Food! Glorious Food!

Seeing to as I have accidentally fell asleep hours before bedtime, I have became too hungry to continue sleeping when the time comes. This post features two new food items I have tried out this month. The first one is a spectacular burger from a new shop in the food court.

It comes in beef or chicken, is stuffed with vegetables, tomato sauce, tomato slices, and onions. Whats so spectacular about it? Here's a picture of it with a 50 cent coin:

Yes, this burger is large. Very large. Not the largest in the world but selling at only RM8, it is definitely spectacularly filling. Its so good, I ate all the vegetables, onions, and tomato slices along with it.

Second is a nice little dessert from a shop across the road. This is a little something that is tried out spontaneously and completely based on looking at its picture. At first glance of the picture, I would have thought it was a cold dessert. When it had actually arrived, it proved to be something that is actually warm. With ingredients consisting of bread, honey, banana, and various other things, this was surprisingly more delicious than I had expected.

All things considered, these two foods are definitely something I would recommend to people who want to try something new. Although personally, you might want to share the burger in case you have a small stomach. One half was enough to almost completely fill me. When I was done with the whole thing, I felt a little like vomiting.

Wish List 2010

I am writing this almost purely because my butt is hurting me right now. Almost.

Whether you may or may not know my birthday is coming soon, you, like me, may have problems finding suitable gifts for people. In my case right now, I will solve your problem by telling you exactly what I want. A nice soft pillow for me to sit on which can remain comfortable after long hours. I am serious when I say this. Yes, I would like a pillow to sit on. It does not need to feel like I am sitting on cloud but a just a pillow would be nice. So this is number one on my (very impossible) wish list.

1 - Sitting Pillow

Now for those of you (though admittedly would be very little) who know that I lack proper tools, a number of small to large things I would like is a small screwdriver set. Flat head. In addition to that, a drill with various sizes of drill bit. The speed of drilling should be in ratio with how hard I press the trigger. So,

2 - micro screwdriver set
3 - a very good drill

Asking for money feels very new years to be honest but for those who do not feel like giving me enough to build a performance computer rig can gladly get me an external storage device. 7200rpm is best regardless of 2.5" or 3.5" but is you get me solid state, I would use it internally. Also, while my mouse is slowly turning senile still working fine, getting me a wired mouse that has more 5000dpi would be absolutely adored. Hence,

4 - External storage
5 - Very sensitive mouse

Oh yes, I forgot about a full HD (1920 x 1080) monitor. So that too I guess. Though personally, I prefer it being in small sizes although it is full HD so 21.5" is preferred.

6 - 21.5" Full HD monitor

Finally, if you happen to be some random person wanting to spend all your money, I will now re-write the list but continuing on with things that money most likely cannot even buy.

1 - Sitting Pillow
2 - Micro Screwdriver Set
3 - A Very Good Drill
4 - External Storage (SSD Preferred)
5 - A Very Sensitive Mouse
6 - 21.5" Full HD monitor
7 - The best lenovo laptop that has survived the torture test with exceptional grades
8 - Enough money to built a super performance rig including a bluray read/write drive, 3 HD monitors, about 10 SSD's so make a super fast Raid0 cluster, and any graphic card that has good performance to quality ratio
9 - A Macbook Pro
10 - A queen sized bed
11 - My personal toilet connected to my room
12 - The extinction of various bugs that I dislike
13 - Particularly the extinction of mosquitoes
14 - A new and very powerful hand phone
15 - A pico projector
16 - Bolster and Pillows (no limit in quantity)
17 - Fluffy Toys to put around my bed (don't judge me)
18 - A car
19 - A house
20 - The moon

I think I will stop at 20. I would go on but it would gradually start to get irrational.

It Really Bothers Me.

Sometimes I notice things that are useless and irrelevant. Not so much when I watch anime but it happens anyway. Though sometimes too small to be noted as an inconsistent, I thought I would point one out anyway.

The candy either simply appears, gets there within a short frame of time, or I'm just thinking too much.

A Little Change

As mentioned in my previous post, I switched up to Windows 7. While it is a 64 bit OS, most of what I wanted functioned somewhat smoothly. It was until recently that I had felt a need to change things.

I had always had the impression that running a 32 bit program in a 64 bit environment is less resource efficient. Although simply asking around had confirmed this, I have yet bothered to Google it myself.

The first most obvious thing that came into mind when thinking about program efficiency is of course video playback. Specifically, High-Definition video playback.

Previously Preferred: KMPlayer

Now Using: Media Player Classic (64 bit)

After some light research, and making some simple mistakes, I decided to install K-Lite Codec Pack 64 bit version. Then through trial and error I was finally able to make my machine play 1080p videos without a loss of quality smoothly. Though there is still some tearing, the end results were very satisfying.

The second issue that bugged me the most is my file manager. Using a 32 bit file manager in a 64 bit environment had a very obvious difference when right clicking.

Previous Preferred: NexusFile

Using Now: Q-Dir (64 bit)

While it lacks the cosmetic qualities that NexusFile holds, it has its various good qualities. Although I would prefer NexusFile much more, Q-Dir is a very good replacement until a 64 bit version of NexusFile comes out. Boasting up to 4 panels for file exploring and coupled with tabbed view, it truly is meant for a power user.

Third, internet browsing. Currently still using Firefox and Chrome. Chrome's dev channel is finally not crashing so hard on me now but with orbit integration missing from it, I might just stay in Firefox a little while longer.

Both these internet browsers lack an official 64 bit version. Unofficial releases were said to be much better and efficient but the lack of my beloved addons would be severely saddening.

The most recent change to these two is the addition of a little plugin called Xmarks for both browsers. With this enabled, I am now able to sync bookmarks effortlessly between both browsers or any other browser that I may need to use in the future which is not from my machine. Also a great way to backup if considering reformatting or if a virus destroys your machine.

That's pretty much all that has changed in my machine so far. Just replacing some programs with more efficient programs. Hoping to not see a *32 symbol behind any of the processes in my task manager in the future.

Links:
K-Lite Codec Pack 64 bit
Q-Dir
Xmarks
NexusFile

A Life Without Dreams

In more than one occasion have I the experience when one asks me what are my plans for the future. What are my dreams. What do I plan to do. In response, I would most commonly say, "I have absolutely no idea".

It may or may not be a commonly known fact that I indeed have no dreams. I ask myself the same question sometimes and a conclusion seems far from my grasp.

In the simplest sense, I want a simple life. Get a job, work, retire. Not much of a retirement plan but I have not really thought about what job I would want either. In contrast, I also want many things in life. A powerful computer, a nice house, good food, etc.

The thing about not having a goal in life is like throwing darts onto a board then drawing a target around it. Without a goal, there is no clear direction where you would want to go or what plan you should make to shorten your journey there.

Having a goal is like the finishing line of a race. Without it, you do not know when to stop, nor would you have the motivation to run in the first place.

Have a dream in life and go at it with full force.

Of Chrome and Firefox

I have always been a huge fan of Firefox because it was just so customizable. Then along came Chrome with its epic speed and quite frankly, it was enough to made me switch. Until now.

Many of those who know me know that I am pretty much a Google fanboy so it would make sense that I am on the dev channel of Chrome getting the latest and most unstable updates that I can ever get my hands on.

While this makes my Chrome experience a less stable one, the crashing has always been bearable if it ever occurred at all in the first place. The latest update, however, seems to haunt me with crashes even when I try to minimize the window.

While I could simply change back to the stable channel or even beta, the functions that were not transferred are simply too addictive to live without. Deciding not to shove it aside too quickly, I decided to reinstall Firefox and see how far I can mod it to make is as close to Chrome as I humanly can, considering my lack of skills.

So far, I managed to squeeze in a number of addons to help make it at least look similar. The theme gives it the proper colour set and the similar grouping of buttons were easy enough. The tabs on the top were a modded to have a different max and min width value as to preserve a Chrome feel though I changed the max according to personal taste.

The status bar remains simply because auto-hiding it seems buggy and there is no hovering alternative. Still looking for a way to completely remove it.

Bookmarks were manually imported and not synced with Chrome bookmarks. Missing features also include the lack of an incognito mode. Seeing to as this is only temporary until the next dev update, it doesn't seem to matter much.

As of now it is something that I would consider to be my flavour of Chrome with some minor functions missing. I clearly like the download helper and orbit integration is very much welcomed.

All things considered, I might just switch back if Chrome continues to suffer in performance.

Windows 7 Ultimate

Yes, surprising as it may seem, I have finally bothered to reformat my laptop into Windows 7 Ultimate. The only real reason being I want to use my full 4GB of RAM but it was an interesting experience nonetheless.



Once I got all my commonly used programs installed or replaced, the shell is once again changed to bb4win and programs such as Samurize and typeandrun were placed into startup via their native settings.

For anyone that has seen my laptop before I have reformatted, they would easily say I did not change anything. Almost everything is the same with the exception that I am actually using Windows 7.

First Gundam Assembly Ever

I have never been much of a Gundam fan or even a mecha fan in general. But when people keep talking about the joys of assembling a Gundam, I knew I had to try it one day just to understand the feeling.


Of course, I never had any experience with this so when I manage to cut it not so perfectly for the first time, I was instantly discouraged.

Another thing worth hating is of course those teeny tiny stickers. Granted this is a 1/144 scale so it is small to begin with, but big hands and small stickers do not go together at all.

After spending roughly three hours plus to finish assembling this, I can almost understand why people like assembling Gundams in the first place.


In my case at least, I simply like to cut each piece out as neatly as I can and put everything together. The joy of seeing it complete with minimal flaws is a feeling unlike any other.

This is certainly an experience I would not mind reliving. I might just get addicted to assembling Gundam~

Disturbed

The following text may be disturbing to some. Do not read if you think you may be offended.

==========================================

I saw you fly across me and I pursued you and I caught you. I chained you down and lock you up and put you in a cage. I peeled the wings of your back and drank your blood and cut you up yet you healed. I burnt and mutilated and starved you yet you were still alive.

How strange it seems when I see your torn and broken body that limply tries to beg for freedom. Your torn off wings have long decayed yet you want to be set out of your cage. I look and wonder as to why that could be. Why would you try so hard knowing that you will never fly again?

I would stab you and drive poles through your body. I would bath myself in your blood and pull out your intestines. I would set explosives in your body just to see it explode within you. I would make your swallow gasoline and watch your burn inside out. Yet every time you would never fail to heal from everything and live again. Never once would you die from anything that I have done.

On the way home I saw an infant dead and abandoned in an alleyway. Its mother clearly did not plan on it coming into this world. I brought it home and demanded that you ate it. I forced it down your throat when you refused. You cried despite your weak state as I look at you and wonder whether you find me a monster.

It has been a year since then and yet your sanity has never wavered, never died. I brought another dead infant that I found and yet again, you shivered the entire process where I would force you to eat it. I find it a shame that no one else could enjoy your suffering like me and yet I would not bother sharing you to anyone else.

You have lived so long on such a meal and you never seem to die. You life never faded no matter what I did. Through all the torture and all the pain, you persevered and lived. I do not know if you would ever die but please, live on a little longer so I may enjoy your pain.

==========================================

Just a random post.

178 x 155 pixels

178 pixels across and 155 pixels down. Enticement to vector, yes. Very much yes.


(If you don't see it, just click on the image. This is because it is all in black lines and the background in transparent, effectively camouflaging it completely.)

3000 x 2531 pixels. Not epicly well done but I like the end result anyway. Time to completion, less than 3 hours. Done in flash. I need to learn to vector with illustrator dammit.

The Gay Meter

Messing with Samurize continued when a certain someone asked me what are the capabilities of it. After checking back with its website, I came to realize that it can potentially be used to replace my current shell, or at least, be integrated into a much less RAM intensive shell. (Litestep anyone?)



The new meter, dubbed 'The Gay Meter' by a certain someone yet again, has more function than my previous meters. This time, including volume control and indication, shortcut links to a number of commonly used programs, a text pad, and a feed that shows the latest forums topics on the right.

The primary meter is located at the bottom left of the screen, hiding the text pad and feed outside of the screen. By pressing the light purple button, the meter would either slide sideways or upwards to reveal the extra meter. The middle light purple button hides the taskbar.

The thing I like more about this meter is that it has more moving parts. Not only does it have a meter indicating the CPU usage, RAM, and disk space available, it also has three additional bars indicating seconds, minutes, and hours (in sections of 12). a meter for battery life has also been added.

Although unable to autohide, it can be right-clicked in the middle whereby it will disappear and be replaced with a 5 x 5 pixel black dot on the top left corner of the screen.

With an addition of a menu to pull up commonly used folders, this meter has successfully replaced Rocketdock though not having as much eye candy.

This meter was created with replacing the shell in mind. Therefore, an extra meter was created to load the taskbar. However, after managing to compile a very simple program to automate the meters on startup, running without the windows shell proved to have some bugs.

While I consider this meter to at least be a success, the next phase of this project is to create a new meter entirely that integrates the taskbar emulation AND the functions already in this meter. When that is done, adding lots of extra eye candy and functions is a must.

This meter currently runs at 2-3 MB of RAM on idle and can use up to 6 MB of RAM when constantly being used. The target RAM usage for the new meter is expected to be the same.

One thing I noticed with Samurize is that its autohide docking seems a little buggy. I noticed this in particular when using it on my taskbar meter. There is a workaround for this but it DOES make the meter a little more complicated.

Photo Editing

Finally began dipping my hand deeper into the word of photo editing. Things so far have been pretty ok. I am not a man of Photoshop but GIMP can still get me pretty far.

My second attempt in photo editing:

Which is my current wallpaper.
This photo also hides a secret. Congrats if you can find it. (Hint: TokoYami)

Genuine Words

Often we hear the words 'sorry' or 'thank you'. Often we use it as well. But how often it is heard or said with true conviction, sincerity, and honesty? How often do we mean what we say?

Only a short rant this time around. Do ponder a little with the thoughts being thrown around here.

Take for example when we apologies. If we really regretted our action(s), felt the guilt and shame within us, we would apologies and learn from our mistakes, never again prodding into the grounds that of which is restricted. If everyone who has said sorry were to have this mentality, problems involving revenge would easily be avoided. Everybody wins.

Take thank you for example. An expression of gratitude and appreciation of the services of someone or something else. Generally inducing happiness to the ones hearing it. When heard, a person is likely to feel better about themselves and have generally a better day.

When we throw around such words so meaninglessly without care, the words loses its value. Gradually, the words are used without sincerity and people who hear it may as well have not.