of my torture..The head of the torture camp



Thanks guys for making it a memorable 21st..thanks for the "night" in the city too.Thanks for the presents too.yeah you guys broke me..for the love of God are you guys happy now? please no more next time ok? Thanks all of you back in Msia for the sms and the calls. If i didnt answer them at midnight, you know why...Thanks larnee for the bday present :)

hari yang panas bagaikan kayu membara

Seperti biasa, saya bangun selewat saya boleh supaya saya dapat menghadiri class tanpa mengabaikan pelajaran. Perkara pertama saya buat ialah, pergi ke peti sejuk, tuangkan semangkuk susu dengan bijirin jagung saya. Lepas itu, duduk atas kerusi saya dengan mata saya separuh terbuka dan melayari internet untuk mengetahui suasana dan suhu hari. Dengan kekaguman, suhu hari ini , 30 darjah. GILA...

Penukaran suhu dari semalam ke hari in amat drastik. Kebanyakan kawan saya, dengan kebarangkalian 50 peratus mengalami sakit kepala. Kesakitan ini amat mengacaukan apabila saya cuba sedaya upaya untuk mengulangkaji untuk peperiksaan yang akan mula tidak lama lagi. Terasa bingung dengan kesakitan, saya pun tidur untuk melegakan kesakitan. Apabila saya bangun, kesakitan..masih berada di tempat yang sama..celaka...

Cuaca diluar amat melegakan selepas mengulangkaji. Apabila saya berjalan untuk mengambil baju saya di mesin pencuci, saya terhenti dan terharu dengan bunyi angin yang meniup sunyi ke atas pokok yang berhampiran. Matahari pula tidak begitu panas dan silau, rumput dan pokok-pokok renek bergerak mengikut irama angin yang bertiupan. Tanpa menyedari, saya telah berdiri di tempat yang sama selama beberapa minit untuk menghargai cuaca yang indah yang jarang berlaku.

Melainkan cuaca yang panas gila pada masa pagi and tengah hari, suasana di sini amat indah apabila matahari terbit.

Happy 21st birthday Chiong.

Happy birthday bro, tried calling you twice, and came online to wish you, but guess youre just tooo busy partying. Anyways, all the best, thanks for being there for me since highschool. thanks for everything you have done. Will meet with you when i get back, very soooon!!

Tulip Farm Trip

Yes yes yes, me a guy, went to the tulip farm festival.
The festival was located somewhere in dandenong. What was in store was live jazz, 3 tokens to wine tasting, overpriced food and loads and loads of tulips


So.. i had 7 tokens(3 from smalls and 1 from kit mey). I had the chardonnay, cabernet savignon, merlot, semillon, pinot noir.Cant remember the rest of them. Oh and i had blue cheese, brie cheese and the swiss cheese. Yummy..





As you can see i was abit reluctant when i arrived at 1030ish in the morning. the journey took bout an hour on bus. When we arrived, smalls had motion sickness and she tried to puke. poor kecik.



What woke me up as a guy was a display of steam engines. Here is a pic. All the engineers flocked to the side to check the machines out.




Once done, we headed to the tulips. I didnt know tulips could catch my attention for a long time. I spent most of my time photographing macro shots of it. here are some. There were rows and rows of tulips of its particular color. Some were crossbred to give another shade of color. amazing. genetic engineering..




Not sure what flower, but check the bee out hovering over the petals



Blackish tulips



Here is a shot where a stray flower grew among the common




Posing among the tulips, me, jia yun and alya




The males in our group. Trying to look entertained








We then as usual got into a photo taking frenzy



Here is one trying to mimic the windmill while a bunch of indian tourist staring at us waiting to get the windmill for themselves. Hui wen always comes up with crazy ideas.


A perfect picture for a cd cover.



Another with the 6 of us



Me, Jc and Aik, keeping ourselves entertained



Posing next to a wine truck




Now for the best part... we planned to make a bollywood scene at the tulip farm since there were tonnes of tulips..this is what we did.armed with spontaneity, 2 cameras, and tulips. and lotsa editting and laughing.

The story is, both of the ppl in the video is looking for their soulmate. A friend points out that he is on the bus. Somehow the scenery brought them to common ground. And happy ending.(oh, tots was in the video too, forgot to put it in the cast.sorry! :( )



So, the tulips wasnt so bad, when you had other agendas and great friends around you.