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Friday, September 29, 2006

Four changes and a wedding

I have noticed that over the few years, government service have actually improved! Usually, you need to wait for hours to get a number. Then you wait a few more hours for your number to get called. Then you wait for an hour (ok, this bit is exaggerated) for them to complete the service you want, be it to renew your passport, change your Identification Card (IC), etc...

What used to take weeks or months (like getting a new IC) now takes maybe a day or a week. Impressive. This is what I call change for the better!

However, the same can't be said for the private sectors. That's really strange cause it used to be that when you privatise something, they usually become efficient and fast. Maybe times have changed.

Now, it takes me an hour to do my banking (take number, wait for turn, wait for officer, etc). I know we have 24 hours cash machines, etc... But there are somethings you just can't do with the machine like get a Fixed Deposit, argue for discounts, etc... It still takes eternity to buy stamps (and it takes twice as long for your recipient to get your snail mail).

Nobody likes to wait these days. Everyone wants everything YESTERDAY.

When a website takes a long time to load, I usually just hit the STOP button and click BACK. Or I just go somewhere else to look for information.

This is partly why I have also changed the looks and feel of this site. I've removed most of the images and rely mainly on CSS. But since it is hosted on blogspot, it means that the individual pages become bloated (with CSS codes). However, I know there's still a lot that can be done to reduce the number of line of codes. Changes will come.

When a person hits 30, they start to realise that things are NOT the same anymore. Suddenly, you realise you're an ADULT. You have got to think about loans, mortages, family, career, mortality... The thinking starts to change. You become more responsible. You become more serious (since you should never treat life as a joke!). Still, life is short. No one said you cannot be serious and enjoy life, right? So more funny, witty posts will be coming soon!!!

And did you know that it takes less than 30 minutes to change your marital status from SINGLE to MARRIED? I don't mean unchecking the box and then checking on the other when you are trying to complete an online form. I mean legally in Malaysia. Of course the whole process will take about slightly over two weeks since the law requires that the marriage announcement be placed on a public notice board for a minimum period of two weeks (actually, this is another interesting topic that I will blog about another day). This is to allow people to protest against the marriage, if any.

The 30 minutes involve you raising your right hand, saying 'Yes' and then signing the papers. You can actually complete it is less than 15 minutes.

OK, so what about the wedding and who's wedding is it?

Well, the wedding is definitely coming. It is in November. And it is MY wedding. :)

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Tuesday, September 26, 2006

Type of wedding

Unknown:

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Monday, September 25, 2006

Success in Marriage

Anonymous:
Success in marriage is much more than finding the right person; it is a matter of being the right person.

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Friday, September 22, 2006

Time Spiral Pre-Release

For a change, I will not be talking about change today. Did I just mention change again?!? Duh...!

Anyway, I will be in attending the Time Spiral pre-release this weekend at Cititel Megamall in Mid Valley. Time Spiral is the latest expansion of the card game Magic: The Gathering.

What is Magic? Rather than me trying to explain, click here for a better explanation instead.

25kid will not be with us this time around. Come to think of it, he has never joined us in any of the tourneys at all! Anyway, this weekend, it will be Steven and myself. I dunno how he managed to get the weekend off from his wife and his darling baby Daniel...

What?! Two 30 year olds (yes Steven, you are in this age group even if your birthday is at year end) playing card games?!? Well... Why not? We will always be kids at heart! I think Magic is actually a very rewarding hobby. First of all, it helps you to think and strategies. You need to know how to mix and match the cards to give you the best combination. Secondly, the cards themselves can actually fetch quite a good price. This can also mean an expensive hobby if you're the type who buys the cards instead... Third, there are Magic tournaments held every now and then with the cash prize of sometimes up to USD5000.

For me, I'm not the type to splurge rm10 for one card. Call me kiamsiap or call me realistic. That's why I only join certain tournaments - sealed decks. Sealed deck tournaments mean that you do not need to bring any cards to the tournament. You just bring the registration fee and hope to be really lucky. The cards will be given when the tournament begins. Since the cards are randomly packed in the starter pack and the booster packs, you definitely need to feel lucky to get the 'better' cards. Of course it helps if you do some reseach on the cards first as you have very limited time to construct your deck.

Some interesting news that we're already hearing and reading about Time Spiral is that there will be a subset of purple cards included in the packs. These purple cards are actually re-prints of the old cards, updated with the latest (and correct) text. As of the time this post is published, Wizards of the Coast (makers of Magic: The Gathering) have yet to even mention anything on their site about the purple cards.

However, other fan sites such as MTGSalvation have been sharing lots of insider news, spoilers, etc about these purple cards. MTGSalvation is also where I'm getting the spoiler list for the Time Spiral.

Rumours? Truth? All will be revealed tomorrow when we open our starter packs and boosters packs...

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Wednesday, September 20, 2006

Another 80s flashback... TV series

From cartoon series, we move on to the 80s TV series.

One of my favourite TV series from that era was Automan. Who would not want to have a virtual buddy that came alive and had an assistant called Cursor that could 'create' anything such as a sports car? I also remember waiting every week for Street Hawk, the motorcycle version of Knight Rider.

Then there is TJ Hooker for police drama series.

As for science fiction, I never missed Misfits of Science. I don't know if anyone realised Courtney Cox (probably better known for her role in Friends) is in this series as well?

But I guess everyone's favourite would be A-Team. I'm sure many would remember A-Team and the tagline "If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire... The A-Team."

Thinking back... There is one thing I noticed about the TV series back then and the TV series we get these days. The series we got back then were really for entertainment purposes. There is NO need for it to be realistic or very logical. All that matters was it entertained the viewers.

If you turn on your TV these days, you get real-life, gritty and very logical series like CSI, Bones and Criminal Minds. I am not saying these are lousy series. In fact, I do watch them every week. But my point is... These series seems to show how viewers have evolved over time.

Now, murder scenes on TV have to have bloodied and mutilated bodies. Otherwise, it is not a murder scene. It is no longer about the good people helping the weak fight the evil men. Nowadays, it is about how the near-perfect crime such as murder was committed.

If you read the Wiki entry on A-Team, the series is proud to be known for NO deaths and killings in the show. No evil men gets killed. Maybe one or two deaths occur in the beginning of the show as the plot for the day. But other than that, no deaths. The evil men just get arrested at the end.

Could this be one reason why murder, war, rape, snatch thefts, etc happen so rampantly these days? Is it because we have become so de-sensitised that we now view deaths, rapes, war, etc as a normal daily occurance?

Anyway, I don't want to get too deep into this rather heavy subject.

If you enjoyed the 80s TV series I have mentioned earlier, here are some more links you may want to check out:

Street Hawk
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088618/
http://www.tv.com/street-hawk/show/2491/summary.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Street_Hawk

Automan
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0084978/
http://www.tv.com/automan/show/1921/summary.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automan

A-Team
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0084967/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_A-Team

Misfits of Science
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088568/
http://www.tv.com/misfits-of-science/show/516/summary.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misfits_of_Science

TJ Hooker
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083486/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T.J._Hooker

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Monday, September 18, 2006

Flashback to 80s cartoons

Does the quote above sound familiar to you? What about this...


To measure change, we need to have a reference point. What better reference point that the 80s, when life, I believe, was simple and the world was still so innocent. "We are the World" was *the* song. We, as the world, cared for one another.

Ah, let us not talk about depressing stuffs on this blog, at least not today anyway. You can get enough of them in the newspapers.

Let us talk about the two quoted items above. They were taken from a cartoon series which I enjoyed very much. If I recalled correctly, they were screen in Malaysia back in 1988 or 1989, when I was in the final years of my primary school.

There were also other equally memorable cartoon series during that time. I remember faithfully following cartoons like Transformers, Thundercats, Jem and even M.A.S.K.!

Still wondering where the quotes came from? Well, they are from the cartoon series Visionaries. Anyone seen it before? :)

Fast forward to present day. We have equally good cartoons as well, though I have to say that I have not been able to really follow them closely. Among the more popular ones are Naruto, Bleach, Ragnarok, etc... Noticed they are all animes? Animes seems to be the *IN* thing. For more information on animes, you can check out this site. Oh, I intentionally left out names like Southpark, etc... I don't think they make a lasting impression like the 80s cartoon mentioned earlier.

Anyway, for those who want to take the short trip down memory lane, here are some sites you can visit...

Visionaries
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092476/
http://www.hannagram.com/visionaries/animated/index.html

M.A.S.K.
http://theflashsite.net/mask/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M.A.S.K.

Jem
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jem_(TV_series)

Transformers
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transformers_series
http://www.seibertron.com/cartoons/index.php

By the way, in case you have not heard, Transformers: The Movie is coming in 2007.

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Sunday, September 17, 2006

The rolling 50 sen

Change is something we go through everyday, whether we realise it or not. We change in order to try and improve ourselves. This site has undergone many countless changes in the name of improvement. The most recent being just 2 weeks ago when I deleted this blog and re-created it again. A major change. But still, I believe I had to do it. I have done away with most of the graphics and have gone back to basics. There will still be more changes to come. After all,, the only time when we don't change is when we finally get our big, long holiday... 6 feet under.

Anyway, consider this as Volume 2 of my blog. I will leave the WHY for another day.

For now, I will like to share what I would call flashback... Or journey back to a distant past.

I was watching the television a few days ago when I happened to come across this interesting advertisement by Toyota. They were trying to sell the message that the VVT-i technology in their car can help save petrol and make the car go further (unless I got the wrong message).

It showed two boys playing will their toy cars. One, of course, resembling the Toyota. The non-Toyota boy's car stopped after a short distance but the Toyota boy's car kept going further and further... Going outside the house, to the road, etc...

Suddenly, I was reminded of another similar advertisement shown on the Malaysian television long, long time ago. I was surprised that I was actually still able to remember the jingle as well. I asked my brother if he remembered such an advertisement (cause maybe I was dreaming) and he said he recalled a bit.

The advertisement goes something like this... A 50 sen coin was accidentally dropped on to the floor in someone's house. The 50 sen coin then started to roll out the house, onto the road and then to many other places... The coin just kept on rolling and rolling...

And the jingle went like this "XXX membuat... Wang anda berganda-ganda".

Now, I think I remember the XXX. I will put up what I think is the answer in a week's time... In the comments section. In the meantime, if you think you know the answer, do drop me line at the comments as well. I would love to hear what you remembered about the advertisement and the many others that was shown back then.

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Saturday, September 16, 2006

Subtle change

Calvin from Calvin and Hobbes:
Know what's weird? Day by day, nothing seems to change, but pretty soon... Everything's different.

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Friday, September 15, 2006

Change for better

Unknown:
If nothing ever changed, there'd be no butterflies.

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Thursday, September 14, 2006

Not changing...

James Barrie:
The most useless are those who never change through the years.

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Wednesday, September 13, 2006

There is always change

Arthur Schopenhauer:
Change alone is eternal, perpetual, immortal.

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Tuesday, September 12, 2006

Change... In a funny way.

Robert C. Gallagher:
Change is inevitable - except from a vending machine.

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