TYPE-KUROGANE has successfully migrated to TYPE-KUROGANE: NANA [codename: ultraseven] without major conflicts and issues. The whole process took around 7 hours to complete. It is now undergoing stability tests and cleanup processes.

Notable Minor Issues:

1. For smooth transition, uninstall earlier versions of DAEMON TOOLS. In-place update of it is still possible though.
2. MATLAB R2007a or earlier requires compatibility mode Windows Vista SP2 or earlier to work.
3. Intel WPAN should be uninstalled before upgrading.
4. ATi Catalyst needs to be uninstalled before upgrading.

Notable Improvements:

1. Better GUI consistency.
2. Better navigation placements.
3. Cooler mspaint.
4. Improved Windows Media Player.

It has been a while since I last stepped foot on Ampang ever since I shifted to BU circa 4 months ago. Today I unintentionally went there for a tour with my family after my haircut. The most notoriously memorable, yet common incident happened – the infamous Jalan Ampang jam.

We went for lunch at the Great Eastern Mall. Seems like they have a Ramadhan month mini expo there, along with performances of traditional Malay dance and music. From the looks of it, it somewhat had influence from traditional Thai and Indonesian culture.

After doing some “sightseeing”, we settled down in Délifrance. As usual, they are also having special Ramadhan set meals, which are priced slightly lower than their average deals.

I ordered their Asam Fish Baked Rice – rice baked with cheese and fish in asam gravy, it came along with sambal tuna puff as entreé, and bread pudding with chocolate syrup, dates and raisins in evaporated milk as dessert. Included beverage would be the usual el cheapo root beer with grass jelly.

The food is okay, I don’t fancy French food (no, French Fries is not technically part of French cuisine), except spaghetti carbonara, spaghetti with hot olive oil (no longer served in Délifrance, a pity), French pastries and French bakery.

 

After that, we moved on to a hardware shop near Taman Dagang (ACE Hardware – they sell almost anything there) – dad’s buying some gardening gear. Originally I didn’t think of buying anything – but ended up buying a couple of drill bits (to replace the blunt ones at home), anti-static wrist wrap (to avoid electrocuting anything I’m repairing) and a 3.5mm to 2.5mm jack converter (for kicks). Also spotted the only Japanese product which I can read out the whole tagline – a Japanese plant organic vitalizer (fertilizer) liquid – stating 植物を超元気する [romaji: shokubutsu wo chou genki suru; trans: plants will super vitalize].

I have yet to visit the big hardware outlet near Mutiara Damansara though, it should be a shopping haven (for the rest of us).

Now, where’s my dinner. Someone’s bragging about dinner on my phone right now. D=

Humans are complicated, hard to understand, yet very interesting creatures. Humans are unable to survive alone, and thus live in groups, just as wolves live in packs – surviving by mutual reliance.

Because of long term living in communities, socially, humans tend to detest people who stand out too much, and in return do not want to stand out, to avoid being rejected by the society and thus, losing his or her own identity. They become followers, following the social trends: if one of them could not keep up, he/she is labeled as outdated.

Recently the society has developed into a more self-centric one, with each individual exploiting each other to achieve his/her own private goals. Or maybe, it is like this all along. It is not easy to identify whether any of the actions taken by an individual is considered as pure hearted, based on free will or with separate intentions.

Though I don’t believe humans conduct actions entirely motiveless – there must be some sort of motive, some sort of intention. It’s just the level of intentions are different. For instance, an individual might assist on another individual to develop trust, or to develop a friendly relationship, or to expect a similar treatment in return, or to avoid being labeled as cold hearted, or to blend into the community etc. Even a reason such as “wanting to see him/her smile” is an intention itself.

Helping a person when the person request for help and helping a person without the person asking are different. If the person asks for help and you aid him/her, it’s considered as “doing a favor”. But when helping a person when the person do not ask for help, there might be a few possibilities happening: the person do not wished to be helped, or the person do not expect help.

Since there are people who exploits human emotions by offering what appeared to be unconditional help but actually bearing ill intentions, it is normal for people who are receiving “unconditional” help to be extra cautious, bearing doubts on the true intentions of the helper. In turn, people who gives help based on pure intentions think twice before assisting to avoid misunderstanding.

On the other hand, there are also exploits which involve requesting help with ill intentions which again, in turn develops cautiousness in free-will helpers and further reduces the number of them.

With all these factors reaching an equilibrium, the society has become cold – filled with paranoia. Helping a person, when being requested or not, is not a social norm, and people avoid taking actions simply because other people are not.

In rare cases, individuals who are sick of the society, isolates himself, because he no longer understands himself. Is he no different from the society – elegant on the outside, rotten on the inside? He wished to know, yet is afraid to know. He doesn’t want people to think who he is not, yet doing things that is not him, yet wanting to know what exactly is himself.

He is confused.

If you’re reading this, I believe you’re confused too.

Today is the day where 2 hours 30 minutes is worth RM70…

... or not.

Biological clock rang at 5AM even though digital clock should be ringing at 5:30AM. Proceeded with Warm-up Program, as usual before taking my shower. Ready to depart at around 6:00AM and left 姫 (romaji: hime; lit.: princess) a message.

Exactly 15 minutes later, 姫 called with a bad news – she’s not feeling well. Suddenly losing my chauffeur job is somewhat a disappointment, yes. But finding her replacement is MI-4, when we’re talking about 6:15AM with 1 hour buffer time left.

It’s 6:30AM after trying a few phone calls and text messages – it’s time to go. It was a foggy morning, my windscreen, side windows and rear window were all screwed up. Narrowly escaped a collision with an Alphard (wonder where the hell he’s looking) when turning out of the junction near Puay Chai 2.

姫 called, she’s in panic-mode. I’m in panic-mode + driving-mode, so I had no idea what I blabbered about that time. 姫 is dying, as written in her text. Texted our client, Chris about 姫’s situation as per her request. Then Chris called back asking me to confirm everyone’s attendance – in other words assuming 姫’s role.

No choice but to call people while driving on Sprint Highway, while navigating on the GPS of my phone. Things went worse when people are not answering my calls and I have to resort on texting them. And become worse still after my GPS software froze due to excessive incoming calls and messages.

With GPS down, I relied on my instincts and turn into the Bukit Damansara exit – which was a grave mistake – it cost me 15 minutes to turn out from that mess, while having the client chasing my butt.

姫 texted she took medicine and wonder if she can make it at 8AM.

7:05AM arrived in front of the 3 buildings. Found no parking and drove nearly to the exit of the highway – client called and chasing my butt again. Called GM and confirmed it’s okay to park at the yellow line and do an illegal reverse back to Wisma Amanah and parked there.

Rendezvous with my team. Client called and said meet-up point is at the back of the building – great, nobody told us about it and how to reach there. Client said lift to 5th floor, security guard denied access. We ended up walking one big round along the road, found client, fetch clothes for girls and one big round back to the front building to change, then one big round back to the back of the building again.

Client complaint Commerce Square girls have no idea which building they’ve assigned to. The guys were beside them, I asked them and they replied “Commerce Square”. Oooh kay.

O’Connors called and said he’ll be 20 minutes late. Wisma Amanah team MIA. Sam called and said he lost his way, asking for street address. Have to relay to client.

Circa 7:30AM Wisma Amanah girls spotted, along with Geof.

Asked client whether we can proceed without 姫. Got green light, I’ll need to give out the pencils. Got assigned position in car park L5 with 2 girls, GM in car park L2 with another 2. Lobby is inaccessible due to admin negotiation problems – access could be granted only after 9AM.

So I ended up saving my dignity of not requiring to wish “Good morning. Have a blue ocean day!” and give out the pencils. Showtime on my team.

7:57AM texted 姫 stating everything’s under control.

Client called and flamed about nobody in O’Connors. Asked Melvyn to contact client directly. Minutes later client called again flaming Wisma Amanah nobody there. Called Geof and confirmed all the girls were present.

Minutes later client called (again) flaming Wisma Amanah have “one guy only”. Called Geof and confirmed everyone was there. Returned call to client, client ordered me to rush to Wisma Amanah. Was in GTFO-mode. Called Sam, confirmed he arrived 7-8 minutes already. Asked Geof to contact client directly.

Client called and flamed again, this time I stated Geof will contact him shortly, which he immediately placed me on hold (assuming he was answering Geof’s call) and I just ended the call.

Things went quiet later on. All systems go.

Pack up at around 10:15AM. Ready to go home at around 10:30AM. Had to accompany one of the girls for her boyfriend to arrive on 11AM.

After some chatter, circa 11AM bumblebee tuned Waja arrived. Head home through Penchala Link, less than 15 minutes drive. Curtain’s down.

Came back from sports outing with GM, TL, WC and WW (was really nice). No appetite but have a strong thirst for cold, sweet drinks. I made myself a 4-orange-orange-juice which didn’t fully satisfied my thirst – and then I saw a whole lemon on the table – it’s time to develop the perfect Lemonade!

Lemon juice – is just an extremely sour, almost odorless liquid. Lemonade is different – lemonade is more than just lemon juice and sugar, it has a pleasant “lemony” aroma that puts all artificial (toilet-detergent-smelling) lemon flavorings to shame, and my “mission” today is to experiment the way of creating awesome lemonade without using a blender (like someone suggested, but you’ll need tons of sugar to cover the bitterness).

Lemonade Mark 1 was a mix of lemon juice and a little bit of blended lemon skin, too much lemon skin and the drink will taste bitter; too little lemon skin and the aroma will be too weak. It was a hit-and-miss recipe.

After doing some research (and experiment) on the source of the lemon aroma, plus today’s experiment – let me present to you, and I’m absolutely thrilled about this – Lemonade Mark 2.

Ingredients (for 1~2 servings)
- 1 whole lemon (make sure it’s high quality fragrant one – smell it)
- sugar to taste
- iced distilled water
- distilled water (hot)
- pandan leaf (optional)

Tools
- knife
- spoon
- fruit-skin-peeler-thingy
- small cup
- drinking glass

Procedure

1. Peel/grate the outer layer (yellow, not white) of the skin of the lemon and put in in a small cup.
2. Pour a bit of hot water into the small cup, just enough to cover the lemon skin.
3. Stir it for a couple of minutes.
4. Add sugar (3~4 tablespoon) to the small cup, a piece of pandan leaf and hot water (enough to dissolve the sugar).
5. Stir until sugar is dissolved.
6. Leave small cup to cool.
7. Squeeze lemon into drinking glass.
8. Add the solution from the small cup.
9. Stir well.
10. Add iced water and/or more sugar to taste.

The white portion of the lemon skin is bitter, avoid including it. If you feel 1 lemon to 1 glass ratio is too sour, you may expand it to 2 glasses, but the aroma will be halved.

Enjoy tried-and-tested Lemonade Mk-II with full lemony aroma =)

“…又会弹钢琴又靓仔…”， “…变得迷人了…”

その言葉は真実ですか？

Sounds too good to be true.

Ladder

1. Gin Min
2. Geoffrey
3. Monkey
4. Yee Lung
5. Lut Shen
6. Bharat
7. Yih Seng
8. Chi Yuen
9. Alvin
10. Wan

DD, MM & S:

Sometimes the only way to communicate and understand each other is to shut up and listen, and remain shut up. Then analyze holistically for a day with a cool-headed mind, come up with a resolution and rephrase it to a way that is least offensive as possible to show your opinion. Sometimes you make conclusions based on listening only half of the story, influenced by your current emotions and false assumptions.

In a debate, raising your voice and losing your cool is a sign of defeat, your emotions are compromised and your decisions are influenced. As the party that just lost your cool, it’s time to shut up and cool down. As the party whose opponent is someone that just lost his/her cool, shut up, listen and try to understand.

If someone’s opinions differ from yours, just express your own opinion and be done with it. His/her acceptance of your opinion is entirely up to his/her freedom. What you do is show some respect in his/her opinion and try not to force your thoughts into someone else.

The key to mutual understanding is by putting yourself is someone else’s shoes. Think how they think, feel how they feel, see how they see, listen how they listen – then only you’re at least a bit capable of making assumptions.

There is a reason behind all actions, if you don’t understand the real reason behind it, you’re not worthy of commenting on it. It takes communication to understand the reason, not assumptions.

Stubbornness is caused by inferiority complex or getting one’s pride challenged. It takes two hands to clap – clashing only occurs when both sides are equally stubborn.

Sometimes the things that is expected to exist, when placed in front of your eyes, seems almost non-existent and insignificant; while the things you don’t expect to exist, when placed in front of your eyes, seems significant. Until the time the “insignificant” cease to exist – you will notice how significant it once were.

Happiness is a choice, not a coincidence. The way to end all suffering is to learn how to let go. There are some things that cannot be changed no matter how hard to try, there are people who do not wished to be helped no matter how hard to try – let them go, grant them freedom, and your pain will go along with it. If you insist on getting worked up over trivial matters, you’re only finding misfortune to yourself, and you deserve the suffering you brought upon yourself.

Treasure your family – they are the only ones willing to ruin themselves for your sake, and the people you hurt the most throughout the course of your life, as well as the only ones that will be by your side no matter how hard you push them away – until the end of their time.