I am in Melbourne!

Hello everyone who cares:

This is going to be very short, because I don't have my own internet connection yet, and I am using an internet access in my residence area, and it is very expensive!

So for this update, I am only going to give some of my important contact details, as I promised.

Update: Mobile phone number removed.
Update: House phone number: 03- 93458295

Note:1. if calling from outside Australia, please call [mobile phone number removed].

2. Please observe the time difference. (haha, I don't look forward to receiving calls at 4 am, okay?) From now until the last Sunday of March, Melbourne is running daylight saving time which is equivalent to GMT +11. In other words, it's 3 hours ahead of Malaysian time. After that, it would be GMT +10 or 2 hours ahead of Malaysian time.

3. House phone will normally be engaged since I am using dial up for the internet connection. Therefore please call me between 7 to 9 pm Melbourne time (when I would normally be cooking) to get through. Otherwise, please contact me thru mobile phone and I will disconnect from the Internet to allow the landline usage. Thank you.

Update: This section is no longer valid as of year 2007.

Postal Address: [Censored due to privacy concerns. Contact me via e-mails]

For those in Australia, I am using Optus prepaid, so no excuses for not calling me ya! :-D

I will update all of you the next time!

I am leaving Malaysia today...

The title says it all. The counter is counting 18 hours right now, and it's still going like a race...

Well, I haven't been able to log much about my life in these few days, because of all hard works packing up and last minute preparations. Basically I have all my luggage done, and tomorrow I will be at KLIA at 6 pm and flying at 9.30.

I will put on more pictures of friend's departure and my own departure once I have settled everything and have time for it. I can't give you a time, it might be 3 days, it might be one week, or even two weeks. Who knows... :-)

But you can still post some message at the chatterbox to your left. Even when I don't have time at all, I will still come in and check the messages once in a while (in fact, at least once a day, you know, such an incurable Internet addict). So if there are anything you wish to tell me, just leave a note.

That's all for today. In fact I shouldn't be wide awake at my last night in Malaysia. But I am. Haha... See ya!

Update: Handcuffs.pif Virus

Well, it seemed like the Bropia variant virus is spreading like a wild fire in the cyberspace.. Since I blogged about this virus 2 days ago, this blog has been getting hundreds of incoming visits, all courtesy of keywords like handcuffs.pif, handcuffs.pif virus removal and so on.

Many websites having linking towards this removal tool for the virus. If you suspect that you are infected, have a try.

Update: Someone posted this easy and working solution. See if it's working.

alright i fixed my computer. all you have to do is go into your task manager and under the running processes section you'll find a file called what i belive is asr.rnt running. stop it and go into your system 32 folder and delet it. everything works fine on my comp now so good luck to you all :)

Weird Weighing Method

Alvin, sorry, I can't help but to highlight this... :-P

What a way to weigh a baggage! We should tell all major airports to change their weighing machines... LOL

Now in KL

I arrived safely and soundly in KL yesterday night. It was a 5 hour drive, a long and tiring one.

Au Revoir, Alor Star!

Leaving you for 9 months, dear PC... Don't miss me, and remember to behave well ya!

So this is the last night I am spending here in my cosy house, tomorrow this afternoon I will be on my way down to my brother's house in Kuala Lumpur. See you, friends, and thanks for all the thousand wishes (and the good-wish angpows) from my siblings and relatives. I shall be living my life to the fullest when I am in Melbourne then! Keep your fingers crossed.

Almost asleep.. then.. Virus strikes!

Yup, I almost disconnected when two of my friends in MSN messenger sent this to me and disconnected immediately.

wtf.... http://members.home.nl/marnixstaal/handcuffs.pif :-D

WARNING: Please don't follow the link above. It's a VIRUS

Well, I almost clicked on the link. What happens is, when you click on the link, you will be downloading a self executable file (just like .exe files). While downloading the file doesn't do any harm, running it does. If I am not mistaken, once you run it, you will be spreading the same message to your MSN contacts, hence spreading the virus! There are other havocs in your pc too, but I am not sure what they are.

Anyway, what happens behind this is, virus always capitalise on common folk's curiosity and sexuality. Well, some variations of this virus have a description that it's a picture of a handcuffed girl. I think if a guy is computer illiterate and think from his lower part, he would have been fooled into downloading it.

Well, here I wish to share a few rules of thumb:

1. When your friend tries to send you a file through MSN, Yahoo messenger or other IM applications, confirm with him / her before you proceed.

2. Picture files never ends with .pif, dude! The common extensions of pictures online are only .gif, .jpg, and .png. I think many people must have confused that pif stands for "pics". Nope, there's only .pic extension which is nearly obsolte now, and .pif stands for Program Information File, a kind of MS-DOS extension.

3. Never accept files transferred online which ends with .scr, .pif, .vbs! Apart from that, always practice precaution while transferring files that end with .exe, .doc, .xls, .dot etc, they may contain virus if your friend is already infected. Make sure you scan these files before opening them.

4. Last but not least, if possible, dump IE for a safer and more convenient browser! Follow this article for the reason and rationale behind it.

p/s: For those who are infected with this virus and need to find the remedy, google for handcuffs.pic removal. There are a few informative links, one of them is this one.

Ninth Day of CNY

Every Chinese in the world know what it is. Glistening, shiny, but made of pulpwood. At some point in their lives, most of the Chinese must have folded one or burned one themselves, in one of their major cultural and religious events. Just list out the major events - Chinese New Year, the ninth Day of Chinese New Year, Hungry Ghost Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival, Cheng Beng etc; see, there are virtually no chinese events that can be done without these little joss paper. Folded into the shapes of gold blocks, for thousands of years it held the belief of the oriental folks that it would carry their sincerity to invoke the deities for the sake of prosperous and smooth well-being in their business, life and health. It has been an embedded cultural mark of the Chinese.

Today, we celebrate the ninth day of Chinese New Year, which is also known as the "Jade Emperor's Birthday". It was believed that the Jade Emperor, the highest authority in Chinese traditional belief was born in the ninth day of the first month in the lunar Calendar. For some reason, it has also been said that the Jade Emperor saved the Hokkien ethnic's lives on the ninth day of CNY a ~long, long~ time ago. Therefore, today it has so evolved that Hokkien would celebrate the ninth day of the first month as "the other New Year". It was a norm for Hokkien to invoke to the Jade Emperor on this day because it was believed that it would have been the most efficacious.

Well, as Alvin said,

Man, this event is even more significant and celebrative that the highly-commercialised V-Day here.

Haha, Alvin, nice summary ya! True only for single folks, okay? It all started the night before the ninth day at 11 something. Well, mother painstakingly prepared all the standard "altar materials" as shown on the left. There were candles, a tableful of fruits and some small portion of siow bak (roasted pork). Gee, for some Chinese it's a full pig lying on the table, lucky we don't do the same! It's so disgusting man...

While parents worked out their way on the altar, children around the residential area had their once-in-a-year to join the fIrew00rK fEStiVal!! Mind you it's not an exaggeration, the whole nightsky was lit by these illegally smuggled fireworks, size of which can match those displayed in the Times Square! Well, you can laugh at me for being nerdy again, but guess what I'm doing all the time? Yup, friends you would know right. I am busy turning the dials, pressing the buttons and shutters for the best shot. Hehe... So here is it.

Well, when it's time to go back to business, we go back to business. As the grandfather clock strikes 12, it's the time for us to start the prayer. Clasping the three skinny joss sticks with my fingers, I prayed for the best for myself and for my most beloved ones. I hope that wherever they go and whatever they do, they will always be with the blessed luck in accordance to their karma. It's my fervent wish that no matter what happens, let them have the courage and the faith to brave through it and reemerge with refreshed vigor. I prayed hard and sincerely. No kidding, you know my dog, having not the least idea what's happening tried to tickle me. Hehe, I tried so hard to put up a straight face... See that straight face and my straight face? Hahaa...

After the prayers, it's time for the "gold foil" to do what they are destined for - dance in the flames! Gold blocks, "Emperor's hat" and all other innovative shapes, they all terminate in flames and ashes. Year after year, the Emperor God's Birthday has always been the same for Hokkien around the world. The firecrackers bang on, and the fireworks still evade the ever watchful enforcer's eyes. Culture, unsatiated wishes,and more... I believe it will always be the same, and by the time I am 60 it will still be. There's no theory or reasoning behind it, just an anchored belief.

So now, you think that I am a taoist? (or folk religion to be more accurate) I am constantly questioning faith, if that's what you would like to think.

I Shouldn't Be At Home Now

One month ago, I thought that by 16th of February I would have been on the flight to Melbourne; but right now I am still surfing away at home aimlessly. Duhh... The orientation of the university will start tomorrow, but my sponsor is only going to fly us there on the 23rd! They made us miss the one and only university orientation in my whole life, and then evaded all the responsibilities of being unorganized by simply saying, "orientation not important larr, only last few days important..."

Grrh!! Somebody help me to soothe my dissatisfaction. Boh siok lar! You know how important the orientation is to a freshman in a university, especially to a single man?

Ouch! Hurtful Valentines

Ouch! I never knew scaling was soO~ painful... Thought of enjoying a teeth-cleaning, but ended up with bloody and foaming mouth. Haha! The drilling machine worked its way mercilessly in my mouth cavity, probing into every single crack and cleavage between my teeth. Well worth the 45 ringgit for a good dose of pain.

By the way, Alvin, a friend of mine has just set up his blog (what lies ahead...) to update his friends about his latest news in the future. To read other friends' blog of mine just scroll to my blogroll on the sidebar and click on one of the links under "friends" section.

Blogging is getting more both serious and trivial at the same time. Although many have voiced their concern about the intrusion of privacy, I like the idea of sharing thoughts and ideas, one to million. Ranting and grumbling should be avoided by all means, because a public blog like this one can never be kept secret from my mum.


Image courtesy of Reuters.co.uk. Flamingos are so cute and romantic!

I Am Feeling Lucky?

Sometimes Google's most automated search (I am feeling luckY) can return funny results. Just a few moments ago I stumbled upon pictures about the gates, so I decided to know more about it. Using Firefox's address bar, I typed "what is the gates".

Enter. 1, 2, 3...

Guess what? I arrived at this guy's page. Haha...

Face The Music

After all the frenzy celebration of CNY, it's now time to move back to everyone's home - reality. Well, it means that I will be busy packing at home, and that implies a lot of works...

I will still be around, and the flight to Melbourne is slated to take off at 9.30pm, 23rd of February at KL International Airport. Counting, counting, counting.. I should not be blogging. Time to work.

Music of the moment: Leaving on A Jet Plane.

p/s: And before I forget, Happy Valentine's Day! I have a date too. With my dentist for scaling.

Fourth Day CNY Report

At last I found out a brighter side of getting sick for the fifth consecutive day on the CNY - there's not so much food intake that would normally bloat me during CNY! That is what I found when I only went for 2 rounds of food during the buffet...

Well, let me get things in chronological order. Early in the morning, I virtually dragged myself out of the bed when the annoying alarm started to buzz. And also my mum's more annoying nagging me to get out from the bed. My friends appointed to visit me at 10 am, but at 10 am what was I doing? Still sleeping.. haha.. That's no other than me.

Those who visited me were Yee Pin, Winson, Zaai Yee and Sze Wen. I remember those days in Form 3 when we used to have senseless debates and daily bantering, and today it is such a wonderful memory for me. Now separated for years, although I only keep in close contact with Yee Pin and Winson, but when all of us met again, the camaraderie was still heartfelt. However, for today I was a bit bad to be a little bit hostile. I didn't talk much and give much attention to them. Blame it on "morning blue" and my sorethroat. I just can't bear to torture my voice cord inhumanely.

After getting angpow, these friends pretended to stay a little bit longer so that people won't feel that they don't come for angpow.. haha, admit it, we all stay for a very short while after angpow, if not people would think that we have come just for the sake of money. :-D Well, after leaving my house, we went for lunch while Sze Wen and Zaai Yee parted with us.

For the afternoon, we visited 2 teachers namely Ms Khoo Suat Fei who taught us English in form 3 and Ms Ooi Theng Theng who was our chemistry tuition teacher in form 4 and 5. Truth to be told, it's such an enriching experience to pay a visit to the teachers, for they would greet us so hospitably and treat us on equal terms as an ex-student. Talking to them about our juniors, education system, school administration, our future goals, and even street gossips is simply superb. Teachers are all good chatting partners I would say. Sad that my battery ran flat for the afternoon session, so I missed the chance to take pictures with them.

At night it was another big event - my form 5 class reunion dinner. Out of 45 classmates, around 30 attended to the event held at the Riverland Restaurant in Star Parade. So what's the observation? For me, two years didn't produce magic on most of the friends while some metamorphosed into different persons. We had a buffet dinner which was fairly inexpensive but you would expect, the food quantity was also meagre. Throughout the three hours there, all of us had had the chance to exchange the newest news and updates about each other's "status". Well, one of the girls who was rumoured to have an affair with another friend in my school got teased incessantly throughout. I guess she must have regretted coming for the dinner. But it was fun! Haha.. Just hope that she doesn't get upset with our little trick at the expense of her.

I and 5 of the St. John friends who happened to become my classmates in 5A2

A good memory for everyone who attended the night. Thanks a thousand to Jason who organized it painstakingly! Your efforts have been really worthwhile and I appreciate it.

Third Day In The Rooster Year

Still having a severe sorethroat and I cough every so often that I almost scared away my friends.

The third day of Chinese New Year celebration, today is the unofficial "Friends Visit Day". Well, when I say unofficial, it's really not something stipulated by the culture of the tradition of the Chinese New Year itself. But somehow years after years, we have developed a kind of arrangement that the first day of CNY is reserved for the closest family, the second day is for the married women to return to their parents' house, and from the third day onwards is for unmarried lads and girls to get angpow (red packets) from others! The best time of the year for gathering as we seldom have the chance to meet.

The best time of the year,
when everyone comes home.
With all the New Year cheers,
it's hard to be alone.
I guess that Choy San's busy,
cause he's never come around.
I think of you,
when New Year comes to town... "

Till now. Briefly put, today = 2 friends' house, 2 teacher's house, 1 karaoke singing session, 2 teatime. What a day!

Looking forward for more tomorrow. Sick, but still excited.

The Second Day Of The Rooster Year

Today is my "annual visit" to my eldest maternal uncle's house in Sungai Limau. Tucked tamely among the vast expanse of paddy fields, it was my grandparents' abode before they passed away.

Outside the house in the kampong.

Hmm. Till now. Tired for further report. Just had an argument with my friend, not in a good mood to write an account for the occasion. I sign off with this little note.

First Day in Rooster Year

This morning I woke up quite late... In fact, VERY LATE. 10.30 am to be exact. The very first moment I regained my full consciousness, the phlegm inside my throat icked me with such obnoxity. Darn, such a bad start for my new year! Have I mentioned that I got a good scold from my mum? haha...

During day time there wasn't any particular activity. For once, I didn't go to any relative's house. Since I was born, my family will only go on visting from the second day on. So for the whole day we just sat in the living room and "enjoyed" the television special programmes together. Well, enjoy was such a overstatement for our TV stations. I am a bit disappointed that our televisions are such misers in paying for the latest movies or programs, most of them only dished out movies which dated back to 1992.. (for those who know about it, 家有喜事?!) Hmm. Well. Speechless. Probably we are still a young and developing country. Forget about Petronas Twin Tower. We are not THAT rich yet.

Anyway, amongst all those boring programmes, there was a surprise - Eric called me from the United States, for almost half an hour! I was so touched by his dear call, and at the same time embarrassed because he is the one who's spending time overseas with exams on Chinese New Year, NOT ME. Hmm.. We really had a good chat, and if not because of another call we could have continued for hours... Yup, it's really something I cherish, and now I understand the meaning of Chinese New Year. Without reunion and reinforced ties, the most glorious celebration of all would have been rendered meaningless. Thanks a lot, Eric! Your call worthed more than the call rate you would have enumerated.

Moving on to the night, it's the REAL fun - fireworks! Well, for me, it's time for some great shots... well, passion dies hard. =)

Fireworks in front of my house.

After some awesome fireworks, another more entertaining programs is in stock - seeing my 10-month-old niece with her routine crawling and stair-climbing! Oh gosh, she is so cute when she moves on this her cushy steps... Some weird thoughts started running across me, I started thinking of Jack Jack in Mr. Incredible. Remember the climax? haha...

Baby, you are on Candid Camera!

That's my brief account of first day in Rooster Year. See you then!

新年快乐! Happy Chinese New Year

Song : Chinese New Year medley from home.pacbell.net

Here I drop by to wish everyone the happiest Chinese New Year! A few friends of mine are pathetically stuck in their exams today, while some others are stuck on the flight to study overseas. I wish them luck and enjoy their special Chinese New Year! I guess this is a phase that everyone has to go through, the painful experience of having to endure solitude in festivals.

I am having a running nose now, not a good harbinger for a prosperous rooster year huh... Don't care, I am still going to enjoy to my best the last two weeks here in Malaysia. In exactly 2 more weeks, I will be flying to Melbourne to pursue my tertiary studies. Time flies. It really does. Well, the fact is, I haven't packed and bought the winter clothing. Haha.. Well, Chinese New Years first, everything comes second!

A lion dance picture taken in 2003 at my home.

I am eagerly waiting for the same lion dance troop to visit me tomorrow. (it has always been the same lion anyway.. :-D)

p/s: Can anyone kindly give me some feedback on the revamped look of the blog? Just some slight modification, the most noticeable one being the added background for the title of each message. Thanks!

Sorry Everyone!

I am sorry that I have not been able to keep up with this blog recently. I just realized that how good a procrastinator I can be...

In fact I have been able to access to the Internet for the past few days, and I have returned from my KL trip on 28th January. I was just immersed in some other things in my daily life, from writing Chinese New Year cards to buying new clothes, from burning CDs to reorganizing my harddisk contents, and most importantly, keeping up contact with old time friends!

So basically here is a brief report of what I have been doing since I last blogged:

1. I went to Kuala Lumpur on the 21st, had a 2-day tour with Winson, Yee Pin and Jason Lau. We visited KL city centre, the tower bridge of KLCC, sang karaoke in Red Box, and tried out the advanced toilet in Mandarin Oriental hotel. (forgive me if it sounds stupid... after all, we are all 20!) For more info visit my photo gallery on flickr.

2. There were 2 briefings held in Kuala Lumpur. The first one was organized by the University of Melbourne, the venue of which was in Pan Pacific Glenmarie, Shah Alam. It was on January 23. The second one was on January 27th, a briefing by my sponsor, Public Service Department of Malaysia.

3. I paid a fantastic visit to Jitra, the place I grew up in. It was truly a marvelous experience, the feeling of having chitchat with my old friend (Jenny) was simply soul-rewarding. It helped soothe my bad mood recently.

4. I got very addicted to ReCom forum. I posted my message mainly on the "God, Bible and ..." thread.

5. I will be packing my luggage. Trying my best to fit 30kg of my personal stuff into the baggage. Sigh, the limit of 30 kg set by the airlines is simply not enough, considering the medical books I need to bring there.

6. I received a few complaints about my passing interest in blogging. One even said, "Now I know you lose interest very easily." Haha, she kind of gave me the impetus to write this.

Till now. I hope that I can update with the Chinese New Year festival really really soon. It's going to be a big reunion in my family, and I look forward to my 6 sibling's homecoming!

Kong Hey Fat Choy!