Stress Relief

Driving on a congested LDP every day difinitely sucks the life out of poor souls heading back from work.  That's why there is a visual relief installed by smart opportunist.

Now lets be honest, does this make you smile or what?

Does it really work?  A capsul containing B-complex, Zinc, Vitamin C and E as a long term stress solution?  Probably.  But oysters are nice too, fresh and raw! Slurp*.  And how much energy are we talking about here? 

Powerless over HP power adapter

I have been using my Presario B1200 for a year and two months now and I already have two unusable power adapters.  Today marks my third power adapter with this laptop.

The original adapter failed me just a year after I bought my laptop.  Needless to say, the warranty period means nothing at that point.  I browsed a few major computer stores in Digital Mall Section 14 only to find out that the original adapter sells for RM190. Yes, the bigger plug cost more.  Size does matter it seems. 

Not willing to fork an extra 100, I opted for the generic adapter at RM90.  That was one month ago, and I was an idiot. 

The store staff advised me to buy original since the generic part only has one month warranty.  And it poses an unknown risk to my laptop since it bears no responsibility or commitment whatsoever from HP.  But I was an idiot.

My laptop has been going in and out of charging mode for the past three days and everytime it does, the USB unplug notification pops up for my wireless device.  Come 11am today, my laptop suddenly switched off.  No power.

I restarted only to find out that the battery is completely empty and my adapter is not charging at all.  This happened only a month ago with the original adapter.  I had to continue office work on another PC at work.  After lunch I rushed to digital mall to look for the original adapter. Luckily there is a service center that sells original adapters.  I told the engineer my situaton and he told me that generic adapters don't supply the correct power ratio,something about peak power rating and stuff.

"They may be cheap, like thirty to sixty bucks each, but your hardware may get damaged." He added.

"Cheap?  That stupid generic cost me 90 bucks" I exclaimed and his jaws dropped as he took a step back.

"Yeah, I got cheated alright!" I told him.

He told me he sells the original at 120 bucks.  That's a good deal so I told him to throw in the power cable as well.  An extra 10 bucks for that. 

Coupled with a three months guarantee, I sealed the deal.

This one better last more than a year.  Make that three. People don't change adapters every year for heaven's sake.

Maybe I'm wrong.

Angus Beef

My boss treated us steaks at San Francisco Steak House for my birthday lunch last friday.  I was rather touched and a little shy.  Huge meals are usually reserved for staff who are leaving the company. 

Hmm... have I overstayed my welcome? Or maybe it was just the four of us in the company, so lunch money wouldn't add up to much.

Anyway, it was a really a nice and cosy lunch.  We were the only group there, together with another single diner at a corner. 

"How do they make money with this kind of crowd?" my boss wondered.

The food was good though.  The usual fare you'd get at such place, at such price.  Service was okay, with most of the servers coming from Myanmar. 

I had rib eye steak, medium rare, my boss had BBQ Ribs and the other two coleagues had T bone and rib eye, well done.

My boss also ordered a pair of potato skins and half dozen of escargot.  Needless to say, we ate till we felt like bursting.

All the steaks averaged to about fifty bucks each.  There was one real pricey steak on the menu though.  It was angus steak.  Take away the 'n' and you get agus steak.  It's also served with asparagus, take away the 'aspar' and you also get agus.

The joke's on me, not!

Every year, March would barge in like nobody's business, taking everyone by surprise.  It always feels like we just finished celebrated the new year, two actually.

'Wow! How time flies' everyone sighs.

This year, March made people feel it lingered a little longer than usual, thanks to the sweltering heat and subsequent dry spell. To some, it was even costly as they lost a huge portion of their water dependent income sources; vegetables and rice farmers, and also freshwater livestock suppliers and gatherers are some of them.

As March approaches the end, things got a little better, with rain almost every evening.  This time however, sunny sky dependent businesses face challenges. Car wash outlets and open night markets get lesser traffic.  Even the multi million dollars F1 race has been rescheduled one hour earlier in anticipation of a wet evening, fearing similar cancellation as previous year.

April begins as a big joke for everyone nevertheless.  To some, it is a day of practical jokes, a dose of fun, cheer and jeer which is often at someone else' expense.  It is rather tricky to be taken seriously on this day for fear of embarrassment and looking like a fool.  On the other hand, it is also not easy to pull a good joke since most of us are aware of the imminent day. You might think the newer generations are easy targets but it is quite the opposite.  They are more aware of the current trends.  Some even consider it as outdated and lame.

'I may be young but I was not born yesterday' or 'Nobody does that anymore these days' they say.

For me, April first means I am next.  How's that for a birthday tag line.

My life's anniversary falls on the second day and thanks to people around me, I am reminded of how lucky I am to make it this far, mostly through social network's birthday alerts.  Just facebook really.

I gotta thank my parents for their family planning and not a day too late. If it weren't for them, my birth would have been a joke.  Don't think I'd be called Fool though, ever.  I would probably be named April, which kinda sounds feminine.  I remember watching an anime series with a female character named April when I was seven or eight.  Can't recall the title though.

Having said that, what is in a name anyway.  Agustus means 'great' in latin but I'm far from that.  And there are so few great people with the same name as mine. And could you consider Augustus Pinochet as one great man? According to the website thinkbabynames.com, "Agustus is an uncommon first name for men and an equally uncommon last name for both men and women. (1990 U.S. Census)".

Great! All the better then.  That means I'm a rare specimen.  And I might not have any children because it is very uncommon to have last names after me.  Sounds more like 'should not have kids' to me.  That doesn't sound like a good prospect.  Maybe I think too much.  Maybe I know too little.

And why Agustus? Some people ask.  I always tell them it's all maths actually. You see, I was born on the second day of the fourth month, which, when multiplied gives eight, hence the month August.  "So we'll slap him with the name Agustus then!" I can imagine my dad concluding the brain draining baby naming exercise.

Well, at least that's how simple I wanted it to look.  Furthermore, people seem to accept things which are easily quantified.  But we all know that's not the real reason.  The truth is, I have no idea.  Unlike others that have asked me, I have never had the curiosity to ask the same question to my parents.  I always take it as their gut feelings and what they inspire me to be.  A great person.

Heaven knows I'm trying.