I am, what I am

Taking a break off social media

2011-09-01T23:39:00.002+08:00

Facebook and Twitter. Who hasn't heard of these two social media giants raise up your hands. None...?

Anyone who is reading this blog would have Internet connection and I'm sure you are connected to a social media. The constant need to update every single detail in life. The urge to monitor every little update and re-post is like a drug you can't stop craving.

I've stopped. While people are rushing to sign up to read about what Aunt Margaret baked or which new chick Cousin Joe is dating, I have deactivated both my accounts.

The urge to update still goes through my head until I realize it's not there and I continue on with what I'm doing. Quite liberating, I must say.

I wonder how long I can last though. Peer pressure and constant teasing is hard on my fortitude. MUST RESIST!!!! GAGA#@$@%&^$*$&*%^#^

A long hiatus...and a return perhaps?

2011-08-31T19:20:00.003+08:00

It's been a while. How are you doing? Me? I'm not doing too well. Life hasn't been kind. Things are just soooooo messy and I haven't had the time to really really sit down and reflect on where or what I wanna do from here.

Damned if I do and damned if I don't.

Sometimes I feel like I'm in physiotherapy. Focus on lifting and moving left leg in front of you. Then do that with the right leg. Do it a couple of times and BAM! you were paying too much attention to your feet and smacked into the wall. Tunnel vision...

I have so much anger, disappointment and betrayal inside of me that it's not even funny. I wonder if I should see a shrink. I feel like self-destructing on some days. My only anchor is my lil girl, Nerissa. She's like my anchor. However, this boat still needs a destination. I don't think it wants to be moored in the same waters all it's life.

I need a break from it all.

Moved

2007-08-14T17:36:00.000+08:00

Nawooz has moved back to the original blog site. Do visit me at

http://nawooz.blog.com/

Cheers!

OH SNAP!!!!! You came back!

2007-03-20T02:07:00.000+08:00

The most insane thing just happened! Wait for it, wait for it...I got back my old blog account. omgwhadafakbbq. After numerous attempts to contact blog.com to obtain a new password, I finally gave up hope and built a new "home" in Blogger. I said my farewells and bid a teary goodbye to Nawooz. It was tough, but there was no other option.

Out of a sudden, I get it all back! First I was elated, now I'm plagued with the question. "Which one to keep as my primary blog?". Sure I can update both, but I prefer having one as my main. On one hand, I have informed my friends about my new blog. However, nawooz.blog.com will always hold a special place in my heart. It was where everything began. Nostalgic...

So here I am sitting and pondering, which shall I choose. It's gonna be a toughie. Think I'll update nawooz now for fun.

P.S. I wanted to blog about horny longans today, but I guess they will just have to wait. HORNY LONGANSSSSSSS

The Long or Short, Curly or Straight question

2007-03-13T23:37:00.000+08:00

I think I maybe reviving an old topic from my old blog. However, I decided to blog about it here as the question has never been answered and it has never stopped either. Women.Like.Their.Hair.

To top it all off, they seem to have this fixation on long hair. Long hair, a beauty does not maketh you. Maybe it's the mags or movies, portraying sexy women with long hair...subconsciously programming our minds to believe that long, is better.

Frankly speaking, I like girls with spunky short hair. One that has a certain bounce to it when walking. To me, it's so smexy and I lurrveee the feel of running my fingers through hair!!! One of my fetishes I suppose. Pity my wife doesn't share my enthusiasm on the subject.

Of course there are certain exceptions to this. Some girls look better with long hair due to the shape of their face. However, a good hair stylist can fix this by adding a little zing to the short do, by shaping it. Like a rounded cut for a sharp face (ending with a sharp chin).

Another thing I've noticed. If you have long hair, but lack volume...go with some curls. It really makes a lot of difference and brightens up your look. Long, thin and limp hair makes you look dull and sickly. Unless, you happen to be in a Pantene commercial. ^__^ Which brings me to the question, what is your favourite shampoo and why? My wife seems to be hooked on Clear for it's delicious scent. I notice some girls love to flick their hair and smell it for kicks. (o.0)

Loneliness Syndrome

2007-03-13T05:47:00.000+08:00

No, I'm still married if that's what you're asking. However, working night shifts pretty much leaves my mind with, a LOT of time to wander.

So I read a couple of blogs, forums yada yada and finally ran out of stuff to read. I even read random stuff in Wikipedia to kill time. I'm bored of reading gory and sordid tales from the online Crime Library. What else was there to do? Google your name of course!

I typed in Nawooz and hit the Search button. Nice to see my two blog sites listed at the top. Then came the flood of comments I've posted in the blogs I lurk in. Out of nowhere, I suddenly stumbled on the one blog I forgot to bookmark. Emmanuel. Dude, I'm so sorry for leaving your blog out of my Bookmarks man. Rest assured this has been rectified and I'm glad to have new reading material. I'll strip it down from top to bottom tomorrow night.

My wanderings have led me back to a long lost friend. A very productive night I would say.

Credit Control

2007-03-12T01:14:00.000+08:00

My wife and I were having a meal yesterday and had a lil chat about our finances. We're both controlling our spending in wake of the wedding dinner coming up soon. It's gonna be a major drain on our piggy banks and we figured it's better to get a head start.

Guess what? We both have totally different approaches to managing our expenditure. I usually try to carry as little cash around as possible. If I need to make a "big" purchase, it involves a trip to the ATM machine or using the dreaded credit card. My wifey commented, that my bank charges for ATM withdrawals after a certain limit. Well...that is another "motivating" factor for me to spend less actually. Why give your hard-earned cash to a financial institution, who is making millions already right?

Her approach, reminds me of my secondary days. She prefers to withdraw the estimated sum of cash, which should see her through the month in one transaction. However, she doesn't carry that much around of course. For me, the temptation of having it still lying around somewhere can be a bad thing. Which explains why I stopped her version of financial planning when I started working. Also, money in the bank still "works" for you by generating some form of interest. Money in your wallet does not "grow" and has this tendency to disappear unfortunately (X_X)

You will be surprised how well, a close to empty wallet, has on spending. I've walked into a shop a couple of times and picked an item wanting to purchase it. Suddenly, it dawned on me that I don't have enough in my wallet and placed it back on the shelf etc. Talk about potong stim right, but hey it works!

I would say my main financial woe (and many other Malaysians) are transportation costs. Petrol and toll fees are a killer. I'm seriously considering a diesel pickup truck like a Tata Telcoline Euro II now. Cheap Indian parts and diesel powered. I still can't escape the death grip of tolls though. It wouldn't be so bad if the roads are actually well maintained with the profits they are racking in, but I guess a pocket has developed a hole somewhere.

Sigh...for once I wish I could strike the lottery and have some breather. Anyone of you dreamt of 4D lately? Care to share?

Note to self

2007-02-22T05:03:00.000+08:00

Must.Add.More.Pics. This is what I've noticed after reading many many many blogs. People like pictures even absurd ones.

So, Nawooz is going to start posting more pics on this blog! Wish me luck...

*goes off to hunt more pics for blog posting*

Customary Chinese New Year post

2007-02-20T04:12:00.000+08:00

Wahey! Seems that Opera solved the haunted blog thingie.

I'm sure many of you have read the news on the government banning fireworks, firecrackers etc. Offenders will be slapped with a RM100 on-the-spot fine. Did that deter any of the Chinese from enjoying a little boom-boom this new year.

Apparently not. I am still greeted with the ungodly booms late at night whilst trying to catch some Z's. Then there is the thunderous train of explosion due to the infamous "hong pau" or red crackers. This is especially important during the lion dances. Nothing demonstrates your wealth to the public like a good 16 feet ending with a nice resounding boom eh ;)

So what's this banning I hear on crackers??!! You can never take the Chinese out of a Chinese. Watch out for Chap Goh Meh or the Hokkien Chinese New Year people. It gets better then.

Happy Prosperous Piggie New Year to all you folks out there <(^@^)> *oink oink*

Honeymoon suggestions anyone?

2007-02-16T03:18:00.000+08:00

Wifey and I are still cracking our beloved heads on our honeymoon planning. It was a pretty easy decision in the beginning. She wanted to go back to Thailand for *ehem* shopping and mua for the food.

Then we decided to scratch it and try out Bali instead. At the very last minute, we chickened out and decided Thailand would be a safer bet seeing how I'm quarter Thai I suppose. The final choices were Trang, Phuket and finally Koh Chang. Somehow, Koh Lanta cropped up as well and this just added +100 to complication. Accomodation was one thing, getting there is gonna be nothing short of a miracle especially from Malaysia.

We've pretty much laid it to rest for the time being as our main focus was on the wedding photos and now the upcoming biggie in April. Still have yet to meet with the hotel reps and we're waiting for the wedding cards to be printed. So much to do with so little time.

I guess we'll just have to wait and see. "A boat arriving at the jetty, will naturally adjust" - Translated from a chinese saying. Wish us luck...lots of it.

Linking Madness

2007-02-13T03:06:00.000+08:00

I have linked all the usual blogs I frequent. All of them are bookmarked on my notebook and I religiously check on them whenever I'm at work. I kid you not.

Some people may wonder how come I'm missing some of the famous bloggers, but it's all about personal preference. Like how I read and warmed up to Joyce @ KinkyBlueFairy's blog compared to Wendy Cheng @ XiaXue. It's not like I hate XX's, but I dunno...I prefer Kinky's style I suppose. Like anyone cares about my preference lar!

Sadly, my old blog buddies from http://nawooz.blog.com/ never quite fluorished. Shan's been missing for sometime now. Thankfully, I still have Yvy, BlowFly @ Krabby Pattyand a couple of others. Then again, I have new blog buddies like Aaron, Wingz and Earl. Go ahead, click on them and lemme know what you think of their blogs.

I'm a blogreadingholic.

[Missing] Lil Piggy-chan

2007-02-13T02:00:00.000+08:00

After toiling for a couple of weeks, I finally had a weekend to myself. Packed on Thursday night and head out to work on Friday. The missus took half day as I worked Australian business hours to join in the fun.

By 3pm-ish, we were well on our way to Port Dickson (PD). Many people have commented that there is nothing to do in PD. So why bother going there? I don't have an answer for you, but just ask any of the [aSa] members and they will have an idea of what I mean. One thing is for sure, it has a special place in our hearts. The secrets, the fiery BBQs, the laughter, the stories. It's our home away from home.

We spent the entire time lazing and fooling around. The highlight would be Friday night after dinner. We needed to stock up on some food for the stay. On our way to the supermart, we passed by a white kitten by the roadside and it looked famished. We made a point to shop for some cat food whilst getting ours as well. We had fun picking out the cat food and even got some yoghurt, just for their plastic caps...to be used as a plate for the cat food.

Paid for our stuff and headed out to the parking lot. Lo and behold, there was the white kitten and 3 other ginger coloured kitties. We opened the tin and I dished out some tuna goodness. Little white fella gave a big meow and pounced on the food instantly. The rest slowly gathered courage to get their fair share as well. We nicknamed the white fella Piggy-chan as he was so greedy. Kept following whichever dish I was putting the cat food in. Never lost focus much when eating. The best part, he started rubbing himself on my legs after he got full. Such a sweetie I tell ya. We ended up feeding 7 of them that night. 2 adults and 5 kittens. Note: Another white kitten appeared out of nowhere.

We fed them for the following 2 nights as well. Sadly, we only saw Piggy-chan on the first night. We looked high and low for it, but all in vain. I wonder what happened to poor lil Piggy-chan. We never got to say goodbye to him. It was Piggy-chan, who caught our attention and in the end got his family fed. We pray and hope he is alright and will be there to greet us our next trip down.

I'm such a sucker for animals :)

wordstickytrend

2007-02-01T17:46:00.000+08:00

I was bored and decided to revive my old trend called wordsticky. I now use this on MSN and I find it addictive. It all started out of boredom, but now I do it to save my SpaceBar. The poor lil thing has been abused so much so that it has become all shiny whilst the rest remain a matte black. So, what's word sticky you say? Here goes:

thisisthe2ndpostingiammakingfortoday.ifyouareabletoreadthisthenyouarepartofthewordstickygroupnow.yay!asyouprobablynoticeistillmaintaintheusageofpunctuationstomakereadingalittleeasierforyouguysandgals.sowhatdoyouthinkofwordstickynow?perhapsyouwouldliketojoinmyquesttopromotewordstickytoday?tryitonyourfriendsandletmeknowwhattheythink.itisannoyingashellbutthenthinkaboutwordstickyusageinsmsmessages.itsavesyouthetroubleofusingthespacecharacterandyoucanincludemorewordsin1textmessage.coolaintit?okiguesssomeofyoumayhaveaheadachereadingthisbynow.

There, that was basically wordsticky in it's truest form. Like it? Try it!

Music Tastes

2007-02-01T16:50:00.000+08:00

Been a while since I last posted. As usual, working on a public holiday sux to the max. However, I get sometime to update my lonely blog.

What music do you listen to? Pop, hip-hop, country, house? Many people have asked about my personal music preference and I find it hard to give them a specific answer of a genre. Basically, I like what I like. It's like Nawooz-kinda music man. Hard to explain. Sometimes, I would be driving and listening to Fly.FM and go whoa, what the fork was that song?!

There is a particular genre, which I have slowly picked up over the years. I would attribute it to my anime (Japanese animation) watching. I started to be exposed to numerous J-pop singers or bands from the animes. My personal favourites are listed below based on the anime title:

FLCL - Furi Kuri
1) The Pillows - Crazy Sunshine
2) The Pillows - Hybrid Rainbow
3) The Pillows - Ride on Shooting Star
4) The Pillows - Happy Bivouac
5) The Pillows - Runner's High
6) The Pillows - Little Busters

Serial Experiments - LAIN
1) Boa - Duvet *not the same as the Korean singer BoA*
2) Boa - Duvet (Acoustic)

Ah! My Goddess
1) OST - Congratulations

Naruto
1) Toshiro Masuda - Naruto's Theme
2) Akeboshi - Yellow Moon
3) Hearts Grow - Yura Yura

Loveless
1) Okina Reika - Tsuki no Curse (Kaasu)

Patlabor
1) OST - Midnight Blue

Vandread
1) Salia - Trust
2) SiLC - Himegoto

Bleach
1) UVERworld - D-tecnolife
2) Orange Range - Asterisk
3) Rie Fu - Life is Like a Boat
4) Shiro Sagisu - On the Precipice of Defeat

There are so many more to list down, but I really need to start getting back to work. Hehe. I wonder if there are other bloggers out there, who enjoy anime OSTs as much as I do.

Fund for the Johor Flood victims

2007-01-22T19:54:00.000+08:00

I normally don't do this, but there are humans out there like us suffering and in need of help.

I'm not trying to discredit the NGOs and stuff, but I like to see how my contribution is used and where it went and what are the results. Which is why I am "pimping" Earl Ku's efforts. This is the 2nd time it will be done and I was darn happy with the way the first effort went.

For more details, surf on to:
= Join Earl Ku's Flood Donation Efforts!!! =

It is a joint effort with the Malaysian Amateur Radio Transmitters' Society (MARTS) and you will be ensured with loads of pics on how your donation was well spent!!!

Earl my bro, this is the best I can do for ya mate. Other than me chipping in this time for some dough.

So what are you people out there waiting for??!!! It's time to finally do something for the Johor flood victims. Don't just talk the talk. Walk that talk aight!

P.S. Earl, thanks for organizing this dude. I know it's no small feat, especially with all the hopes and expectations on you.

Today's Special

2007-01-20T08:08:00.000+08:00

I know, I know. This is like the second posting for today. In line with Eddy Han's blog entry about bad drivers, I would like to announce my stand against these people.

I previously bought a nice signage to be displayed on my car whilst driving. It reads, "I See DUMB People". A spoof from The Sixth Sense movie, "I See Dead People".

So if you happen to be driving along and spot that sign, it could be me. And if you have been a bad bad baddddd driver...that sign was for you. HAHAAHAHHAA. My war against stupidity on the road.

Cheers people

Murphy's Law

2007-01-20T07:42:00.000+08:00

Your mind thinks with unbelievable clarity at odd hours of the day. I blame it on my wonderful work schedule. What does one do at ungodly hours of the day after being disturbed by a phone call at 1:00AM in the morning. Blog about it of course.

A little background to my story. My team supports South Pacific (SP) customers (Australia and New Zealand). This means we operate pretty much at wee hours of the morning until business hours are over right? Wrong. We support them 24x7, even on Malaysian or SP public holidays. Sounds like fun doesn't it.

It's usually pretty quiet for the graveyard shift until around 3:00AM Malaysian time. That's when the Kiwis come in.

However today was different. Feeling a little weary from my battle with influenza, I decided that it should be a quiet enough night to sneak a little nap to re-energize. Thinking sweet thoughts, I was so close to dozing off when my peace is shattered by the standby phone ringing. What prompted a critical case at 1:00AM (3:00AM Aussie time) was beyond my comprehension. Great! Murphy's Law at it's best.

Wondering what is Murphy's Law? When you thought it could not get any worse...and it did? That is Murphy for you people. Of all the nights, this rates as my personal enemy. They say it was not the one straw that broke the camels back, it was the 999 stick of straws before that. I clasped both my hands together in a gesture pleading that the morning will go past uneventfully and that I may return to the refuge of my room and be united with my bed and pillow. That is until I suddenly remember...I need to go to the bridal studio to choose my wedding pictures. Murphy's Law part 2: And the Saga Continues(tm)

Eat 2 survive or survive 2 Eat

2007-01-08T19:04:00.001+08:00

Words can't express the sheer cruelty my stomach is facing. Exactly the same time yesterday, I treated my stomach to a gastrnomic culinary adventure at a superb place for eats, Checkers. It is located within Bukit Damansara area and can be quite tough to locate. However, nothing was coming between my stomach and a nice warm meal. I persevered and it was paid off handsomely indeed.

I did some homework after the meal and found a couple of good reviews on Checkers.

= Good Review, but take note the closed days seem to vary =

= Handy MAP! =

= Reserve! Reserve! Reserve! =

= Pasankia's Blog =

Anywho, who cares if someone else has blogged about it. Good food deserves a second, third, fourth etc mention. Nawooz's blog is proud to bring you, Checkers: The Dirty Dozen Ribs. Nope. The owner did not pay me for advertising or did he offer me anything for this post. In fact, he doesn't know about it at all. Mr. Sam, if you are reading this. Here's to you (and Mr. Tan) and Checkers for an outstanding meal.

A thing to note, Checkers is non-halal. Meaning they serve pork. A no-no for the Muslims, but a heaven for porky pig lovers. They have a variety of other offerings, but it seems like ribs are de facto orders. In this case, I asked Sam what was his recommendation as it was my first time (virgin) there. He had this twinkle in his eye and asked me if I was hungry. Being the usual glutton, I of course said yes. A friendly warning to my readers, the ribs can and WILL serve 2 medium eaters alright. Don't say Nawooz didn't warn ya. Sam smiled and told me he had just the thing for me.

15 minutes later, Sam appeared with this huge plate of eats and sat it right smack in front of me. He pulled up a chair right opposite me and started to explain the different cuts I would be digging into. Me love backribs!!!! I'll just state what was on the plate as the pictures might not justify the food. Two freakin slabs of succulent ribs superbly marinated. A whole corn cob swabbed with salted butter if my tastebuds didn't deceive me. Homemade mash potatoes topped with a pepper(?) sauce to complement it. A toss of salad. To accompany the ribs, there was BBQ gravy and a special concoction of onions, herbs drowned in olive oil for the salad dressing.

For the un-initiated, please leave your fork and knife alone. Use your fingers as this is the best way to enjoy the ribs. Seriously. My first bite was pure bliss. The ribs were cooked until just right. Juicy and tender. MMmmmmmmMMM!!! The flesh literally slid away from the bones and packed a mouthful of delight. Makes me salivate everytime I think about it. None of that, bite and tear away meat stuff shown on Discovery channel with lions. If there were ever a word to coin it, I would opt for cooked to perfection.

I had a nice slow meal whilst chatting with Sam and Mr. Tan occasionally. Halfway through, Mr. Tan suddenly announced that in 10 minutes time, the Mexican Pork would be done. Sufferin Succotash! That sounded reallllllll scrumptious. Pity I was so full, there was not even space for desserts. Boohooo! However, it does gimme an excuse to go back there again ;) Tee hee hee.

The total bill for the ribs and iced lemon tea (in a jar) came shy of RM50. Not too bad for a big western meal. It may be preferably be reserved for special occasions though.

Enough with the banter. No food blog entry is complete without photos. Really didn't do justice to the food, but it's better than nothing. Enjoy peoples.

Checkers

Ribs...yummmmmmmm

Obligatory closeup shot

Homemade Iced Lemon Tea

A moment of silence for the pig, who gave up it's life for my culinary adventure

New Toyota Corolla Altis - 10th Gen?

2006-12-31T17:37:00.000+08:00

I was checking out some autoblog I found previously only to come across a picture announcing the European version of the 10th Gen Toyota Corolla. Not sure if this is old news, but my dad has been waiting for the new Altis to be launched since...forever. The last we got was just a face lift. Instead of getting half-ball LED rear lights, you got a full ball instead. Real...creative? That aside, I'm guessing Malaysia would be getting something similar since we share most European models, as opposed to the American marketed models.

I'm just curious to see what Toyota has under it's sleeve to rival Honda and it's new Civic. What engine variants will be offered? What extra techno-goodies can buyers expect? Last but not least, every Malaysians focus point. The price. The 1.8lt i-VTEC Civic goes for around 115-117k OTR, if I am not mistaken. So the Altis should be around this price range as well, if not slightly more. Same as the current Accord vs Camry pricing structure.

Based on the picture I got of the autoblog (http://www.autoblog.com/2006/12/04/finally-toyota-shoots-the-corrola-10th-generation-corrola-deb/), it does have the styling cue of the current Malaysian '07 Toyota Camry. Not surprising with most car manufacturers these days. An interesting thing I noticed was the tail-light, which seems to be a little pronounced (read bulging). It's almost like what Ferrari did to the F430's tail-lights, if I must say.

Only time will tell when Toyota will unveil this on Malaysian soil, but many are awaiting with anticipation and I pretty sure sales will be breezy. Handpicked pictures (courtesy of autoblog) are below and you can read more about the European launch at the link I listed above:

Camry-esque front-end

Rear-view shot

Close-up of the rear

Side-shot

Watch War and Play War

2006-12-26T07:06:00.000+08:00

How many people out there enjoy watching war movies? As in WW1 and WW2 stuff. I won't say I'm a die hard fan, but it is something that peaks my interest. My favourite so far has been the HBO Original Miniseries titled, The Band of Brothers (BoB), Saving Private Ryan, Enemy at the Gates etc. BoB, in my opinion, is one of the BEST movie on wars I have enjoyed. The narration and realism is unparalleled, thanks to the dedication of the producers, directors etc.

I went on a war movie DVD hunt previously and ended up with 3 new titles. Old school stuff, but still enjoyable. Just finished "The Last Drop" and "Green Berets" this Christmas. Have another one waiting and it's about Operation Market Garden. Excellent stuff!

I guess all this interest in war movies came about after playing a PC game called, Battlefield 1942 (BF). They had a few expansion packs (Road to Rome, Secret Weapons of WW2, Vietnam and the latest, 2142). My clan [aSa] mostly trained on Road to Rome maps. Our usual favourites were Monte Cassino, Salerno, Omaha Beach, Market Garden and Anzio. Settings were: 100% AI, Ratio: 3:1, Tickets: 1000. There were only 3 members for BF [aSa], Shum, Thiru and I. That meant a ratio of 10 AI players to us 3 at max intelligence and we had to kill 1000 of them to win the game. Suffice to say, this maxed us out on all fronts and only the leanest, meanest gameplay could save mankind(tm). The easiest map to conquer under 15 minutes was Omaha Beach. Thanks to a strategy I helped hatch named, The Medic Pack Rush (MPR).

It involves landing on the beach and pushing back all the way to the 1st spawn point, where a Sherman is up for grabs. No time to waste, the 3 heroes push on to the right side of the map behind the buildings. We made sure to make full use of the heal and ammo point in a bunker before proceeding for the final rush. Fire in the Hole before swapping to the Medic Packs and run like hell for the wall on the opposite end. Keep spamming the heal and forget about fighting back. Jump the wall and start laying it thick with your Thompson. Kill any strays and head for the 1st bunker. Ammo reload is a God-sent feature here. Keep grenading the entrance whilst you regroup. At this point, the final flag would be neutral (white) and the ticket count will start dropping in your favour. By now, you will only need to handle the stragglers as the enemy have no spawn point. Caution, there maybe some enemy units, who are able to capture other spawn points. Speed is the essence of MPR. Make sure you grenade both the big gun turrets to kill of the last one or two enemy units. Now you are free to kill one another with tanks, machine guns or anyway you want it. The game is over.

The toughest map so far has been Anzio. It's one of the, if not most, bitchiest maps for the 3 heroes. Our last record was about 35 minutes, which is an amazing feat if you knew this map. There are so many spawn points to be captured and the enemy tank units are tough. Not forgetting that [aSa] still does not have the elusive 4th member, who should specialize as air support. The best strat so far has been of speed and perseverance. Pushing upwards into enemy territory on both sides and securing the spawn points along the way. We could have won in under 30 mins if not for the ONE stray idiot, who happened to be in a plane. The mofo jumped, parachuted [sic] and made his way over hills to capture the radar station. It was a real pain capturing that point back. It's also worthy to mention that it is the only map we have not won 100% of the time. The other maps were equally engaging and deserves mention, but it would take too much time.

Due to this game, I have read up on the actual wars in those places. Fascinating and deadly. I joked with the other [aSa] members, that the Allies may have won the war a little faster if we had our way with the strategy.

Sadly, BF 1942 in our favourite expansion pack Road to Rome is now "extinct" from cyber cafes, but I heard one in Subang SS15 area still has Secret Weapons of WW2 and the others. I'm itching for a game now, but it's hard getting the other 2 heroes since one travels so much. Small pleasures in life people. Go try it and if you like it, we may have found the 4th member or more!!!

Mumbo Jumbo post

2006-12-19T03:04:00.000+08:00

Tell me if you get this often. You are strolling along and bump into an old friend. The usual "Hey, how are you doing" is exchanged and then the same stuff is asked. What are you doing now? Where are you working now? Are you married yet? Did you hear so and so is doing so and so. It's almost like a broken record playing again and again.

Having been "actively" back to blogging lately, I have started to know more bloggers around KL. Surprisingly, there is always some connection to them even if I don't entirely know them. One such person is, Aaron (http://aaronho.bloglogo.com/). Found out that we are both APIITians and somehow this small bit of thread connecting us, opens a whole new dimension for a conversation. I like to catch up on the latest whenever possible, seeing how bad I am with my old friends.

Now, a quick update to my Asian blog ghost. Still faced with the Japanese fonts issue when trying to login. I am now skilled at predicting the links and choosing English as my language of choice. For my readers, here is the ghost in action:

I wish IT could blog for me. Sadly, it only likes to change my language preference. As EddyHan (http:/www.eddyhan.com) would put it, ask it for 4D!!! Looking at the hits my blog has, it's safe to say that I will be the only one striking it rich if the numbers come up.

Anywayz, I was going thru my mountain of e-mails today and got this gem from an ex-colleague of mine. Not sure where these pics came from, but maybe PaulTan (http://www.paultan.org) can validate it. It came in an e-mail titled: Perodua Bego - OTR RM 55892.88 Coming soon I viewed the pictures and clearly it's a Daihatsu-badged vehicle. Looking at it kinda reminds me of a Toyota RAV4. If Perodua is really planning on launching this to replace the outdated Perodua Kembara, I'd plonk down the downpayment for one in a heartbeat. Pictures below (I do not take any credit whatsoever for these pictures, mind you):

Frontal-side view of the Bego. Note the Daihatsu badge

Rear-right side view

Rear-left side view

Keeping my fingers crossed, but I'm not hoping too much. There was talk of a new Kelisa replacement based on the Daihatsu Mira Gino (or was it plain Gino) and we ended up with the Imago instead. Big letdown if you ask me. I did spot an odd car the other day that I have now come to know as a highly possible Kancil or Kelisa replacement model. It was on the way to Rawang town and was covered with black tape in certain areas. Most probably heading to the Perodua plant in the Serendah area.

UPDATE: I was checking out PaulTan's blog and come across an article with pictures of one Daihatsu Terios. It looks the same to the Bego in my post and I swear he had the same thoughts of the RAV4 as well. No plagiarism, really! Find out more in his post:

http://paultan.org/archives/2006/12/02/new-daihatsu-terios-announced-in-indonesia/

That's all the blogging I can slot in for now. Time to go back to work. I love night shifts....not

Musings and Rants - Part Uno

2006-12-14T06:50:00.000+08:00

1) If your blog is haunted by a japanese ghost like mine, surf on to http://beta.blogger.com/ and login from here instead. Odd thing is, I think Google is also haunted by this same cheeky spirit. Always defaults to Japan or China Google.

2) People will find all sorts of excuses and timing to pick their noses. In the car waiting for that Green Light, in the washroom waiting for a free cubicle. Of ALL the time and place for this "gold-digging" activity, nothing beats this Indian lady in Carrefour at the check-out counter. I guess she must have been so bored and the booger was soooo big that she JUST HAD TO DO IT THERE AND THEN. It wasn't even one of those discreet and intimate moments man. It was done in broad daylight, in front of an audience. I guess she must have been very satisfied as she had this look of bliss whilst admiring the fruits of her labour. My eyes were assaulted by the dreaded nose-digga

3) To the impatient Perdana asshole, who high-lighted me this morning, STFUMOFO. I was in the correct lane (right-most) for SmartTag users and I had to slow down for the people, who don't understand the concept of drive through. If you are going to take a ticket (left-most), kindly stay the FUCK on the left lane and quit bitching people on the right. ASS! You think you only pay roadtax izzit?!?!! TIUUUUUUUUU...these type of moronic drivers, make my blood boil with rage.

4) To Majlis Perbandaran Selayang, it was nice you guys booked rooms and meeting halls in Awana Gentings. Now can we please have better roads that don't have potholes waiting to swallow unsuspecting motorists. I have already spent a fortune changing my un-evenly worn tires due to this. Not to mention that my rims are bent as hell. If I wanted potholes this big, I would have moved to Batu Arang instead mmkaaaayyyy.

My Blog is Haunted

2006-12-11T18:57:00.000+08:00

I seem to be having a lot of issues with blogging lately. Blog.com doesn't want to e-mail me my password. In the past week, I have tried logging into Blogspot to update my lonely blog, but even that proves to be a challenge.

I keep getting routed to a Japanese version of Blogspot where I can't understand crap, let alone post. I finally have some time off today to get down to the root of the problem. I cleared my Internet cache and deleted all Cookies. This is the web kind, but I wish I could clear real Cookies right about now! Reset my Web Setting and what not. Closed and relaunched, but still the same crap.

Checked my Windows XP regional settings and found I had two bloody keyboard languages listed, English and Chinese. Now, all of my past blog readers can attest to my supreme banana-ness when it involves Chinese. Who the hell has been messing with my Operating System??!! Had the same odd crap happen about 1 month back and it was actually Japanese language and English listed for my keyboard.

I seriously think my notebook and my blogs are being haunted by an Asian ghost!!! Oh fook @_@

Anywayz, I tried logging into Blogspot again and this time made sure the settings for Language was correctly displaying English. Guess my little exorcism exercise has proven to be "effective" for now. Hence my post.

On to Nawooz's updates. Nawooz was officially not single on 12.30-ish PM on Saturday 9 Dec 06. Gonna have to get used to ticking "Married" instead of "Single" of those darn forms. There were many kay-poh (busy body) "professional" photographers, but I have yet to see a single shot of my own wedding registration. Go figure. I did get to see the long-winded video recording though. Thanks to my cute sis, we got free commentaries from her. Someone get her a job as a war journalist. I see great potential. Teeheehee. I never imagined it would be so tiring, but I am glad it is over with.

The highlight was when we were about to exchange rings and my mom piped in about me doing it on the wrong hand. For all you folks out there, here is a tip. Chinese customs follow the "Lam jor, Lui Yao" rule, which translates to, guy-left and gal-right. In Western and Thai culture, it's all on the left hand for both parties. We had a good laugh trying to figure that out during the ring exchange. There will be a Round 2 this April 07. Wish me luck. Gonna buy lots and lots of Red Bull to keep me going through the day.

I also had the time to blog crawl: kennysia.com, kukujiao.com and eddyhan.com. These are just a few of my daily reads. EddyHan had some Christmas gift list and here is my response (more like retort) for him. Enjoy Eddy!

Newsflash: What's that I hear? Santa just called Shittybank up for a credit extension for a boy named Eddy Han. Oh...it was denied??!!! Too bad. Apparently, Santy Claus has declared bankruptcy and is suing Eddy Han RM666 billion for breaking Xmas and another lawsuit involving the alledged kidnapping of Santy's "maid".

Santy Claus spoke to the Press, that the escalating cost of Xmas has taken it's toll on his seemingly "unlimited" credit. Rumor has it that Mrs. Santy Claus is also seeking to file for a divorce as her hubby's real estate (the North Pole) has been shrinking off late, due to the global warming phenomenon.

That folks, was the midnight news from North Pole.FM with your friendly red-nosed reindeer, Rudolph. Have a great Xmas and God Bless!

Ho-ho-ho

EDIT: I refreshed the page hoping to see my latest entry and there wasn't any. Just when I thought it was safe to blog again the haunted blog syndrome resurfaces. Turns out I hit the Save as Draft button instead of Publish. Go Me! However, my Asian ghost is back! I logged out to log back in and surprise!!!! it was in Japanese again!!!!!!! When does the hurting stop??!

Honey, I shrunk the world...

2006-11-28T18:56:00.000+08:00

Yesterday, I had the chance to meet up with an old friend, Shum. He has been travelling extensively due to work commitments and finally came back to Malaysia. We decided to yum cha at SS2, but there was a pasar malam going on.

We finally decided on William's somewhere in KJ. Now, I have to say that William's food is super pricey. I have had meals there a couple of times (well maybe more than a couple of times) and the bills have never been lower than RM18. However, his portions have remained adequate come rain or shine.

True to the Malaysian sense of timing, he was late. His excuse was the chick he had to fetch before meeting up with me. So whilst I was checking out William's for an empty table, I stumbled upon Jon (http://wp.peachjon.com/). Jon was another dude I knew since my college years. Little did he know that Shum was on his way (read, lost) to William's as well. We crapped a while before I had to leave as his ex-colleagues arrived.

As I turned around, I bumped into an ex-colleague of mine as well. Small friggin world indeed. He offered me swimming lessons and I politely declined. Halfway through, I spotted a table and made a beeline for it before it was colonized. Surprise, surprise! I finally met Mr. Shan himself in the flesh (http://djyakuza.blogspot.com/). I can't really recall details of how we got to know one anothers blog, but it happened. So anyways, I was seated right opposite him and notice how "quiet" he seemed. Must be due to his last blog entry. Shan, if you are reading this, cheer up mate. LDRs can work with a lot of communication and trust. Besides, time flies. She'll be back before you even know it. The kicker, I tried snapping his picture to upload to my blog, but my stupid hands kept shaking like a fool. HAHA. So I had to get my girlfriend to do my dirty work. She managed to get it alright. Thanks dear! (pics still on my phone though)

A little while later, Shum arrives fashionably late with Aud. Thank goodness. We got to exchanging notes and just chillin' when all of a sudden, I noticed an old acquaintance from my World Cyber Game 2003 event. Somehow, I felt that the whole of Malaysia seemed to have warped to William's that night. Turns out Auricom had his own business now. Good luck dude! Also, thanks for your tips on where we can get BattleField equipped PCs.

My point being, who ever said you had to be in cyber space to chat with old friends and fellow bloggers. Come to think of it, William's should be another #mamak ;)

Something your parents gave you...

2006-11-27T19:35:00.000+08:00

No it's not the four letter word, Life. It's your name.

How many people actually know what their name means? Or how your name was given by your parents? I know of some people, whose names were accidently crowned on the very bed they were born. All thanks to the nurse that was hard on hearing. If there is one thing I've learnt from all the scary stories, it's to have your child's name thought out way before the delivery rather than some botched-up last minute whadatoot shall we name "it".

Whenever I am alone, my idle mind is taken over by creatures. Creatures that have nothing better to think than some inane subject like a name. I have made this observation and have come up with some dumb theory about names. The closer you are to the person, the less you use their name. It's so friggin contradictory, if I may say so. Go ahead. Observe your group of friends and see how they are address by another friend. I've compiled a simple list of name replacements I've heard so far:

1) Dude - as in "Whassup dude" as opposed to "Whassup, Jon"
2) Man - "You can't do this to me, man" instead of "You can't do this to me, Jon"
3) Budak (means kid in Malay) - "Oi, budak!" instead of "Oi, Jon"
4) Woman - "Hey, woman" instead of "Hey, Lulu"

So the theory is, the closer someone is to you, the less they use your name. Expect to be addressed in mutated forms of insults or generalized terms :D

Yay! I have just successfully wasted 15 mins of my life writing that. You? It would depend on how fast you read....tee hee hee.

Just Because

2006-11-21T18:21:00.000+08:00

It's good to be able to sit and think about mindless stuff at least once a day. Heck, I do it almost all the time unconsciously. So what did my thoughts focus around today...blogs. I enjoy reading blogs. Well, maybe the better ones. I just finished http://www.eddyhan.com yesterday. It was really a satisfying read for some strange reason. I am half-way thru http://www.kukujiao.com too. This reflects heavily in my lurking habits of certain forums as well. Notably, http://forum.somethingawful.com.

It got me thinking about why a person actually blogs or posts. Admittedly, some do it for the glamour and recognition. Others are looking for a form of release from reality. Me? I take it as a form of therapy and also as my journal. My own diary of life. Something I can hold on to till my ripe old age. Something I hope to pass on to my kids and hopefully grandkids. At least if I go before ever meeting them, they will know what their Grandpa was like, the fiend! AHAHAHA!

There is nothing sweeter than going through your own blog entries and reflect back on a particular event, story et cetera. That is why I dislike people, who delete their own blogs after moving on. Why the need for this? What a waste of life, seriously. I don't care if your English sucks. I don't care if you sound emo in your entries. That's the whole idea of starting it, right? Leave that bit of legacy floating around in cyberspace. 10 years down the road, you may just wish you had something to look back on. Unless of course you have library loads of digital pics burned onto your DVD or whatever technology is next. DO NOT EFFING DELETE IT. You hear me. I am watching you.

Alright, enough of my banter. I'm back to more blog reading and forum lurking. Oi, Kenny Sia...faster update your blog lar. Why is everyone in slow-mo today? I need my daily dose of blogs k. Else I grow grumpy.

Take care bloggers of the world.

You live and you learn

2006-11-20T18:59:00.000+08:00

WARNING: Long-winded post ahead...have to make up for lost blog time mah!!!

I've been lurking a lot in other people's blog recently. Reading about their lifestories and other nitty-gritty stuff. It got me wondering about my own past.

I can say I've grown up sheltered actually. Never involved in anything really bad except for a couple of small brawls. I started to think about my first act of violence as a kid. T'was in kindergarten and I remember it like yesterday. I was big-boned (read FAT) as a kid and due to this, I was automatically nominated the saviour of the little. Go figure...anywayz, we used to have this Chinese vs Malay shit akinned to the Eastside vs Westside crap (I am not racist, just a naive kid in my defence). One sunny day (cliche-d), this kid who happened to be my neighbour, comes running over spouting crap about this Malay dude. I have been CHALLENGED! Whoa, who dares challenge the mighty Nawooz. So a group of us went to "table-talk" with the Malay dude. Turns out he had his posse (not pussy dammit) with him. I figured no big deal right. So we got talking and one thing lead to another, this dude grabs my neck with both hands and tore his finger nails into my flesh. Nobody messes with Nawooz man. I dispose of him with a swift kick to the groin (I never knew it would hurt so bad). I watched as he crumpled on the ground holding on to his family jewels moaning for his mom. Score, Nawooz:1 Dude-holding-jewels-on-floor: 0. We split after that incident, only to find the headmistress interrupting class and pointing to me calling out my name. "Nawooz, you come with me to my room". OMGWTFBBQ!!!!! I am so gonna get PWND from my headmistress. She was like Godzilla man. The Malay dude was also in the room when I arrived. The usual interrogation began and we ended up having to shake hands and apologize. Only God knew the icy-cold stare we gave one another before hauling ass out of the room.

Oddly enough, I never got heat for that from both the school and my parents. I told them we were playing catch and some kid was a little rough with the "catching" and they let it slide.

Then there was the time when my sis used to be bullied by this guy classmate. She would tell him to stop, but he just didn't give a rat's-ass to her squealing. So my sis decided to do what any other sibling would. She told him to quit or she would tell her brother. The little snot CHALLENGED her! Notice my use of the words, challenged. Needless to say, I was at her classroom the following morning. The guy must have turn like 27 shades of white man. Even those Oil of Olay whitening products could not beat the efficacy of this big-ass bro standing before him with a menacing dont-eff-with-me look. I asked him what was his problem and the little brat had the audacity to diss me. Unfortunately, my hands reacted faster than my brains and the dude got a bitch-slap from me. He started bawling and threatened to tell his parents about this. I told him to do just that and I will complain to his parents about him bullying my sis. I think I was a hero in my sister's eye that day. I never got to see his parents, but he would smile at me everytime I crossed paths with him after that fateful day.

Then there was the time I nearly got mugged by not one, but 2 assholes walking to the trainstop. A little background, I used to work in college and sometimes would only leave for home late at night. It was a 15-20 minute walk from my college to the trainstop through carparks and some poorly lit areas. I have seen a couple of snatch thieves and also muggings from afar, but never had a bad experience until that day. I was walking up this narrow (remember this my dear readers) flight of stairs to get to the trainstop. I had to keep an eye on the ground so as not to slip and break my skull on the steps (no lights at a frequently used stairs, Malaysia BOLEH). I notice this pair of feet and I moved aside to let him pass. He steps into my path and this is when I look up. I had a bad feeling about this. The guy looked like a druggie and I knew something was up. Suddenly, I see another shadow behind him and figured, hey, company. At least this guy won't jump me. Boy was I in for a surprise. Turns out they were in cahoots and the 2nd guy grabs hold of my arms asking me to stop in Malay. I ignore him and yank my arms away from his grip. Thank God for heavy IT-related books man and me being a college librarian. I had good workouts putting those books back and arranging the entire library after it closes. The guy got all hissy and kicked me in my thighs as I broke free. I am already up on solid ground and away from the steps at this point. I cussed the Mofo and grabbed this sign with a cemented base used to deter illegal parking and told him to come up. Both the guys were kinda stunned at my violent reaction and subsequently left. I remained staring at them with eyes that could have burnt a whole thru China man. I figured things would have been very different if I hadn't reacted the way I did since it was still 2 vs 1. Continued my journey and kept cursing the guy, who kicked me as I was wearing my new pair of Dockers nice pants. Cluck you asshole junkies. I hope you get rammed by a bus and fall into the Klang river and die from skin cancer due to it's polluted waters.

My final close shave was about 2 weeks ago after some wedding-ring shopping with my soon-to-be-wifey. This mod-piece of shit Satria cut into my path with no signal and regard for safety forcing me to e-brake. I give the mofo a friendly horn to let him know what he did was dumb. That's when he started to play games. He would stop his car suddenly in the middle of the road and then take off, which happened to be heavily congested with other road-goers. At this point, my wifey clamps down on the horn and lays it long and nice. This happened 3 times and by the fourth time, he winded down his window and gave me the finger. The nerve of that wanker amazes me. So happen we were nearing a red light and had to slow down. He cut into our path and then stopped his car and got out. All the time shouting, "What the FUCKKKK! What the FUCKKKK!!!". Something to note for all readers out there. If you don't feel like fighting, stay in the car! I rolled down my windows a bit and there he was shouting vulgarities. I told him that he was driving like a jerk and he started a spiel about, "Do you know who you're messing with or not". I gave him the I-don't-give-a-fuck-face and he shut up and then walked back to his car and drove off. The light turned green and I went on my way home. I told my wifey that I was starting a family soon and that's why the dude was driving in his car and not in a body bag. Somehow, I felt good not having to resort to violence in that incident. I think my friends are right. I do have that don't mess with me look sometimes. Most people think I'm fierce and stuck up when they first knew me. For that Satria-driving wanker, "I don't know who you are, but you have just met Nawooz dude". Stop acting like a wannabe thug on the road, as karma will one day catch up to you and skullfuck you before you even have the time to cry Mama.

Live. Learn.

Edit: That was surprisingly one of my longest posts even by my previous blog standards. Time to go to the washroom and warm my frozen fingers with the drier. I love centralized air-conditioning to death man. It keeps rotting meat from, well......rotting. If only it could mask the smell of un-washed bodies working 12 hour shifts. Dayummmmm!

The "official" donate to Nawooz-must-eat Fund

2006-11-19T16:11:00.000+08:00

In the past 2 months, I realized why some people actually borrow money from loansharks or Ah Longs. I myself nearly took up a personal loan with a financial instituion looking at the zeroes I'll be missing from my meagre savings soon.

Nothing can prepare you for the sheer blood-sucking involved in wedding preparations. A sincere tip for any guy, who is planning to get hitched. If you think you have enough savings to weather the insane costs of a wedding. I suggest you get a calculator and sit your behind down and work the actual figures.

There is the engagement ring, wedding ring x2, bridal photography @#$$!@#%^$#%&, wedding dinner, wedding card invitations, car rental, ang pows, dowry etc. The wedding rings and the engagement ring were fine with me. Hey, diamonds are a girl's best friend right and they are forever (unless you decide to take a diamond-bit drill to it XD). The bridal photography can only be described as daylight robbery. For the package amount, I could buy custom made gowns for her in China and she gets to keep 'em. Car rental is a pain if you are poor-assed like me and drive a small compact car. I'm still keeping my fingers crossed with the "hidden" costs, which I was told will creep higher as D-day draws closer.

OMGOMGOMG!!!! I still have so much to do and so little time left. Anyone knows of a good honeymoon retreat. I don't need locations like Robin Leach's Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous cause I'm neither rich nor famous. I have been doing some research and my choice is limited to Sabah, Bali, Thailand or some Third World country where my Malaysian Ringgit is worth two cents.

Wonder if my credit card company will extend my credit limit to VVIP or something...

Anyhoo, any kind soul willing to donate to the Nawooz-must-eat Fund will be my saviour. I'll even sing for my supper, if you can stand the raging thunderstorms that it will bring :D

Back to calculator-button pushing and some wallet-busting. Cheers all. IT'S GOOD TO BE BACK!

New kid on the blog

2006-11-15T23:23:00.000+08:00

Hi Guys and Gals,

Since my recent password fiasco on blog(dot)com, I have decided to up and leave. Moral of the story is, don't forget your PASSWORD!!!! Having said that, I wonder why they chose not to e-mail me my temporary password. I only requested it twice, I swear. So none of the Admins should be bitter about me flooding their Tech Support inbox.

Anyhoo, hopefully this new address will remain for a long while more. I kinda like the subtle message behind my new blog address. Neat-o eh (^_^)