The ABCs of Federer

I was never into tennis, and have never thought that the sport could be one thrilling art to watch until recently. The 2-week long Wimbledon 2009 have just ended last night, where Roger Federer defeated Andy Roddick in the 4-hour thrilling battle. Every stroke is well crafted, extending the game to the fifth set.

Both players were waiting for their opponent to commit errors, but yet the psychological and physical strength were the factors that defines a champion. Federer served effortlessly, having 50 aces in the match and you don't see this many aces that often.The moment of the final came where Federer have his first break and that was where Roddick handed the World No.1 the points and the trophy.

The entire battle lasted for 4 hours 17 minutes, one of the longest final ever played. The win made Federer the first player with 15 Grand Slams writing himself in the history book with more chapters to come. And not to mention that he's gained back the top spot in world ranking back from Rafael Nadal, whom have been holding since last Wimbledon.

It is more of an art displayed by Federer, that made me stick in front of my TV and having interest in this sport. This is one helluva player, and one flawless artist.



Technorati Tags: Roger Federer, Wimbledon 2009

Trying out with the offline editor: ScribeFire

The name of this program sounds pleasant. Firey! C'mon, it is related to FireFox, just another of the add-ons.

I have been searching for free offline editors with Mac enabled for so long, and finally found this! Although I do not blog that often, but hey, you still need some 'nice' interfaced program to keep you having a good head-start.

Let's see if ScribeFire is able to capture my heart, to keep me constantly blogging more frequently. Till again, see you

Tags: ScribeFire, offline, Mac

My first pimp session

I stumbled onto this page in photokaki.com. where the post is titled: Pimp this leng lui!
I find this quite interesting. Hence I tried to do some pimping works with my novice skills in photoshop.

This is how the image looks like before the editing:

The image below is after some adjustments on the white balance, insertion of some light renderings, skewing and enlarging the eyes, distort the nose and smallen the mouth. Hmm, I'm kinda happy to achieve this end result, just that I can't do much on the puffy mouth! The photo frame and the watermarks for more of magazine-cover feel.

Remember that this is just the works of a very beginner Photoshop CS user. Imagine what the professional designers or users can do. Welcome to the wonders of digital age. I do hope that the real-life model will feel glad, knowing that she can be prettier with some 'touchup' works. Don't you think she has a bit of Jolin Chai's eyes?

Scuderias, time to prance your horses!

What an expected finale at the Sunday's Catalunya F1 Grand Prix. The Brawn GP have done it again, another 1-2 finish led by Jenson and Rubens. 4 wins out of 5 starts for the Briton is quite an achievements since the Schuey era.

Talking about Ferraris in which I still have some faith left in the team, they are not making huge progress since Melbourne. The only step they've taken, is the introduction to the KERS (Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems). Yet it doesn't seem to work too well for Kimi. He retired at lap 17 with hydraulics failures, in which is KERS related. It's quite disheartening looking at it, although knowing that Ferraris won't make huge leaps in such a short frame of time.

Another of the prancing horse, Massa had a better car than of Kimi's. The car was doing quite well, the strategy worked good for him (just that Webber's worked better!). But the problems came 6 or 7 laps from the checkered flag. Massa received a transmission from his technical engineer, ordered him to save fuel... a.k.a. not to push the car to the max, and to SLOW DOWN! Well, they cleverly 'miscalculated' on his fuel consumptions, or could it be Massa who had been pushing too hard since the previous pit stop, and to drain off his fuel?

What an error. Massa just had to give way to both Vettel and Alonso, in order to finish in points.. Pity pity pity. Wake up you horses! Time to start running! Only 4 points from 5 races?! Could it be the flop after Ross Brawn left the Scuderia team? Or was it Jean Todt? Something to ponder on.

Triumph over the mind, but not body

It's the time of the year again. The INFLUENZA spree! I was down with very bad flu since a week earlier. Yet, it dragged on and on, and I was hoping that I would get better. But not by a single chance. The flu made my body tired, sore my throat, pushed up my body temperature to 38. Not too high, but it's good enough to knock me out.

I had to revisit my doctor, getting heavier dosage of medication. Then I popped this question jokingly to the doctor. "My 10-day flu would not have any relation with the worldwide-pandemic-swine-flu eh?" Then she replied, "If you are the suspected ones, we need to do some tests, and the result will only be out in 2 weeks time"

I was thinking... 2 weeks! I could be dead-pork by then! Well, that's how efficient on how this lovely country deals with W.H.O.'s Level 6 worldwide outbreak. Thankfully there has yet to be any case of infection reported here.

What could I do next? Well, it's time to keep my mind alive. The body is sick, but just not let the mind be the same. With the iTunes running with 2670 songs, I really do not know what songs shall I listen to. Ended up with Air-Supply's. It brought back some wonderful memories back to the late 80s. Hopefully I will have more air in me, to guide me through this sickly period of time, and to finish this posting!

To be frank, I think my mind is only operating at 75% of it's capacity the most. Good enough to have few paragraphs for you readers to glance on. It's just an exercise in which I kept reminding myself... triumph over your mind, although the body lets you down sometimes.

Twitter vs. Blog, Snacks vs. Main dish

I wonder why it is easier to punch the keyboard, using short paragraphs, with limits of 140 characters and post it via twitter.com. As compared to sitting down with the proper mindset, proper issues/subjects to talk about, carefully selecting the proper usage of words, and to finally post it to the blog.

See the disparity for the two above? For me, I call it: Snacks vs Main dish. When you snack, you just grab whatever that is in front of you, regardless whether it suits your appetite. You just want to munch. You just want to move your mouth muscles and tendons.

But when you select the main dish, ahaa... this is where you take your brain out, carefully select and screen thru your head what you would like to meet to your palate's requirements.

Erm... I think I'm kinda snacking right now, just munch without thinking.

LUST

I received the news that my long waited lover, the iPhone-3G has arrived in Malaysia few days ago. Legally. In fact I’ve got sources that it will be here weeks before even Maxis announced it, thanks to the ‘insiders’.

Upon seeing the phone is launched in Maxis’ site, I plunged my fingers onto the keyboard, booking myself a unit of the long-awaited gadget. After halfway thru placing my order, I only realized that ‘LUST’ has blinded both my head and eyes! Scary ha! It has gained full control over my fingers, eventually.

What a powerful brain reprogramming tool! Could this be the basics of NLP (Neuro-Linguistic-Programming). Or basics of simple hypnotism. Much to explore from here onwards, after this bizarre incident, that almost ate a chunk of my pocket. A near purchase without brain usage!

The history of the Middle Finger

Well, now… here’s something I never knew before. And now that I know it, I feel compelled to let others aware in the hope that they too will feel edified. Isn’t history more fun when you know something about it?

Before the Battle of Agincourt in 1415, the French, anticipating victory over the English proposed to cut off the middle finger of all captured English soldiers. Without the middle finger it would be impossible to draw the renowned English longbow and therefore they would be incapable of fighting in the future.

This famous English longbow was made of the native English Yew tree, and the act of drawing the longbow was known as “plucking the yew” or “pluck yew”.

Much to the bewilderment of the French, the English won a major upset and began mocking the French by waving their middle fingers at the defeated French, saying “See, we can still pluck yew!”.

Since “pluck yew” is rather difficult to say, the difficult consonant cluster at the beginning has gradually changed to a labiodentals fricative “F” and thus the words often used in conjunction with the one-finger-salute!

It is also because of the pheasant feathers on the arrows used with the longbow that the symbolic gesture is know as “giving the bird”. It is STILL an appropriate salute to the French today.

And yew thought yew knew every plucking thing!

Technorati Tags: Agincourt, English, French, history, middle finger, pluck, yew

Stupidity vs. Asininity

The dictionary defines STUPID |ˈst(y)oōpid| as a term that implies a sluggish, slow-witted, lack of intelligence or common sense person.

Perhaps I should apply the term ASININE |ˈasəˌnīn|. A harsher word, implying asslike or foolish behavior rather than slow-wittedness.

I was seeing a supplier since the whole morning, trying to loosen up some works before my Chinese New Year long break. Then I was summoned by my-already-on-leave colleague back to my office. The main reason being that the one and only colleague at office is already hungry! And no one is there to either buy lunch for her or standby for her to go out for lunch. What a stupid reason! I’ll rephrase that. What an asinine remark!

Hence, I need to weave my way back through the lunch traffic, just to show my face and my presence there (together with my temper of course). I need to be on the run again to continue my works in a short while.

What really puzzled me is that there is still such person in existence. We are in the business of meeting and socializing with people, seeing tons of characters which means there plentiful ways to enhance and carve one’s attitudes and characters but yet the asinine behavior can still be in continuation.

Well I can never change the world, not even change someone. But I can always change myself, my perception and have some paradigm shifts on certain aspects, if not on certain people. Yeah, Steven Covey’s 7 Habits. Seems like I need to revisit the book, or perhaps move on to the 8th Habit!

Technorati Tags: asinine, existence, hungry, paradigm shift, stupid

Yet to tweel, but got a brand new set of rubber !

I realized that I am not contributing to the save-the-earth programme. I did a few sins after changing a brand new set of tyres last Saturday.

For the tyres productions, the rubber tappers have to slice the rubber trees, reducing the trees lifetime, leaving them to die off faster. That means lesser trees. Then the raw rubber will be sent to the processing house, where it will be burnt before another step of tyre processing is taken. The smoke created and the smell of the burning rubber will pollute the air taking one step closer to thinning the atmosphere, making more UV and sunlight to enter earth, melting the icebergs of North Pole, increase the sea level to flood cities and villages, and finally end of human race a.k.a Armageddon. Not that gigantic meteor that wiped out the earth. Nor the ice-storm that froze us to the Ice-Age. It is due to the global warming, or global ‘heating’ to be exact. And that is caused mainly by me… just by changing the tyres! One thing leads to another, and I am part of the cycle in destroying earth. Gosh!

Ok, I’m no Nostradamus, and I’ll cut the crap that will make myself sleepless during the night. Apart from the guilt, I am enjoying my new set of tyres! As stated in my earlier blog, the driving sensation has improved. Pros of changing from 185/55 to 195/50 are:
1. Trying out a new make, Bridgestone. Maneuverability is still better, and the car is steadier when taking corners at a higher speed. Thanks to the increase of tyres width from 185mm to 195mm. No wonder Formula-1 are all on Bridgestone.

2. By reducing the thickness of it from 55mm to 50mm, it lowered my high-bodied car, enhancing the gripping ability to the road surface. The car has lesser bumpy movements now.

3. Quieter and smoother ride, as the noise is reduced noticeably from the racers' tyres choice.

4. Better riding comfort, softer feel when going through the potholes in KL streets! It could be the right air pressure for the tyres. Will increase from 300kPa to 320kPa later to compare the acceleration and the riding comfort.

Cons using the racer’s brand:
1. The car seems heavier, needs more push on the gas to move it. The RPM is revving higher, and will increase the fuel consumption as you need to burn more to keep the car moving.

2. With the higher RPM the engine sounded louder. As it is working more, I believe wear and tear too will be greater than of the earlier easy-going tyres.

Although just few days of testing out this new set of tyres, I already got one of it injected with a metal spike! Thanks to those people who simply throw their nails and screws after finishing their renovation works. Damn! Not a bad thing though, the tyre is not deflated yet after 2 days. Looks quite durable eh :)

A sheer driving pleasure for me up till now. As Bridgestone have done a lot in their R&D, to be used by all racers in Formula-1, and to invent the “TWEEL” (the revolutionary Tyres + Wheel, uses no air therefore cannot be burst), this is one hell of a trusted brand.

Technorati Tags: 185/50, 195/50, armageddon, Bridgetone, cons, consumption, formula-1, heavier, noise, nostradamus, pros, quieter, rubber, save-the-earth, thickness, tweel, tyres, width

Driving an 'expired' car

My car is already due for maintenance weeks ago. Since I was quite free last Saturday, I drove to Honda service center but ended up in another workshop and with a brand new set of tyres. The Honda showroom is packed with people that day! It could be the launch of their new model but hey, they have launched it weeks and weeks ago. Therefore, I failed to get my car oil changed. I should have listened to my wifey's instinct, asking me to call before going all the way to the service center. Ladies instincts are quite precise at times.

Driving my car around in her sick and expired condition, will in turn incur all sorts of costs to me, in time costs, financial costs, physically and mentally costs too! If the car breaks down half way from KL to Penang, these are likely to happen:

1. I will be stopping at the emergency lane with the hazard light on, safety triangle some 50m away but still risking myself and others of being run-down again and again by the I-am-Michael-Schumacher or I-am-Zig-Zagler lorry and bus drivers!

2. While waiting for the tow truck to come and pick us up, we'll either be sitting and sweating inside my car, or on the grass picnicking while enjoying the clouds of exhaust fumes of the speeding vehicles,

3. Due to the sweaty sessions, wifey will be annoyed, kids will start to cry, and their angry-ometer will start to rise,

4. I will be annoyed because all others are annoyed,

5. When the tow truck is here, I am pissed off for the long waiting period. We would exchange words loudly, and could end up fighting each other,

6. They towed my car away, leaving me with my family and lots of baggages stranded, hoping to catch a bus to continue our journey back from this god-knows-where place,

7. Reaching Penang, thinking about how to get my car back later, how much it will cost, how to get back to KL , and all of these will make me more agitated, I need to pop more pills to maintain the blood pressure, thus making my entire holidays filled with nothing lesser than upsets and upsets.


Thankfully I have got all the 4 tyres changed and although they cost quite a bomb, but it is well worth it. At least I have taken one step ahead to avoid the scenarios above. The handling is better now, the car gripped more on the road surface, lesser movements of body when cornering, lesser vibrations caused by the earlier worn out tyres, and other undescribed words by me-the-layman driver.

What is stil pending now is to get my oil and filter changed, some tweakings in the engine, and voila… I will be having the sensation and the sheer driving experience of a PlayStation-simulated Bentley Flying Spur or a Bugatti Veyron. Vroom vroom !

Technorati Tags: car, cornering, costly, driver, expired, grip, handling, maintenance, tyres, vibration

Hearing is believing

What is the one eeriest and spine-chilling moment that you'll ever imagine when picking up a phone call? Someone shouted vulgarly at the other end of line? A ghostly soprano singing, with sounds of wind gushing at background? Freddy Krueger scratching his metaled-fingers on the wall, whilst singing: One, two... Freddy'll come to you? Obscene sounds of male breathing... hush... hush....?
Not that I've read and watched too much of horror movies, but sometimes these things will just freak you up!

I picked up a call moments ago in the office. It was just after lunch. The phone was ringing (supposedly this extension should NOT ring) for some time, but no one heard it. When I placed the handset next to my ear, I instantly stood still with my eyes opened wide. There was a girl crying and wailing in high pitch sound on the other end of the line! She sounded very much in grief. She continued squealing for few more seconds.

Oikk! Stop it. My spine was already tingling the moment I picked up that call. Can you please stop for a moment and 'talk' to me! Thoughts kept running through my head. Shall I put the phone down? What is this ghost doing in broad daylight, calling the sales gallery? Could this be real with me with this paranormal encounter?

I kept holding on the handset. Then only I realized that she was trying to talk, but I could not hear a single word. After I repeated few times of hello hello... then only she murmured in Chinese: "Papa, papa, khuai lai jiu wo" (Papa, quick come and rescue me!). She kept repeating these words a few more times. Only then I realized that this 'might' not be a ghostly encounter.

I asked her where she was? She replied she does not know. Then I asked what is her phone number twice... then she silent herself, but still with slight humming of cries in her voice. Suddenly a thud was heard. And another man got hold of the phone and helloed for twice before hanging up the call himself.

After the short moments of the so-called ghostly encounter, it turned out to be a kidnapped kind of call. What could I do to help the little girl who spoke to me earlier? The phone was a land line and I'm thinking of how can I track back the caller. What would you do if you were me? Knowing that the girl sounded so pitiful, wanting so much to escape from whoever is with her. I could have been experiencing a real-life situation where seeing someone is kidnapped but unable to think of what can be done to help her. Will she be alive days from now on? Will she be able to contact her actual papa? Will she continue to live one happy life as other small cute kids do?

These questions will linger in my head for days I'm sure. My prayers will go for this small little girl and her family. May she be free from whatever situation that can endanger her life at this moment.

Technorati Tags: eeriest, ghost, grief, hearing, kidnap, papa, phone, spine-chilling, wailing

a NEW year instead

Everything seems to turn NEW lately. Lately as of the past few hours of this NEW year of 2009. Most people got new haircut, wearing new clothes, got new resolutions (as the past years' does not seemed to work) and not to forget the new working style.

Most of the workforce fellas are still partying. The new year party-drug is has not really relieved off these people, and that include myself. I did not party on the eve of 2008. Just that I kinda miss the long stretch of non-working days till weekend, like I've had during the Christmas no-work marathon. Ahh, I can snuggle myself on bed till sun starting to fall, then only roll myself up for the early breakfast at 2:30pm!

The NEW working patterns of these people are shown on the second day of this year. Everyone is still on leave! No one picking up calls. Not many people moving around. You will see clearer roads, as compared to seeing red braking lights covering entire traffic. The environment is so quiet, the city is empty and quite dead at this point. What a good way to welcome the year. But if you take a day off today, well you will have 4-non-working and late-snuggling days.

Usually during the rush-hour to work, there are tons of cars barricading your ways. But ambulances always find their way through, of course with their wailing sirens. Not fair! I wished I have my own 'screamer' too: "Get outta my way! I'm late for work!"

Not today though. This old-style of greeting for millions of motorists did not happen this morning, it is good enough to start my day. This is new. Could it be people prioritize life more than work at this time round? If not, then why do so many people are not working to welcome and greet this very new year? I know. I'm jealous as I do not have more leave to clear. Ack, I'm missing my 4-day no-work-marathon during Christmas. The same old me at this very new year.

The U.S are looking very forward to 2009 though, perhaps even more on 2010. They wanted to bury 2008 so badly till the very last drop of sand. What a year that crashed Wall Street since 30's Great Depression, tumbling giant companies, collapsing the peak oil price at US$147 in July to US$40 currently etc. You take the calculators and punch on the red numbers.

Not too much of words now. I too have 2 New resolutions this year.

1. Not to include that many words in one post. Some might say I'm long winded. Some might fall asleep while reading it. I'm trying to apply some marketing psychology here see if it works:
Expensive = good, cheap = bad.
A long posting = boring post, a short posting = exciting ones!


2. To write down my resolutions physically. Well, I have not really thought of WHAT to be written down, but I'm sure by writing down you are really committed to yourself and will move towards achieving it, consciously or sub-consciously.

Technorati Tags: 2009, motorists, new, New Year, resolutions, snuggle, working

6 Major truths of life

6 statements to kick start this new year of 2009:

1. You cannot touch all your teeth with your tongue.
2. All idiots, after reading the first truth, will try it.
3. And discover that the first truth is a lie.
4. You’re smiling now because you realized that you're an idiot.
5. You soon will forward this to another idiot.
6. There’s still a stupid smile on your face.

I apologize about this. I found out that I was an idiot too and I needed company! :P

Technorati Tags: 2009, 6 statements, idiot, lie, teeth, truth