Freakish Dreams

It has been a freaky few nights lately. I've been having some really weird dreams for the past few nights. I wouldn't say it's as nightmarish or creepy as the one I talked about earlier this year but let's just say it's not exactly something you would want as your dreams.

I wouldn't say they were scary dreams and definitely can't say they were nightmares either. I didn't wake up breaking any sweat or anything, the dreams were quite calm and felt real in more ways than one. It definitely ain't no Nightmare on Elm Street, that's for sure.


[SOURCE: DVD Review]

Let's start with the most recent one. I can't remember all the details but I was outside a building where some hostages were being held. The 'terrorists' were threatening to wipe them out with some biological weapon if demands weren't met. The next thing I knew, I saw the hostages dropping one by one like flies and strangely I didn't find the scene horrific in anyway. I just woke up like nothing happened. In reality nothing actually happened but somehow I find it amazing that I do not feel anything about something so terrible that my brain could come up with.

It's not exactly the first time I've had a dream like that. In a previous similar dream I was supposedly in the midst of a nuclear strike. I was inside a skyscraper surrounded with glass windows and had a great 360 degrees view of the surroundings outside. Suddenly I felt a tremor and when I looked outside, I saw an orange mushroom smoke developing on the horizon. I turned around and there was another one! A few more followed and the next thing I knew, I 'died' and woke up. A little overkill with the amount of nuclear bombs dropped but freaky anyway, no? Maybe I've been watching a little too much of 24. :P


[SOURCE: Nuclear Weapon Archive]

Alright, now let's move on to the more interesting dream, well at least to me. Honestly, I find this dream very fascinating. Why? Because the dream was about me being diagnosed of having a huge tumour in my head. Yes, a growth in my brain. Yup, brain cancer! Can you actually believe someone would actually have such a dream about him or herself? I even had a CT scan in my hands showing where the lump is and trust me, the lump was huge!!!


[SOURCE: Wikipedia]

That dream actually explains a lot. The constant headaches, temporal eyesight problems, slower brain processing power and many others. Maybe one of these days I should just give my trusted medical doctor a visit just to be sure. Now, here's the strange and interesting part. Somehow, I just don't feel anything about the thought of me having brain cancer. No fear, no worries, no feelings, no emotions. Of course it would suck big time especially when my brain is one of the organs I'm very fond of, but I just don't seem to have any worries about it. Maybe it's the thought of me having insurance coverage that quelled my fears but still very strange, no?

My dreams have a freaky way of coming true so I just hope these don't end up on the list of realised dreams. As much as I love the thought that I may have some kind of superpower, I would prefer these dreams to remain dreams. I mean who would actually want any of these dreams to come true, right?

Happy Halloween everyone and hope you don't get any nightmares or freakish dreams tonight! :P

Keywords: dreams nightmare elm street freddy brain cancer tumour tumor growth nuclear weapon bomb attack terrorist CT scan biological freakish weird strange real true freaky happy halloween

hitsFM or shitFM

[SOURCE: Anthem America]

Just had to post this up. The design for this car is just horrible! You decide: hitsFM or shitFM?

Keywords: hitsFM shitFM hits shit FM radio music hitz photo joke funny design horrible car van bad

Light A Million Candles

Do your part in the fight against online child predators. All you need to do is just light a candle. Yes, it's as easy as that. Watch the video below if you are not convinced.

Keywords: light million candles online child predator pornography exploitation fight support video youtube

Eid Mubarak

Wishing all Muslims near and far a peaceful Eid ul-Fitr.

Happy holidays to everyone else.

P/S Happy (belated) Diwali to all Hindus who observes Deepavali.



Just a small reflection:
Isn't it strange that the Government declared weeks ago that October 23rd will be a holiday for all civil servants so that they will enjoy continuous days off beginning from Deepavali when in fact we don't even know when Hari Raya Aidilfitri will officially begin since the Keeper of the Rulers' Seal will only make the announcement after the sighting of the moon which would be a day or two before Hari Raya? How if Hari Raya would to fall on October 25th instead of October 24th? What then?

Keywords: Eid Mubarak ul-Fitr al-Fitr Hari Raya Aidilfitri Deepavali festival Malaysia celebration holiday Government Keeper of the Ruler's Seal

A Manager's Dilemma

One for the weekend.

An office manager had money problems and had to fire an employee, either Jack or Jill. He thought he'd fire the employee who came late to work the next morning.

Well, both employees came to work very early. Then the manager thought he would catch the first one who took a coffee break. Unfortunately, neither employee took a coffee break.

Then the manager decided to see who took the longest lunch break - strangely, neither Jack nor Jill took a lunch break that day, they both ate at their desk. Then the manager thought he'd wait and see who would leave work the earliest and both employees stayed after closing.

Jill finally went to the coat rack and the manager went up to her & said,
"Jill, I have a terrible problem. I don't know whether to lay you or Jack off."

Jill said, "Well, you'd better jack off, because I'm late for my bus."

Have a great weekend!

Keywords: joke funny manager dilemma jack off

STROKE: Remember The First Three Letters...

My friend sent this to me and encouraged me to post it and spread the word. I agree. If everyone can remember something this simple, we could save some folks. Seriously. Please read:

STROKE IDENTIFICATION:

During a BBQ, a friend stumbled and took a little fall - she assured everyone that she was fine (they offered to call paramedics) and just tripped over a brick because of her new shoes. They got her cleaned up and got her a new plate of food - while she appeared a bit shaken up, Ingrid went about enjoying herself the rest of the evening. Ingrid's husband called later telling everyone that his wife had been taken to the hospital - at 6:00pm, Ingrid passed away. She had suffered a stroke at the BBQ. Had they known how to identify the signs of a stroke, perhaps Ingrid would be with us today. Some don't die. They end up in a helpless, hopeless condition instead.

It only takes a minute to read this...

A neurologist says that if he can get to a stroke victim within 3 hours he can totally reverse the effects of a stroke...totally. He said the trick was getting a stroke recognised, diagnosed, and then getting the patient medically cared for within 3 hours, which is tough.

RECOGNISING A STROKE

Thank God for the sense to remember the "3" steps, STR . Read and Learn!

Sometimes symptoms of a stroke are difficult to identify. Unfortunately, the lack of awareness spells disaster. The stroke victim may suffer severe brain damage when people nearby fail to recognise the symptoms of a stroke.

Now doctors say a bystander can recognise a stroke by asking three simple questions:

S *Ask the individual to SMILE

T *Ask the person to TALK - SPEAK A SIMPLE SENTENCE

(Coherently) (i.e. . . It is sunny out today)

R *Ask him or her to RAISE BOTH ARMS

{NOTE: Another 'sign' of a stroke is this: Ask the person to 'stick' out their tongue... if the tongue is 'crooked', if it goes to one side or the other that is also an indication of a stroke}

If he or she has trouble with ANY ONE of these tasks, call 9-1-1 immediately and describe the symptoms to the dispatcher.

A cardiologist says if everyone who reads this shares it with 10 people, you can bet that at least one life will be saved but seriously, do you actually need a cardiologist to tell you that?

Keywords: stroke identification recognition awareness symptoms cerebrovascular accident brain attack

It's Not Indonesia, El Nino's To Blame For Haze

Some smart-ass Malaysian researcher currently with the United Nations University in Tokyo claims that El Nino's to blame for the bloody haze we are experiencing, not Indonesia. [PDF] (Note: Emphasis mine)

El Nino from Indian Ocean causing haze

PETALING JAYA: It is unfair for Malaysia to blame Indonesia for the latest haze situation, said a Malaysian researcher with the United Nations University in Tokyo.

C.K. Tan attributed the haze to the El-Nino occurring in the Indian Ocean called the "Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD)".

The IOD, he said, would cause severe droughts and it would easily lead to forest fires during the IOD year.

As the dry condition continued due to IOD, the haze would be more serious.

I really want to know what he's smoking up there in Tokyo because we Malaysians would really need some of that stuff to clear/cloud our minds enough (depending on your current state of mind) to comprehend the nonsense he is blabbing.

Has he forgotten the state of emergency we had to declare August last year? Has he been living in Tokyo for so long that he does not realise the haze export business our 'lovely' neighbour Indonesia is involved in for over a decade (or two) now is a recurring event this time of the year, EVERY YEAR without fail?!? Is the IOD and El Nino a yearly affair? I don't think so! So how is it he can come up with such a connection when the root of the problem is really the inaction of the Indonesian authorities?

He must be smoking something really strong to wipe all that from his memory or is he really that foolish to dish up such a lame rationale as that? If an Indonesian newspaper editor can put up his hands to take the blame [PDF] for the nauseating haze problem, I don't understand how this true-blue Malaysian can come up with such an incoherent argument as this?

Maybe this, this and this will remind him of what we have to endure here in Malaysia on a yearly basis while he's breathing fresh clean air up there in Japan.

Keywords: haze Malaysia Indonesia Japan researcher El Nino IOD Indian Ocean Dipole environment

SMS Quirks Of Sorts

Every now and then, I will receive some really strange (and interesting) SMS on my mobile phone. I've been getting quite a few lately. There was a time I received a flurry of SMS from China concerning me 'winning' a jackpot of sorts. How stupid can one be to actually believe this is true?!?

Anyway, spam has finally found its way to mobile phones and SMS is not the only medium they are using. They are also making use of the push message service that most phones (if not all) are able to receive. This can actually be easily rectified by setting your phone to decline all push messages but I feel this is actually a very good service which for example the Government can use to inform the public of certain news such as tsunami alerts or something like that. I just wish there's an efficient spam filtering service like the one used in Gmail implemented for phones. Wouldn't that be cool?

During festivities, I will also receive some strange SMS in the form of unknown persons or those written with Chinese characters. Friends know I'm unable to read Chinese characters apart from my name and those easily distinguishable and common ones, but somehow they will still send me SMS greetings containing Chinese characters, probably hoping I've somehow automagically learnt the language overnight. I can speak (a fair bit) but I just can't read the language to save my life! How then does it help if I don't understand what is being written in the messages? All I can assume is it's some Mid-Autumn Festival greeting (for those I received a few days back) and hope they are not cursing me in Mandarin for not sending them mooncakes. :P

The SMS below however comes out tops, in my opinion.

Maxis offering number - 01249702** if you're interested pls kindly contact for more information thx 01251146** ms liw.

** number blanked out for obvious privacy reasons.

OK, the number this 'Ms Liw' is offering is very close to my number (only one number off) but it's just amazing that people nowadays will resort to such tactics to make a quick buck. I can only imagine the number of SMS she sent out, spamming those of us who have numbers close to the one she is offering. I'm not about to take out my calculator and start punching some numbers to see the number of probabilities but one message alone is already IMHO one too many.

Do you have any recent weird SMS to share?

Keywords: SMS short messaging system message mobile phone weird strange Maxis Chinese mid-autumn festival mooncake spam

Irreplaceable

by Beyonce


"Irreplaceable" music video by Beyonce

To the left, to the left
To the left, to the left
To the left, to the left
Everything you own in the box to the left

In the closet that's my stuff
Yes, if I bought it nigga please don't touch
And keep talking that mess that's fine
But, could you walk and talk at the same time
And, it's my name that's on that Jag
So come move your bags, let me call you a cab

Standing in the front yard
Telling me how I'm such a fool
Talking bout I'll never ever find a man like you
You got me twisted

You must not know about me, you must not know about me
I could have another you in a minute
Matter of fact, he'll be here in a minute, baby
You must not know about me, you must not know about me
I can have another you by tomorrow
So don't you ever for a second get to thinking
You're irreplaceable

So go ahead and get gone, call up that chick
And see if she's home
Oops, I bet you thought that I didn't know
What did you think I was putting you out for
Because you was untrue

Rolling her around in the car that I bought you
Baby, drop them keys
Hurry up before your taxi leaves

Standing in the front yard
Telling me how I'm such a fool
Talking bout I'll never ever find a man like you
You got me twisted

You must not know about me, you must not know about me
I could have another you in a minute
Matter of fact, he'll be here in a minute, baby
You must not know about me, you must not know about me
I can have another you by tomorrow
So don't you ever for a second get to thinking
You're irreplaceable

So since I’m not your everything
How about I'll be nothing
Nothing at all to you
Baby, I wont shed a tear for you
I won't lose a wink of sleep
Cuz the truth of the matter is
Replacing you is so easy

To the left, to the left
To the left, to the left
To the left, to the left
Everything you own in the box to the left
To the left, to the left
So don't you ever for a second get to thinking
You're irreplaceable

You must not know about me, you must not know about me
I could have another you in a minute
Matter of fact, he'll be here in a minute, baby
You must not know about me, you must not know about me
I can have another you by tomorrow
So don't you ever for a second get to thinking

You must not know about me, you must not know about me
I could have another you in a minute
Matter of fact, he'll be here in a minute
You can pack all your bags
We're finished
Cause you made your bed
Now lay in it
I can have another you by tomorrow
So don't you ever for a second get to thinking
You're irreplaceable

I'm so head over heels over this song at the moment, it's insane I tell you and that's not even taking into account the satisfaction of watching Beyonce shake her booty in the music video! It's not often I mention how good the lyrics are for a particular song but this one is very well written. The tune is very catchy while the lyrics are very fiesty and realistic. Everytime she sings the chorus especially the "in a minute" section, my heart beats a few times faster. Hearing here sing this song especially that particular part of the song is very orgasmic, I'll tell you that much!

This third release from her sophomore album B'Day is a total hit. The music video is equally well done. While the song is pitch perfect, the choreography is just flawless. Too bad the only booty shake is at 1:18 but trust me, it was enough to make my heart race. ~drool~ I may have mentioned that Beyonce may have to share that special place in my heart with one Rihanna after watching her S.O.S. music video in this post. I would like to retract that statement with immediate effect. How foolish of me to actually think that someone like her could replace Beyonce? She's IRREPLACEABLE! ;)

Keywords: Irreplaceable Beyonce B'Day Beyonce Knowles Destiny's Child music video MTV music video lyrics song Rihanna youtube

The Death And Resurrection Of Palm Tungsten E

You've heard of (and probably experienced) Window's infamous Blue Screen of Death.


[SOURCE: Wikipedia]

Let me introduce you to the White Screen of Death I discovered on my Palm Tungsten E a few days back. This is what I should see when I turn on my Palm.

[SOURCE: lapapa.cl]

Instead, I got this when I tried to power it up.

Soft resetting it didn't work. Neither did the warm (system) reset. No luck even with the hard reset. Technically, my Palm was brain-dead and I'm sure I was dead too when my heart stopped beating for a few seconds. The pure virgin white display was really upsetting me in more ways than one. Little did it know it will lose its virginity very soon. :P

The first thing I did the following morning when I left for campus was to search for the Torx driver that would enable me to open the cover. I found the seriously impossible to find T5 driver at my very first stop but not after searching high and low for that particular size. The shop had in abundance T8 and above sizes but only one particular set that contained the T5 driver I needed.


This 'Mobile Phone Repair Set' cost me a whole RM9 after some haggling. Still costly IMHO.

I started violating my beloved Palm as soon as I reached campus. The power from the rechargeable battery had been fully drained after the white screen lighted up my room the night before since I couldn't get my Palm to switch off or do anything at all, for a matter of fact. I used the tools I just purchased and started prying it open with the help of online resources I found using Google. I was very slow and careful initially since I was afraid of breaking something and condemning my Palm to forever function as a very expensive paperweight. After a few rounds of opening and closing the cover, the task became really easy as the fear dissipated.

After successfully opening the cover without breaking anything, I was greeted with this.



Back and front of the mainbord, above and below, respectively.
[SOURCE: SourceForge]

I didn't know what to do frankly but deep down inside I hoped it was just a loose connection and I could just push it back intact and everything would automagically return to normal. I couldn't find anything amiss except for the power switch which was already giving me problems for awhile now. I decided since I had opened the case, I might as well fix the power switch problem by soldering it properly to the mainboard, right?



It wasn't easy since everything on the mainboard is so tiny and I don't exactly have 20/20 vision. Soldering did help but I still had to slip a piece of rolled-up paper behind the switch to give it some support so it won't break or come loose again from my constant abuse of the power switch. :P Why they didn't place a foam behind the power switch for additional support is beyond my comprehension since the power button is bound to be one of the most used button on the PDA!

I put the cover back on and tried firing up my PDA. No luck. I was still greeted by the white screen. I opened up my Palm a few more times the following days just to look at the circuits and connectors, using a magnifying glass even, just to see if anything was not right. Everything looked OK to me, not that I'm an electronics expert or anything but nothing looked amiss to me. I repeated this process over and over again until suddenly, out of the blue the Palm logo replaced the total white screen. Progress, finally!

Tried all the three different resets but still I couldn't get my Palm to load up properly. I was repeatedly flashed with fatal error messages. I kept opening up the cover and pushing all the connectors inside to make sure everything was not loose. After all that, I was still stuck with the Palm logo. At least it was better than the white screen, no? Well, maybe but it still sucked as much.

One day though, after repeating the same process, my Palm was alive again! I didn't do anything different so I don't know what actually brought my Palm back to life but I don't really care anymore. The important thing is that I can now use my PDA again! I synched my Palm with the backup data from my desktop computer and everything was back to normal again. I still don't know what happened really since I care for my PDA very much and there are no scratches on it whatsoever unlike my mobile phone which I've dropped probably close to a hundred times by now (who says Samsung phones are not durable? :P). I didn't install any new programs or drop it. I didn't use it any differently from ordinary. The only thing I can speculate is that it could have been a loose connection that caused me the misery (which seems to be quite common after you've used your PDA for awhile).

It wasn't that I had anything that I couldn't live without on the PDA that I don't have backed up on my desktop computer but there are some contents that can only access on the PDA which is crucial to me but not exactly a matter of life or death. I use my PDA quite heavily and rely on the contents of my PDA quite a lot, and the few days without my PDA was really awful.

It made me realise that I depend too much on technology and my life will be affected if any of those technologies or gadgets were to be taken away from me. I should do something about this but no one can deny that technology helps us a lot in our daily life by squeezing more time from our busy schedules, making information more accessible and making life easier. Still, I have to learn to be less dependant on technology and I intend to work on it.

I'm glad I chose to rectify the problem myself which I fortunately succeeded. The choice was actually forced on me since it would cost a flat fee of USD125 (~RM450) for any repairs sent in excluding shipping charges and I'm dead broke at the moment. Even if I could afford that amount, I would probably not send it in for repairs and use the money to purchase a new unit instead. In the end, it cost me only RM9 for the T5 driver needed to open the cover. A real bargain if you ask me. ;)

Keywords: Palm Tungsten E PDA personal digital assistant blue screen white screen WSOD BSOD white screen of death blue screen of death Torx T5

Fresh Fish Lesson

Interesting article I received through email:

The Japanese have always loved fresh fish. But the waters close to Japan have not held many fish for decades. So to feed the Japanese population, fishing boats got bigger and went farther than ever. The farther the fishermen went, the longer it took to bring in the fish. If the return trip took more than a few days, the fish were not fresh. The Japanese did not like the taste.

To solve this problem, fishing companies installed freezers on their boats. They would catch the fish and freeze them at sea. Freezers allowed the boats to go farther and stay longer. However, the Japanese could taste the difference between fresh and frozen and they did not like frozen fish. The frozen fish brought a lower price.

So fishing companies installed fish tanks. They would catch the fish and stuff them in the tanks, fin to fin. After a little thrashing around, the fish stopped moving. They were tired and dull, but alive. Unfortunately, the Japanese could still taste the difference. Because the fish did not move for days, they lost their fresh-fish taste. The Japanese preferred the lively taste of fresh fish, not sluggish fish.

So how did Japanese fishing companies solve this problem? How do they get fresh-tasting fish to Japan? If you were consulting the fish industry, what would you recommend?

How Japanese Fish Stay Fresh:

To keep the fish tasting fresh, the Japanese fishing companies still put the fish in the tanks. But now they add a small shark to each tank. The shark eats a few fish, but most of the fish arrive in a very lively state. The fish are challenged.

**** IMPORTANT LESSON ****

Have you realized that some of us are also living in a pond but most of the time tired & dull, so we need a Shark in our life to keep us awake and moving? Basically in our lives Sharks are new challenges to keep us active and taste better.....

The more intelligent, persistent and competent you are, the more you enjoy a challenge. If your challenges are the correct size, and if you are steadily conquering those challenges, you are Conqueror. You think of your challenges and get energized. You are excited to try new solutions. You have fun. You are alive!

Keywords: fish fresh fish lesson Japan Japanese freezer shark fishing life fresh frozen fish frozen boat fisherman tanks