.. then wonder of wonders, I can post here using the PSP! Yet another triumphant effort at rebelling against merciless internet restrictions at the workplace!

Squatting in a dark dusty corner, hunched over a handheld console, is but a small price to pay for this luscious piece of liberty.

And some 10 kms away, Erico wonders how come his PSP is never where he left it the night before.

It’s been quite a draggy couple of weeks – working on a rushed deadline coupled with the rainy weather. I love rain but it shure is hard(er) getting out of the snug warm bed in the mornings when it’s lovely and misty and drizzling lazily outside. Why doesn’t it do that when I get to sleep in! Why!

We’ve gotten two freelancers to accommodate to the urgency of this project and they’re pretty good to work with. The most amazing coincidence is, one of them has actually taken his degree recently in little Wanganui, where I lived for my student exchange year!

It was really good catching up, and seeing his photos of familiar sights – the quaint buildings, the smelly little cineplex where I used to go to with my schoolmates, and the sole Chinese restaurant in town which took an hour to serve the only occupied table in the place. (My parents and I.) On his last meal there, they still hadn’t filled up. Nor gotten any faster.

Ah! How I miss them!

Lately I find that I’ve been feeling quite Unmotivated. Not exactly sure why but I suspect that it ees because I haven’t been having enough Me Time because of Over Time, or maybe life has become a little bit too routinic. I shall plan for a vacation overseas next year, and I’m setting my sights on the UK if possible. BestFriendMaz has been having too much fun without me and I must put a halt to that. Will I make it there to stop her diabolical plans to constantly travel? Whoosh!

Other curious sights seen:

This is the first time I’ve seen a local horse warning sign. This was in Bangsar last Saturday. For an equestrian fair of some sort, maybe? There were no horses to be seen in front of anywhere though. Mysteriousness.

Somebody has taken one of the decorative rocks on the Office reception floor and drawn a little face on it. I think it’s fabulous.

The Olympics start today. Happy Olympics all! I shall continue my custom of following the gymnastics and diving events. I don’t personally indulge in either of them but for some reason it’s been a curious tendency since childhood.

Patterned shoes have been rocking my socks. (Except that I don’t wear any with ‘em. Haha!)

‘Twas a fine week’s end when I laid mine eyes upon a pair of plaid mary janes in Nike Midvalley and was promptly lovestruck. I’m usually quite picky with shoes, but these really took the cake. They also took a pretty big bite out of the wallet at a couple hundred dollars but they’re great to wear – cushy and flexible!

Erico got capris to match. I think they’re awesome.

Everlast pair from Sungei Wang – retro-ish pattern and in my favourite colour scheme! These ones were about RM65 – a little less comfy than the mary janes but still good walkwear, and wonderful eye-candy. Cellphone camera photos don’t do them justice.

Incidentally, I’ve been seeing these rapper blinds sunglasses in a lot of stores.

I first saw photos of Kanye West wearing them in his Glow in the Dark Tours and thought they looked perfectly bizarre. Now they seem to be an in-thing. How do they block the sun? More importantly, how do you see through these things? I must try them on next time and find out.

One more month ’til the end of the Megasale! Not sure if will be able to allot enough time to shop though. A big project with a frightfully short deadline is starting and weekends will be spent in the Office. A bit of a downer but well, a good thing will come by soon enough I’m shure.

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A recent virus scan on the pc indicated that a one ‘WinSys2.exe’ process in the system was infected. I searched the interwebs and learnt from various panicked forum posters that yes, WinSys2.exe was a virus and should be removed immediately upon detection. Following their removal methods, I zapped the offending application from the sanctity of my pc. KAPOW! GONE!

I later found out that WinSys2.exe was actually what kept my nVidia card running.

I is smart.

This recent DS release caught my interest, not only because I feel I’ve been sitting on my ass too much lately, but also for its toned down notebook-like design, a nice change from the usual bright colours of other DS games.

What this little game does is to help you reach your ideal weight through daily activities and fun encouragement from its animated characters. Gym? Whut is zis “gym” you speek of?

On your first run through the game, it estimates your physical condition and how many calories you need to lose per month based on the answers you give in their introductory quiz. I was expecting some pretty bad news, but rather, it told me that based on my calculated BMI, I needed to gain weight to get to my ideal physical state. HAH! I shall record this for posterity to show them skeptics at work!

In truth, My Weight Loss Coach is less of a game than an electronic journal to keep tabs on your fitness regime. It gives suggestions on how to improve your health, gauges your healthiness by the food you eat daily, and sets healthy tasks for you to perform. The software actually comes bundled with a pedometer (meter for pedos hahhaha.) which you strap onto yourself to record the number of steps you take daily, after which you plug it into GBA slot of the DS to update the information of how active you’ve been.

There are a maximum of six challenges per day to choose from, ranging from physical exercises to simply establishing good eating habits. After you agree to take up each challenge, you’re free to go off and accomplish it, then return and mark it as done in the game. Of course you can always bluff, but who’re you planning to fool? Yourself ah?

For simple stick figures, their perpetually cheery characters are well-animated and incredibly adorable. The little squeals they emit with expressions are so cute that I feel all gooey whenever I hear them. (I can imagine that a certain colleague, upon seeing them, would declare them to be “Sickening”.) The background music is pretty good too – light, enjoyable, and not imposing.

D’OH!

Tinkering with it has been quite interesting so far for the past couple of days, so much so that getting the pedometer bundle has crossed my mind but nevah fear! Ah vill give it a couple of weeks of impulse buy leeway to see how it goes. Until then I will have to count steps myself in order to update my daily health schedule. 6000 steps? Pah! ‘Tis but a trifle quantity to note up to!

In the meantime, I shall eagerly await the Final Fantasy IV remake, which will be coming out in a week’s time. Oh Kain! How I long to see your depixellised features!

My new STAMPS watch hath arrived from the UK!

I’d never heard of these fantastic things before until I got one from Mel last year and luffed it to death. Basically, the wonder of these watches is that the watch face is detachable from the strap, and you can individually choose both items from a variety of designs to match together. Besides wearing them on your wrist, you can also wear the watch face on necklaces, hairbands, and attach it to surfaces using its sticky back.

I haven’t tried detaching the watch face from its clasp to do all that, though. Ze fingers do not handle delicate things with enough care.

My well-worn watch likes it too!

This new one is named Lady Chantal from the French Collection and comes as one set. The watch face is quite plain compared to other STAMPS watch faces but I really like the nature motive on the strap.

And the strap edges are pink to match the watch face. Ain’t that awesome! Eh? Eh?

..Eh?

Maz with hers, the Lady Veronique. She sent the Chantal by registered mail when she could’ve just passed it to her friend returning in August whom I could collect from. She’s lovely that way. And so is Erico, who paid for the Chantal for me. I’d love to have him wear another STAMPS, but strangely he refuses. I wonder why.

Went to watch The Beauty and The Beast musical on Tuesday with the parents and it was fabulous! We were sitting on the 3rd floor, but it was still very engaging despite the far view.

The stage settings were done pretty cleverly – for the bit in the forest where Belle was running from the castle, a transparent screen was lowered in front of the stage and 3D footage of foliage were projected onto it, making it look quite realistic. Shure saves the trouble of tree prop-making!

It was too dark to take pictures of that scene, but a resourceful somebody a few seats away had no inhibitions with using the camera flash. Recording equipment-banning rules ayn’t gonna stop ‘im from gettin’ ‘is moni’s worth!

The tavern where everyone is singing Gaston’s theme song. He is delightfully narcissistic and chauvinistic. He is why I enjoyed the musical so much. He is that whitish blob at the far left.

My dear phone takes horrendous pictures when it is zoomed into the stage from the 3rd floor, but that’s the ballroom scene when Mrs. Potts is singing the main theme. Belle and the Beast are busy yellowing towards the right.

Great time overall! I’m still waiting for the Phantom of the Opera to come to our shores. When will that be? When?!

Our HOD is currently holidaying in Japan – around Tokyo as well as the Harajuku, Shibuya and Roppongi districts. Like any other well-wishing peer, I am absolutely flabbergasted with envy and am indignant about being left behind. He did say that he could get something for me there, but after putting much thought into it, I decided to just ask him to take photographs of

Interesting Japanese package designs
People in the subway
Harajuku fashion
High school students
Technologically-advanced public toilets

He had a rather dubious expression on his face as I handed him my list but well! Anyone who goes to Japan when I have tight deadlines can jolly well help bring that bit of happiness back for me!

It’s taken quite a while but I’ve discovered the wonderful world of DS homebrew applications!

Beup, an MSN Messenger client for the DS. It’s a very simple port but it works beautifully. It’s come in very handy in my case as our wurk computers are woefully forbidden from internet access due to virus precautions. No longer shall I be estranged from the rest of the world by day!

DSOrganize, which turns the DS into a memo-keeping, contact-remembering PDA. There’s even a web browser included among its features, which dangit, seems to keep crashing on me. Personally, I prefer to use my phone for reminders but this works well for anyone who wants to multitask their DS between gaming and important work thingies.

ScummVM DS, which runs classic LucasArts adventure games from the 80s and early 90s. Monkey Island and Maniac Mansion on your DS! (But not at the same time.) The game resolutions are a bit cramped on the DS screens so the accuracy of the stylus is a little off sometimes, but otherwise most games run perfectly at full speed with sound. Just like you remembered it on your ol’ Amiga, which mum gave away when you moved out.

Ah, the limitless wonders of homemade software! Don’t brick your DS by mistake though.

In other news, one of these awesome smiley juice packets wanted to come home with me last week but its exorbitant price tag said no.

Yup, ’tis aboot the right time for the Monthly Post.

In retrospective, several awesome things happened the past few weeks, involving

The Bestest Buy in the World

Was scouring through Bangsar boutiques for wardrobe updates, and came across these beautiful satin polkadot heels in élo. Very retro and pinup girl-y. I have an undying love for all things retro and pinup girl-y. There was a major sale, and these were further marked down as they were a size 4. So I got these for

RM20! RM20 AH!

Shooting Kids

Not that kind which might’ve crossed your mind.

Had the chance to attend a filming session yesterday for a children’s tv spot we’re working on. My narcoleptic colleague and I were supposed to help direct 6 preteen children in their scenes, and keep them occupied when they weren’t on set, b’cos y’know, when unsupervised kids play hard with sports props = maybe smash something.

The kids were actually quite professional throughout, no complaints, no wanting parents, etc. They’re eager and easy to direct. But being cooped up in the studio for a whole day with a constant supply of soft drinks had them ricocheting off the walls. We went upstairs to the sitting area to discover that the whole area was sopping wet from a water fight they’d been having, to which one of our producers wailed, “They’re driving me crazy!”

A few gems heard throughout the day:

Quote 1

Mika: (to Ilham) You’re a blubberbutt!

Ilham: You’re a dumb-head!

(Ilham turns to Daniel.)

Ilham: Hey, you can call us both that.

Quote 2

Sarah: He’s annoying, he acts like a 6-year old, and.. (lowers voice to a whisper)… he looks like a nerd.

Jacko testing out a scene with the girls. He’s quite a natural with kids, although they seem to enjoy lobbing stuff at the poor guy a lot.

All in all, good fun!

Ann’s Wedding Dinner

My lovely collegemate, with whom I’ve spent many a good and bad time, hath tied the knot with her man. I still can’t believe it. Everyone’s growing up so fast! *tear

Congratulations, you guys. All the best for the future!

Our college gang, sans the newlyweds. I was wearing the Awesomely Discounted Polkadot Heels with my blue-pink halterneck. They fit okay, but pinch a little bit. Because my feet are a size bigger. But they’re still worth it! Worth it I tell you!

Fadder Day, today

The parents are here for the night and we had the Japanese buffet at CenterPoint for dinner, which was scrumptious. Great dinners with loved ones are the best thing. The only thing which could’ve made it better would be if we had Koko-nut here with us, so. Hurry back you!

It’s a quiet Monday night and we’re in the office bustling to meet our deadlines.

About 10.30pm or so, I felt like I was swaying a bit in my chair. Thought Jacko might be jiggling his leg rather little too violently underneath the table in time to his Indonesian songs. Just when I turned to ask him, he said, “Ei. Shaking your leg is it?”

!

Upon consulting the interwebs, it seems that there was just an earthquake measuring 6.2 in Sumatra, with the tremors reaching all the way to Malaysia. Goodness!

We were the only ones in the office who felt it though. Ze Head of Department said mebbe it was because our desks are situated right on top of a covered staircase entrance which, in dire quake situations, would be the first parts of the second floor to give way. Goodness!

Two earth-shattering things happened this week.

One, I have actually set a course for my career for the next few years, which involves quite a few drastic changes,

Two, dear sister Mel’s union with Albert has finally been approved by the parental units, and wedding plans are underway.

So even when I had to stay back at work today upon last minute notice, and even when the job dragged on to 2am when it should have ended at 11, I had the silliest grin on my face all the way through.