Musim Sakit

Minggu lepas aku demam dekat seminggu. Mula hari Khamis 24hb tu aku dah rasa tak sedap badan. Jumaat tu dah rasa tak larat nak bukak mata pun. Sabtu & Ahad flat kat rumah, tak larat nak buat apa pun... Fail Meja yang patutnya siap hari Isnin tu pun tak sentuh-sentuh lagi sampai hari ni. Hari Isnin tu gi Klinik Putrajaya... marah-marah doktor tu, dapat la MC 2 hari... Hari Rabu aku patut masuk kerja, tapi tak larat jugak nak gi... Pagi tu aku hantar barang-barang untuk Mesyuarat Pengurusan ke opis, pastu terus gi Klinik Putrajaya... Kena buat FBC, tapi bila check semuanya normal. Bila jumpa Medical Assistant tu, temperature pun normal ajer... Tapi aku paksa jugak MA tu bagi ubat yang lagi kuat dari yang dapat hari Isnin tu. Dia bagi la ubat yang kuat. Dapat je ubat tu, terus aku telan... Patutnya aku gi opis lepas tuh, tapi aku terus balik rumah tido kaw-kaw nyer... Tido start kol 11 pagi sampai 6 petang, walaupun takde MC. Aku dah tak pedulik dah masa tu... Janji aku dapat rehat...

2-3 hari tu, aku main telan je ubat tu. Tapi sepanjang masa tuh, aku dok mengantuk ajer... Pastu, mulut rasa semacam ajer... Nak makan pun tak larat, kena paksa makan... Bila makan jer, rasa nak muntah balik segala-galanya. Masuk 2nd day, aku tergerak lak nak check kat Internet apakebendenye ubat yang aku dok telan tuh... Rupa-rupanya ubat tu memang ubat yang kuat... Yang aku tak larat tuh, sbb antara side-effect ubat tu, aku akan rasa nauseous & kepala jadi bengap semacam... Rupa-rupanya pasal tuh la bila aku bukak je PC nak buat FM, aku dok tengok muka surat tuh berjam-jam tapi takleh tau apakebendenye nak tulih. Last-last padam PC, gi tido jer... Aku rasa dalam seminggu lepas nih, aku tido ngalahkan baby umur 2 bulan... Asyik nak tido jer. Bangun pun sekejap-sekejap jer, pastu serupa tak bangun... Bangun dari katil, turun bawah, dok kat sofa, pastu terlelap balik.

Hari ni aku dah rasa ok sket, tapi still batuk-batuk lagi. Tapi aku malas nak makan ubat batuk tuh sbb buat aku mengantuk ajer... Makan ubat pun masa dah nak tido malam. Minggu ni dah nak kena gi ke Jitra. Ada event kat sana. Gi sana hari Sabtu kot, sampai hari Isnin. Sabtu nih kalau dapat flight, mesti flight pagi... Subuh-subuh lagi dah nak kena gi airport. Nasib baik masa balik aku naik bas rombongan Kementerian, tak la rasanya penat sangat. Tapi risau gak nak gi ni. Wife aku tak la sihat sangat. Dia lak sambung demam aku. Adik ipar aku yang dok kat rumah tu pun tak brapa sihat jugak, demam jugak. Nasib baik jugak la ada adik ipar aku tu kat rumah.

As I'm writing this, aku still tengah batuk kuat lagi. Kalau nak ikut hati, nak je aku gi balik klinik tu mintak cuti lagi sehari dua. Tapi sah-sah la esok aku still kena masuk meeting pengurusan nih. Takkan la aku nak harapkan org lain masuk meeting tuh for the second week running. Ni yang buat aku berkobar-kobar nak KUP 48, just so aku takyah nak jadi urus setia meeting lagi... tak larat la weh, buat minit je dah dekat setahun nih... :(

What Age Do You Act?

I followed a link from one of my friend's blog, and took this test just for the fun of it. I thought I've answered all the questions as truthfully as possible, so imagine my surprise as to what age the test put me at...

You Are 18 Years Old

Under 12: You are a kid at heart. You still have an optimistic life view - and you look at the world with awe. 13-19: You are a teenager at heart. You question authority and are still trying to find your place in this world. 20-29: You are a twentysomething at heart. You feel excited about what's to come... love, work, and new experiences. 30-39: You are a thirtysomething at heart. You've had a taste of success and true love, but you want more! 40+: You are a mature adult. You've been through most of the ups and downs of life already. Now you get to sit back and relax.

What Age Do You Act?

18!!! Am I that immature?! What the heck, it's just a test anyway...

Of Codes, Dreams and Dan Brown - Part II

It's been a while, I know. Why has it been a while? Dan Brown, of course! But then again, to let him shoulder all the blame would be unethical for me, right? I mean, he's got nothing to do with my absence, just that his work has made me a believer.

Let me be honest with you. I was one of the thousands, perhaps millions who first knew the name Dan Brown with the movie Da Vinci Code. After watching the movie, I just thought; "What the heck! I'll just try reading the book, since the movie seems intellectual enough." So I went to Bangi to rent the book. Unfortunately, after 3 visits and 3 phone calls, the book was still unavailable for rent. A month after I watched the movie, I finally got a phone call saying that the book is finally available. So I rushed over to Bangi at almost 9pm just to get the book. Was the book worth the wait? Damn well it was!

As you may have already read my earlier post, you'd probably know that I was impressed with the book enough to go out and buy the boxed set of Dan Brown's four books. I started to read Digital Fortress first, followed by Deception Point. Both books were simply superb! When I finally finished both books, I thought Angels and Demons couldn't possibly be better than these two, right? Wrong!

Angels and Demons... What can I say to give justice to this book? I humbly concede that nothing I say can even remotely describe how good this book is. The plot is a constant roller-coaster of dizzying events, always keeping me at the edge of my seat, craving for more. From start to finish, I was always in a perpetual daze at Brown's skill deftly insinuating at something but eventually revealing the total opposite. My apologies to Commander Olivetti, I really thought you were the Illuminatus from within the walls of the Vatican. If you don't know what I'm talking about, I implore you: read the book. Brown's masterful weaving of words coupled with his convincingly thorough research on the subjects for his books makes for a thoroughly enjoyable read in all four of his books. I can't wait for the time when he releases his next book....

finito...

Of Codes, Dreams and Dan Brown

Okay, it's been a while since my last post. But I have a very good reason for the delay. It was The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown that caused the delay. I know, I know. I'm sooooo behind times if I'd just read the book. So sue me! But whatever it is, I have to say that this book is great! I got me the book on loan and finished it in just a couple of days. I actually watched the movie first before reading the book, and I'm glad I didn't read the book earlier. Don't get me wrong. I thoroughly enjoyed the movie, but I liked the book much better. The movie wasn't as complicated as I had thought it would be, but there were still questions unanswered. But all those questions were answered after reading the book. I was so impressed with the book that I went out and got myself the Dan Brown boxed set of his four best-sellers. And that's why I've been a little on the quiet side in updating my blog.

Anyway, after I got the boxed set, I tried to read the books in writing order. So I started with Digital Fortress first, before moving on to Deception Point. But after reading Da Vinci Code and Digital Fortress, I noticed a recurring theme in both those books. Never mind the fact that both stories revolve around the protagonist running around trying to solve clues. But what I noticed about these two books is that they both have incidences where the hero(ine) was awakened from sleep with the ringing of the phone. Makes you wonder whether Brown has got issues relating to dreams being interrupted by the phone. At least, it made me wonder so.

Back to Digital Fortress, I'm quite impressed with Brown's rendition on the whole PKI algorithm issue. I'm sure he's had countless hours of consultation to grasp the whole idea of encryption and algorithms from the security point of view. What especially intrigued me was the idea of the revolving cleartext. It opens up a whole universe of security issues if anyone had actually managed to write an algorithm to employ the revolving cleartext as a shifting algorithm to come up with a new PKI standard: an unbreakable algorithm! And the whole idea of using mutational strings as the backbone of the algorithm is so logical, that it might just work. But I would tabik spring to the one who can make this possible, coz I get dizzy just thinking about the magnitude of the programming involved.

Right now, I'm in the midst of reading Deception Point. Actually, to say that I'm in the midst of reading it wouldn't be too precise. I just got started on the book yesterday, so it really means I've just started reading the first few pages. So we'll just have to wait and see what will happen in this book. Tungguuuu....

Melayu mudah lupa

It's been a couple of days since my "sleep like a log" incident. You'd think I'd learn my lesson by now. But did I? Heavens, no! Last night, again I find myself glued to my laptop, cruising from one site to another. What has changed? Nothing. Not a single thing. But wait! Something HAS changed... But what is it, I wonder...

Looking back at the time when I first got Streamyx (which at this juncture in time, feels like a millenia ago), I realised that my access spEed is MUCH faster now. Bewildered, I checked my network configuration to see if anything has been modified. Everything seems like it was before. So why is it that my lag time has been cut considerably short? I asked my buddy who put his server at my place what might have been the reason that my access speed is faster. His explaination was simple: before, my ADSL modem connected directly to my laptop did the dialing up for me. Hence, it took quite a chunk of my resources and this inescapably took a toll on my speed. But now, since the ADSL modem is attached to his server and my laptop is just a "passenger" instead of the "driver", I'm gaining speed like I've never had before!

So what has this unexpected but welcomed turn of events has got to do with the title of this post? Well, this incident shows that sometimes, we're easily sidetracked by unforeseen occurences. In this case, the unexpected speed that I gained has made me again, sacrifice my much needed sommeil réparateur in lieu of a better surfing experience. A simple thing like speed overcomes the biological need for slumber. How stupid is that!

In any case, this morning isn't too bad. I woke up earlier than my usual time, not feeling the least bit disoriented (for now) and by 7.30, I was already munching away on 3 pieces of karipap and a pulut panggang. Ever since I've made it a habit to have my dinner at 6 pm, my mornings greet me with the growlings of Beethoven's 5th symphony playing away in my tummy, demanding that it be fed. Oh well, since breakfast IS the most important meal of the day, I guess it's no harm to stuff myself silly so early in the morning, right?

Bleary eyed and spinning sights

i need more sleep...

that's the conclusion that i've arrived to, after almost 2 weeks with streamyx. 2 days ago my buddy came over to put up his server at my house. he also set up wireless access, so now i can bring my laptop anywhere in the house and still get access to the net. so that night was almost an all-nighter for me, surfing to my heart's content. in the morning, not surprisingly, i woke up late. woke up with a start at 6.45, arrived at the office at 7.59. another 2 minutes and i'd have my first red mark on my punchcard for this month.

the whole morning, i was staring at the same page in my word document. for a good part of four hours, i didn't make any progress in my work. i kept reading what i've written b4, and nothing makes sense. finally i gave up and went to the surau and slept. my head feels like it's been replaced with a ton of concrete, and whenever i get up from my seat, i feel like i'm the centre of the universe and everything else is spinning around me. so much so that whenever i get up, i have to momentarily stand motionless until all the spinning stops b4 i can take my 1st step.


by the time it was time to go home, i drove groggily to the mamak restaurant in precinct 9 to have my dinner. after dinner, went straight back home. arrived at 6.45, and i immediately fell asleep. i woke up and looked at my watch... 7.15... ok, so i slept for half an hour. but something was not right. got out of bed to get my mobile. one look at the screen, and i realised i'd slept 12 1/2 hours!!! it was actually 7.15 in the MORNING! this is gonna be a loooong day....

Wired but unwired

Get ready for the musings of an old man...

I finally got Streamyx installed last week. Now I'm finding that it's detrimental to my health. Been getting only 2-3 hours' sleep each night, and I go the office groggy and disoriented. Got the 1Mb line, but it feels like it's just a BIT faster than my normal dial-up. I guess I need to tweak the settings b4 I'm satisfied with the speed.

A frind of mine wants to host his webserver atmy house since his new house isn't covered by Streamyx yet. He's offering to pay for my electricity bill as well as setting up WiFi in my house, besides teaching me a thing or two about website hosting. Seems like a great idea to learn new things for free. Just hope he'll be satisfied with the connection speed.

I've been on the Internet for over 12 years now. A lot have changed, most noticably the access speed. Besides that, researching things is a WHOLE lot easier now. Why, you can get information about almost everything thru the Net. Still, some say the Net's been nothing but trouble. I guess it all depends on how you look at things. Me? Like McDonald's tagline.... "I'm lovin' it!"

Finally...

Hello, World!

That's the first thing that they teach u when u start writing your own programs... and mine was a java applet displaying, well... just "Hello, World!"

Such a crappy way to start a blog, don't u think?