Special Delivery! God to be...

In a matter of weeks, I will be playing GOD or GAIA or King or Slave Master to a small colony of ants provided those creatures don't perish on their long trip, states to states in the UPS/ FEDEX planes and truck. Pretty exciting and really looking forward to their arrival, 30 of them in a special tube, throught the mail. Yes, I am not kidding you... there sure is lots of things you can order for shipment within the United States and the Harvester Ants are just one of those weird things, costing me 3 US bucks + another 3 bucks shipment fees. Lets not forget to mention you can even get tapoles, lizard eggs, hermit crab and god knows what other critters. All from this websites..

http://www.antsalive.com/

http://www9.mailordercentral.com/unclemilton/

What kinda benevolent GOD I am if I don't provide my worshipper with a proper place to live? Thats taken care of in a seperate shipments from,

http://www.antworkstoys.com/



Check out those futuristic ant colony for my followers, they sure live much happier in those bluey gels, invulnerable to earthquakes and collapse. Their home will come comfortably equipped with lightings and air-conditioning (from my apartment). This was something derived from a NASA "Ants in Outer Space" project which end up to become a fantastic looking piece of art work for my room or office desk. Hmm...the neat blue transparency lets me take a good look at my subjects.

Keeping my finger cross right now for the colony delivery and most importantly the creatures safe passage to the place where they will LIVE, DIG, FEED, ENTERTAIN and than PERISH because ants typically survive for 3 months out in the wild.

Mystery of Riccardo's Toshiba Satellite's "cock-up"

THE PROBLEM:

Recently I have been experiencing start-up problem with my Toshiba Satellite A105-S4014 laptop brought just 1 month ago. Everytime the system boot to "WINDOW XP" loading screen, it suddenly flickers to the Blue Screen Of Death and the whole system restarted itself from the BIOS. This problem repeat itself for don't know how many donkey times before the laptop finally boot into the OS.

Upon shutting down and turning the laptop back-on, the problem occurs again much to my frustrations. This prompted me to buy an external harddisk, the "Western Digital MyBook 250GB Essential Edition", just to back-up approx 30GBs of documents, videos, photos and illegally downloaded PC games before I attempt to restore the laptops to factory default using the provided Toshiba Recovery Disc.

Much to my astonishments and surprise and another round of frustrations, the blue screen of death appears again upon loading the recovery disc. The saving point this time is that instead of only blinking and rebooting the laptop, the "Blue Screen Of Death" froze on the window, giving me the oppurtunity to read the error text which simply summarize as "There is something wrong with the drivers of your hardware, please restart and boot to SAFE MODE".

SAFE MODE is neither save at all. It was still plauged by the same problem mentioned earlier, blue screen of death and restarting. I can't boot into the OS, I can't recover the laptop and I can't go into SAFE MODE. The last option is to let the professional at the warranty center do their jobs and survive the next one week without my source of entertainment, news, music and pure boredom killer machine.

I resort to putting the laptop to SLEEP mode instead of shutting down the moment I manage to boot it into Windows XP. This actually safe me the nightmare of experiencing the "rebooting" routine. However its really a temporary solution and does not tackle the root cause or solve any mystery at all.

THE DIAGNOSTICS/SOLUTION

Unfortunately, the SLEEP mode does not help. On few occasion I bootup the laptop from SLEEP mode, the Wireless Network/ LAN system fail to work and I have to do a fresh power restart unless I forgo using the Internet. This bring everything back to square one, back to the problem again.

By some miracle intervention, the thought of disabling the "Built-In LAN" option from the BIOs came into my mind. Surprise to see that by disabling it, I actually could go into Windows with a single boot. Just to be sure that this is the right medicine to the illness, the enable the "Built-In LAN" option and boot up the laptop. 3 times it fails to enter Windows XP and that Strike 3 and a OUT. Disabling the Built-In LAN, the laptop sucessfully went into the OS on 3 seperate Power On boot. The fault can now be simulated and it can be terminated. Strangely, I am still able to use the Internet despite turning the LAN system Off in the system BIOS.

Now the Toshiba Laptop works as smooth as the first time I got it. However a shroud of mystery still exist as to-

Why the fault existed (was it a hardware, software or BIOs problem)?

Why the disabling of the "Built-In LAN" option effectively ends the problem?

Why am I still able to connect to the Internet wirelessly despite disabling "Built In LAN"?


Thus I am sending this blog entry to Toshiba Technical Support for an answer.

Why I am so tired and why I am piss off

SUPER DUPER SHAG week this is… I was literally the One Man Show, One Man Soldier, Lone Ranger and I don’t know what else. Feel really lonely working alone, how I wish there was some one to talk to all the time during work. Sometime, one can over focus on his work and miss out the details around him. Its like driving on the expressway at 160km/hr., your vision becomes narrow. Having someone beside you will be helpful in warning you that you are going too fast, alert you of the danger, caution you of your mistake. To be frank, my experience level is still 60/100, and I do hope that the seniors can tag along with me during work more often.

Shag I might be, but the weather was super fine today! Cloudy summer sky brings the temperature down to 32 degrees and its breezy out there and me hungry to job along my favorite route. So I hydrate myself, took an energy filling Bananas and off for the 2 miles run. Thanks to the years of running training, I manage to complete the run despite having only six hours of sleep yesterday night. Next, I join in the Basketball games with Edwin, Eric and my room mate, Ricky. I like to keep the momentum of the games in a fast pace thus I was literally running and falling around the basketball court making the fast breaks and sneaking a steal here and there. I must say my shooting skill is totally “Lao Ya” most of the “near the hoop” shot did not score a goal at all. Whatever I score on that day was purely luck or “Tai Go” as the Hokkien like to say it. I think I was going too fast for the game and for my own Situation Awareness during the game cause Eric ask me to slow down my pace, think before making the run and passes.

By that time I was totally shag out after 3 rounds of game and obviously my pace have slow down a bit. That’s when I learn,

Sometimes its not about going fast in life cause it make you tired easily, its about slowing down sometimes and think before you act. Its about efficiency in playing the game and not wasting the energy running around like a Duracell Battery Bunny.

I'll keep Eric’s advise in mind. In any case it was really a fun and lots of laughter games but do like to apologize if I cause any aggressive harm to the opponents. Ha ha. After the game, I was so tired that I literally just sad down in the living room, quietly, drinking a bottle of Gatorade. Totally lost all of the strength to even walk to the bath room...

Sometimes people in your life can really piss you off like shit. I always attempt to tolerate certain people piss off behavior, faces and words because I believe that there are always some good in them and it just take a little bit more patient and tolerance just to know them better. You never know, the guy you hate or feel disgusted in the beginning might be you best of friend or colleague or buddy after a while. HOWEVER, there are just some people that always try to break you tolerance limits and threaten to flare that temple in me. This kind of people you really need to go home everyday and meditate just to cleanse those “Piss Off” juice in your body to prevent a serious volcanic eruption the next day you met him/her. My volcano have not erupted yet but don’t tempt me to do so man. Sigh….temple flaring again with those words I type, better go read my Buddhism books to gain some PEACE.

Hokkien Songs

Hokkien Song remind me of my young-kid times when I sat in my father's Honda Civic and he was like blasting Chen Lei songs throughout the trips. There is actually lots of nice hokkien song that we thought are just plain noisy in the past. Now, listening it on the road, blasting like those Ah Bengs, make you feel really different from the mainstreams youngsters. Hokkien song can give you that very mature uncle look.

Ha ha My favourite is still this one... (click on the link for the songs)

爱拼才会赢 lossly translated as "Love to push the limits, and you win".
风很好 means "Weather is F***ing go0d".
有影无 I guess means 'Wu Yia Bo" / "Are you sure? "

Imagine the look of those Ang Mos, especially the Blacks who like to pump up those rap music on the road, when a old car stop besides them and blast Hokkien Song.... ha ha

Chef of the day

This is how he look like if he goes University and cook in a dorm.

We draw straws and Ricky picky the shortest one. That make him Chef of the Day!!! I tell you man, Ricky is really a miracle boy when it comes to kitchen. Ching Cai Ching Cai cook also can come up with something that really capture the taste buds. To be frank, I am not fussy with what I eat but I swear he got that natural talent in him! Ha ha...super flattering...

Although there is no 色but 香and 味 is still there, pretty enough for guys like us who don't have our mum, wife or girlfriend cooking for us plus the kind of tight schedules we have in PP Det. In any cases,

Not matter how good we guys cook,
nothing beats a women's food.

Superman! Wheres your clothes??

Just finish watching Superman Returns but discovered not much of an insight of how Superman was born or how he was created or grown up in the farm house to be the Super hero everyone knows about. I expect the movie to show the birth of Superman just like how Peter Parker become Spiderman in the Spiderman movie. Guess everyone have to instead watch Smallville to know those stuff. Anyway, kind of adorable to see a man in a 80s (or was it 70s) super hero suits. I reckon no superheros will consider wearing underwear on a mission in our current context. Something well armored will be prefered.

An interesting thoughts I have about the movie.

1) Superman have a wardrode malfunction
Notice that everytime there was a Call of Nature, erm...sorry Call of Emergency (but it occur naturally to Superman anyway) He just rip off his clothes in a telephone booth or maybe the toilet and just took off! I am sure he is not wearing any expensive designers brand but I'm sure he just drop off his ripped off shirt and pants than took off without returning to pick it up. He don't get paid for his super hero moonlighting and he work as a nerdy reporter thus conclusion is he never wear expensive designers brand since where can he get the money to find the replacement?

Back to his house, he must have big wardrode to place all his replacement clothings brought cheaply from Walmart or JC Penny or Giordano or even Pasar Malams. He need a big wardrode cause with all those trouble going around the world, our superhero just can afford to go shopping like us every weekend.

2) Superman suit is also "SUPER"
In the name of science, how come the mini guns bullet does not create burn mark on his suit and poke holes in his capes? See how he fly faster than the speed of sound and those red capes does not tattered? I understand Superman is a man or an Alien beyond Science but hey man....he drop from Space in a capsule totally naked in the beginning scene and now he dones a blue suit with red capes and underwear. SUPER sure that those suits are home made and not of Batman's armored grades causes he is not like batman who have a scientist/Engineer to built his equipment. Those suit must be cloth! The director of Superman Returns is still stuck in the 70s/80s mood deciding that people not only will believe in an invulnerable hero but also an invulnerable clothings. Mr Director, this is the 90s please have a bit more consideration...we don't mind Superman and his dorky Underwear,....at less make his suit less than "SUPER". Or just tell us those colors are just his skins.

Stronger than Steel, and so is his suit.