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Sunday, December 30, 2007
Terrible story about parking
The other day, I was at one of the numerous Malim car spare parts shop, and I chatted with the boss there.
I told him that my car already reached 80,000km, and thus want to buy a new timing belt.
Proton Wira's original timing belt (and bearing) costed me RM118.
I also mentioned that on the highway, I could feel my whole car shaking at 110km/h.
At first, I thought it was the engine mounting problem because a few months back, my car was shaking terribly when idle, and the mechanic changed for me the engine mounting which was found to be cracked.
However, the spare part shop's boss told me engine mounting problem will cause car shake when the car is idle, not when it is moving.
He told me that most probably it's either the alignment problem, or the 'drysar' (I haven't checked out the correct spelling).
So, I will go to the mechanic's shop later to fix it.
Apart from that, he told me to be careful nowadays, especially when parking at the highway.
I was told that there are some ppl whom would go under your car, and cut the pipe under so that the coolant will leak.
They will then follow your car, and wait until it malfunction, since the coolant will be gone after some time.
That's when they appear and "help" you, charging you thousands for it, and you have no choice but to let them help, since you are in the middle of nowhere.
So, be careful when you are parking at the highway, make sure you can see where your car is.
Posted at 10:12 am by alkwhy
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Thursday, August 30, 2007
I have just received a call at my office phone.
When I picked up the phone, there was a female voice, speaking in Mandarin, word by word. It is like a robot saying, "This-is---an--automatic---".
Anyway, the robot, presumably female, was saying that she is an automated phone call generator from the Malaysian High Court, and that this is the second urgent notice for "me" to appear in High Court.
She said that I had missed my first call to appear at the court last week, and I am to appear at the court tomorrow.
"For further enquiries, please press '9'," she said.
I was tempted to press '9', because I am sure this is not for me.
This is when Chris-dailo told me that it's a scam, that the whole phone call is a hoax which will ask the person to bank in money in order to settle the "case".
Anyway, please take note of such calls, and remember that no phone calls, letters or emails are trustworthy, if they involved money transfers to other persons.
As the saying goes, "there's no free lunch". ;)
Posted at 06:12 pm by alkwhy
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Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Tips for survival in a coal mine
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Trapped Chinese miners survive on coal, urine diet
BEIJING (Reuters) - Two Chinese brothers who tunnelled their way out of a coal mine collapse after being trapped for nearly six days survived by eating coal and drinking urine, a local newspaper reported on Tuesday.
Brothers Meng Xianchen and Meng Xianyou became trapped while working at an illegal mine in Beijing's Fangshan District late on Saturday, Aug. 18, the latest in a series of disasters to strike the world's deadliest coal mining industry.
Two days later, rescue efforts were called off and relatives began burning "ghost money" at the entrance of the mine for the dearly departed.
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A worker points to the opening of a coal mine, from where two brothers crawled out after spending 130 hours underground when a tunnel collapsed, for photographers at Fangshan District on the outskirts of Beijing August 24, 2007. (REUTERS/China Daily) | "At first there was no feeling, but then I was so hungry I couldn't crawl any more," Xianchen told the Beijing News. "I got so hungry, I ate a piece of coal, and I thought it quite fragrant.
"Actually, coal is bitter and unsmooth but you can chew up pieces the size of a finger. In the mine, we picked up two discarded water bottles, and drank our urine. You can only take small sips, and when you've finished, you just want to cry."
He said because they were eating coal, and were in the mine for nearly six days, they did not defecate.
"We were only able to do that the day before yesterday in hospital. It was full of coal." |
Drinking urine is common, but eating coal is definitely sometime news for me.
Posted at 07:32 am by alkwhy
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Thursday, May 24, 2007
Got this from Mr. Pati:
Question : What is the truest definition of Globalization?
Answer : Princess Diana's death.
Question : How come?
Answer: An English princess, with an Egyptian boyfriend, crashes in a French tunnel, driving a German car , with a Dutch engine, driven by a Belgian, who was drunk on Scottish whisky, followed closely by Italian Paparazzi, on Japanese motorcycles, treated by an American doctor, using Brazilian medicines.
This is sent to you by an Malaysian, using American Bill Gates's technology, and u r probably reading this on your comp; that uses Taiwanese chips, and Korean monitor, assembled by Bangadeshi workers, in a Singapore plant, transported by indian/malay truck drivers. Thatz , GLOBALISATION.
Posted at 08:59 pm by alkwhy
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Sunday, April 22, 2007
Finally finished Neverwinter Nights 2 on the normal difficulty.
It's a great RPG with fantastic graphics, but there's one problem in the game, that is no matter how much your item cost, the maximum value that you can get from selling it would be 20,000 gold. (imagine selling a 169,000gold greatsword that small amount of gold)
As for the game itself, there's not much battles that my multi-classed Fighter + Divine Champion + Neverwinter Nine character can't handle.
I would say the only battle I had trouble with is in the last dungeon, where the group can't rest to replenish the spells.
In fact, that dungeon would have been a hell is I used a magic class character, cos there are a few hard to kill monsters, and one would need to save the spells for the end-boss of that dungeons.
Luckily, after a few trial and errors, my regeneration+6 character managed to clear everything. :)
Ok, next game on the list: F.E.A.R. (or maybe Command and Conquer 3 if I can get it from Ah Yao)
==================================================================
On another matter: Man United, yesterday's draw with Boro was unfortunate in the sense that Ferdinand was limping before Boro scored the equalizer.
But before that, the ball was going out to the Man U's right corner, but damn, O'Shea cleared it only to quarter field (I was already complaining that he shouldn't clear, but just let it out for a goalkick), which Boro's player took and then led to the cross for the equalizer. ZZZZ
Posted at 10:33 pm by alkwhy
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Saturday, March 17, 2007
Been very busy for the past months, with Chinese New Year and my new house's stuffs.
Every CNY, a couple of us STBP '97 schoolmates would have a gathering at Ykok's house back in BP.
I went to every single one of them, except this year, cos by the time I was informed of the gathering, I was away at JB.
As such I thought I must have missed meeting quite a lot of friends over there.
Fast forward to just now, where I went to the new BP Mall with my mum and sis.
I was just browsing around when I saw Ykok walking towards me.
After a small chat, it turns out that the gathering for this year was attended by only three persons.
Ok, my resolution for next year: to attend the gathering, and get more than 3 persons.
Posted at 11:36 pm by alkwhy
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Saturday, December 30, 2006
Finally, I decided to finish off the last mission of "Company of Heroes".
I did finished it in around 1 hour.
Only to have the program exiting because of an error.
I kept my cool, since it's an easy mission, where I can't lose.
Luckily, after I succeeded in the mission for the second time, there's no error, but the reward I got after completing all the missions in the "Expert" setting is....
The Credits screen.
.......
I was expecting something more rewarding than that, maybe a new secret mission or something.
Cos it's really hard to beat some of the missions, especially those missions which are a continuation from the previous mission.
It's something like this, in the first part of the mission, you are required to defend against enemies with superior firepower, as well as numbers.
After you scrap through it, then the game throws you the second part of the mission, where there's more of the enemy with superior power and numbers, and not to mention the endless artillery strikes.
It required like 10 to 20 retries for those missions, until I know the routes they are taking and the counters for them.
And yeah, before I forget, it's a very well-made game, the graphics excellent, especially the tanks.
The game's also finely balanced, in the sense that there's no one unit which would be invincible.
For example the tanks can counter infantry units, but the anti-tank units will reduce those tanks to metals in just a few shots.
It's a great game for those who likes World War II, since it puts you into the shoes of a leader for one of the Allies company, the Able Company.
Throughout the game, one would learnt the various events that unfold since the Normandy beach invasion, until the eventual defeat of the Axis in Europe.
Great game completed, next game on the list:
Neverwinter Nights 2!
Posted at 12:11 pm by alkwhy
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Sunday, December 17, 2006
Apart from the allergy, starting around November, I started having this numbness in my left foot's three middle toes.
I thought maybe it's something temporary, but after a few weeks, the numbness spread over to the big toe and the whole of the foot.
So, I went over to the doc at plaza siswa again, and he told me maybe there's some nerve problem or something, should be ok with rest.
Well, after another week of non-improvement in the foot, I went over to pharmacy and saw this ad for a supplement which supposedly helps foot numbness.
After a week on this supplement and plenty of milk, again, nothing much happened.
I went over to the chinese physician near "Thomas Cup" aka Black Shop aka PinKee.
The sensei told me it should be my back's problem, and helped me "kua sa" before "folding" me around.
So, I waited but again didn't see much progress.
Last Friday, I went over to the more famous chinese physician at Melaka Raya there.
This time, after telling him my numbness problem, he straight away pinpoint the problem to my foot's ligaments, and when he pressed that part, it hurted like hell.
I was told to go to the backroom, where I would be given foot massages before giving me some medicine.
He also told me that I am supposed to stop drinking iced water, coffee, and tea.
The really "good" news would be I have to stop using my left foot too much (to let the ligament heal), and this means no sports for at least a month.
zzzzzz.
Looks like I can only either do gym, play dota, or monopoly for a month.
Posted at 05:36 pm by alkwhy
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Saturday, December 16, 2006
Ok, there's been major problems in my health lately.
First of all, since 2 months back, I start having this rashes.
It would appear seemingly at random times, on random parts of my body, and appeared from nowhere.
I could sit in my office, and suddenly the rashes all over my hand.
Or, I sit without my shirt on, and appear on the whole of my back.
Initial guess is that I am allergic to dust, but this guess was discounted when I get the rashes after I bath, without touching towel or anything.
I consulted the doctor at plaza siswa, and he told me it IS an allergy.
A weird allergy that is.
.......
Allergy to coldness.
......
From now on, I am to take hot bathes, drink hot drinks, and see only hot babes.
Posted at 12:21 am by alkwhy
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Friday, December 15, 2006
Ok, my Sempron-upgraded-from-Pentium-III in my BP house met some problems.
Apparently it won't start, and so I went back to have a look and try to fix it.
It's spoilt, and wouldn't even enter the BIOS.
Since it still has warranty, I sent it over to Stygix in Melaka.
Now, the problem is, my dad needs the computer to do online shares trading, and that means he need a computer by Monday, and it's a Saturday at that time.
So, I went over to Carrefour to see whether the laptop's any good, since they have available stocks and can C&C.
However, the laptops are very overpriced.
I went over to Summit, but since they don't keep stocks and need to order, that means the laptop definitely won't be ready by Monday.
Anyway, I decided to go Lowyat on Sunday to browse and hopefully get a nice and cheap laptop.
After searching high and low, scouring every floor, I found that Hyundai's M-Life cheapest version can be had for around RM2199, with
Pentium M 1.6Ghz, Centrino,
Intel 945G Mobo (or is it 955?)
256MB-RAM
DVD-RW
40GB harddisk.
14.1" LCD
Ok, add in another 256MB of RAM and it should be good enough until I get back my Sempron.
So I asked the salesperson, and he gave me a price at RM2170 for the laptop + additional 256 RAM.
I thought OK, since it's not a bad price, and he asked me to follow him upstairs to take the new laptop.
I have to admit, I was a bit worried at that time, cos I had RM2k of cash, and he's leading me to an isolated area of the top floor in Lowyat.
Ok, this is because from what I heard from "Smiling Assassin", that the isolated areas in JB are the places where the coordinated robberies take place, where someone lead the victims into the area for his partners to gang up.
Anyway, luckily, nothing happened, except that the shop IS indeed at the top floor.
However, this salesperson, Wesley, told me that the laptop's gonna have 256MB of RAM first, the other 256MB will come later because he's going to get it from other area.
Ok, I thought, if it works, should be no problem.
---- to be continued ----
Posted at 12:31 am by alkwhy
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