endroog

Wooh… this year is drawing to an end. Its been a rather a mix of joy sad and pathetic year to look back. Maybe certain part of it turned out not as what I’d expected or maybe I’m just too much or too demanding. However, often things will not turn out as what we wanted…urrmmm, at least 70% of it will not be and thats a very sad thing to know. Life is not perfect. There must be ups and downs and it all depend on how you tackle it.

The best part of this year has got to be the fact I’ve found my love. At least life won’t be too lonely anymore… not that I’m no more lonely at all. I’ve left behind the fucked up life that I’ve lived before this year and hoping good life are coming ahead. I can say I’ve changed a lot ever since my birthday this year. You cannot afford to not change for someone you love and for yourself. You just gotta give and take and compromise on things if you have to, to make life better.

My mid-year accident that restricted my jaw movement forever is a sad chapter for this year. Anyhow I seriously kinda enjoyed the time being on medical leave and having someone to care for me… and at the same time being unable to eat anything really an experience you don’t want to try. That experience would have make me give up on life had I not have Szer with me.

Now… I’m taking a course to enhance myself and occupy my time when she’s not around. Maybe I should find a new hobby…. probably go take pictures. Haha. Oh yeah.. I have to study. I have a fair share of beef or shit in the office…. maybe because I felt being used for someone’s advantage and its unfair. Well, I’m not gonna dwell much on office shit… just to let you know.

And this blog, endroog.com is 1 year old. Hooray. The proceeds from payperpost subsidised all the hosting charges… so it can self sustain. Till then… Happy New Year from me and my szer.

Went to Mass yesterday…. mandarin mass (8.00pm at Jesus Caritas Church, Kepong) as my granny wanna go mandarin one and the timing is better. Go early and finish off early. The priest… Father i-don’t-know-his-name said in his Christmas sermon on why we are all so wrong in associating Christmas as/with Xmas.

The fundamental agenda of this celebration is the birth of Christ The Lord hence the word Christmas. Its just not mere giving presents. But he asked why deleting (cross [x] out) the word christ from christmas and make it Xmas? Yeah… I never thought of that.. really. I did thought of it before on why its Xmas and not Cmas for short form purposes but never did I aware or question about the deletion of “Christ” in the word. Normally I’d be asleep when I’m attending chinese mass because I don’t really understand mandarin… those spoken in lengthy speeches.

The priest who hails from Taiwan, even went on to tell us about the name change of Christmas in Taiwan. “Seng Tan Chit” where “seng” which means holy, is the correct chinese term used for generations worldwide…. but the buggers in Taiwan call it “Yeh Tan Chit”. Apparently because Jesus is called “Yeh Sou” in chinese… hence Yeh is his surname and the celebration of Yeh.

The Father even went on to tell us the original meaning of Christmas… Christmas Eve… where I think normally after the Mass, family will gather at home for a feast. Well, I’d prefer to have party such for gifts exchange. Stay at home have a drink or two watch christmas TV shows, or just a plain feasting at home will be just fine. They don’t sing the song Silent Night for no reason.

*edited*

The cute little boy… my cousin… it took me about 10 minutes to have this best shot. Monkey boy.

These Santa ornaments had been around almost as long as I lived. Man… my aunty still have these ornaments in tip-top condition.

Hmm.. a christmas wishlist? Well, last xmas wishlist was fulfilled partially in the form of my Szer.

Now I’m not wishing for anything material. As long as there’s food on the table and szer’s around with me this xmas.. year end… I am more than happy. To have a love one to enjoy christmas with is already a luxury to me…… looking back at the earlier fucked up life.

Szer is back for xmas and she bought me stuffs. Thats my only xmas wish and it came true. Her physical presence is all that matters. Thanks Santa.

Ok… btw, thanks for the angpaus from my aunties. Dad, don’t worry…. mom will be coming to you soon once the shit here are settled.

Merry Christmas, folks.

Ok… the reunion celebration was over and I had my best tong yuen in few years. Early morning mom and granny was already awake and busy doing their stuffs in the kitchen. They were preparing tong yuen - both “salty” and “sweet” ones. Actually I prefer eating the sweet one as its more colourful and nicer to eat. However, if you’re hungry the salty one is filling. Its just like what you get in koay teow soup just that you replace koay teow with tong yuen.

Granny said “tong tai ko nin” (winter is bigger than new year) . But to me… its nothing… as long as I get to eat high quality sweet tong yuen… I’ll be happy. All family member were at my place… all the kids almost turned the house upside down. The uncles watched TV until the TV watched them. The aunties all kepoh with their grandmothers stories…. even as I tried to take an afternoon power nap…. the kids came into my room and wake me up. They want toys apparently. Asked them to help themselves from my cupboard.  Kids are fun and make you happy but when they start to make highly audible noise, you may get sick…. like my granny.

I didn’t know when choosing a ladies handbag, there’s so much of both art and science involved. My mum really gave a good lecture.

From the colour, to the straps to the material to size to practicality to brands to age (person’s age) to almost everything…. there’s a lot of wisdom and philosophy in choosing a ladies handbag. Arrghhh.. why so complicated? Isn’t it the more compartment the better? Isn’t it the bigger the better for value? Leather vs PVC vs fabric? Colour like striking fluorescent green or the old plain colour or the glossy surface or the shimmering “Kate Moss” style of material? Singlehandle strap vs double handle strap is also a long chapter on its own. Ultimately of course the price plays a big influence in the selection.

This subject is very interesting as it is hard to get a bag that suits for all occasion… a bag which you can carry lots of stuffs yet trendy and arrghhh…. well, at the end of the day it all goes down to the preference of that person who’s gonna carry that bag.

Wanting to go dot com? Want something better than the free blogging tools like Blogspot? Then start your own domain with a web hosting of your choice. I’ve found a site where you can list all your hosting requirement and they will search the best web hosting provider for you. It doesn’t matter what are your requirements, they can get you the best deal.

The site I’m talking about is http://www.webhostingchoice.com - Web Hosting Choice. They have a list of all available hosting companies and their available packages. You can either browse each and every one to look for the one that meet your requirement or you can put in your requirements in a form and do a search for the best deal that offers all your required tools like database, programming tools to payment gateways and blogging tools.

There’s also a web hosting guide where you can assess your need for web hosting. There’s even notes for those who are not so tech savvy but would like an own domain. Tips on what are the things to look for in a package, the A-Z on setting up a domain and many more. I can say, it is some sort of a Web Hosting for Dummies. You should check it out if you wanted to setup your own web hosting but do not know how to do it.

Wooh… I’m free. Well… I would like to say that I SMOKED but I’m not into it anymore. Only when I’m drinking I would like to smoke.. preferably kreteks like Saempoerna, Gudang Garam or Dji Sam Soe. The taste on the lips is just sweet. However I don’t inhale and just play only. Haha. Mel, thanks for the kretek the other day.
Like father like son…. he also smokes occasionally but he’s just playing smokes when he drinks. Cigarette goes with alcohol.

Yeah, I can control it now. I don’t crave for smoke. I smoke when I want to, I won’t when I don’t want to.

“All these technologies are making life better and I’m so fucking happy with it..” my dad said. We were skyping the other day and he was so glad that technology like Skype and video chat in general are so useful and important for those living far away for it enable those in both end of the line to see each other while chatting. The most important element here is that to see each other to ease the missing feeling. Well, he’s been doing self learning on how to use emails, skype, read online papers… he even ditched YahooMail for Gmail and even said he’s gonna start blogging soon.. a real Gbapak, the senior G. I think he’s going 3G soon.

Today, a voice chat online or phone let alone text chat is not enough ever since we had video. Right?! Yeah… its true. My dad who’s been following the phone revolution for sometime said he’s not gonna waste money on phones anymore… he’d rather invest in a better web camera and or a better equipped laptop so that he can chat and see us the loved ones. Yeah, he misses us all and its normal. To be able to see us really made him feel better he said. I definitely now know exactly how he feels….

A wifi enabled pda is a great toy today as you can use it to skype for free at many places like mamak and kopitiam. Yeah… the kopitiams and mamaks in my area are wifi enabled. Dad, if you need tutorials, just skype me. Technologies are so advanced we can save a lot on phone calls. Forget all those ring-ring cards.

Ha… Christmas is around the corner again…. and before I write on.. Christmas Merry Merry for 2007.

This year, I think I need to quickly clone myself so that another endroo G is available and can be at different places at one time. Will leave it as it is and see how the situation goes.

Where to celebrate Christmas…………………?

*a rather personal ranting post. Sorry.

EXIF stands for Exchangeable Image File Format, and is a standard for storing interchange information in image files, especially those using JPEG compression. Most digital cameras now use the EXIF format. The format is part of the DCF standard created by JEITA to encourage interoperability between imaging devices.

It is the meta info when you hover your mouse over a picture file, a balloon will pop up showing you the date and time the picture was taken, camera make & model, exposure, shutter speed, settings etc.

You can alter or delete the annoying information altogether because these information often make your life harder as some pundek “jern” bastards are snooping over these information and see if you are lazy or not. Don’t let these information ruin your day.

Here’s a link for you to download the program and start editing those informations for a better day.

http://www.softpedia.com/get/Multimedia/Graphic/Digital-Photo-Tools/EXIFeditor.shtml

The required .NET Framework 2.0.50727 :

http://microsoft-net-framework.en.softonic.com/download

By the way, READ THE DISCLAIMER before you attempt to edit your crucial picture files.

From Vienna with love…

Viola, an old penpal, had just finish recording her band’s second album. Oh yeah… a jazz quartet. I think I blogged about them sometime ago. Its quite a delight, for she had emailed me to ask for my address so that she can send me personally autographed CDs.

Here at endroog.com, I’ll be supportive of friends and their happening events… like recently, Dominic’s lomography exhibition.

Congratulations, Viola.

For more information:

http://www.falbfiction.com

http://www.myspace.com/falbfiction

Oh yeah… the company provided new camera again. This time a Nikon. So.. we have to learn again how to use a new camera. We’re too used to the Sony’s patented interface, we now have to take the learning curve again. Perhaps, Nikon is a better camera…. but in the point-and-shoot segment, I don’t see a reason to compare it religiously. I’m not into any of these religions… Nikon Canon Sony Olympus arrgghgh. Its just a point-and-shoot. As long as it has the inbuilt time stamp and decent ease of use, it’ll be adequate for most of our work. Oh yeah, it shoots in JPEG and AVI mode only.

Man, a whoping 12.1 MP camera but we’re using only VGA mode (640×480). Yes, you won’t believe it but we’re using only VGA mode due to the outdated software only can generate reports for VGA pictures. The developer for that software went out of business (I’d guess) and we’re left with this obsolete yet crucial piece of software to help us generate report in a fraction of time from doing it manually.

Eh… the build is quite sturdy. Magnesium body casing and there’s hotshoe for a decent flashgun. Oh yeah, lets go do some amateur shooting this weekend.

Full specs here : http://www.dpreview.com/news/0708/07083007nikonp5100.asp

Second day in Jakarta was great. Reached Mangga Dua by 9.00am. Its just about 20 minutes from our place. Well, this something what Chow Kit is to KL. There’s this shopping mall.. bazaar kind of thing where you can find a lot of things… clothes, accessories, fakes, spectacles, embroidery services, all kinds of beads, you name it. Anyway, I only bought a pair of short bermuda jeans for just Rp9oK. Had Indomie breakfast.

Ok, did I tell you all that.. to me, Indonesian food is just like another malay food. Alright.. maybe my 2 days stint is just not sufficient to eat.. but then the renown nasi padang is just like another nasi kandar. Only that they serve in plates for each dish and its not as hygiene as you thought it would be. Imagine, they put all the available dishes they have in the house on the table and whichever you don’t eat, they collect it back to “recycle”/reheat for the next customer. You only pay for the dishes you ate. Don’t expect the aroma of nasi kandar you always eat in the alleys near your office. You’d be disappointed for generations. The nasi padang we patronised was recommended by a waiter at Cafe Batavia. He said there’s only 2 good nasi padang joint in Jakarta…. Sari Bundo and Garuda. So the one convenient for us to go was Sari Bundo. Another thing is Indomie, an instant noodle which is delicious. I think thats their national food… for every noodle shop there must be indomie in the menu. Bakso indomie, indomie soup, indomie goreng, dry mixed indomie etc….

Eh… went off the chronology of events. Ok… after Mangga Dua, we went to Fatahillah Square by angkut (the tuk-tuk motor bike). There are the various museums… Museum Fatahillah, Museum Wayang, Museum Fine Arts, etc. These are old colonial buildings converted to museum. This is what I wanted to see. After the visiting the various museums, we retreated to Cafe Batavia for a drink. The setting in there is very posh and nice. You should go there if you ever visit Jakarta. After the drink.. went eat nasi padang at Sari Bundo (lunch). While eating lunch, our table was facing a nice colonial building and I was staring at it throughout the meal. Then before we left the restaurant, we asked a waiter there what is that building opposite and was told it is the National Archieve (they call it arsib nasional). Ok good. He even recommended us to visit the place. So we took quite an effort to cross the busy road. Yeah, it was a nice building. According to a picture I saw thereat, it is a fact that there was an awry massacre took place at the backyard of the building a few centuries ago. The locals massacred the colonials, chinese etc.

Later in the evening, we went to the Kathedral in central Jakarta… a gothic catholic church which I believed to be the oldest church in Indonesia. It is a must visit place in Jakarta. At the time when we were there, so happen there was a wedding mass going on and we attended it partially. The church is also a museum in its own right, as the upper level stores artefacts of Catholic presence in Jakarta. But too bad, it was closed that day. Ayoyo.

Its quite weird to me as we’re used to english or chinese mass here and there they speak malay. Let me tell you, I feel very uneasy because chinese are all speaking malay among themselves and chinese traders speak malay to me. It never happen before (except the time people mistaken me for a malay). Its like thing you rarely see here (except my house; i speak malay with Mr Bean sometime). Ok… there are many nice places for wedding photo shooting in Jakarta. Mainly the places are Kota Lama (the Cafe Batavia area) and this Kathedral.

Photo album

Its been raining since yesterday morning here in KL and it only stopped this evening. Man, the road in Aman Puri sunk a bit created a massive traffic jam as they blocked the road near the Shell station this morning.

Weather is so cooling…. good. Blah bla bla…..

Ok… well, went to Jakarta the other day out of frustration for having to miss her so much. Or should I put it like this… free accommodation… why not go for a spin. Even Sean’s dearest herself never been to Jakarta despite being an Indonesian. Alright, my trip had only a purpose…. to see my szer. Imagine not seeing your love one for 2 months….

But then… to tell people I’ve been to Jakarta… I must have pictorial evidence. Hence we’ve visited the National Monument or Monas for short. That tower is simple and in the whole compound perimeter of that structure you can build 2 Petronas twin-towers I’d guess. There’s a museum in the basement of Monas. Models and figurines depicting events from the time of neandearthal period till srivijaya to majapahit to the Dutch and present time are all encased in a behind a glass in wall. After the Monas, we came upon a group of student activists outside Monas. They were marching… striking on some shit and polisi eeerr I mean policemen have to be there to control the situation. These are MPs… military police. Then we walked about half a kilometer to the National Museum only to find it having an exhibition. The museum was closed for the exhibition. There’s a lot of luxury cars parked in the compound. The drivers (ah mats) sitting on whatever that they can rest their asses on. It was a jewelry exhibition going on. No wonder lah. Asked the guy at the door and was told we have to buy ticket to go in. Alright… forget it we told ourselves. I can’t afford to buy jewelry yet.

We the took taxi to one of the poshest mall in the nusantara. Plaza Indonesia and eX Mall which are situated next to each other. Linked and connected. There we had dinner. Gado-gado and lontong medan. After dinner, went to yet another mall…. Semanggi…. man ….. I’m wondering why shopping mall… but hey… its hot there and malls are the only cool retreat. All kinds of clothes and accessories for both genders. After Semanggi, we back and sleep. It was a tiring day.

Check out the photo album: http://fotologue.jp/endroog#/5465034/5465107