Tham's Memoirs

One that I could not forget

2012-01-28T00:14:00.001+08:00

Somehow I still find myself thinking of you pretty often. The cute things you did. Haha. Hope you are doing well there. Just thought of you again just now. Happy Chinese New Year!

Christmas Present 2011 by Myself

2012-01-11T14:53:00.003+08:00

This is a backdated post. A post about Christmas '11 presents from myself to myself. Last year Christmas, things are a little different compared to the usual Christmas. My sister went to Langkawi with her boyfriend so I stayed at home with my mom. More like we went 1U for shopping instead.

I went there from 11am onward and I can tell you, 1U is a shopping complex that you should go in the morning during the weekends or holidays. If you missed it and wishes to go there in the afternoon, I'd suggest you be prepared to circle around for eons trying to find a parking slot. The amount of shoppers there are ridiculously a lot that it is actually horrifying. Especially the parking bit since Malaysians doesn't seems to practice carpooling.

Well, back to the topic. During this Christmas festive season, I've decided to buy myself presents as ~~I am an epic foreveralone~~ all my shoes (sandals, sneakers, leather shoes) have decided to spoil all at the same time. Thus I actually went shopping spree in 2 days and got all my shoes. :) Images at the bottom. I've forgot the prices of the shoes though. But the total sum is slightly more than MYR400.

[C] [P] [T] 郭静 Claire Guo - 陪着我的时候想着她

2012-01-01T21:18:00.000+08:00

Click here to view the lyrics.

Credits

Note: I wasn't aware that the MV had texts in them. Will translate them sometime soon. :)

Happy New Year!

2012-01-01T11:57:00.001+08:00

The boring guy here wishes everybody a Happy New Year 2012.

Truthfully, I cannot find myself feeling much exhilaration from December '11 crossing over to January '12. The feeling is not that much different from November '11 to December '11. Just another time transition. Well, the only difference is that we (the high school friends) gathered at Wai Yee's house for a celebration. Thanks Wai Yee for the hospitality. We had loads of fun although most of it involved in killing bunnies.

I see that there isn't much people making their new year resolution this year. Am I a little more blind compared to last year or are people making their new year resolution a little late this year? :P Either way, I highly doubt I'd be making any new year resolution this year, just like other years. I guess I am more of a "past" guy. Guess I'll just sit down and reflect what has happened last year and how much had I grown since. I hope I am a better man last year compared to the previous year. What I can aim for is continuous growth I suppose.

For a new year post, I suppose this post is a tad to bleak. Haha~ Oh well. Once again, Happy New Year 2012 people!

Y u no return the love and care?

2011-12-26T12:39:00.000+08:00

Today I went with my mom to 1Utama and the scene that greeted us upon our arrival is kind of heart wrenching. We saw this woman around her thirties with her mom. I think I am stretching the meaning of this word "with" rather loosely at that too.

The mom was in her fifties or sixties if I'm not mistaken, and she was trailing behind the woman by almost 5 to 7 meters away. In a shopping complex, 5 meters away is an appropriate distance for people who are unrelated to each other. I know that she is the mom's daughter because we were on our way to the shopping complex area from the car park. There were nobody else.

The heart wrenching moment is when we saw how the mom was slowly shambling towards the direction of her daughter but her daughter paid almost no heed to the mom. It isn't the mom's fault that she was shambling so slowly. From what I observed, the mom was shambling so slowly because she had aged and her knees are giving her lots of pain should she bend them. Thus she had to walk with her legs straight. This made it really dangerous for the mom to use the escalator without supervision. If she could not bring her other foot to the escalator platform in time when she was descending, she could probably fall face down towards the escalator. We all know that accidents around the escalator region are very unforgiving especially for elders and the children.

By the time we had reached the main complex area, the daughter was already nowhere in sight. This brings me to question, for all the love and care that our parents, especially our mom has showered upon us when we're small and frail, why can't we return the love and care back to them now that we've grown and capable of loving? Why couldn't she walk beside her mom, or at least take the elevator? At least it's a much safer option to travel? Must we first lose it only we will begin to appreciate it? Perhaps the city life and technology advancement had made us reduced our people to people's connection.

I really have no answer to it.

为了快乐，别太在乎

2011-12-18T22:39:00.001+08:00

刚才慈慧教会了我一点东西。她说了：

如果一个人太在乎别人，就是没有‘信心’的人，
因太在乎别人的‘肯定’，就会让快乐掌握在别人的手里

我觉得这句话，真的说得没错。因为太在乎了，所以失去了快乐。

5 step to attract customers

2011-12-18T22:03:00.002+08:00

Note: As a disclaimer, I would like to first state that the following article is not my work. I just want to share these useful information to my friends that aspire to start their business, hoping it would help them.

"A lot of people are very good in their, but are bad at communicating the value of their products or services", says Maresa Ng, a business coach at ActionCOACH, an international business and executive coaching firm.

As a start-up, you would probably want to keep expenses on a tight rein. This requires an effective and cost-effective advertising approach. The first step is to identify your target market, says Ng. "Be specific. The target markets for wedding florists and commercial florists are different. The former caters for consumers while the latter caters for businesses." Then, look for places where your targeted customers are easily found. "if I were a wedding florist, I would form strategic alliances with bridal shop owners and wedding planners", she adds.

Darren Chen, CEO and creative director of Dooodolls Design, attends international exhibitions and trade fairs to meet potential partners. "Attending trade fairs is one way to expose our cartoon characters to the world," he adds. "We have taken part in many international character and licensing fairs and gift trade fairs since 2008. We're also planning to attend the biggest licensing fair in Las Vegas next year."

An excellent way to market your services is to get referrals from your friends. Says Ng: "Say you're a wedding florist and have a customer who is a very good paymaster. Chances are, that customer has friends who are also good paymasters. Why don't you ask her for referrals and multiply your business? The caveat is that you must be doing a good job for this approach to work."

You should be clear about your skills and your competition. "Are you [or your products] better than those who are already in the business? You need to know how you stack up against them or how you're better than them. Translate [your advantages] into value for your potential customers," Ng explains.

There are many cost-effective ways to expose your business on the Internet, the most popular being blogs and social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Freelance wedding photographer Paul Cheng leverages various platforms to promote his services. He manages a blog and a website and interacts with customers on Facebook and Twitter. "I also join discussion forums, such as lowyat.net and PhotoMalaysia.com to share my thoughts and experiences. It is a way for me to promote my skills indirectly," he says. "I've learnt that I can't hard-sell my services in a forum. I was blacklisted by the moderator when I did it."

Know where and when to "sell". Pushy sales techniques do not work on social networking sites such as Facebook. "Facebook is all about likeability. While it's acceptable for you to sell or promote your business occasionally, you're supposed to focus on developing relationships and branding," says Ng. Direct your Facebook friends or fans to your website, they are prepared to learn more about what you sell. Friends or fans may even block you if you sell too aggressively."

Granted, it can be overwhelming to juggle the many marketing platforms online. Patrick Schwerdtfeger, author of Marketing Shortcuts for The Self-Employed, suggests integrating RSS feed-enabled social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Doing so allows you to manage your online presence efficiently. Update one site and the integrated platforms will be automatically updated. Schewerdtfeger, for instance, leverages on his FriendFeed.com account to ensure that his updates on Youtube and Facebook show up on his Twitter feeds.

Cheng finds that handling enquiries professionally generates the most sales. "I follow up on each enquiry diligently and answer all the questions posed by clients patiently. Even if they don't engage my services, I still thank them and try to keep in touch with them on Facebook," he says. "Who knows? Their friends may need a photographer in the future."

Source:Personal Money November 2011 issue

Written by: Lim Siew May

My bed: Office

2011-12-15T08:42:00.003+08:00

If I can't finish my module by today, I'll sleep in my office tonight! *tells ownself* "GANBATTE!!!!"

我很"可爱"

2011-12-15T02:29:00.001+08:00

我很“可爱”。可惜没人爱。

Don't look back

2011-12-07T16:28:00.001+08:00

Again, I'm amazed by how some people can make a decision. Just like that. *snap* Decision made. Then they just move along with the decision that they had made and there's no looking back.

Past, Present, Future. I guess I'm the "Past" type of person. I am almost always looking back. Whenever I have any time, I look at the past.

"Where did it went wrong for that case?"

"Was there anything that I could have done to have changed it to a better ending?"

"Did I make any mistake at that point of time?"

"Seems like things turned out right for once. What happened at that time that everything worked out so fine?"

"So this much time has passed us. What have I learned or gained in during this period of time?"

Well, just to put it short, I'm constantly looking back. I wish someday I can just head forward, one step at a time and don't look back.

One step at a time

Perhaps as what Chu Jie told me, we can only connect the dots by looking forward and trust that there will be a future for us all and someday perhaps we will be able to connect the dots to form a fabulous pattern. :)

Courage to speak

2011-12-07T12:35:00.001+08:00

Oddly, I find myself feeling envious towards people who had the courage to speak up. Although it's just on Facebook, but still I never had the courage to pen down exactly what I felt. Even if I did, I'd probably remove it few moments later.

Facebook has indeed rooted itself deeply in our life, especially Malaysians. Every now and then we see (or stalk) people updating their Facebook status like it is a personal place for them to actually speak out their feelings. I, on the other hand, lacks the courage to do so because I'm painfully aware of the people that could have read it.

There are those who openly write about their dissatisfaction towards certain friend/acquaintance of theirs without regards that the subject of their rant could read that particular post. Or people that openly says, "I want to find a new job" on their Facebook or Live Messenger status without fear of their superiors reading that message. Well, maybe they did not add any colleagues into their friend list or perhaps they have already set permission security to hide the status from relevant parties.

Despite all this, I still find myself feeling envious of their courage to speak. Therefore, this particular reason have ruled out the Facebook as my choice to rant my feelings. That leaves me with this blog. However, this blog has almost no permission settings. At least no customized ones. Either all reads it or I allow people with my permission to read it. My constant worry of offending people or hurting peoples' feelings also act as a censorship board. So even in this blog, I still withheld a lot of my true feelings. With this, I wonder if I would ever speak out all that I think or feel?

Tired like a drunk

2011-12-01T11:03:00.001+08:00

I've heard of people consuming alcohol till they are drop dead drunk. Then somehow they managed to drive themselves back home, park the car, enter the house, lock the door, dive into their bed and sleep. Next morning, they woke up, and had no recollection of how they actually drove the car, parked the car and etc.

Well, the same thing happened to me, except that I wasn't drunk, but just tired. This morning when I woke up, I found myself on my bed, with my glasses beside my bed. Note: I usually place my glasses outside by the computer. As a matter of fact, what I last remember was, leaning on the chair and listening to songs in YouTube while I try to rest a bit before I continue drafting the email that I was suppose to send out this morning.

I really had no idea how did I get to the bed. Totally zero recollection. I guess this is what it feels like to be tired like I'm drunk. Truth be told, I AM feeling really lethargic and exhausted. :( I think I should start finding some time to replenish my energy. I believe I am already tapping into the reserves and even the reserves are running out soon.

Love Interest : Finale?

2011-11-30T14:06:00.001+08:00

Lately, there had been a weird turn of events. Things aren't going as smoothly as I thought it would. I did almost all that I could but things just ended up this way. It looks like a finale. An end but not a happy ending.

Depending on how you look at it, it doesn't have to be a bad result. At the very least, I do not despair and I have no intentions to let things slide off like this. If my paths are filled with obstacles, then I'll pave my way through it, a pebble at a time. When that doesn't seems to work as well, I'd hop off the road and go off road instead to achieve that which I aim for.

With these said, I hope that someday, you and relevant parties may see that I am more than meets the eye. Signing off from here. May God bless the strength and determination to persevere and pull this through.

Arguments again

2011-11-24T12:30:00.001+08:00

So I've caught myself up with some unnecessary arguments again. At least I felt it was unnecessary. It started off with me trying to share out something that made me happy. Suddenly the topic was being used as a comparison instead.

I am at lost to why people enjoy comparing things. Especially when all I wanted to do was to share some good news. :( Putting those aside, I personally feel this argument is rather foolish and should not have taken place in the first place. I'm kind of irritated by the fact that I once again failed to control my words and spoke out of turn.

Actually this argument is sort of a gray zone kind of issue. It should not be used as a comparison, BUT I should NOT have reacted in that manner anyway.

Guess I'll have to apologize because I think the other party strongly sees that the fault is with me. Fault. Blame. Who's right and who's not. I don't really think it matters. If you (or in this case, me) cares, then all this doesn't matter. Things like this are too trivial to actually hurt the relationship between people (unless the other person is a total scumbag which is a constant nuisance in your life).

Well, that's it for now. I hope I'll get this resolved as soon as possible. Maybe I'll try to give a call later. Shall continue to rush my work so I can make it for dinner with her tonight or something. :)

Broken Shoes

2011-11-23T16:54:00.001+08:00

When you're financially poor, life finds all kinds of ways to bite you in the rump. Okay, before I continue and someone throw a show at me for being a hypocrite, I am not exactly poor and really needing some funds to get by life. Just I have some plans for the cash and these little things that happen in my life are giving me setbacks that are delaying my plans to ~~waste my money on useless items~~ save up for things like a house for the future family.

~~I am unable to get a picture of it now, but I'll see if I can post a picture of it sometime later or not. For now, I guess I'll just use words (like usual -.-") to describe the condition of my shoes.~~

It's a pair of black leather shoes that served me quite well. Truth be told, I like the comfort that it provides me. For 5 days a week, more than 9 hrs a day, and on almost all random terrains that I used walk on, it certainly did serve me well for a good whole year. Except for the fact that the sole of it, has ripped apart and there is this gaping hole at the bottom of the sole. It's like a 3" gash. At least I now found the source of water seeping in to soak my socks whenever I walk across wet surfaces (wet floor/ puddles).

Another point I would like to add in, this is not some cheap leather shoes that I'm talking about here. I think the brand is Crocodile and it costs me about MYR130 even after 50% discount. The problem is not with the shoes I guess, but because of the terrain that I walk on. The nature of my job requires me to walk on gravels and stones, then from my parking to my office also requires me to walk on tarred road. I guess tar ain't that bad compared to gravel and stones.

I am now contemplating if I should go out and purchase a new pair of shoes, or should I just live with wet-socks-whenever-it-rains type of shoes, or I should try to give it to those uncle by the road to see if they can fix it. Based on the design of the shoes, I highly doubt those uncle could mend this shoe for me. By the way, even my casual sports shoes will soak my socks whenever I walk across wet surfaces. In other words, I don't have any shoes that can keep my socks dry whenever it rains. :( I foresee injuries to my savings and wallet. :(

Someone special?

2011-11-22T10:12:00.001+08:00

I never thought I'll end up like this. Not in the bad sort and all had been well.. What I can't say enough is, how grateful I am for you to have grace my life with your presence.

I have told you this before, that it was a miraculous turn of event for me to have met you. It's funny that the place that we first met each other was at Luna's Bar. In additional to that, that night seems even more remarkable because of the fact that you cannot really remember me after that night. So at that time, we were nothing more than an acquaintance. Though I was shocked that you even remembered my name.

It took me slightly more than a month to actually find your facebook profile and to steel my nerves to add you. I don't know what made me do it, but I seems to have took an aggressive stance and made advances after another. We'll leave the details of it some other days, if there is.

Well, I remember that I wasn't really keen on going out to Luna Bar that day, but somehow I went. If I hadn't go, where would we be today? If at that time, I managed to get attached with other people, where would we be today? Or if you already had someone special to you, I doubted that we would have made it thus far. Before imagination runs wild, I may have to make it clear again. We are still friends, although I'm hoping for more. More than friends.

I guess I have to stop this right here. Lately, my mind is not in its best state and my blog writing is getting more incoherent as time passes. So I'll stop here before this already verbose post gets even wordier (and confusing). Well then, I'll wish myself all the best. :)

Here's a picture of her that I took. She's really a nice person.

I wanted you to be happy

2011-11-10T11:44:00.000+08:00

It seems like I've found someone special. But somehow I'm having all these pressures. I wanted her to be happy, but I am always unsure on what is right, what is wrong.

On the time factor, I am torn between pushing it while there is heat, or pull back to let things cool down and settle in. Afraid to lose the momentum, I think I was taking it too fast. In the end, I got reminded times and times again on the duration of how long we knew each other. About this, I think all that I can do, is to take things at a slower pace. Guess I've gotta control myself and refrain from finding her each time I miss her.

About words and actions, I think I also pushed things too far. To avoid things from falling down, I think the same action would have to be taken. Gotta keep my words more neutral and also keep a distance. Truth be told, it's rather difficult for me to do all this, because I had always been the type that goes either full speed ahead, or dead stop. But I guess, that's no excuse. I wanted you to be happy when you're with me, but I don't know how (yet). Still gotta learn (and I gotta learn it fast).

When I look back (Camera)

2011-11-09T15:16:00.001+08:00

When I look back at my planning sheet for my camera. I realized I was started searching for camera before July 30th, 2010. and I finally bought the DSLR on May 2011. I actually considered D90, 550D, Lumix LX-3 and D3000. Then I finally bought S90 for its size. Though in about 6 months time, a newer model (S95) came out. Time pass so fast, that even S100 has been launched. Now my main camera is D5100 and I'm really loving it. :) I'm glad that I didn't act out of impulse and bought the D3100 when it first launched. :) Might post some pictures of Jess Lee tonight or something. :)

[Chinese Proverb] 情人眼里出西施

2011-11-03T14:33:00.000+08:00

Just not too long ago, someone taught me this proverb, "情人眼里出西施". The pinyin for this proverb is "Qíng rén yǎn lǐ chū xī shī". The literal translation of this would be "Xi Shi appears in the vision of the lover". Xi Shi is one of the 4 famous great beauties of ancient China. However, all four beauties are actually from different dynasties. Chronological order of the 4 famous great beauties of ancient China is listed in the table below.

Name	Dynasty
Xi Shi	Seventh to sixth century BC, Spring and Autumn Period
Wang Zhaojun	First century BC, Western Han Dynasty
Diaochan	Third century, Late Eastern Han/Three Kingdoms period
Yang Guifei	719–756, Tang Dynasty

I will not go down too deep details on the 4 beauties. For more information, that can come next time, or you may click on their names to view the wiki about them.

The Chinese proverb means, in the eyes of the lover (in this case, a guy), the girl that he loves would be as beautiful as Xi Shi regardless of how the girl may appear to others.

Elevator for Selfish People

2011-11-03T10:27:00.001+08:00

It's been quite a while since I noticed this behavior. In this place, the elevators are all equipped with motion sensors at the doors. One might thought it's just an added feature, but personally I believe it is to accommodate the selfishness of its occupants. Everybody would just enter the elevator, light up the button to the floor that they are heading too, and just stand aside. Most of them wouldn't even bother to hold the door open for other people who are still entering. The only button that is often abused is the "Close" button, for those who are rushing. Is this where our society is heading? We are technologically advancing, but in terms of civilization, I felt that we are steering astray. I guess this is the city life that everybody is going after.

Wait for SMS

2011-11-02T17:00:00.000+08:00

I find myself checking my phone very frequently for SMS lately. Haha. :P

Money Problem?

2011-10-31T13:46:00.000+08:00

Money is not a problem. Lack of money is the problem. :(

Suddenly I felt I had a need for cash. Not trying to say that I am very loaded before this, but sudden change of events made me felt I really need to reevaluate my cash flow. The inflow is currently not large enough, and I also have to start watching over my outflow of cash.

In addition to that, I suddenly have the need to boost my current savings. If I wanted a change to my future, then this savings MUST be boosted. I now need to find means to increase the net inflow and also try to get some additional side incomes as well.

Will second be the last?

2011-10-31T09:59:00.002+08:00

I don't want to screw this up. This time I finally made the decision, and I'm going to go all in for this. Hope this will work out for the best.

First step to "foreveralone"

2011-10-20T10:56:00.001+08:00

At 9:20 pm, I drove my car out to 1Utama and bought movie ticket for 1. The show is "Real Steel". Pretty decent movie I'd say because I kind of like boxing too. :) Made me feel like exercising. I think I should start to work out on my body again. Hugh Jackman is a great actor, and the chemistry between him and the son is remarkable.

The tickets was selling fast but somehow I manage to get a good seat. That's because there was a single seat left in the middle. Other available seats are at the first most row.

When I got back, my housing area had a power shortage and the entire area was pitch black. That reminds me of the moment I got into the cinema that night. For some reasons, the trailer wasn't playing and the lights wasn't switched on. It was truly pitch black. Literally. I cannot even see where is the railing, where are the seats. Nor could I see if there is anybody a foot ahead of me. When I finally found my row, I couldn't even discern if the seats were occupied. In the end, with the aid of technology (mobile phone), I manage to find my seating. The seating wasn't too bad I presume. Since I came earlier, the family on the left could assume that I came earlier and waiting for my friend(s). Then when the couple on my right came later, they would thought that I am part of the family on the left. :) Ok. I guess I have to stop consoling myself. Haha.

Back to the power shortage, at one juncture, when there wasn't any car around, I turned off my headlights for a short while, and boy it was dark. If there are any humans trespassing, it would have been dangerous. I only turned it off for like less than a second. Haha. Out of curiosity. When I look towards the sky, it's really an amazing sight. I guess the sky in PJ was never that interesting, because there are too many strong light sources around us. When it's dark around us, the sky have a different hue. A real pity that I didn't manage to grab a picture, but at the very least, I now have an inspiration. Will go rural areas next time to take a picture like that.

p/s: I also bought a ticket to JungHa Sung live performance on December 4th, 2011 at 5pm. Paid MYR 103 for the ticket. :P

New Phone?

2011-10-19T13:41:00.004+08:00

IF (Phone.Warranty.IsExpired() && Phone.IsSpoil() && Phone.RepairCost > Phone.OriginalCost(0.33))
{ GetNewPhone(); }
ELSE
{ Phone.Fix(); }

Respect: Earned or Given?

2011-10-19T12:13:00.000+08:00

Respect is a funny little thing. At least at this point of time when I can't seems to figure out the answer to the question, "Is respect earned or given?"

I understand that this is another "gray zone" type of question again, but it just keep bothering me. I would keep this issue under the carpet if I could, but every two days, the situation relating to this question keeps popping up and making me very upset over it.

There are people who keeps pushing and do not bother about others' feelings. In this situation, these people would think, "If you want my respect, then earn it." But earning respect is a very subjective thing. One can always hold on to that quote and trod over others constantly by just saying, "I don't think you've earned my respect yet." Not all are like that though, there are those who gives respect, until that person lost that respect given to them.

I just felt very disappointed that some people keep ignoring the feelings of others, bearing the mindset of "End justifies means". Constantly looking at only results while disregarding others. I would have took my standard approach of handling such situation, which is to cut off ties. Just ignore and avoid such people would make my life so much easier. Reduce interactions and everybody could be happier. Alas, that's not the case. Because I still care for the relationship between us, it makes things even more difficult to just walk off like that.

I guess it would only hurt me further if I think, "You're an important friend to me, but what am I to you?" I guess I also should not disqualify the possibility that I was just over reacting. I really need to learn how to calm myself emotionally. Lately have been running low on EQ. :(

无奈

2011-10-19T10:48:00.002+08:00

最近一路觉得有点无奈。在这时候我不懂我该说的是什么或该做什么。结果呢我做错决定和得罪了朋友。和人真的那么难的一件事吗？或是我太久没和人好好相处导致到这样吗？我都不懂了。最近总是缺少耐心。很容易生气。:(

Courtesy of a young driver

2011-09-29T10:20:00.003+08:00

This happened when I parked my car two days ago in the morning. The parking lot is sort of a undeveloped / temporary / unofficial type with stones and pebbles as the surface. There parking area are not marked with designated lines but there is an attendant that will direct the cars to some generic spot. After that, it's all about the driver's ethic (provided that the parking is totally unacceptable. E.g., 45 degrees parking or leaving a HUGE gap between the next car) to park their car.

So I met this young man (younger than me). He was right behind me based on the "parking queue". The car before me had reverse parked his car. I did the same as well (cause I'm just pathetic in parking the car with the front of the car leading) and the one after me also parked in the same manner. So all the driver will exit towards the next car. Picture below this will illustrate this.

The man that parked after me, looked over to me and signaled to me, "Is this space sufficient for you to exit your car?" This may just be a very small and normal thing, but for me, I truly appreciate all these little thoughts and actions. Especially when they are all sincere actions and thoughts. He is dressed smartly and carries himself in a confident yet humble manner. I hope this will be our next generation leaders.

"I Can’t Brain Today: I’ve Got the Dumb" - Katrina Berne

2011-09-26T15:11:00.002+08:00

By Katrina Berne, Ph.D, clinical psychologist & PWC

(Editor’s Note: Cognitive impairments are featured in research and clinical definitions for CFS, ME/CFS and ME. To many people, cognitive problems are among their most disabling symptoms. Some methods of cognitive testing, like those for information processing speed, attention and concentration, find reproducible deficits in patients compared to healthy controls. These tests can also be useful to support applications for vocational disability. )

I have a Swiss cheese brain. Seven firing neurons. Cotton in the synapses. One moment I’m logical and rational, working with a financial planner with my materials organized and pre-formulated, intelligent questions. The next minute I find my keys in the freezer and I can’t remember my middle name. In short, my brain has ME/CFS.

I have learned some cognitive coping mechanisms (tricks) that help keep me on course when I have complex tasks to do, or even simple ones.

I do them at my best cognitive time of day. It’s not the same every day, but when something in that brain of mine lights up, it’s time to use what I’ve got.

I do tasks in small steps, breaking them into their smallest components. Sometimes they are painstakingly tiny steps, sometimes strides. An entire book starts with one sentence. Doing the laundry starts with throwing it down the basement stairs.

I have a system. It might not make sense to anyone else, but it works for me. I keep my info on the computer as much as possible and out of my file cabinet. I have only the essentials in my paper files, which amount to about 20 percent of the number of paper files I used to have. I can do a search of my computer’s contents to find stuff – not so with a filing cabinet.

I write everything down. Everything.

I stop when I’m overtired or in brainspin. There’s no point in whipping a lame mule; I know I’m not going to accomplish anything beyond what I’ve already done. Close the book, put my laptop away, close my eyes, just stop.

I set a timer. When it says “ding,” it’s time to stop. Period.

If I try to read an article and none of it is sinking in on my second or third try, I put it away for another time. I can’t force learning to happen, but am overjoyed on the occasions when my brain is willing to learn.

When I need to remember something but can’t write it down, I repeat it aloud to myself. I walk into the next room for scissors and tape saying “scissors and tape” over and over. Repetition works.

I say “no” to tasks that are too complex. And to those I really don’t want to do, since dealing with cognitive dysfunction or resistance is tough enough without combining the two.

I avoid deadlines whenever possible. Too much pressure. Pressure is counterproductive.

I take frequent breaks. Even when I don’t want to, I know I need to.

I look stuff up. I don’t have to reinvent the wheel. Hooray for the Internet. Hooray for Google. I don’t know what people did in the dark ages.

I am thankful for the parts of my brain that still work well and for the times when I am able to think and write clearly. I hope this is one of them.

Katrina Berne, Ph.D, is a clinical psychologist specializing in telephonic therapy with people with ME/CFS who are housebound or unable to find knowledgeable therapists in their geographic areas. She is the author of Running On Empty; CFIDS Lite; and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Fibromyalgia and Other Invisible Disorders. She has served on the Board of Directors of the CFIDS Association of America and lectured widely on the disorder. She wishes someone would figure it out already so we could all get back to what we were doing.

I happen to stumble upon an article on ME/CFS (Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome). I haven't read much about it yet, so explaining more on ME/CFS is going to be another day's story.

What I'm about to share in this post is how this author, Katrina Berne uses some cognitive coping mechanisms (tricks) that keeps her on course when she have complex tasks to do, or even simple ones. The quote below was how she explained that her brain has ME/CFS.

"I have a Swiss cheese brain. Seven firing neurons. Cotton in the synapses. One moment I’m logical and rational, working with a financial planner with my materials organized and pre-formulated, intelligent questions. The next minute I find my keys in the freezer and I can’t remember my middle name. In short, my brain has ME/CFS."
- Katrina Berne

Some of the steps that she took to handle her case of ME/CFS was:

"I do them at my best cognitive time of day. It’s not the same every day, but when something in that brain of mine lights up, it’s time to use what I’ve got."
"I avoid deadlines whenever possible. Too much pressure. Pressure is counterproductive."
"I take frequent breaks. Even when I don’t want to, I know I need to."
etc.

Click here to read the full article, "I Can’t Brain Today: I’ve Got the Dumb" - Katrina Berne.

Credits

Job Dilemmas

2011-09-25T22:14:00.001+08:00

Why do dilemmas stay on for so long? It's been two months since I tendered my resignation letter, but I have yet to make up my mind on my future career path. Seems like a tough choice to call. My current career path offers good learning curve and also good payout. But the amount of stress and also the workload also scales up the same manner.

I had previously considered leaving this line altogether and go for a more straight forward job, but my colleagues all strongly disagree to that. I trust their advice, hence the dilemma that I'm having now. To be honest, I'm pretty sure that wherever I decide to go, working stress is an inevitable thing. It didn't cross my thoughts that I'd be considering these stuffs so soon. The eternal war of working for salary and career path or pursuing my dreams? I really hope that I can reach a conclusion soon as I'm going to enter the jobless state soon. :(

On another different story, I'm being a complete klutz today during badminton session. :( Near the end of the session, the back hand and the smashes that I did, all ended up injuring myself. I am now with a bruised forearm. (The bottom end of the racket smacked my forearm viciously consecutively). I'm pretty sure the bruises will be clearly visible by next morning. :( Seems like most of the posts lately is filled with sad smileys. Can't seems to help that as I'm truly feeling down lately.

I wanna go home :(

2011-09-23T20:23:00.001+08:00

One day is not enough for all these. I wanna go home. :(

My latest addiction: Khuntoria (WGM)

2011-09-23T14:14:00.001+08:00

"Love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies." - Aristotle

Khuntoria selca by the seaside during their escapade after Nichkhun got his driving license and a car.

Cooking lunch together after shopping for their new house necessities.

Yet another addiction of mine. I've been watching this lately and I find this couple really sweet. Just like an ideal couple (pretty wife and handsome husband). I actually started watching this because of Nichkhun (Husband) but as time goes on, I find that Victoria (Wife) is just as lovable. Currently at Episode 26. Progress was slow because streaming DailyMotion is being a real pain in the rump. Ahhh~~ Good thing about watching Khuntoria is that each episodes are only about 20+ minutes long. :)

"Inspiration Squared" by David Crandall

2011-09-22T17:00:00.000+08:00

"Every artist was first an amateur" - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Inspiration Squared

View more presentations from David Crandall

This is a good motivational slide that I happen to find today.

Motivations gets us moving, but keep in mind that ATTITUDE is the one that keeps us going even after all others have decided to stop.

[C#] IF... ELSE... Short hand

2011-09-13T12:26:00.001+08:00

I'm pretty sure we need to use the IF ELSE condition very often during our development / debugging days. They are the key to allow our codes to make decisions. However, for simple checking, the code below may seems too long.

IF (Condition1 > Condition2)
{
Output = Value1;
}
ELSE
{
Output = Value2;
}

All that I wanted is to output Value1 when Condition1 is more than Condition2, else just push Value2 to output.

To do this, there is an IF ELSE short hand that we can use.

Output = Condition1 > Condition2 ? Value1 : Value2;

The code above would perform exactly the same as the one before it. Only that it is much more shorter compared to the previous one.

Note: Do take caution that this code may confuse some other coders that live and die with IF ELSE conditions, especially during debugging process.

SAGA BLM FC RM0.1736/km

2011-09-13T11:40:00.003+08:00

This blog post is solely meant for my own personal tracking purposes only.

I just filled up my car this morning, after travelling for 293.7km since my last fill. It was 26.84 liters (RM 51). I think it was pretty decent considering I used to pump RM50 for about 270km. That's about 10.94km/l compared to my usual 10~km/l.

In addition to that, I wasn't running on the highway. It was the usual city roads where I'd be hard pushed to even reach 80km/h. Running on city roads with traffic congestion for most of the time in a 1.3CC Saga that weights a good 1060kg - 1100kg curb weight, I think this is a fairly decent figure. :)

Before this, I filled my tires pressure up to 33 psi because I read from some sources that mentioned tires can be inflated up to 40 psi and the higher air pressure in your tires, the better fuel consumption you get. In fact, at that air pressure, I can't seems to get FC as this. It's been months since I last filled my tire pressure, so I'd assume that I have about 30 psi of pressure in my tires.

This had led me to believe that, the Proton Saga BLM runs better FC with tires pressure of about 30psi and also at moderate city speeds (50-80km/h). Although I have yet to test this out, but I hope I can maintain this FC or better, else I'd be forking out quite a sum just to keep this baby running. I have yet to reach better than my previous record (RM0.169/km). Well, I guess all that I can do is to keep trying.

[H] [R] [T] 차수경 (Cha Soo Kyung) - 용서 못해 (yongseo mothae || trans. Can't Forgive)

2011-09-12T11:11:00.001+08:00

This is an OST for Korean Sitcom "Cruel Temptations / Wife's Temptation". The song that first introduced me to Cha Soo Kyung and I'm really loving her voice.

Click here to view the lyrics.

Credits

中秋节快乐

2011-09-12T10:43:00.001+08:00

2011 年 9 月 13 日

阴天

我想用这一个机会去祝福所有人中秋节快了。希望所有人永远快快乐乐，心想事成，身体健康。

最近也参加几个婚礼晚宴。也想用这个机会祝福他们夫妻相爱，白头到老。

[T-3] Mid-Autumn Festival (中秋节)

2011-09-09T17:17:00.000+08:00

I wrote this blog post as a friendly reminder to all people out there that there are 3 more days till the Mid-Autumn Festival (中秋节). In the year of 2011, the Mid-Autumn Festival (中秋节) will fall on September 12, 2011. To all my friends who have joined the workforce, don't forget this day and work overtime in the office. Head home after work and spend some time with your family members and your loved ones. For those friends who are still studying, try not to make some other appointments and neglected this day.

I'll attach some brief description about the Mid-Autumn Festival here, just for general knowledge. For more information, one can always read up in Wikipedia. The Mid-Autumn Festival, also known as the Moon Festival or Zhongqiu Festival is a popular harvest festival celebrated by Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese people. The Mid-Autumn Festival is held on the 15th day of the eighth month in the Chinese calendar and the moon is at its fullest and roundest during this time.

The Mid-Autumn Festival is one of the few most important holidays in the Chinese calendar. Traditionally on this day, Chinese family members and friends will gather to admire the bright mid-autumn harvest moon, and eat moon cakes and pomelos under the moon together. People also carry brightly lit lanterns (I did this when I was small and not to mention the rate of burning your own lantern by accident is quite high), lighting lanterns on towers, floating sky lanterns (I remember going out with Ke Min to Desa Park City to look at other people floating sky lanterns).

For those who follow Korean Entertainment, you will notice Chuseok (추석) is coming soon. Well~ That's the Korean version of Mid-Autumn Festival as it lands on the same day as well. Hope you all will have a blast on that day. :)

Behind-the-scenes with ‘Running Man’ cameraman, Ryu Kwon Ryeol

2011-09-09T13:59:00.002+08:00

Introducing Ryu Kwon Ryeol, or more commonly known as Jae Suk's VJ in SBS Running Man.

Running Man (Korean: 런닝맨) is a South Korean variety show where MCs and guests complete missions in a landmark to win the race. Participants are often required to work independently from the rest of their team to complete their mission, hence each participants (MCs and guests) are assigned with a VJ and this particular VJ is in charge of filming (South Korea) National MC Yoo Jae Suk.

Kwon Ryeol first appearance is in episode 2 where he had difficulty catching up with Jae Suk and Jae Suk brought up about this at the end of the mission. He also mentioned that Kwon Ryeol looks even more fatigued compared to him and that Kwon Ryeol decided to film other casts instead of Jae Suk when he could not catch up with Jae Suk. This scene ended with Jae Suk suggesting Kwon Ryeol to go to a fitness center. Haha. Do take note that Jae Suk wasn't being harsh to his VJ but these are all friendly jabs. Jae Suk has been working with Kwon Ryeol even back in the Family Outing days.

Kwon Ryeol, a VJ dedicated to his job went to a fitness center to lose weight and keep himself fit for his job. As we progress further into the series, we can truly see the partnership of Jae Suk and his VJ, Kwon Ryeol. There are times when Kwon Ryeol would assist Jae Suk to accomplish his mission especially during the hide-and-see games such as blocking the seekers while Jae Suk attempts to escape. This results in the separation of Jae Suk and Kwon Ryeol, but when they reunite again, Jae Suk also said to Kwon Ryeol, "Ahh, I miss you. Finally we meet again." This shows the bond between the staff and the cast.

The chemistry of this pair have reached out to the audiences and Kwon Ryeol has his own fan base. Due to his rising popularity from SBS Running Man, he has been interviewed by Lady KyungHang about his experiences filming the hide-and-seek variety show.

Below are the questions asked during the interview. Click here for the full interview article.

You became widely known as the “Yoo Jae Suk VJ”. You must’ve been accustomed to being behind the camera and unfamiliar with the new attention.
A: In ‘Running Man’, there are many times when VJs are involved in the situation and the games. After a few times being caught on camera, a few people started recognizing me when I went outside. At those times, I turn shy and don’t know how to react, and become careful for no reason. There were a sudden uptick in friend requests and Twitter followers, as well. In my case, people remember my name more than my face. I once went to the amusement park, and an employee checked my I.D. and asked, “Aren’t you the person who films ‘Running Man’?”
It looks like VJs need to document carefully every action of the cast member in a ‘real variety’ show. How do VJs get paired with their partners?
A: When I first started, I was in charge of following HaHa. But during the course of the game, everyone started moving freely so I started following Jae Suk, and I became known as the ‘Yoo Jae Suk VJ’ from that point. The pairings weren’t decided strategically, but there are some parallels with fitness. For example, the best runner would be teamed with ‘Ace’ Kim Jong Kook, and the less fit would be assigned to the least active cast member or a female guest.
We heard that you purposely went through weight loss after becoming the ‘Yoo Jae Suk’ VJ.
A: Jae Suk’s nickname on the show is ‘Yooruce Willis’. He’s a fast runner so I needed to be more fit to follow him. At first, I couldn’t follow him and being large, I suffered a lot of stress because I felt I was undermining the game. I also heard criticisms after becoming the focus of certain articles. Jae Suk is the lead of the show, so I was under pressure to handle my role. That was why I enrolled at a fitness center and lost weight. I lost about 7, 8 kilograms but I had a lot of work recently, so I gained a little bit.
It looks like VJs will become naturally friendly with their cast member after going through all situations together as a team.
A: Jae Suk has a naturally friendly and caring personality so he takes care of me very well. When everyone’s running around, he gives me water first. Compared to other programs, I definitely think we become more familiar with our cast members. A while ago, I couldn’t attend filming thanks to my sister’s wedding, and I heard that Jae Suk became very curious about it. When he heard about it later, he said “I should’ve sent a bouquet or something,” and that made me very thankful.
‘Running Man’ has the characteristic that VJs not only film, but collaborate with the cast members within the program. Other than getting friendly with the cast, it looks like VJs need to work hard to provide more ‘real’ scenes.
A: I think that better results come out when I participate actively in the games. Personally, I work hard to be sympathetic to the cast. I talk to them often and provide reactions as well. When it’s funny, I laugh out loud, when it’s surprising, I act surprised, and generally react honestly.
When did you first gain interest in being a VJ? Did you have any previous experience before starting your job?
A: It’s been around 3 years and 6 months since I’ve held a camera. Since videojournalism isn’t really a well-known field, and I had majored in culinary arts, so I had no idea that I would go in this direction. My father, who works in a broadcast-related position, suggested that I try this position. I didn’t enjoy it much at first, but as time passed I became happier in the field.
It might be nice to experience new situations and work with your feet, but it looks like there may also be bad traits because of that very reason.
A: There are hardships in every profession, so I don’t think we work any harder than normal. However, there are difficult situation because of the weather. Although we prepare everything and double-check in advance, there are so many variables so we experience a lot of unforeseen situations. Personally, I think the weather is the hardest. It’s not out of the ordinary to run around until you’re dehydrated, or have frozen hands or be bitten by bugs. Last time, I had to jump into the water in early spring for a scene to be broadcast in summer.
But it looks like your characteristic to enjoy hard situations fits well with the job of a VJ. We look forward to the future.
A: There are many amazing VJs who work not only in variety programs, but in other programs as well. Each program has their own unique style, personality, and key points, so I’m careful of being shown as if I represent all VJs. There are many better VJs and the ‘first generation of VJs’ are still active in the field. Although I still have much to learn, but I feel proud that my profession is gaining more attention because of me. So I promise to myself to work even harder, and explore different genres and different programs. I’d like to become a VJ who captures interesting and heartwarming scenes and gets along with the cast, no matter who I work with.

Credits:
Mountain Madman via AllKpop
Lady KyungHang via Naver

A must watch!! Captain Malaysia

2011-09-08T14:27:00.000+08:00

Happened to stumble across this in Facebook.

:) I must admit this sort of made my day. ㅋㅋㅋ

p/s: On second thoughts, I have a feeling that this picture sort of reminds me of the Bukit Kepong novel that we studied back in our secondary school. Maybe it is just me. Haha~

Eugene Tham back to HTML & CSS Basics

2011-09-08T10:42:00.000+08:00

After the long delay, Eugene Tham decides to take a step back into HTML and CSS basics. Been realizing that my core technical fundamentals are seriously lacking. Hence this decision to revise on HTML and CSS.

Currently I am reading from the HTML Dog site and they provide really good guides. I have just finished reading the tutorials for HTML Beginner and currently reading the CSS Beginner tutorials.

Even at the beginner stage, I have felt that there are still much that I have not learnt. Hope I will be a better programmer by the end of my session with the Advanced Tutorials. :)

很狠的一个留言

2011-08-30T22:09:00.008+08:00

懒惰的我又在网络里看youtube。其实我是想听一听别人的歌，听一下别人如何弹钢琴。刚好想起傅健颖的“你知道我在等你吗”，所以才去youtube找那首歌。听了过后，我看下别人留下的留言。既然最多人like的留言是“好听~但是男主角不帅。。”。我就在心里想，“如果我是那个男主角，第一次拍MV。打算去youtube看一看拍了的MV。看了过后，想看别人对这个MV有什么感想。一看到那个留言，我相信我会伤心到死。长得不帅不是个罪哦~”

无言。

2011-08-28T16:51:00.000+08:00

啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊！！！！！

Lethargic again..

2011-08-24T23:08:00.000+08:00

Even finding words to express myself is getting difficult lately. Just feeling lethargic lately. Both the mind and body is feeling tired. I'm actually repeating myself here. Ugh. Eyes is feeling tired, mind is feeling tired, the body is feeling tired.

Driving is starting to become bothersome as well. Everything seems to be moving at a slow motion. At least I felt my brain is moving slower as well as my reflexes and reactions. :(

Today colleagues also extended an invitation for a dinner. As much as I wanted to stay, I am just feeling too tired and hungry to stay. Felt the need to go back, eat my dinner and begin resting. Don't want to be driving at late night as well, because my attention span is dwindling. This is going to be a messy post as my brain is not working right already. :(

[H] [R] [T] Lady Jane (레이디 제인) ft Verbal Jint - I love you everyday (매일 사랑해)

2011-08-24T22:46:00.002+08:00

I can't seems to find the MV nor the full English translation. This is the closest that I can find. :(

Click here to view the lyrics.

Credits

Running Man - Monday Couple

2011-08-18T22:02:00.004+08:00

Lately, I've been watching SBS Running Man. I would say I'm kind of addicted to it and it is a real torture. I guess this is the reason why I often hear people say "Stay away from variety shows!!" It's just THAT hard to get rid of the addiction. Furthermore, I suffer the agony of slow loading videos. Mind you, only the Running Man video loads slow. My Youtube video loads just fine.

Actually I have not reached this far yet in Running Man, but somehow I saw this in Youtube and I'm really engrossed with this "Monday Couple" (Kang Gary & Song Ji Hyo). I could really feel the sweetness from this couple. The sweetness of the couple can be seen in the video below. Enjoy.

The sweetness of this couple in the video paired off with the cute music just makes it totally unbearable. I find myself watching this video again and again. Sometimes just to hear the music. The title of the song is "매일 사랑해" (maeil saranghae / I love you everyday) by 레이디제인 (leidijein / Lady Jane) feat Verbal Jint.

I'm so gonna post ~~the MV and~~ the lyrics out soon.

p/s: Apparently, there is no MV for this. :( Seriously, this video deserved to be watched in full. Haha~ I'm really addicted to this.

Depressed weekend

2011-08-15T14:51:00.000+08:00

This is going to be a relatively short post. In summary, I was very depressed over the weekend. Personally, I don't know the actual reason that made me that depressed. I was just down and my self control was rather terrible as well.

As a result, I was very touchy and quick to anger during the whole weekend. I'm pretty sure I've offended a few of my friends, and for that, I'm sorry. My apologies.

I think I'm feeling better, but still feeling a bit down and depressed inside of me. Hope it will pass soon. Emotional imbalance? Haha~ Hope it's not that either.

Was a boy, I am now a man

2011-08-14T01:09:00.003+08:00

I am turning 22 years old soon and I realized that I am beginning to refer myself as a man rather than a boy. Actually, I felt that this transition has more to do with my mentality than my biological / chronological age.

As time goes on, I learnt a lot and have seen a lot of things. It is certainly an eye-opener for me. I began to realize that it is time for me to break out of this shell. I should stop relying on people, to stand up for me. I should start to think that, without people supporting me from behind, I should still charge forward instead of waiting for a support.

I am no longer the person waiting for a support but a person to provide support to those who needed it. As we learn, we will take up a certain amount of responsibility to teach and guide others just like how those before us had taught us and guided us thus far.

I believe that I have grown and it is now the time, to lead and guide instead of just following. Of course, that does not mean that I no longer need to follow or learn from others. There are always things that other people know and I don't. Learning is a life-long process except that it is now time for me to pull my weight on this.

I hope I will do as great job as my predecessor did. May God assist me to become a better man.

I am doing fine for a sub-average

2011-08-14T00:39:00.008+08:00

The report from the blood test I took a month ago is here! Thus I went to the doctor today to listen about what he have to say regarding the report. After the session with him, it seems that I am perfectly fine. So I wasn't having any problem all this while.

Then why the pain in my knees and back? It seems that, although I seems to meet the minimum requirement in my blood test, I am actually a sub-average man born with weaker bones and joints. This happened to be the time where I'm beginning to feel the effect of the decline in my body condition as time goes by.

I must admit that it is kind of depressing to know about this. Especially when I'm actually very energetic and there is still a lot that I still wish to do but unfortunately, that is luxury no longer available to me.

On another different story, it seems that the recovery of the injury on my shin is progressing well. It is beginning to itch rather terribly. Signs of the scab peeling off soon. I am kind of dreading that period of time because during that period, the scab always get peel off prematurely "accidentally" and then it'll bleed again. On closer scrutiny, I realized that the wound was actually pretty deep as the flesh seems to be gouged in. In addition to that, it has been a week already and the area around the wound is still pretty swollen even though it has subsided by quite an amount compared to few days back.

Oh well, hope I'll be able to play badminton tomorrow. It's been another verbose post and I've got to end it here. :)

[Work] Counselor "foreverbusy"?

2011-08-12T15:35:00.000+08:00

At work, looking at a scenario, where the counselor is always in a do-not-disturb mode. As a matter of fact, he/she is free and available but the system marks him/her as busy. Calendar says available, but menu says not available. Ahh~ When system contradicts with itself, then shit happens. When shit happens, Tham is dispatched.

Code wasn't written by me, and thus here I am sitting here, reading some people's codes. The more I try to understand the codes, the more I feel that C# is a stranger to me. I guess I'm done with my rant here. Shall continue to search for the weird "anomaly" in the codes. *scratches head*

[K] [R] [T] Supercell ft Nagi - The Story You Don't Know (君の知らない物語)

2011-08-12T13:44:00.004+08:00

A singer recommended by Ken Wee to me and I'm loving it till now.

Click here to view the lyrics.

Click here to view album info.

Credits

[Photography] Avenue of Stars 星光大道 (Tsim Tsa Tsui, Hong Kong 尖沙嘴, 香港)

2011-08-11T16:07:00.001+08:00

This is a shot taken from Avenue of Stars, Tsim Tsa Tsui, Hong Kong (星光大道, 尖沙嘴, 香港).
Pity that I didn't manage to bring my tripod along, so this was a handheld shot.

Click here to view the picture in full resolution.

Click here for more details of the picture.

Gray or Grey?

2011-08-10T15:38:00.000+08:00

I find myself asking this question to myself very often. Is it spelled as gray or grey? Sick of these, I decided to put a stop to this and commit this into memory.

The spelling of gray or grey is highly depending on which English are you using. There are other exceptions but we will cover that sometime later.

The American spelling for this COLOR is GRAY and the British spelling is GREY.

Let's sort out the exception first.

Proper nouns such as a last name; Earl Grey and Zane Grey would not be spelled Gray and L.H. Gray must be always be spelled Gray
Greyhound as in the dog breed.
Food irradiation (quantity of radiation energy absorbed by the food as it passes through the radiation field during processing). 1 Gray = 0.001 kGy = 1 joule of energy absorbed per kilogram of food irradiated.

The easy way to remember which spelling is for American and British English is

In America, it's spelled as grAy;
In England, it's spelled as grEy

Credits: Grey or Gray
Do check out Grey or Gray as the information here is adapted from there and the author explained it very well. He also covers the commonly misspelled words due to confusion of American and British English.

Leaping into the abyss within

2011-08-10T11:04:00.000+08:00

At least that's what I'd like to think. Personally I think it sounded much cooler than "falling down a drain because of misstep".

So here's the story. I was walking precariously nearby the drain when I received a phone call. I was still walking near the drain, to avoid walking on the motorway and risk getting run down by cars. As I was explaining something on the phone, I placed my left leg in a safe position and I thought I stepped on the right position for my right leg, but it turned out that I missed by a small margin and slipped into the drain instead.

Luckily, I ended with just a minor injury on my shins. Slight pain if I apply pressure on the leg like running or jumping but otherwise, I'm fine. It was 3 days ago and the wound was still weeping yesterday. Finally the wound is dry this morning. Ahh~ The happiness. I guess recovery is well on the way and most probably I'll be playing sports this weekend again.

Speaking of sports, there's still a lot that I wish to do in badminton and I felt like doing some sprinting lately (if my legs would allow it). I think I will go to some bigger parks and try to do some sprinting. :) Got motivated after watching some relay matches.

A little help to memorize Hangul 14 consonants

2011-08-05T14:34:00.007+08:00

In my previous post, I mentioned that I had memorized some of Hangul letters.

When I had first tried to memorize these letters, it was a daunting task. So now I wish to shed some light to make it slightly easier by relating the letters together. Apologies if I seems to be stating the obvious, but this certainly helped me to remember them slightly easier.

Click here to view the listing of Hangul 14 Consonants.

First and foremost, if you realized, the softer sounds for the consonants have some additional things in the characters. E.g., k and g; ch and j; t and d;

For the k and g example, the g is just ㄱ but the k (ㅋ) seems to be composed of 2 g. So by comparison, the k (softer tone) has an additional "g" character (ㄱ).

For the ch and j, the j is just ㅈ but the ch (ㅊ) have an additional 'dash' above the harder tone j.

Lastly, for the t and d example, the Hangul character for d is ㄷ while its softer tone, t which is ㅌ have an additional 'dash-like' thing that makes the ㄷ looks more like an 'E'.

In conclusion, the softer tone for the Hangul character still looks similarly the same as its harder tone consonant cousin. Although this is not rocket science and may not be of great help, but with this, I hope that you now have 3 less consonants to commit to memory. Cheers and happy learning Hangul consonants. :)

My last day at Hong Kong

2011-08-05T11:54:00.000+08:00

I am at Hong Kong again, for business trip and today is my last day. Probably my last time coming here for business trip as well since the project is nearing its end. Each time I come here, I think about a lot of things. I personally feel very fascinated with the lifestyle here and kind of loving it too. In addition to that, it has quite some magnificent views, tasty foods, convenient transportation and decent safety as well.

There are quite some things that I had wanted to write down here initially. Most of them are merely thoughts that I had during my stay here but I begin to forget most of them already. Not that I do not want to write them down here when I had the thought, but I'm often busy till night time. Even then, I don't really have computer access till late night when I actually reach back the hotel. By then I'm dead beat tired and I wish to lie on the bed and sleep the night off.

Then there was the work pending for completion. So I had to drag myself up again and work during the night till the wee hours. So, the idea of writing down my thoughts and experience during my stay at Hong Kong has all but vanished.

All that I can do is, to find some quiet time and write them down again if I ever remember but I highly doubt that I'll remember it at any rate. This is because my thoughts are often spontaneous and I only remember them at that moment. After the moment have passed, so had my memory of that thoughts.

That's it for now. Spending my few last moments here writing some post-training reports and emails regarding my work (I came here to conduct some training).

Learnt some hangul characters

2011-08-03T03:58:00.002+08:00

I can't seems to get the approval to learn this through courses, so I indulge myself by self learning it from here. For a short duration, I manage to remember some of these characters. Maybe in time I will learn their vocabulary and hopefully I'm able to form sentences by then.

There are 14 consonants, 10 vowels, 5 double consonants, 11 double vowels and 11 final double consonants. I can now read all consonants, vowels, double consonants, and most of the double vowels and final double consonants. Others would have to come another day. Here I list out the full listing.

14 Consonants:

Hangul	Romanization
ㅂ	b
ㅈ	j
ㄷ	d
ㄱ	g
ㅅ	s
ㅁ	m
ㄴ	n
ㅇ	ng (or placeholder)
ㄹ	l/r
ㅎ	h
ㅋ	k
ㅌ	t
ㅊ	ch
ㅍ	p

10 Vowels:

Hangul	Romanization
ㅛ	yo
ㅕ	yeo
ㅑ	ya
ㅗ	o
ㅓ	eo
ㅏ	a
ㅣ	i
ㅠ	yu
ㅜ	u
ㅡ	eu

5 Double Consonants:

Hangul	Romanization
ㅃ	bb
ㅉ	jj
ㄸ	dd
ㄲ	gg
ㅆ	ss

11 Double Vowels:

Hangul	Romanization
ㅐ	ae
ㅒ	yae
ㅔ	e
ㅖ	ye
ㅘ	wa
ㅙ	wae
ㅚ	oe
ㅝ	wo
ㅞ	we
ㅟ	wi
ㅢ	ui

11 Final Double Consonants:

Hangul	Pronounciation
ㄳ	ㄱ
ㄵ	ㄴ
ㄶ	ㄴ
ㄺ	ㄱ
ㄻ	ㅁ
ㄼ	ㄹ
ㄽ	ㄹ
ㄾ	ㄹ
ㄿ	ㅂ
ㅀ	ㄹ
ㅄ	ㅂ

Source: LP's Guide to Korean Language

Feeling distant with Programming

2011-08-02T16:01:00.000+08:00

I think it has been quite a while, since I last touched heavy programming. All that I have been doing lately was just plannings, discussions, document preparations and presentations. I think most of the time it is more on document preparations.

I would say that the statements above would have just make my job scope seems so simple, but in fact that is not the case. After experiencing it first hand, I felt more dry when I'm writing documents than I was coding something. It felt taxing to the brain in some ways, and there's a lot of thinking to do during the document preparation. E.g., "What can I write to make it easier to understand?", "What other information do they need?", "Is this sequence easier to understand?", "Would they get lost when reading this?".

Writing too detailed on a single thing also can tire one's patience very quickly too. Will somehow feel very exhausted. After doing these for so long, I suddenly miss programming a lot.

I could do a simple personal project by myself but it would eat up a lot of my time because due to my packed schedule lately. Oi Mark Lai! When want to do some projects together? I need something to look forward to! :(

Procrastination = Shit Happens

2011-08-02T15:10:00.000+08:00

Yes. I have been procrastinating for quite some time. As long as I still draw breath, there is still tomorrow. However, life fools us in many different ways that we almost never expect it.

And so the story begins. I was procrastinating again until the final moments. Of all times for the internet to lag, it chose on the time when I was doing some last minute work. The internet speed slowed down so horrendously that it became almost impossible for me to do my work. I was suppose to do screen captures for a portal to make a guide. In case you all were wondering; No. This was not a fan service. It's actually work related.

After grueling sessions with the internet browser and the internet speed, I conceded defeat and rose the white flag. It was nigh 2 in the morning, and with this inefficiency working, I rather head off to take precious sleep instead.

This was suppose to be posted last Sunday, but I was busy (and tired). So I procrastinated it to today instead. Yeh.

Well, that's it for now. Back to productive working again.

Difficulty expressing these words

2011-07-26T13:59:00.000+08:00

Recently, I'm having difficulty to bring myself to say those words. More like difficulty to bring up that topic. I hate to be so secretive in nature, but the nature of this topic, requires me to maintain silence. At least until its completion.

I would say, the feeling is akin to bringing up the topic of wanting to break up with your partner, but since I have not said those words, nor did I broke up before (not that I've been in those relationship before anyway), I can't quite say it's the same feeling. Maybe another similar situation would be something like having a bone in the throat. Having a hard time coughing it up, but harder time swallowing it back.

Hence the dilemma. I'm pretty sure this would end pretty soon. Maybe by the end of this week I hope. Even then, it would still need few months before I can openly speak out the topic.

May God grant me the strength and courage to speak those words. :(

[ASP] [C#] Error when trying to read from radio button list with no selected value

2011-07-20T17:07:00.000+08:00

So we have an ASP Radio Button List control (ASP:radiobuttonlist) that has dynamic options. The radio button list options are dynamically loaded from different SharePoint lists depending on a ASP Drop Down List control selection. The radio button list control is not a required field and there will be cases that the user selects nothing and submits.

At the form submission, the page tries to store the selected item text into SharePoint with the code as follows.

if (ddlDropDownList.SelectedItem.Text == "RadioButtonList")
{
fields.Add("SPListExample", rblRadioButtonList.SelectedItem.Text);
}

The code above will return an error if the user did not select any options from the radio button list and submitted the form. This is because there is no selected item to grab text from.

To check and ensure the radio button list has a selected value before proceeding, can utilize on the radio button list's property, "SelectedIndex".

Code:

if (ddlDropDownList.SelectedItem.Text == "RadioButtonList")
{
    if (rbl.RadioButtonList.SelectedIndex != -1)
    {
        fields.Add("SPListExample", rblRadioButtonList.SelectedItem.Text);
    }
    else
    {
        fields.Add("SPListExample", "None");
    }
}

As long as we ensure that the radio button list has a selected item before we get the selected item's text, we are safe. :)

My bugs with RadioButtonList.SelectedItem.Text when there is no selected item

2011-07-20T15:24:00.003+08:00

This is a problem I encounter few days back. More like a code defect that I didn't realize back then and now it came back to bite me in my rump in the form of a bug.

So there I was trying to debug the codes and it turned out that I had a dynamic radio button list that is not a required field. What is even more fascinating is that I allow users to customize the radio button list to the extent that they can have zero option in the radio button list.

Yes. I do allow them to put zero options to the radio button list and that is not the bug actually. I have codes to hide the entire radio button list if there are no options in it. The bug occurs at the form submission where I tried to get the selected item of the radio button list, which throws an error.

Situation:

if (ddlType.SelectedItem.Text == "Radio Button List")
{
fields.Add("SomeSharePointList", rbl.SelectedItem.Text);
}

If there are no options to choose from, how can there be a selected option? I tried to store a non-existing text and got an error smacked into my face instead.

So what I did after that, was to add another code to check and ensure that the radio button list has a selected item before proceeding to store that information. Voila, my problem solved.

Sadly to say, in addition to that bug, during my debug session, I found a few more bugs. One is the same bug as the above, but in another section. The other one is the utilization of static values (i.e., Hard-code). Nothing hurt but my pride there.

Will strive to program better codes in future. :) I am still not a good programmer, but I am better than I was a year ago.

Click this link to display the codes to solve the radio button list problem.

Irony of Life

2011-07-13T14:54:00.001+08:00

A lot have happened lately, but there was not enough time to jot it down. Worse still, as time goes on, my memory on these events starts to fade to nothingness. Thus I end up not blogging about it.

So this is the irony of life. When I have quite some free time, there isn't any happening things to talk about. Hence I ended up writing random things. However, when there are actually things to blog about, I just don't have the time to blog about it. Thus the lack of interesting posts in my blog.

As of now, I really have no resolution to this phenomena. Guess I'll just have to live with these weird posts until I actually got the time to blog about proper things.

Updates on my end, work has been busy.. as usual. There is just too many tasks and too little time. Still trying to juggle a balance point out of it. I went to Hong Kong for business trip last week and while it was fun, it was also very hectic and busy. Haven't been playing badminton for a while. Kinda miss it, but when I actually play it, I'm pretty sure I will feel I suck so bad that I'd be demotivated with my performance.

Guitar exam's tomorrow and my preparation for it is mediocre at best. My pieces are decent with minimal stumbles. My scales are alright, if I play with my own way. If I were to adhere to the tirando and apoyando thingy, the entire scale sounded so staccato. My aural and sight reading preparation is next to nil. I guess I'll really be charging to my doom.

There's a sad news on my camera lens as well. The Nikkor AF-S 18-55mm auto focus motor just blew on itself. I've taken it to the shop where I purchased the camera and claimed a warranty. However, it will take about 2 weeks to a month before I can get a replacement for it. So now my camera is without lens. FML.

At least there is something to look forward to tonight. I'm going out! :) Hope everything will turn out well. It's been a while since I had a drive like this. Will keep details of this at minimal level because things are just so.. unsure as of now. Hope it will be tangible as time goes on.

Working @ Silent Lakeside Campus

2011-07-01T14:14:00.001+08:00

Today I'm working at Taylor's Lakeside Campus again. Here to deploy some things and I will shift my bum back to office at MSQ. Truth be told, I was pretty shocked when I saw so many parking lots vacant upon my arrival because usually at this time, I'd be parking somewhere near the end of the parking lot.

Even during lunch, the famous Zhia's Kitchen had vacant seats albeit just a few. But I've come to know that place as a place that is difficult to find seats. When I headed to the food court instead, the entire food court was 70% vacant!

After my peaceful lunch, on my way back to the staging room (just another server room), I met Adrian from the ICT. Had a quick chat with him, and it seems that the Taylor's will remain vacant like this till end of July. I suppose it's the term break. Well, one should not complain. It's not always that I get to enjoy privilege like this. :)

In addition to that, I also met Josephine and Hani. :) It certainly has been a while since I went there and seen them. Glad they are doing well. Also received compliments from them that they couldn't recognize me initially because today I wore casual instead of the usual working attire. Josephine was wondering which student am I. Perfect environment for me to blend in and act young. Hehe~

When I almost reach the staging room, I met another Taylor's staff which I got acquainted back in the Subang Jaya Campus days. Didn't get to know his name, nor his job scope, but he is a relatively nice guy. We greeted each other and had small casual talks before we headed off our own ways. The ICT staff are a blast as usual. The usual friendly lot. :)

On another different story, Chatime can now be found in Taylor's Lakeside Campus!! This place never failed to amuse me with new things each time I drop by here. Will try to get a picture of the Chatime later. :)

Is this wrong?

2011-07-01T10:41:00.000+08:00

I have not truly follow this news very tightly, so I don't want to speculate too much at the moment. The following points is a war cry that had gone viral lately in Malaysia. Is it wrong to try to achieve the following points? Why have the government responded in such a manner? Shall go back and enlighten myself on this after work.

1. Clean the electoral roll

2. Reform postal ballot

3. Use of indelible ink

4. Minimum 21 days campaign period

5. Free and fair access to media

6. Strengthen public institutions

7. Stop corruption

8. Stop dirty politics

Wei Chern Bday Celeb @ Secret Recipe, SS2

2011-06-24T00:12:00.002+08:00

Yes, I know I'm late. But at least it is earlier compared to how late I usually am. :) Well, I had to say that this is a rather short one. We all went to the Secret Recipe at SS2 to celeb Wei Chern and Kenneth bday, although kenneth's birthday was the day before. But it's alright. :)

In addition to that, I'd say I'm really happy with the number of attendees that turned up. :) There was Gan, Kah Yin, Kenneth, Lee Ping, Wei Chern, Bor and me! They ordered 4 slices of cake which I had very little because I wasn't feeling well.

As a matter of fact, Wei Chern was sick and Kah Yin too if I'm not mistaken. Weather's bad lately. I'd advise people to take care of their health. In the end, we just spend the time catching up with each other just like old times because our meetings had been getting scarce in between.

As usual, happy times flitted by real quickly and it was time for farewell again. Bor had to rush back home to continue with his work (peak season for his company), Gan had to go back to prepare for his course the next day, while Wei Chern needed to head home to catch some rest.

So Kenneth, Lee Ping, Kah Yin and I headed over to McD at SS2 for a second round and utilized the "buy-1-nugget-free-1-nugget" voucher. We sat and chat till 12.20am and we all headed home. All in all, it was time well spent.

I personally think this blog post does no justice to the event, because I am sort of having writer's block and I felt as if I didn't describe the good parts of that day well enough.

Oh well~ Look forward to tomorrow~ Where the Cina Gang meets again. :)

I only got 3 pictures of that night. Ha Ha Ha~ :) Enjoice pl0x.

Fumbling through Chinese Sites

2011-06-23T14:33:00.000+08:00

The title is actually a description of my job scope for today. Haha. Although I can speak and listen to Chinese rather decently, but the fact that I am a "banana" (i.e. Chinese-Illiterate) cannot be denied. I can only read and type (note: it's typing and not writing. I can't hand write Traditional nor Simplified Chinese even if my life depended on it) basic Simplified Chinese and very very limited Traditional Chinese.

Yet, here I am configuring this SharePoint Site in both Traditional Chinese and Simplified Chinese. Once again, I have to rely on my language buddy, Google Translate and also some help from my kind colleagues. >_< Especially when the output from the Google Translate is making no cow sense.

Truth be told, it is really funny indeed. Also I navigate around the menus based on my memory of the English version. The symbols and icons certainly contributed some help as well. Well, aside from all those lingual barriers, I personally think this project is quite fun to look at. Being able to play with a multi-lingual website that is. :) Unfortunately, I am not charged to populate the contents as well. Else, it would certainly be a eye opener.

In another news, my sickness has been reduced to mild cough, phlegm, blocked nose and ulcer. :) Yet another improvement as I progress through the week. However, there are some downsides to this happy day as well. The workload is immense as usual and almost all of them have this "High Priority", "Urgent", "As soon as possible", or "By this week" tagged to them.

Yesterday also had a mini celebration of Wei Chern's birthday at Secret Recipe. Only took 2 few pictures but will upload them tonight (if I manage to install Pinta by tonight).

Well, that's all for now. Real tired from lack of sleep. :(

Tuesday Blue: A Leaky Faucet

2011-06-22T14:10:00.000+08:00

It had been an uneventful day. What I did at work today, was to come out with a demo scenario. The process of coming up with these process flows sort of reminded me of my internship days. Even though back then, I was actually involved with proof reading more than the actual process of coming out process flows.

That itself contributed none of the Tuesday blue. It was actually the leaky faucet of mine. This nose of mine was dripping the entire day, and I actually finished a pack of tissues.

The running nose also made me felt tired and difficult to brain stuffs. Hence, when I got home, as soon as I finished eating my dinner, I took some (old) running nose medicine and slept from 9.30 pm till 7.30 the next morning. :)

It's now Wednesday, and I'm glad to say that the nose isn't that leaky. Even though it's still mildly irritated and the skin around the nose felt raw from the blowing and rubbing yesterday, I'd say this is still an improvement.

The cough is still around but I'm pretty sure things will get better soon.

Back from Singapore; Back to Work

2011-06-20T13:09:00.002+08:00

Last Friday, we (Kah Yin, Kenneth, Lee Ping, Wei Chern and I) took a trip to Singapore to meet up with Boon Woei and Chu Jie. Truth be told, I felt very happy that we could go on a trip together and also being able to meet up with Boon Woei and Chu Jie after these while.

However, I finally realized why I seemed rather emo to them halfway through the trip. It appears that halfway through the trip, my mood had a drastic drop becuase I was beginning to feel unwell. By Sunday (the last day), I felt like sleeping non-stop.

Now that I am back at Malaysia, I kinda regretted that I could not spend enough quality time with them at Singapore. Worse still, is to catch a cough and mild unwell on the start of the week. Oh the Monday Blues. :(

Things looking grim @ Work

2011-06-15T23:33:00.000+08:00

I might be paranoid. Then again, maybe not.

At any rate, this is a early warning raised by my overly sensitive mind. I noticed that my value had been gradually dropping. To the point that I wouldn't be too surprised if I am to be wrote off as scrap or unnecessary liability.

Thus far, I am actually loving this place. With much thanks going to my awesome team with its amazing members. I'm glad to have met each and every member and it's truly an honor to be able to be able to work with them.

Since this is nothing more than a premonition as of now, I can only wish that those eyes that are looking at me, would change their perspective. Or maybe reevaluate things again. I'll continue to try my best, and as of now, I will wait and see the results again some time later.

p/s: I should really be working now. But I seems to be unable to push myself to do it lately. :(

A chain is only as strong as its weakest link

2011-06-07T10:32:00.004+08:00

Another quote that smacked into my mind just now. "A chain is only as strong as its weakest link." This is very meaningful and I think it is good to keep this in mind all of the times.

Actually I think the sentence is quite self-explanatory. When stress is applied to the chain, the chain will respond to the stress as good as the weakest link in the chain can deal with the stress. Regardless how sturdy the rest of the links are, the chain will still snap when the weakest link reaches its limit.

What does this tells us? Sometimes, we focused on our best assets and we overlooked other little things. For the techies, when we are assembling a computer, the first thing we have in mind is to get a state-of-the-art processor, RAMs, and maybe graphic cards as well. But when we actually use the system, it isn't as fancy as we'd expected.

Why is this so? Because we neglected some smaller things like the hard disk for instance. For most of us, so as long as the hard disk can store all the data we need, it will suffice. The inferiority of the hard disk will actually hamper the performance of the entire desktop due to its slow writing and reading speed.

Enough with the computer example, it is actually not any different in our life. If you are working in a team, and there is a member who is uncooperative in many aspects; You'd realized that regardless of how capable the rest of the members are, the team's efficiency will still be low. This is especially if the team works in a pipeline manner, in which the least efficient will be the bottleneck.

Therefore, when we are handling a situation, address to the top 20% of the issue will often help you solve 80% of the entire problem. Fixing the weak link in the chain will help solve your problem than further enhancing the rest of the chain equally.

Above The Fold

2011-06-07T00:43:00.001+08:00

Yet another graphical design term. First, let's get everyone on the same page.

What is "Above the fold"?

The term, "Above the fold" can be used more generally to refer to anything that is prominently displayed or of highest priority. (Newspaper / Websites)
- source from Wikipedia

This term originated from the newspapers. If you notice, that newspapers are often folded (not always) and the first half of the cover page is considered as "Above the fold" because it is literally above the fold and essentially the cream of the crop of the paper space. Readers and viewers will first notice the information displayed in the "Above the fold" section and because of this, by any means necessary, people will try to push the most attractive part or the most informative part of their content to above the fold.

As mentioned previously, the term "Above the fold" is also applicable in website designs.

While the newspapers' fold is referring literally to its folding point, for the websites, it is referring to the section above the horizontal scroll bar upon page load. Unless we are searching specific information, otherwise we would just leave the site if the things we see in the section above the fold does not interest us.

Hence, when designing a webpage or a site, always ensure that the important part of your website is located above the fold. Checking through with resolution of 1024x768 would be good.

[H] [R] [T] T-Ara 티아라 - Yayaya

2011-05-24T13:16:00.004+08:00

Catchy song

Click here to view the lyrics.

Credits

ME: Emo 仔?

2011-05-24T00:59:00.003+08:00

Not quite a pleasant day, but heck it's Monday! Waddya expect?

Not exactly a great way to start the week, but since it's Monday, I guess I'll let it slide. Actually, I don't want to describe in details regarding today's incident. Even though it had happened, and I'm actually depressed because of it up to a certain degree, but I have my reasons to stay silent.

I actually read back my posts after some time had passed. The feeling of rereading what I wrote, what I encounter would be best described as, "walking down memory lane." It feels good, and because of this, I do not wish to relive those not-so-happy moments. Especially when it is regarding frictions between me and other people. I always believed that these frictions are often generated by two parties. It takes two hands to clap and thus, I am to blame as well.

Therefore, I'll bury the hatchet tonight as I sleep. After all, this is what I always do whenever I am depressed.

Back to the subject of this post. Contrary to popular beliefs, I am NOT Emo 仔 (pronounced as emo "zai" aka emo kid). Yes, I enjoy listening to sad songs, but mainly because I enjoy the sentimental mood, and not because I enjoy weeping. I will not discuss about the leaky tear ducts of mine but because of this hobby of listening to sad songs most of the time, people seems to categorize me as Emo 仔.

I totally understand and accept the idea of that. After all, if it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, it had gotta be a duck! The power of impressions. Well, I strayed off topic again. Not only I am NOT an Emo 仔, but as a matter of fact, I dislike seeing sad things. Regardless whether it happened to me or to others, I just couldn't stand it. Not in a way that I hated to hear or know about peoples' sad stories, but my heart would feel pained to see people suffering.

I can't describe the feeling, but it would make me feel depressed and also helpless as I do not have the ability nor the capability to help. Needless to say, my heart will feel kinda wrenched, and because of that, sometimes I rather not know if I am unable to help. Because if I knew, then I will over think a lot of things which encompasses of mostly sad thoughts. Really wish that the world is an ideal place where everybody lives happily together.

But that's the fairy tale, and it's the real world that we're living in now. So I'll sign off now and head to my lala-land shortly, before the harsh reality of the cruel world awaits me at the next morning as I wake up. Good night peeps.

[H] [R] [T] Big Bang 빅뱅 - Love Song

2011-05-22T09:15:00.001+08:00

Click here to view the lyrics.

Credits

The Opposite of Fitts' Law

2011-05-21T13:49:00.024+08:00

The title is an exact replica title of the article that I was reading. From the post's title, you may find yourself wondering, "What on earth is this Fitts' Law?"

Well, there's no need to feel all confused and befuddled with this jargon, as it's my first time coming across with this term as well. In fact, it IS a jargon and it's a User Interface (UI) jargon.

Let me briefly describe the Fitts' Law as I understands it. In a single sentence, the Fitts' Law means - the larger an item is, and the closer it is to your cursor, the easier it is to click on.

It's easier to click a bigger button than the smaller one

Now, if the statement in bold above doesn't seems to be making much sense to you, perhaps the following points would shed some light to you:

Put commonly accessed UI elements on the edges of the screen. Because the cursor automatically stops at the edges, they will be easier to click on.
Make clickable areas as large as you can. Larger targets are easier to click on.

The Fitts' Law is a whole lot more of texts than above, but the shortened version above is good enough for us for now. From the sentence above, we can see that these seems to be UI design's common sense, why is it worthy of mentioning? If I may take a quote from my friend, "Common sense is rather uncommon nowadays. Ironic huh?"

If we actually go scour around websites, you will find website designs that doesn't adhere to the Fitts' Law. This is when you find the buttons that we often click are at odd locations and with odd sizes. To the point that we have to navigate around using the scrollbars and etc.

After all this talking of the Fitts' Law, then what is the opposite of Fitts' Law? If Fitts' Law wants buttons that we like to press to be big and easily accessible, then the opposite of Fitts' Law would be to put button that we do not really want to press at odd locations and with smaller click-able area.

Delete

Notice that the "Publish" and "Save as Draft" are parked together while the "Delete" is placed a safe distance away from the other 2 buttons to prevent accidental clicks.

An example analogy would be the eject lever in a fighter jet. It is a very important lever and should not be stored in a place that is not easily accessible. However, because of its nature (irreversible action i.e. you cannot undo this action), it is also very illogical to place it near switches that are commonly used (e.g. Cabin Lights, FM radio). The same goes for web design. "Save as Draft" should not be placed side by side with the "Delete" function. Nor the "Like this" with the "Flag as inappropriate". I myself have experience clicking the wrong button because I was clicking too fast on my mouse.

Do check out the article written by Coding Horror: Jeff Atwood because it is from there that I got to know about the Fitts' Law and its opposite. Also he have very good examples (explained in his own funny way) about the Fitts' Law and its opposite.

20th May, 2011: Sin(330°)

2011-05-20T15:48:00.000+08:00

A new day, a new beginning. This is why I always choose to sleep when depressed. When I woke up this morning, half of my depression from the previous night has already been out of my mind. As I drive my way to the office, I finally managed to convince myself that all the problem came from how I handled things and that the problem is with me.

Regardless of where I will be or who I will be dealing with in the future, if the problem lies within me, these problems is bound to occur again. After all, the root of the problem is internal and not external.

I put "Sin(330°)" as the post's title because deep down in me, I felt I have yet to purge all these negativity from my heart and soul. I have yet to reach the point of neutrality yet, but I'd say, it's good progress. By tonight or tomorrow morning, I'm pretty sure I will be back to normal.

Unfortunately, there had been collateral damage. I was talking to Josiah last night and some minor misunderstanding triggered me again. The problem was from my side. I couldn't understand what he was trying to say and although it is a very trivial matter, I still lost my temper and peppered Josiah again. Jo, I'm sorry. But still, I also have to thank you. The conversation last night helped reduce some of the stress that I have been bottling up. I'm sorry that you caught some of the steam.

I was putting up some demotivated personal message around last night, but I finally decided to remove them. Partly because I wasn't that clouded with depression anymore. But also, what is the point of complaining and moaning if that wouldn't solve my problem? (I must also add. It certainly helped a bit by putting up some of the discontent that I've been feeling. Haha.)

What was meant as a short update of how I am right now, suddenly became such a verbose post again. At least I manage to get out what was in my heart. :) Looking forward to reach Sin(0°) or better still, Sin(90°). That's it for now. :)

19th May 2011: Sin(270°)

2011-05-20T01:44:00.001+08:00

I don't know how to describe it.. but today had been a rather depressing day.. I'll just leave it at here.. Will tomorrow be a better day?

Paint.NET: MS Paint's Successor

2011-05-19T01:33:00.000+08:00

This post is specially written to those out that wishes to perform simple editing of images but does not want to be overwhelmed by large number of functions and buttons that full-fledged image editing software provides. I myself used to be one of them. Truth be told, I ain't much of a graphical guy. I can't really design, nor do I have any design sense in me.

Hence I always leave these image editing things to people with the right skill and the right mind for the job. Only in my most desperate moments, I would resort to MS Paint. I might sound like someone ungrateful (maybe I am), but the results from the MS Paint is shoddy at best. Perhaps the lack of functions is the cause. Or it's just me that is lacking in designing skills.

Well, that is before I found out about Paint.NET. Paint.NET is free image and photo editing software for computers that run Windows. It features an intuitive and innovative user interface with support for layers, unlimited undo, special effects, and a wide variety of useful and powerful tools. An active and growing online community provides friendly help, tutorials, and plugins.

It started development as an undergraduate college senior design project mentored by Microsoft, and is currently being maintained by some of the alumni that originally worked on it. Originally intended as a free replacement for the Microsoft Paint software that comes with Windows, it has grown into a powerful yet simple image and photo editor tool. It has been compared to other digital photo editing software packages such as Adobe® Photoshop®, Corel® Paint Shop Pro®, Microsoft Photo Editor, and The GIMP.

An example of Paint.NET's work? Well, the banner of my blog was made using Paint.NET and it took me about 5 minutes to finish it. And most of the time was actually spent on choosing which font actually looks better.

Anyway, for those who do not have any decent image editing software besides MS Paint, I strongly recommend this tool. It's open source (free), light weight and fast.

Get Paint.NET by clicking the little button below.

p/s: Do ensure that you meet the minimum system requirements before downloading it.

[H] [R] [T] Anne 애니 - Go Back To Her (그녀에게 돌아가)

2011-05-19T00:59:00.006+08:00

I don't know how to describe my feelings when I was listening to this. I only knew I once looped this song a lot. :)

Click here to view the lyrics.

Credits

"I don't have a choice" vs. "I had to make a call"

2011-05-18T23:39:00.000+08:00

I'm pretty sure that we would hear one of these phrases from time to time at certain points of our life. "I don't have a choice" and "I had to make a call"; The former is more commonly heard compared to the latter. Although both phrases are used in same situations, but there's a subtle difference between the two phrases.

During a lose-lose situation, someone made a decision. Subsequently, depending on how the decision maker felt, one of the two phrases mentioned previously would be used. Those who said, "I don't have a choice" are those who resented their choice and felt as if they were forced to make that decision. They felt that Life had left them no other choice but the one they had made. On the other hand, for those who made the decision and said, "I had to make a call" are those who take it in a stride as responsibility falls on their shoulders.

In actual, we will often come across a junction where we have to make a decision in a lose-lose situation. What is left to do is to think and choose the one with lesser disadvantages. Of course life isn't smooth sailing all the time. In the event where a wrong decision is made, then try to salvage as much as possible. After that, get up and move on. Life is too short to weep over spilt milk. Remember that, what doesn't kill you only makes you stronger.

Life is full of lessons and message. Take it as a lesson and grow smarter with each mistake. Cheers :)

TCTham Blog Update

2011-05-16T11:17:00.002+08:00

This is the 1st post of its kind in this blog. Mainly, I write this to log down the changes that I have done to this blog.

For this reason, I've decided to name all posts like this with the same title. I don't see a point of adding version numbers as there will be more coming and I don't have the luxury of having major and minor releases. As a matter of fact, I don't think people will be really interested in these logs. So a simple post will suffice for now.

The changes are as follows:

Removed the "Home" link at the bottom of each page
At post pages, the links "Older Posts" and "Newer Posts" has been replaced with the previous and next posts' title. This resembles WordPress format.
Changed the title of the blog and the description.
Changed the banner and the theme of the blog.

I've applied the changes above, because:

I felt that the Home link was rather under utilized at any rate.
I think this will make navigating inside posts simpler.

Stay tune for more updates. If there are any comments, you can always leave it at the comment box below, or the chat box at the right navigation pane. :)

Life as a pixel

2011-05-06T15:47:00.004+08:00

"Reducing the resolution and zooming out to a certain level, we are just a pixel of the bigger picture."

Often in life, we all play the role of a pixel. What do I meant by playing a role of a pixel?

A pixel is a derived from the word picture element. The word "picture" is abbreviated to "pix" and element to "el"; Combining both will result in the word "pixel". A pixel is the smallest picture element in a picture that can be be controlled. By its own, each pixel does not bring any definitive meaning. However, a large group of pixels working together can give fantastic results. From simple images that we see on our monitor to high definition pictures taken by professional photographers using DSLRs. All of these are the results of pixels working together.

So, what am I trying to say by comparing us to a pixel?

Well, let's look at things from a pixel point of view. A pixel will receive instructions from the CPU from time to time, to change its intensity; composition of Red, Green, Blue; and its mixture of hue, saturation and brightness. The CPU often does not include the reason of its instruction to the pixel. It is given that instruction and is expected to perform exactly that.

So sometimes, we may feel befuddled with the instructions that we received from change of command and we may follow the instructions to the dot (or not). In this scenario, we are the pixel, and we are given a set of instructions that we are expected to follow. It may or may not seems absurd.

In short, without knowing the big picture (or full picture), will you follow the instructions given to you to the dot? It may be an important thing or it may be a complete waste of time. But the only thing that is certain, is that the final outcome strongly depends of the performance of you and your peers.

Last but not least, the message that I want to convey is that the chain of command above us often have a plan or something. So, unless you are absolutely certain about the plan that the chain of command above us will lead to a total FUBAR, I suggest following the received instructions until further revelation.

Happy pixel'ing. :)

[C] [P] [T] 林凡 - 五天幾年

2011-05-04T10:56:00.006+08:00

This song made me change station from OneFM to 988 because I heard this song in 988 and I wish to hear it again.

This is not a MV. Just a song with an image.

Click here to view the lyrics.

Credits

BTS - Bangkok Traffic (Love) Story

2011-05-04T10:04:00.002+08:00

Watched this movie April 6th with Doi and SengKar. Yay! Finally got to watch this. :)

Bangkok Traffic (Love) Story, also know as BTS. As a trivia, BTS is actually the acronym of Bangkok Mass Transit System. The acronym BTS is used as a pun to the movie.

The embedded video below is the international trailer to this movie.

Promotional Posters

Cast

Additional Film Details

Trailer Synopsis

Full Synopsis *WARNING: SPOILER ALERT*

On Ped's (Panisara Pimpru) wedding night on Valentine's day, Ped's close friend Mei li or Li (Sirin Horwang) has drunk too much wine and fallen asleep in Ped's room. Waking in the early hours, she drives back to her home, but has an car accident on the way. As a result, she meets Loong (Theeradej Wongpuapan). He helps Mei Li check her car engine and offers to return her car's wing mirror, but Li demurs and says that he can keep it. When Li arrives home in the morning, her parents and grandmother scold her and her father forbids her from driving, so Li has to go to work by public transport.

One night, Li wakes up in the middle of night and go to the roof of her house. She accidentally catches her maid and her boyfriend also on the roof. Her maid's boyfriend calls his 'elder' (responsible adult), who turns out to be Loong. After that, Li meets Loong again at a BTS Skytrain station. This time Li accidentally breaks Loong's sunglasses. Li consults with her neighbour, Plern (Ungsumalynn Sirapatsakmetha). Plern helps her by suggesting Li writes her mobile phone number on something and give it to Loong. Li buys a replacement pair of sunglasses and writes her number on box, and arranges to 'bump into' Loong to give him the new sunglasses. After waiting for Loong to call, Li consults with Plern again, and go to a Video Rental shop that Loong visits regularly. Plern uses a trick to get Loong's mobile number, but later goes to work at the same video store instead of giving Loong's number to Li. As revenge, Li uses Plern's mobile to send messages to Plern's 3 boyfriends, inviting them all to the store at the same time. This causes an argument, and when Loong comes in to the shop, he accidentally drops his laptop.

Feeling responsible, Li take Loong's laptop to Ped's husband, but he can't fix it. Li goes to return it at the BTS office. Since Loong is away from his office, she leaves a message with security, but she falls asleep. When Loong finishes work, he finds Li, and they share the BTS to get to their respective homes. As Loong's laptop was so damaged, and the laptop bag was so old, he decides to throw it away. Li picks the bag up out of the bin, and takes it home. There are many things inside including film negatives. Li has the nagtives printed, and finds Loong's pictures with Kob Kavita (Taksaorn Paksukjareon), an actress in "Saint's Tear", a popular television series that plays a supporting role in the film. However the pictures are posted on internet and published in newspapers, as the photo printing shop owner posted them on Hi5 as they were of a famous actress.

Li meets Loong again on a skytrain while he is sleeping. Li tell him the truth that the pictures might have been published because of her, but Loong doesn't mind. Loong tells her that Kob is his ex-girlfriend and they broke up because their time schedules didn't match. When the skytrain arrives at Ekkamai Station, Li suggest to Loong that they watch the stars at the Bangkok Planetarium and see an exhibition about Mcbright comet which will pass close to the earth. Li asks Loong to watch the comet with her in Bangkok when it passes. Later, before the Songkran holidays, Loong asks Li to come celebrate by throwing water. Li, who has already agreed with her family to visit China during the holiday, makes an excuse when she gets to the airport that she forgot her passport, and so can't go with her family to China.

During the Songkran festival, Plern joins them. Li doesn't enjoy the festivities because of her. Li knows Loong's address, which is a guesthouse next to Chao Phraya River. Li changes her clothes and go to see Loong, and finds him asleep. Li falls asleep next to him. After she wakes up, Loong asks her to travel around Bangkok. Loong also asks Li to come to family day at the BTS, as he can take her into the depot. Loong takes pictures, but Li damages the camera.

On the family day visit, Li finds out that Loong is leaving in 2 days time to spend 2 years studying in Germany. Next day, Li goes to Loong's house and finds that his stuff has been packed. Both walk to talk on Taksin Bridge Li say goodbye to Loong at the bridge by saying that she want to be acquaintances only, echoing the breakup between Loong and Kob. Next day, Loong goes to Germany in the morning, but sends Li a box. Inside the box is the wing mirror from when they first met, the damaged sunglasses, Bangkok Planetarium tickets, and the damaged camera, with the memory card still inside. Li opens the memory card and looks at the pictures. Li rushes to Suvarnabhumi Airport to try and stop Loong, but it is too late - his flight left at 8am, and she arrives at 10am. On that day, the Mcbright comet orbits to the earth. Loong watches the comet on board his plane, while Li watches it as well.

2 years later, Li is working a night shift as a stock analyst. While going to work one evening, Li accidentally meets Loong on a BTS Skytrain. Loong has changed to work the day shift and has been back in Thailand for a few months. Both get off the Skytrain at Siam station, which is the interchange station between the Sukhumvit Line and the Silom Line. Li goes downstairs to change to a different line and doesn't turn back to look at Loong. Li gets on her train, but the electricity goes out. Passengers call their friends or family to say the train has stopped. Li's phone rings with an unknown number, and when she answers it, it is Loong. He asks Li to again celebrate Songkran. Li replied that she is free for the holidays. When electricity comes back on, Loong is on the same Skytrain, standing next to Li. He tells Li that she has his number now, and to record it.

Credits

I am Jack of All Trades, Master of None

2011-05-04T01:06:00.000+08:00

周身刀冇把利

Today I was attending a meeting at Hong Kong and that meeting was conducted in English. After attending that meeting, I was totally astounded. When all of them were conducting the meeting in English, their fluency and accent was akin to those who study abroad in the Western countries. As a matter of fact, they speak better English than most of the Malaysians that I know.

Perhaps we as Malaysians, would retort to that by saying that we know more languages compared to them. That is why our English is not on par with them. However, after the meeting was adjourned, they resumed by speaking Cantonese casually. Even these Cantonese are spoken with fluency that is better than most that I have encountered at home. Is it because they are speaking their native language?

In addition to that, there was a project sponsor from China. Hence some of them conversed in Mandarin as well. Needless to say, they even manage to speak Mandarin with the accent that we often hear people from China speak. After this meeting today, I felt as if my language mastery is really rock bottom level when compared to other people. They know even more or as much language as us and yet they managed to attain this level of proficiency and fluency.

What's the point of picking up additional languages if we are unable to master the few languages that we currently know? I totally felt that I am a jack of all trades and master of none. With this, I am going to continue to improve my Cantonese and English. :(

Microsoft Office Words 2007: Generate x number of lorem ipsum (incomprehensible) sentences & paragraphs

2011-05-04T00:40:00.000+08:00

Blogging from Hong Kong Hotel. So far I'm enjoying things here

Remember my previous post about how to generate x number of comprehensible sentences & paragraphs. Well this is the continuation of it! Here is how to generate x number of incomprehensible sentences and paragraphs.

Although we may ask ourself, "Why would we want to generate incomprehensible texts when we can already generate comprehensible ones?" The truth is, the comprehensible texts are related to Microsoft Office Words 2007 and at times when we are mocking some pages, incomprehensible texts are a better option compared to irrelevant texts.

So here we are, the code to generate the incomprehensible texts are as follows:

=lorem(x, y)

Where:
x = Number of paragraphs
y = Number of sentences in each paragraph

So if we type the following code into Microsoft Office Words 2007 and hit the "Enter" button:

=lorem(2, 3)

Then we will get the following texts returned back to us.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Maecenas porttitor congue massa. Fusce posuere, magna sed pulvinar ultricies, purus lectus malesuada libero, sit amet commodo magna eros quis urna.

Nunc viverra imperdiet enim. Fusce est. Vivamus a tellus.

There! Hope this helps people to generate random texts while offline. :)

Microsoft Office Words 2007: Generate x number of comprehensible sentences & paragraphs

2011-05-03T08:11:00.001+08:00

It's the beginning of the month. I'm glad to have seen you all again. Great badminton and catch up session. Really love talking to you guys. :)

Do you remember my post about a hidden function in Microsoft Office Words 2007? Well, I finally found out what that "=rand(99, 200)" meant and what is it used for.

Actually Microsoft Office Words 2007 has included a feature in it that allows us to generate a bunch of comprehensible sentences.

=rand(x, y)

where
x = Number of Paragraphs
y = Number of Sentences in a paragraph

Type the code above into Microsoft Office Words 2007 and hit the Enter button. Then an essay with the specified number of paragraphs and sentences will be printed into the Microsoft Office Words 2007. Note that the essay will always be about the functions and features of Microsoft Office Words.

Example:

=rand(2, 3)

This should give me an "essay" of 2 paragraphs with a total of 3 sentences in each paragraphs.

After I hit the Enter button, the result is as follows:

On the Insert tab, the galleries include items that are designed to coordinate with the overall look of your document. You can use these galleries to insert tables, headers, footers, lists, cover pages, and other document building blocks. When you create pictures, charts, or diagrams, they also coordinate with your current document look.

You can easily change the formatting of selected text in the document text by choosing a look for the selected text from the Quick Styles gallery on the Home tab. You can also format text directly by using the other controls on the Home tab. Most controls offer a choice of using the look from the current theme or using a format that you specify directly.

There! Hope this function is useful for you all that wish to generate a large number of comprehensible text.

Coming up next: Microsoft Office Words 2007: Generate x number of lorem ipsum (incomprehensible) sentences & paragraphs

Ctrl Alt Del brings up Windows Security screen instead of Task Manager

2011-04-29T13:30:00.000+08:00

Have you switched to Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 or equivalent?

Ctrl + Alt + Del made easy?

Do you realise that when we press the Ctrl + Alt + Del, our task manager no longer greet us?

A must have for all Windows user: Task Manager

Instead we see the Windows Security screen.

To access task manager with Ctrl Alt Del, an extra click is needed

And then we ask ourself, how do I skip this extra step, or this extra click to access the Task Manager which we often use to kill tasks or to check our machine's status?

Luckily, there's another key combination that will bring up the Task Manager albeit not known to many Windows users out there.

Ctrl + Shift + Esc to the rescue!

And here you go. Your trusty little Task Manager is back with just a key combination. :) Easier to press than the Ctrl Alt Del too.

Windows 7 Ultimate x64: CHKDSK and Blank Screen after Login

2011-04-27T13:55:00.002+08:00

So I find myself in a black pit of despair. Each time I try to start my PC, it will perform the CHKDSK.

Here, my CHKDSK doesn't seems to complete. It will reach the final stage (Stage 3 of 3) but stops there without proceeding. I didn't wait for too long (only 5 minutes after it finished stage 3) because it's already 3 in the morning.

During the CHKDSK, it found no bad files but I can't seems to get the final outcome. Perhaps tonight I'll let it run for 30 minutes before I call it an off.

The second scenario that is when I decided to skip the CHKDSK section, which allows me to proceed directly to the windows log on screen. But after I log on to my account, I am greeted with just a blank black screen (aka KSOD (abbr. of blacK Screen Of Death)) and a mouse cursor. In other words, if I may go deeper down, the explorer.exe wasn't executed.

I tried to forcibly run the explorer.exe but the system does not responds to my "windows+r" hotkey. I cannot bring up the New Task window. So I tried another method which is known to all Windows users, the Ctrl+Alt+Del key; which brings up the Windows Security screen. :)

Then I click on the Task Manager, and an error message pops up which says it is unable to start the task manager. :(

After a quick Googling around, it seems that there are a few possible causes:

Registry Key corrupted
Corrupted Windows Files
Signs of Hard Disk failure
Event Logs

If tonight I got time, I will try to let the CHKDSK run longer, or see if I can do something about the registry keys or delete the event logs. Else I would have to resort to a bootable flashdrive and reformat the PC.

Update: I let the CHKDSK run longer, and when it's done; My computer is fixed!!! Yes~ Seems like there was just bad sectors in the drive.. Phew~

Ubuntu Linux: A beginning for me?

2011-04-26T16:23:00.000+08:00

Downloaded the Ubuntu Linux for desktop yesterday.
Going to try to install it onto my home virtual machine tonight.
Will it be a new beginning for me?

Camera	Nikon D5100
Lens	Nikkor AF-S 35mm f/1.8G DX
Aperture	f/2.8
Shutter Speed	1/6 sec.
ISO Speed	ISO-800
Exposure Compensation	-0.3
Focal Length	35mm

Directed by	Adisorn Tresirikasem
Produced by	Jira Maligool Chenchonnee Soonthornsarntool Suwimol Taechasupinun Wanruedee Pongsittisak
Written by	Benjamaporn Srabua Navapol Thamrongruttanarit Adisorn Tresirikasem
Music by	Instinct
Cinematography	Somboon Piriyapakdeekul Jira Maligool
Editing by	Vichapat Gojew Thammarat Sumetsupachok Panayu Khunwallee
Distributed by	GMM Tai Hub
Release Date	15 October 2009
Country	Thailand
Language	Thai

	Character Name	Cast
	Mei Li	Sirin Horwang
	Lung	Theeradej Wongpuapan
	Pluen	Ungsumalynn Sirapatsakmetha

Tham's Memoirs

One that I could not forget

Christmas Present 2011 by Myself

[C] [P] [T] 郭静 Claire Guo - 陪着我的时候想着她

Happy New Year!

Y u no return the love and care?

为了快乐，别太在乎

5 step to attract customers

Step 1: Look for customers

Step 2: Get referrals

Step 3: State your competitive advantage

Step 4: Use free social networking tools

Step 5: Make friends

My bed: Office

我很"可爱"

Don't look back

Courage to speak

Tired like a drunk

Love Interest : Finale?

Arguments again

Broken Shoes

Someone special?

I wanted you to be happy

When I look back (Camera)

[Chinese Proverb] 情人眼里出西施

Elevator for Selfish People

Wait for SMS

Money Problem?

Will second be the last?

First step to "foreveralone"

New Phone?

Respect: Earned or Given?

无奈

Courtesy of a young driver

"I Can’t Brain Today: I’ve Got the Dumb" - Katrina Berne

Job Dilemmas

I wanna go home :(

My latest addiction: Khuntoria (WGM)

"Inspiration Squared" by David Crandall

[C#] IF... ELSE... Short hand

SAGA BLM FC RM0.1736/km

[H] [R] [T] 차수경 (Cha Soo Kyung) - 용서 못해 (yongseo mothae || trans. Can't Forgive)

中秋节快乐

[T-3] Mid-Autumn Festival (中秋节)

Behind-the-scenes with ‘Running Man’ cameraman, Ryu Kwon Ryeol

A must watch!! Captain Malaysia

Eugene Tham back to HTML & CSS Basics

很狠的一个留言

无言。

Lethargic again..

[H] [R] [T] Lady Jane (레이디 제인) ft Verbal Jint - I love you everyday (매일 사랑해)

Running Man - Monday Couple

Depressed weekend

Was a boy, I am now a man

I am doing fine for a sub-average

[Work] Counselor "foreverbusy"?

[K] [R] [T] Supercell ft Nagi - The Story You Don't Know (君の知らない物語)

[Photography] Avenue of Stars 星光大道 (Tsim Tsa Tsui, Hong Kong 尖沙嘴, 香港)

Gray or Grey?

Leaping into the abyss within

A little help to memorize Hangul 14 consonants

My last day at Hong Kong

Learnt some hangul characters

Feeling distant with Programming

Procrastination = Shit Happens

Difficulty expressing these words

[ASP] [C#] Error when trying to read from radio button list with no selected value

My bugs with RadioButtonList.SelectedItem.Text when there is no selected item

Irony of Life

Working @ Silent Lakeside Campus

Is this wrong?

Wei Chern Bday Celeb @ Secret Recipe, SS2

Fumbling through Chinese Sites

Tuesday Blue: A Leaky Faucet

Back from Singapore; Back to Work

Things looking grim @ Work

A chain is only as strong as its weakest link

Above The Fold

[H] [R] [T] T-Ara 티아라 - Yayaya

ME: Emo 仔?