Hopelessly Homebody

Recent Activities

2012-01-11T11:32:00.001+07:00

I know I have been lagging on posting (for almost a year now?) I didn't realize that when I bought Kindle that it will also eat up the blog time as well :P

Kindle still works wonders. Although it started to show some tears and wears due to accidental drop to the ground. I am glad I got this cover when I bought my Kindle. I am thinking that I will order the Kindle Touch when I went to US later this year for another Southern Decadence. This time I will be seeing another friend in SF. It would be a nice change from underwhelmed New York trip.

I have also been playing The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim for quite a while now. Overall I feels that the experience is tighter than Oblivion. Maybe because this time I didn't download too many mods and mostly just focusing on playing through different quests. I haven't progress much on the main quest yet as I am still happily wandered the towns doing various quests.

This time I just abuse the console command to make the game more fun for me :P. It helps that there were less gay romance novels released for Kindle that I have got time to play Skyrim.

But also because of Skyrim and Kindle, I haven't watch Dexter season 6 yet. I planned to do that during the Christmas break but then both Skyrim and Kindle took most of the time. I think I might try to finish Skyrim main quests in a few weeks so I will maybe went back and finish L.A. Noire.

Joining Goodreads.com

2011-08-30T13:51:00.004+07:00

After checking the website for many times, I finally succumbed to join GoodReads website.

I guess it appeal to my collecting sense as I added the novels I have read to my read shelf. I will add the widget soon to show what I have read. As I mention I earlier posts. I feels kinda shameful that 95% of the shelf are Romance novels... Especially the Gay Romance novels.

I got about 110s books so far and will slowly increasing as more books that I wants to read get release. Can't hardly wait for mid October when the book I really really wants to read got release.

Cutting Cable

2011-08-14T10:59:00.003+07:00

My TV time have been eaten up to almost non-existing after I have got my Kindle. So after wasted my money on the cable TV fee for two months I finally cancel the subscription.

It wasn't too much of a hardship since I still seems to be in the honeymoon period with Kindle which kinda surprises me a bit. Besides I was getting tired of getting screwed by the company for not given me any sort of incentive or promotion. Eventhough we have been their customer right from the beginning. And they only start making concessions, some lame ones at that too, after I call to say I am canceling.

So now I save a fair amount of money from canceling the cable. I download shows I wants to watch from internet now anyway. Eventhough Kindle still take away the time I need to watch those shows. I have a sizable backlogs of shows I still wants to go throughs.

Entering the age of 2TB

2011-07-27T15:43:00.004+07:00

The time had finally arrived, my collective harddisks space is getting full almost to the brim. So it is time to break open my wallet and buy another harddisk.

I have been eyeing the 2 Terabyte HDD for quite a while now. And finally bought one today. Since my weekend start tomorrow, I can spend tonight moving files (almost 750GB worth of... stuffs... notti stuffs mostly and TV series). Windows 7 would made moving files a lot smoother than XP. The actual physical change of harddisk is not my favorite thing to do but it needs to be done...

Hopefully things will goes smoothly without a hitch.

New Curtains and Reading Lamp

2011-07-02T08:35:00.002+07:00

Last week the photo-developing shop next door left their spotlights on all day and night, all weeks... Unfortunately my room is right next to it and my room got lit more than that I would like when I was trying to sleep. After I went to the shop to complain and got wrods that they were fixing the electrical panel and no one dare to mess with it.

I called my mom and asking for advice, while fantasizing how I would shoot the damn lights if I own a gun. She recommend a more peaceful solution, a new thick curtain to block out the light. As it happens I planned to visit HomePro to look for reading lamp. So that when I read in bed and ready to sleep, I could just switch the lights off without getting out of bed.

When I finally have a break on Monday we meet up at HomePro. The results? New deep red/brown velvelty texture set of curtains that completely block out the light. It claim to also block out heat too. Although when I first hung them up, I felt that the ventilation seems to cut down a bit. But the curtains still blown when heavy wind blew in. So far I am quite happy with the curtain, it really block out most of the light and make the room nice and dark.

Initially I thought about getting a desk lamp to put on the bed. With the idea that I don't have to get up to turn off the light. My mom veto that idea with the reasoning that it could be fire hazard. There was only one model of adjustible floor reading lamp. It looks quite alright, all chrome finish modern looks with dark bulb cover with reflector to reflect down all the lights. I choose the warm tea colour bulb instead of the harsh white. I placed it just behind my bed on the floor.

Overall I love the new setup. Now I could read, or maybe even play a bit of DS game in bed with the reading lamp on and then just turn off everything without getting out of bed :)

Novels Tally and Kindle Battery Impressions

2011-06-20T09:55:00.003+07:00

This is the fourth Kindle post in a roll... I guess this is the reflection of how Kindle still eat up my time of late.

After I have got my Kindle I start reading, almost obsessively, until now. I think I can start ween off it a little bit as other activities still waiting for my attentions. So far I have finished 'Demonica' series (5 books), 'The Hollows' series (9 books), 'Cut & Run' series (3 books so far and I am really looking forward to the new one later in the year). I highly recommended the 'Cut & Run' series for those who likes gay romance novel). I also like 'Zero at the Bone', another gay romance novel about FBI witness on a run with a hitman who did not wants to kill a decent man. Another gay romance, 'Warrior's Cross', is also quite nice. It didn't have much actions or both in and out of bed but I find the story seems to keep simmering and goes to boil from time to time. I guess this one speaks to me since I can identify with the main charater is a loner who lead a quiet life.

After I got Kindle for about 3 weeks, I starte to notice that the battery seems to went down to half, 4 days after fully charged. I was mildly alarmed at first, thinking I might got a lemon second handed one. Then I stumble upon a recent article on blogkindle.com that compare Kindle battery life and Nook's. Turns out that when Amazon tout 1 month battery life on Kindle, it means an average of 1 hour of reading per day. Also, they mention a battery test that with one page turn per one minutes, Kindle will last for 56 hours. In my case, I probably read about 6 hours a day or more. I read on my ride to and from work and in my bedroom until about midnight or later. Not to mention how I sometimes sneak some reading time at works :p

With all the clarification and calculation, it's no wonder why my Kindle battery reduced to half in less than a week. I guess I will just have to charge it more often that I intitally thought.

Kindle is Slowly Killing Me

2011-06-15T14:21:00.001+07:00

No Jokes, Kindle has been eating away my nap time during transits as well as taking an hour or so from my night time sleep.

It also pulled me away from most of the TV shows that I watch regularly. Now I have several Tonight's Show With Jay Leno, Chelsea Lately, and a few other TV shows waiting in line for me to watch. Luckily it is slightly slow seasons for TV shows, at least for me. I am down to just one TV series, United States of Tara, that will have season finale next week. Leverage and The Closer will start in a few weeks.

By then, I should have consume all the high priorities books in my Kindle. Hopefully...

Kindle Bounded

2011-05-29T10:48:00.003+07:00

Kindle seems to occupied my time considerably for the moment... I supposed mostly because I started on a new book series. It turns out that my reading habit seems to be more... powerful than my gaming habit. Perhaps because I have read that Fable III needs other players to unlock some good weapon...

In retrospect, it's not surprising that reading would came up on top. It as my first addiction after all. And Kindle make it a lot easier, since I can now read from my bed and not restricted to read on my computer. I slept way to late this passing weekend. I even taken a day off to recuperate but all that got swallowd by my reading... The hot weather didn't help either. I thin kI nonly slept baout 4-5 hours last night before coming to work this morning...

I will have try to steer myself to sleep at normal hours tonight at least... Otherwise I would be feeling like I should take another day off...

The New Member in My Electronic Devices Family

2011-05-24T11:58:00.004+07:00

After much considerations and wantings, I finally succumb and bought a Kindle, a 3G one no less.
The reason is that I like to read. I began to read more novels than before and reading
it on my computer is less than comfortable. I did considered buying the tablet but since I planned to buy new phone anyway, I figured that I could do the things I might use the tablet for, such as web surfing, IMs, music player, and video player, on the new phone. I better get a dedicated e-reader with long lasting battery and not draining the device with reading while traveling. My Nokia 5800 was almost completely drained when I read PDF on it for about 2 hours...

Also the 3G on Kindle is free and internationally connected. Therefore I will be able to get on Google Map with Kindle regardless of the Wifi availability. Which happens while I was in New Orleans.

I loaded up many books from my collections onto my Kindle and even purchase the Arabian Nights one from Amazon store because it was well organized version of the ebook. I also apply the screensaver hack so I can use my own pictures as screensavers. The screen quality is really good at displaying all the different shades of gray from the colour pictures I added. I will be reading a lot for a while, until the release of new interesting DS games :P

Catching Up on The Old Classic

2011-04-27T22:20:00.003+07:00

After seeing 'Secrets of The Arabian Nights' shows up on my regular TV show listing, I am curious to watch it. Turns out it was BBC4 production so I know it should be good.

It was quite good. It shows the history of the 1,001 Arabian Nights, how it came to be popular in the West despite being only orally told in the Middle East, how it coloured the perception of the West toward Middle East, how the story is still considered scandalous in the Middle East.

After years of reading and watching the more popular pieces of the story and realizing a few years back that the most popular one 'Aladdin' and 'Sinbad' were the works of the first guy who collected and translated the story into French. Now I am starting to reading it. I choose the seemingly oldest translated version by Sir Richard Burton. I wants to read the most complete version of this since in the show it mention that Lanes version got edited to remove all the sex and drinking out to turn it into children books for the Victorian era.

So far it been very interesting read. Just like the TV show said, the magic in the stories were very different from what I read in the Western novels and maybe Japanese mangas.

But I must say I like it so far. It is very interesting, especially the 'The Porter and the Three Ladies of Baghdad' one ;)

Another cold day in Bangkok, Oh and I saw Sucker Punch

2011-03-28T11:12:00.003+07:00

Just as I bought a new 18" fan, the weather taking a tumble back to low 20C again.

As I am typing this, I am wearing my new jacket in my office. I kinda like this weather but as usual it was a pain to shower. The wind make it a small torture to stay off the shower stream to pick up the shower gel bottle, etc. The weather forecast on my phone shows that it will warmed up by Friday. So tonight I will probably wear my full t-shirt to bed again...

I went to see Sucker Punch on Saturday. I was kinda prepared to see how bad it was from a few article about how the critics panned this movie. But I was not prepapred for what the movie was. The beginning looks promising but it went elsewhere, literally, soon after. The main protagonist, Baby Doll, soon went inside her head to cope with the situations and never came back out. The action sequences looks great, although the slow motions started to get tedious after the 10th times it was used. I left the theater with rather perplex feelings like I cannot wrapped my head around the movie quite right. I think that the problem was in the script and the decision to make it double layered fantasy without going back to reality until the end. In retrospect, I think it was kinda like modern day 'Alice in Wonderland'.

For me, the movie failed to draw me in more than the visual level. The story was somewhat disappointed since we do not see how things went in reality. And like many comments that I glanced through on some website, the movie was just visual feats with not much substances. I was glad I didn't spend more to see it in IMAX.

Cold and Hot

2011-03-20T12:42:00.002+07:00

It has been a strange few days from about Wednesday to Saturday in that it gets really really cold in Bangkok.

How cold it was? It was 18C. I check the thermometer in my bedroom and it was 18C, in the middle of March. It is supposed to be Summer here and yet somehow we got the chills coming down from China. I even have to wear pants and turtle neck long sleeves t-shirt to bed. It was raining a bit as well.

Again, I was torn between the happiness of confortable sleep under my blanket and the torment of taking a shower in the morning to get to work.

It was getting warmer all day Saturday. I went from shivering under the shower in the morning to taking the shower joyously by the time I got home from work. It is not back to the usual blazing Bangkok Summer heat yet. And according to the weather forecast on my mobile phone, it will stay that way for a while. I must admit that I like the in between temperature. The cool at night so I can sleep comfortably and the not too cold so the warm shower machine heat the water enough for me to shower comfortably.

A New Start on My Blog

2011-02-28T16:17:00.003+07:00

I am still have not finish the traveling posts. And I have been increasingly less motivated to do so... I guess I am more occupied with more constant personal gratification activities such as TV, mangas and games.

So I will try to finsih the traveling posts later and perhaps put it up intermittenly. Otherwise, I will be more likely to just abandon this blog altogether and I do not want to do that.

Right now I am highly enjoying the new DS game 'Radiant Historia' It has rich story involving nations at wars, political maneuverings, betrayals, mysteries. and gradual continent disasters. Overall I find the story is much more intriguing than Dragon Quest VI.

Germany Trip, Day Two: Touring Munich

2010-07-01T23:10:00.006+07:00

My sleep was restless the previous night. It was somewhat a relieve to finally hear my alarm goes off. After the morning routines I went down to breakfast.

The breakfast was nice, quite a variety but, as I learned later, not change at all each morning. There were scramble egg, 2 types of sausages (I like the white one), cereals, 3 types of yogurts, 4-5 bowl of cut fruits, 6-7 kind of breads, and 3 kind of juices. Overall it was a hearty selections but not very flavourful. I tried to eat as much as I can with in an hour, this times not forget to pick out various of teas to take home.

I left the hotel around 9:00 I went to the main train station to look for the place to buy package tour to see Neuchswanstein. I got the brochure from the hotel lobby the night I check-in. I tried the information counter but they just point out that the train will leave for Fussen city at this and this time. After getting no help, I examine the brochure more closely and found a map to their office. Turns out their office is not far from Marientplatz. So I took the subway and heading to it.

The Marienplatz was not as what I envisioned from the game. But then my memory of it was rather vague now… I wish I played it again before the made the trip.

Anyhow, the rain was drizzling all the time. I am glad I packed my umbrella otherwise I might be sick before the trip ends. I walked around the square a bit and then set off the look for the tour office. It wasn’t hard to find. The staffs look young and hips, a few of them I would certainly wanna… Anyway, when I arrived, the person in charge was not there so I have to wait a while. The office was warm and dry which is a nice break for me from the cold rain. After the guy in charge arrived, I tell him what I want, etc. He explained the tour to me. He said the advantage of buying the tour from them were that they use coach bus which use roughly the same amount of time traveling to the castle without the hassle of using the train which will need another bus to go to the castle anyway. Plus the tour guide will buy the ticket for us in advance with the right timestamps to get in so we don’t have to queue up for tickets.

I opted out from the bicycle tour part of the package, which save me 10 Euro. I don’t know how to ride the bicycle anyway. I paid for the tour and then I pointed to the ‘Free Walk Tour’ brochure and said I will be doing that today and wondered if they will come out with when it’s raining. The guy said these guys will be there regardless of weather. Soon I bid them goodbye and return to Marienplatz, waiting for the gathering time for the Free Walk Tour.

There were a fair amount of people waiting for the tour. Turns out two of them were Thais. The guide, who is Chinese but speaks with perfect American accent, began by regale us with the history of the city. He said the Marienplatz, though looks old, it is actually been rebuilt like that because the original was destroyed during the war. The same goes for many historical buildings in Munich. The city started out as the city where monks brew beer which became popular by the locales and attracts more resident. Then we went to one of the church, inside there was a footprint of the engineer who built it. Then we walk pass another church which has a cannon ball lodge above one of the tall windows. The guide told us that this is not a well known fact even to the locals. The cannon ball was stuck there during the First World War and then fell out during the Second World War. A resident found it on the street near the church, kept it, and return it to the church after war and told the church to put it back up :P I notice many plagues attached around churches so I ask the guide what they are. He said there used to be cemeteries around the church, once the development start to happen around the church, they moved the plagues and put it around the church so relatives can still come to mourn. Later on we walked to a plague, a Jewish memorial of that location dedicated to one of the early event of Jew persecution. The guide said there are hundreds of these small memorial plaques all around Munich, all of which are simple plague with no label or indication to what it is. He added that he prefer this type of memorial more than the large showy type in Berlin. Since this way whoever saw them and got curious will do research about it and it will have more meaning than just listening to the guide.

Then we went through the Viktualienmarkt, a local fresh market. The guide mention that the price of goods here are not cheap. In fact, you will find cheaper stuffs else where in the city.

Germany Trip, Day One: Torturous Day Flight

2010-06-26T18:33:00.002+07:00

My mom, again, volunteered to drive me to airport. I am grateful with this, she even bought breakfast for both of us, but we arrived 4 hours before the departure time. I hope the airport link will be fully operate by the time I went to Australia.

I use AirBerlin this time. The flight was delayed by one hour. This, as it turns out, was not a problem for me, much. Because I was due for two hours transit with my connecting flight to Munich. The plane, however, was Airbus A330. I could not dissuade you guys enough to change flight or airline to avoid this plane. In my opinion, it was too small for any flight longer than 5 hours. There were only 4 bathrooms for us poor people (read riding coach) to use. The left and right aisel are connected only at the back of the plane. So there will times when people queued up for bathroom on one side while the other were empty. I have to trod all the way to the back of the plane to get to the other side to use the bathroom...

Also There was no entertainment system at the back of the seat, naturally, but then the charge 3 Euro to buy the headphone... They also seems to use the same kitchen as KLM. Since the food menu and package looks the same.
I must say I miss flying Middle Eastern airlines already...

As I stated in the title, the day flight was torturous. It would have been fine if they turn off the lights and indicate the passengers to close the windows but no... As a results I only slept a little bit. They also did not stocked blindfold for day flight (I asked). There were several, not a few, Several, turbulence during the flight. It was really bad but one time it happen when the flight attendances bring out food, so they have to wheel their cart back and wait it out.
The flight could not end fast enough I tell ya.

The only good thing was that it was not as cold as my flight Prague and back to Amsterdam last year. We eventually landed in Dussendolf. The Thai girl seated with me asked if she could tag along during the transit procedure as this is her first international flight. She was slightly nervous because she has a connecting flight to Paris which could have left already without people from our flight. I assured her that the airline will provide any necessities should she been stranded here. As it turns out, about 15% of the passengers in our flight seems to be going to Paris as well so that flight was waiting. When we finally arrived at the immigration, an AirBerlin staff called out to passengers to Paris to go with him. So she as well as the other French people were rushed through the security by the AirBerlin staff to get to the connecting flight. I myself bolted into the terminal after I pass my security check to find my gate as well. I ran all the way to the gate and finally got in to the plane. This one has got leather seats! But it seems that the plane was poorly cleaned before we boarded.

The flight was not full so after the door closed I move to an empty row for the window seat. They only serve light snack on the plane, meaning we only have the choice between a bag of chips or biscuits. Thankfully it was not a long flight, nor eventful like the first one. Finally arrived in quiet airport in Munich, waiting for my luggage and then I went looking for the subway station.

The rather cute guy at the ticket counter consulted me with options on which ticket I should buy for my 4 days stints in the city. It should have been 3 days but then I arrived on Monday around 21:40 local time. So I ended up paying around 28 Euro for 4 days tickets including the extension to go to and from the airport which is in the outer rim of the system. It's a good thing that I did get the card because a ticket master came into the train about 4 stations later to card check passengers. After 45 minutes, I arrived at Haufbanhof , the city central station, and I began to search for my hotel. After a few asking around I found it. It was a mere 5 minutes walk from the station, perfect location really,
especially after I later found the station entrance about 10 steps away from the building.

I quickly check-in, asked if I wants to pay right away (to which I said tomorrow), and quickly went to my room. I took me a while to figured out the system here. The doorknob was a deadknob that did not turn, I fooled around with the key for quite a while, wondering if I have to schelp back to the lobby for help or not. Until I eventually figured out that I have to turn the key all the way to the right to also turn the bolt and open the door. The room was small. Small as in it has single bed, no fridge, small TV hanging above the foot of the bed small. But it's ok since I was not going to spend much time in it. Then I went into the bathroom for much needed shower, I tore open the soap package, tried the soap and found that it is of poor quality that will make my skin dry out like salted dry fish. But I used it a bit anyway, I packed some lotion as well (in case of dry skin, thank you very much).

I did not slept well that night despite the cold weather. I guess it's part jet-lagged and sleeping in new place. I came around like every 2-3 hours. Until finally my alarm goes off and it's time to get ready to see the city

I am Back From My Germany Trip

2010-06-23T23:36:00.002+07:00

I am back from my trip now. Will blog about it over the weekend. Photos will uploaded later... Not sure where now... My Flickr account is full, my picasa account is not full yet but it might be this time.

I am still a bit tired from the trip... I called in sick today to recuperate but I am back to work tomorrow. So later for now.

The eve of my Germany Trip

2010-06-13T16:30:00.004+07:00

I am going through list of things in my mind of things to do and what I should buy for my trip that will begins tomorrow.

I have got a couple of cool t-shirts and a cool fake diesel watch (with chain attached). The funny thing is the watch is cheaper than the t-shirt :P I am thinking about buying a couple of snacks to put in my backpack. Thinking back I don't think I was a snack person... Lucky me I suppose...

My mom will take me to the airport again. Hopefully the next times I am on a trip, to Australin in early Dec if things goes as planned, I will be able to use the BTS, MRT, and the Airport Link system. I will time our ride to the airport this times to see how long it will take. The Airport Link system will definitely be faster and cheaper than the other methods.

I am a little nervous.. Since this trip was kind of a rush compare to other trips that I have made before. But I intend to enjoy it nontheless. It's a shame though that I will be seeing Munich less... But then I think it would be enough for now to see the Merianplatz, the same one that I have seen from "Gabriel Knights: The Beast Within" game.

So expect lots of pictures. I will be away for a week with may or may not have a chance of blogging along the way.

Public Trial of Bangkok Airport Link System

2010-06-04T19:53:00.003+07:00

I have been waiting for this Airport Link to open for quite sometime now. It's finally been open for public trial at the beginning of this month and I just tried it out today.

It is free during this public trial period. From June to August, Monday to Friday, from 7:00-10:00 and 16:00-19:00, the train will run from Phayathai station to the airport station. It is free to use which it great :) Although the announcement said that they don't accept luggage, you can still bring your luggage in to and from the airport.

It was hassle free to get it and out. Although I find that the train seems rather narrow compare to the other trains car like the BTS and the MRT lines here. The Phayathai station also have an extension that goes toward the BTS Phayathai station. So it is highly likely that the station will be connected in the near future. It would be really troubling if the station did not have adequate escalator or lifts to help travelers with big luggage.

To avoid any complication, I think I will forgo using it on my way to Germany but I will try to make it on my return trip. I am not sure if I will be able to make it to the last train or not... But I will certainly try.

Back to normal. Sort of

2010-05-27T22:57:00.004+07:00

This is the end of my first week back to work. It was nice but I like the dayoff :)

The sad thing was to actually see the extend of damage of Siam Theater that was arson. It was not just a theater but a one block complex comprised of many shops from apparels to music shop and restaurants. about two third of the block was burned down and now closed off to the public. This includes two small 7-Eleven shops in the same block.

This is a vicious act of senseless violent. It doesn't matter what their cause or intention were, it is plain wrong to burn the theater down.

This theater was open for more than 40 years! It survive the rise of Cineplex and Shopping malls multiplex along with the other 2 older generation of movie theater left, Lido and Scala theater. They are survivors and for one of them to go down like this? It just make me sad.

I doubt the police will be able to catch the culprits. It was in the no man's land zone after all. I do hope karma will catch to those criminal eventually.

Bangkok Curfew

2010-05-20T00:59:00.003+07:00

Today the government announce curfew from 8pm to 6am in response to the heavy unrest after the redshirts leader surrender to the police.

Now the main road outside my house is eerie quiet. And I live on the main road, which usually have many cars passed by every now and then.

I hope the military can get control soon. Many places has been torched. A few of the biggest damage are Central World Shopping Mall and Siam Theater. That is quite in my office area. Luckily we are quite deep into the back of the area so it should be ok.

I suppose it will be highly unlikely to catch whoever did this because it happens in the heart of the redshirts stage. I do hope karma will catch up with those people eventually.

I think now the redshirts have lost any credibility that they might have. However, they seems to still be quite popular in the provinces. As the unrest spread out to several other provinces.

Bangkok Unrest results in Offices Close

2010-05-18T18:04:00.003+07:00

Due to the unrest in Bangkok, my offices are close for the week.

I don't really mind that I hope that I won't have to use my leave days to compensate for this though... Since my leave days are already tight with two trips schedules this year.

I hope the unrest will ends soon though. The damages are already tremendous. I suppose it came down to a point where this has to happen. To bring closure to the event that have drag on for longer than a month.

Visa Get! and Heatwaves

2010-05-11T11:37:00.004+07:00

I finally get the Schegen visa for my Germany trip :D. So expect more photos when the time comes ;)

For the pass two nights it's been exceptionally hot in Bangkok. I barely slept at all at night when it was like 34c-35c in my room around midnight with the fan on. I even have to get up and go get myself a gulp of cold water from the fridge. Last night I even jump into the shower for a soothing cold shower. My room have good ventillation but it felt like mild oven lately. I have thoughts of just call in sick so I can rest in bed for the day.

I am sorely tempted that for sure...

Today at Germany Embassy

2010-05-03T09:39:00.003+07:00

I finally done the visa interview at Germany Embassy. The process was painless but it didn't went smoothly.

I was kinda nervous and their process was kinda confusing. I arrived a bit before my appointment time, got my queue card and went to waiting area. I show the card to one of the guard and he told me to wait for the call. Then the call happen I went to the guard who oversee the appointment list. When it's my turn, he jived in with "Where were you when I call for your time". To which I replied "I was already show my card to the other guard who told me to wait".

Anyway he then proceed to tell me to get inside for my interview. There were 3 booths and two interviewers. I think waited for about 10 minutes before it's my turn. The greeting from the interviewer? "Please hurry, there are other people waiting"... The interview seems to went well I think... There was a few mishap with my filling in the wrong address and using the wrong photo. But all those where corrected during the interview and hopefully I get the visa.

My passport is due to be picked up on Thursday. Hopefully there won't be any problem with that.

Gleeking over Glee

2010-05-01T00:48:00.002+07:00

I downloaded episodes of Glee a few months back, after hearing many celebrities said that they are watching it on Jay Leno show. I read up about it a bit on wikipedia and boy I didn't know that it would be this good :D

I won't go on about what the show is, you should watch it anyway. I really love the music part of the show. They have got many talent actor/singers. Quite a few are from Broadway shows, while a few others are fresh off the casting couch.

The main girl and the teacher are from Broadway show while Chris Colfer, a male soprano, who play Kurt is a fresh faced one. The songs they use are both new and old and those who sang them nailed the songs very nicely. I especially like Kurt's rendition of 'Defying Gravity'.

In the latest episode, Home, Kurt's rendition of 'A House is Not a Home' could reduce men to tears. I am related to the sense of loneliness in this particular episode. The last song, 'Home', by Kristen Chenoweth is also very touching. Especially when she closing the song by hitting the high note.

On a related issue, I love to see Kristen Chenoweth on TV :) I think she is kinda like Bette Midler in that she can act, she can sing and she is very funny. Anyway, I now sometimes play Glee episodes on my computer to listen to the songs :)

Stepping Stone

2010-04-29T23:14:00.003+07:00

Duffy is one my favorite singer of late. Her voice is really great with broad range and power.

She is also one of the few that would sound better live than in the album.

Here is one of my favorite song of her in live version that I like best.

Now the song is in my phone, lulled me when I am on the road :) I think that if she ever held a concert in Bangkok, I would pay the thousands of baht for the ticket to go see her live.

Sporadic Office Closing

2010-04-27T07:06:00.002+07:00

With the redshirt mobs causing staging protest near my office area in Siam Square, my office has been close from time to time.

Today my office send another SMS to say that all the offices are close for today and we should stay home. Not that I mind, just that I have plans at my branch office today...

Hopefully things will be resume tomorrow...

I think I will do take a bit of nap to enjoy my morning off at least...

I Hate The Morning Shift

2010-04-22T00:02:00.003+07:00

I am not a morning person, I am just not. I might have stem from my stint as night time operator but still I don't like to wake up using my alarm.

In my old branch office, I can wake up at 9:30 because the office open at 11:00. It was a dream job for me for sure. But now that the HQ, I am stuck at morning shift. 8:30 is my due time to start the day. Plus it is about an hour to get there in morning traffic. So now I have to wake up at 6:30...

I also could not shake the habit of sleeping around midnight... The heat of summer did not help enticing me into my bed either...

At least I can nap in my ride to work...

The Returns of the Building Leaper

2010-04-12T01:55:00.008+07:00

I finally finish Assassin's Creed II a couple of days ago. It certainly was a fun game to play.

The story seems to continue right from the ending of the first game (seems because I never actually finish the first one). After Lucy help Desmond escape the bad guy's compound, she take her to one of the assassin's safe house to have Desmond use the Animus again, not only to utilize the bleeding effects to train Desmond to fight but also find the clues to the Templar's objective.

The gameplay as whole feels much more fun than the first game. A lot tighter and can be quick pace if you choose to focus on the main missions. The missions themselves, however, are not very varied but spaced out quite nicely.

The character models are the most expressive among the games I played lately. The facial expressions were done very well.

The game made quite a buzz for having the most uptight DRM system, the kind that required you to be online all the time to play the game. This DRM system is quite effective. None of the usual scene group come up with a proper crack for the game. However, all are not lost, by the efforts of some Russians group, a server emulation was created. The setting were done to fool the DRM system into looking for the server on 127.0.0.1 IP and the fake server program will feed the necessary value to the game, enable it to progress.

This emulation came out about a month after the game release. Quite understandable, since there were nothing like this before. At first all hope were lost because none of the scene groups release any working crack. The game publisher said that if a working crack came out they will release a patch to stop the need for internet connection. The pirates are successful in circumventing the DRM. But the game itself was not crack in anyway.

I wondered how the publisher will react to this. Since the game now can be played offline but the DRM system itself is not broken, just rerouted.

Anyhoo, the game itself it fun to play, it looks great, and it set in Italy!! They use Italian language in the game as well, which I like. I may play the game again to get memorize some of the words and line to use when I went to Italy next year :)

A nice week so far

2010-03-24T21:18:00.003+07:00

I had a nice week so far this week. My old office held a program to test the teachers to get a higher teaching certificate. There will be teachers from outside, an IT staff should be present to assist them if needed. Since I made a good impression on the previous group last year, I was asked to be here two days a week for two weeks.

If the circumstance were differents, I might not like this but since my old office is close to my house. I loved it.

This will be the last week of this arrangement... But I know it should be like this next year as well. For now I am looking forward to the Songkran holiday :)

Visiting Underland

2010-03-10T21:17:00.004+07:00

I finally get to see the new "Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland" in 3D at IMAX theater which is now located near my office.

I bought the ticket one day before just to make sure I will get good seat. Which was the right thing to do since the good seats seems to either been reserved or bought.

The 3D glasses was a lot less bulkier than the one I used years ago when IMAX theater was near my house. Now it looks like a small toy glasses. The price was 300 baht, it wasn't the best row (it was E row) which is why it is cheaper.

Overall the move was... Not all that it could be. Not a big disappointment but this Alice seems colourless in the presence of all the crazy characters. This Alice did not seems to be curious about her surrounding and seems to just go along with whatever happens, for the most parts anyway. Some how, I did not find the lead actress that charming...

I do agreed with one of the review that I read that the script is rather weak and that perhaps being a Disney movie, Burton do not have much room to really exercise his own twisted style.

In the end, I felt letdown, things could have been spectacular, instead it just lukewarm and not at all memorable...

The Second Mass Effect of Dragon Age

2010-02-12T10:11:00.007+07:00

It's been too long since I do a game review post. As usual, this will be a double-billed game review post :)

Dragon Age: The Origins

My first thought when I start playing it was "This is Mass Effect, the fantasy version!". The character movement, the scenaries, the speech animations, etc., all reminded me of Mass Effect. Not that it was a bad point, it just that the similarities were rather jarring.

Overall, the game was entertaining, though it was not innovative in anyway regarding redefining the genre. Every things in this game were rather standard fantasy RPG motif. From the races, the classes, the weapons & armours, the settings, etc. The story was even rather standard as well. Some big demon army is marching to destroy all of mankind and the hero and his peer must defeat the demons and save all of mankind. It even use the accidental hero thing where the main character was thrusted into the chaos without really knowing the magnitude of it all.

I do like the fact that you have to recruit various people, can court the same sex character, and companions' quip in the map walk. The dialogues, however, can be straining sometimes.

Right now I am at about 2/3 or 3/4 into the game and did not feels like continuing on. But I will do it soon... I do wnana see what the end battle scene was like.

Mass Effect 2

It start with a bang, literally. Soon after the first scene start, the Normandy got hit by mysterious cruiser class ship. Shepard then have to go drag Joker (the pilot) from the bridge to escape pod and got thrown into the space with ruptured suit. After being dead for two years, he got resurrected by old enemy, Cerberus. The head of Cerberus wants to recruit Shepard to spearheaded the fight against the common enemy, The Reapers, following the events of missing colonies citizens.

So commander Shepard takes on the impossible mission again with the new ship, mixture of old and new crews and squard, and some interesting missions.

This times everything seems to be sleeker and easier to get into. The weapon systems got simplified tremendously. Now when you found an upgrade, your whole squard got it. The number of skills has been greatly reduced. Your squard initially got only three skills and the last one can be unlocked after successfully finished the loyalty missions of that sqaurd member.

I finished the game once already. Only to find out later how to finish one of the loyalty mission correctly. So now I have been replaying it from an old save. It is quite enjoyable to play than Dragon Age somehow. I guess it is because the fighting in Mass Effect 2 feels a lot more fast paced and reltively quick to finish. After all, you were attacking with guns and biotic power instead of sword and magic which is a lot more melee.

As of last night, I seems to skill have not got enough Praragon point to choose the correct dialogue choice for *the* loyalty mission. I still have a few other missions I can gain more Paragon points on, so I will tried that and see how it goes. If it's really bad then I would have to do the Renegade option instead...

Also, I still have problem with the graphic card driver. I just read a tip about how to fix this. I will tried it later tonight, eventhough I wants to just go home and try it right now.

Back to more regular post

2010-02-04T14:45:00.003+07:00

Like I wrote in the previous post, I will probably have to start a seperate travel blog. Otherwise I seems to lost the motivation to post anything else.

I had a 4 days weekend last week, the weekend transition period. So I decided to use this opportunity to do the overhaul on my computer. This will be a total upgrade. Since I planned and ended up replacing every parts in in the case, including the power supply. Also, I decided I wants to use Windows 7 64 bits, I also have to replace my simple ADSL modem with ADSL modem router. This is something I have been resisting to do for a long time. I simply do not wants to muck around with the setup and what not.

Now I have Intel i5, with 4GB RAM, nVidia GTS250 and Western Digital 64mb 1.5TB harddisk + 1Tb + 750Gb. Now Mass Effect 2 and Dragon Age: Origins run smoothly :)

So on Saturday I went to Zears Rangsit with my mom who also wants to go there to fix one of the computer from her shop. Over all, it was 3-4 hours before the overhaul is complete and Windows 7 installed.

It took me two days to completely transfer the files from my replaced harddisk to the new one, setup all the programs, getting used to Windows 7, and working the router. It took me a long while to make the utorrent WebGUI works but it finally works today. I will definitely export the settings for safe keeping tonight.

I only start searching for solution for my webcam driver. I found a few possible leads which I will try later tonight.

I will also do a game reviews post soon.

Summaries of Amsterdam

2010-01-24T08:14:00.005+07:00

Honestly, by now the Amsterdam parts are almost blurred together. With so much time has gone until I finally have the urge to do this post, I think it's best to just sums it all up. I think I will have to start a seperate traveling blog... Otherwise I won't write anything else until the trip is finish.

Somehow I have managed to meet most of my friends who live in Amsterdam. I did the free walk tour again and I have seen the famous canal pride. I went to the central station. I also went into one of the sexshop along the way. I buy sandwiches from A&H, the biggest supermarket chain there. Things are quite expensive in Amsterdam than Prague, naturally.

I also noticed that Jack Russell Terrier seems to be quite popular. I saw quite a few people walking that breed in the city. My friend also have one, they named him Max. Max is a rotund JR terrier with personalities to match. They definitely spoiled him a lot :) He has a sizable pile of toys in one corner of the house and love to chase them when you throw it for him. Max also have a habit of fall asleep on his back with all of his four legs in the air.

I visited bars, museum (with entrance fee *grumble*, I guess I have been spoiled by the free museums in London), the china town area, and many hash shops :P One of my friend treated me to his favorite chinese restaurant which serve wanton noodle. The portion was great, with about 10 wantons in the bowl. They also have chilli paste, which perk up my palette considerbly. I added that a bit too much though :P.

My friend remember my birthday which I forgot since I was traveling :P. He gave me a birthday card ;)

I also visited a windmill park courtesy of my friend's hubby. It was a nice, relaxing, and free to enter park with several still functioning windmills with different purposes. One was use for making paint, another was use for making flour, etc. There is also a clog making demonstration which we were able to catch. They also sell Netherland style waffle crack. They were very sweet, heavier than they look, and quite delicious. The hubby recommended this as the souvenier to buy. I ended up buying a few for my family, colleages and myself. Before we left we had a pancake meal Amsterdam style. The Amsterdam style referred to the way the pancake was cooked which is a tin slice on hotplate on wheel being rotated into hot oven. It was quite good as well :)

On my last day, I went into the city for the last time and bought a rice chocolate cake from A&H that I has been eyeing for a few days. It was a half round piece so I planned to share it with my friend and his husband. After I returned, I began packing my stuffs, with sometime left I decided to check out one last place I wanna see. I went to a lake not far from my friend's house which is also the cruising area. The beach areas of the lake were pack as it was quite hot that day. Once I got back, I finish packing up, shower, and eat. My friend was also there taking me to the airport. He told me that his husband will be home late that day. So I told him of the cake I bought for them. He also worried whether I will make it in time to the airport as I scuffle down leftover pasta.

My friend could only drop me off at the terminal. We hugged and said goodbye and then I went to the KLM counter.

When it was my turn, the counter lady told me that I will be put on reserve, that there might be a chance that I will have to take the next flight, and that I should went to the gate as soon as possible. I was slightly panic by this but the staff told me that in that case the airline will pay for accomodations and what not. So quickly went to the gate. But I also have the time to stop and look at several paintings that were on loan from the musuem. I also texted my friend to inform him of the situation.

Half of me wants the overbook to happens since it would be means another day of vacation but the other half do wants to go home already. Eventually, I got the seat alright and the flight home was without a hitch. It was older model of airplane though as there were no enetertainment system in the back of the seat. The A/C was way cold as usual, the food was so so, the movie was Duplicity.

The taxi home was slightly cheaper than the last times so it was nice.

Day 6 Tuesday: Final Day in Prague & First day in Amsterdam

2010-01-10T13:24:00.003+07:00

I woke up, wash up, went to breakfast, swipe a bunch of tea from the tea station and went back to my room to finish packing.

Then I leave the hotel to get to the airport. I went to the subway station, the one that's downhill from my hotel and the one that I walk through quite a lot this trip. I decided to buy the ticket for the ride since I did not want to risk it. I was traveling with a suitcase after all, so I will be noticeable.

The trip to the airport went smoothly. Although I got off the bus at terminal 1 instead of terminal 2. So I ended up walking quite a distant to the right one. There was a security check at the inner terminal entrance. I ended up finishing my water bottle before reaching the entrance. Inside there were some duty free and souvenir shop but I did not buy any.

I arrived at my gate well before the boarding time. So I playing game on my mobile phone. My NDS almost ran out of battery because the stupid charger short-circuited on my second night at the hotel.

It was a fairly long wait but eventually it was boarding time. The plane ride was smooth, the snack was the same croissant sandwich as my arrival flight. I eventually my phone ran out of battery. I was panicking a bit, thinking how will I contact my friend now.

Luckily he was waiting at the terminal exit to pick me up. We got into his car and he drive back to his house. My friend's house was only about 5 minutes walk to one of the tram stop, which makes city exploring quite convenience for me. He shows me my room for the week. It was quite small but enough for temporary stay and it had a computer with internet connection :) I went into the room, used the computer a bit, and settled down.

Before diner time my friend take me to the near by supermarket to introduce me to how to buy and use the stripe ticket for the tram, the best way to get into the city. Then we went back, his husband finishing with dinner preparation and we start eating.

Later that night we went into the city where my friend shows me the gay district and all the bars and what station to got off, to get back, where to buy cheap food and what's to looks for.

After a bit of crash course of life in Amsterdam and hitting one of the gay bar which has been renovated recently, we went home around midnight and I went to bed.

Day 5 Monday: Karlovy Vary

2009-11-08T13:32:00.011+07:00

The morning begins one hour early than usual so I can finish breakfast before the tour pick me up.

Around the appointed time, a van with tour company's logo and name parked outside the hotel and I went in. There were several people in the van already and I thought they would be my tourmate. But as it turns out, this is just a pick up van to take people from hotels and drop them off at rendevous points to meet the actual van.

I found out, when I got in to my actual tour van, that I was probably the youngest person who bought this trip on my own :P About 90% of the van were elderly Spanish women, with one younger couple who brought children with them. It was then that I realize that the terms spa town seems to be the selling point which eludes most young people :pp Our group were Spanish and English speaking group, thus, our tourguide speaks both English and Spanish. He is a young man with a pear shape figure and relatively cute face :P.

Anyhow, I ended up sitting close to an asian-looking elderly couple. We chat a bit and I learned that they were from US and spend their retiring years traveling around. The van stop at a petro station so people can use the restroom (the restroom do have fee). I checked out the shop area a bit, nothing interesting though, just snacks and some cheap looking keychains.

The view was nice though, a lot of green hills and some cattles in the far off distance. Then we were on the van again. Our tourguide narrate a the general information of Czech republic while we were on the road.

The town itself is a basin surrounded by moutain. The first sight of the town was posh looking hotel. The area surrounding the road into the town was very lush green forest. The van drop us off and then we start to walk to the town itself. We started out in, probably an our of town drop off area. The trees were wall and lush. The air was fresh and cool. And then the elderly spainerds lit their cigarettes... The whole lots of them... From that point on I tried to stay upwind from them.

The guide told us that the town has been long used as a health retreat due to the numerous mineral springs founded in the area. Which was said to have stomach healing properties. Then he pull out a ceramic cup from his bag. It has a thin rectangle shape from the top with hollowed sprout which you can sip the water from like a straw. He said the cups were designed this way so you can slowly sip the mineral water and warm your hand at the same time, since some of the springs give out hot water. This way you can sip the water slowly while walking through the lush green mountain paths as part of the healing process.

He said the doctors then used to prescribe the cure by having the patient drinking the mineral water and sit in the hot spring all day. He said that it was more like a punishment and I understood why once I tasted the water. It has quite a strong metallic taste and not very pleasent to drink. This is also probaly why the cups were designed for sipping and not drinking :p

Then we passed a parking spot or something of that sort which has a souvenier hut. I bought a box of the traditional cookie with lemon flavour and a mini-bar size bottle of herbal liqour for my mom. Then we headed into the main area of the town. The guide narrate some more histories of the area, pointed out a few more spring tap which you can drink from and then we arrived at the main tourist centre. Inside there is the main spring fountain and 4 spring taps with differeciate in temperature by the distance from the main fountain. Some of the unique souvenier that sell here are items that has been metalised in the mineral spring such as rose on the stem, carved animals figure. However, my main draw is the ceramic cup with straw handle. There are many selections of many colours, size and shape. They are quite pricey. I also wants to choose the one that is large enough for me to drink from it for several times before I need to refill. So I ended up with a normal shape cup, in deep blue, and not very pretty print on the cup. But it is the most price appropriate one for its size.

Then it's time for lunch. It was relatively nice, the guide warned us that the drink is not free but I did not prepared to think that the small bottled of orange/lemon soda that the waitress pour into my glasses would cost be 70 Korunas. Andw hat's shocking for me is that they charge the same price for every type of drinks in their serve, including plain water!. What a ripoff... But I did not dwell on it too much. The orange/lemon soda tasted very nice and it will be probably be the only time I had it.

After lunch, we have some free time to explore the town. Our guide mention earlier that there is a massage package that cost abotu 20 Euros. I went to the spa building and found out that it was just 15 minutes partial massage. So I did not buy that.

Walking around the town, I found a shopping area with brand name shops and what not. For me it looks rather busy for a relaxing quiet spa town :P

I also walked pass a small park area with tall trees which connected to another area that has a fountain. I filled my bottle with the mineral water to use for bathing later in the evening. There was also a traditional music band performing near by. There was also a hugh Azelea bush with large cluster of flowers. There were some comments that the reason the flowers were so big because of the volcanic soil in the area.

I went back to the hotel when it was appointed time to leave. After everybody arrived, we got into the van and heading back to Prague.

Back inPrague I went to have my last dinner in Prague at my favorite Italian restaurant near my hotel. I chatted a bit with the waiter/manager of the place. He said he had been to Thailand and play some golf.

That night I took a bath while wiped my body and face with washcloth soaked with mineral water :) I also put aside a cup of the mineral water for sipping while taking a bath. After that I packed up my stuff, ready for my flight to Amsterdam tomorrow morning.

Day 4 Sunday: Take it Easy

2009-10-10T09:31:00.004+07:00

I decided to take it easy today as I still pondering whether to buy a trip outside of the city or not.

So spent most of the day checking the other side of the city, the area behind the Wenceles Square. I found a park on my Google map so I decided to check that out. I loaded up the Google Map using the hotel WiFi signal to get the map and use it guide my way. It was not a long walk but it still take some time.

As I walked passed the national museum, I can see that not too far off there is a main train station with many railways going under the hillside that the museum is built on. The area behind the museum look more modern than the main tourist spot and sure it a lot less people.

I eventually reach the park. It was on a hillside with uphill walkways. I walked up to the top which overlooking the city. It was a lovely view with some folks jogging or walking their dogs. On another side, I could see the TV building in the distance with the famed baby statues. All in all it was a nice park with lots of big trees and a canopy area. There is also a path with flower islands in the middle with several butterflies fluttering about.

After spending some nice relaxing time in the park I walk back to my hotel for a bit of pit stop. I flicked through the channels on the TV, lying in bed and relax. I even took a bit of nap, something that my mom would sure told me off, saying that I could take a nap at home and not when I am on vacation :P

I have decided to buy the tour at last. I went to the hotel front desk to buy it. I choose to buy the tour to Karlovy Vary, a spa town. I choose this one over another tour because it sounds more relaxing and the length of the tour is one hour less than another one.

Then I left the hotel to walk to explore the other side of the city and head toward the river side walk path. It was a fairly long walk but it was nice to see the other side of the city. Along the way I noticed some differences in building style and I even found an art building.

I finally went to the traditional Czech restaurant that the guide recommended. It was, as she warned, nothing to write home about. The food was rather bland, not a lot of taste and not much in size.

I eventually went to bed a bit early as I will have to get up one hour early for the tour.

Day 3 Saturday: Touring With Guide

2009-08-19T10:34:00.012+07:00

I planned today a bit around the free walk tour. It was rather cold that day because of rain during the night. After breakfast I ventured into the city again for the tour.

The meeting point: Near the Astronomical Clock.

The starting time: 11:00 and 14:00 for 3 hours walk tour.

I arrive at the spot around 10:45. The guide of this particular group will be the one carried light blue umbrella. With a little time to kill I wandered around a bit. It was not long before peopel start gathering around. In the end we became a sizable group of almost 20, including a bunch of young french tourists :P

Our tour guide of the day, a young Canadian woman who came to Prague with her bf, she started the tour with some tidbits about the Astronomical Clock. She told us that when the clock was finish, the city councilmen were very happy with it that they invited the designer/maker to dinner, in order to poke his eyes so he cannot make a better clock elsewhere...

Next it was a bunch of cross signs in the ground in front of the city hall. She told us that the crosses were there as a memorial to the knights who were slain on the spot protecting the city.

Then she led us around the another church and another one surrounding the old square including a plaza with Roman style decors. Then she led us to the Jewish quarter, pass a building with colourful fresco. The building has Hardrock Cafe, she said it was controversial when Hardrock cafe was first announce their plan of buying this building. The neighborhood and the city thought it would not fit well with the surrounding and atmosphere of the area. However, the issue drop after Hardrock cafe said they will pay for the maintenance of the fresco on the front of the building.

Next we continued to Charles Bridge. During our journey across the bridge, we learned that the statues on the bridge will be replaced periodically overtime. And the original ones are kept in the museum nearby. There are also a few tidbits regarding the statues on the bridge:

Christ on the cross with Hebrew scripture on the top in gold: This one was said to be the result of how a thief was caught who turn out to be jewish. So as a punishment the Jewish community was fined by being ordered to create this statue.

A plague and statue of St. John of Nepomuk: He was a priest who refuse the king's order to divulge the queen's confession to him because the king was suspicious that the queen might not been faithful to him. The king ordered the priest to be tortured for the night. The priest relent and by the morning the king gave him one last chance to divulge the confession. The priest complied by saying that he will only tell one soul in this roomand the king agreed. He then told everybody to clear the room except for a dog. This, of course, make the king furious and ordered the priest to be thrown into the river. It was said that were five stars shine on the spot where the priest hit the water. Thus, the statues of him were usually include halo of five stars which usually depicted with Jesus or Virgin Mary. The plague under his statue is said to given love fortune or money fortune depend on which plague you touch with your left hand.

After reach the other side of the bridge, we got a little pit stop at a convenience store. And then we began our trek toward the castle. But first we walked by the a small bridge which was said a mean old woman used to live in. And across from that is the location of Lennon wall. The Lennon wall is a wall that youngster used to paint anti-communism graffiti on it. The police then paint the graffiti over but new things would be painted on soon after. This routine stop after the communism were gone from Czech and police finally concentrate on their more important duties :p Nowadays, the graffiti still going on, over the graffiti that's already on the wall. Our guide said that the wall change everyday, and she gets to see the progress as she came daily as the guide.

Next we continue toward to castle. This path was not as steep as the one I used on Friday. It even have steps. Along the way she pointed out that there are many embassies in the area and that the buildings in those times use symbol instead of numbers as the sign to differentiate each houses.

We finally arrived at the castle. The guide gave us a brief history of the place. I don't remember much, it could be read online anyway. The tour ended at the exit on the other side of the castle. The guide gave us the location of her recommended traditional Czech restaurant. After we split, I eventually decided to pay for the ticket (the cheap one) to enter the 'Golden Lane'.

The Golden Lane was comprised of a row of small houses which has been converted to souvenir shops on the first floors and a museum on the upper floors which seems to take the space of the second floors of all the houses combine. Some of the shops sell nice items like metallic bookmarks with matching symbols, one sell Christmas tree ornaments and another sell traditional soap and bath products. I did not buy any though… As they are quite pricey and the later two look rather fragile.

At the exit of the Golden Lane, there is an entrance to the tower which has a dungeon basement where prisoner were kept in at a bottom of the pit. I went inside to take a quick look. There was not much to see but

Then I walked back to the main church on the castle. There was a long line of people queuing to get inside St. Vitus Cathedral. I went to queued up and it was not long before I got in. The inside of the church was beautiful. I took many photos :)

And then I left to leave the castle ground the same way I did yesterday. I found out that the restuarant with scenic hillside view was close for private event. It seems that I was lucky to have went to the castle the day before otherwise I would have miss that path. So I have to go down hill on the perhaps official path which had not a lot to see except for stone walls and cobble stone paths. It all came out around the same path as the last times and then I use the subway to get back to my hotel room.

After a brief rest I went out again for something to eat. I am not sure what I had then but it was probably some Panini in the fastfood chain near by.

I rest that night pondering whether I should buy a tour trip out of the city since I already visited most of the free (and some paid) tourist spots.

Day Friday 2 : Touring Prague

2009-08-08T08:36:00.013+07:00

Due to my laziness I will not post a shot by shot photos of Prague. I have uploaded all Prague photos already so please check it out. I have added the link and preview in the left column.

So, each morning I started the day by having breakfast in the hotel. They have buffet breakfast, one of the reason I chose this hotel. They have the staple menus of scramble egg, several kinds of breads, cereals, cheeses, and yogurts. With alternate menus of mini sausages, bacon, bean soup, mushrooms, fruits, etc. Overall the breakfasts were very nice, it usually early evening by the time I got hungry again.

I began sightseeing by walking to the Astronomical clock in the old town square. Along the way I saw many many souvenir shops. I must have passed by 20-30s shops by the time I reach Prague Castle. All the shops seems to follow a couple of patterns and looks almost identical. This reminded me a lot of the souvenir shops I saw in Camden market. I did not buy anything from these shops though. Although the glassware looked nice, I did not want to worry if my purchases will still be in one piece by the time I got back home. After all, I still have Amsterdam to go to next.

Once I arrived at the Astronomical clock, it was nice but wasn't much to look at, I start wandering around. I had gone through a street through the main square and finally arrived at Powder Gate and then I walked further toward Charles Bridge. But once I couldn't find it I look at my map and realize that I went the wrong way. I walked back and ended up at Palladium Plaza, a big shopping mall. So I did a bit of pit stop before asking their information desk for direction. I ended up using the subway to get back to Mustek station so I can start over from the old town square. Eventually I did made it to the bridge :) A few parts of the bridge were in renovation and maintenance, but other than that it was nice. There are numerous souvenirs stands on the bridge as well selling paintings and some accessories for women. After the bridge I began walking toward the castle.

Along the way I noticed a walk tour group. I decided to follow one of them for a while. This lead me into a building with the path that I would never choose to go by myself. After going through a small gate I ventured into a large garden of sort with something about senate in the name sign. I am not sure what the place is for but it was unusual looking. The most amazing thing about this place, however, is that as I was about to leave a peacock glide out of nowhere and landed in the garden area :O. It was the most peculiar squawk I have ever heard. I cannot really describe it, only that the sound that came out did not match the appearance, at least to me. After finish seeing the garden and gawking at the peacock, I left the building and continue to the castle.

It was an uphill climb, literally. My feet began to hurt from the pressing spots with my sneakers. I tried to wiggle my feet around but it didn't help much. Eventually I have to loosen the strings all over. I did have to ask for direction once though. I passes an uphill path with amazing view overlook the city. I took several photos of course :)

Finally I reach the top of the hill. I rested at the near by statue and survey the surrounding. Then I headed into the castle. I walked through the big gate, through an archway and saw a steel steps leading to the ticket office with rubble underneath, it seems that they are renovating the stairs. I went into the ticket office and found that there are a range of ticket prices with recommended audio guide to listen to the history of each location and artifacts as well as allow you to get right into one of the cathedral without waiting in line. However, the audio guide was 350 Ckz. I am not going to spring for that amount of money just to get the audio and minor priviledge. While I was browsing the room, I noticed a brochure of Free Walk Tour. I picked up, read through, and found that I was already late for both times that they offer the tour. I planned, in my mind, to do this free tour tomorrow.

I left the ticket office and tentatively walked further into the area. I found out that I can enter through the main gate without ticket. So I walk through another archway and was greet by the sight of St. Vitus Cathedral. Then I walked pass it a large widen plaza area. I noticed WC sign and went in a building which also has a museum shop. The toilet here look modern and very nice. I took a pit stop there and rest up a bit. It was pretty windy and chilly. It was quite calming sitting quietly in a nice clean toilet :P

After the rest in the restroom, I walked out and walk further. It was a bit of downhill path with a few fence erected for construction crew to work in. They were fixing the cobble stone walkpath. I did saw how they make cobble stone street. They literally arrange the stone and then pound it with hammer one by one. This way they ensure that the stones will be put in order and make a nice path. Then I passed some more shops, then an entrance way into the famed Golden Lane. Ticket is required for entry so I did not went in. I continued onward and passed a section with house an Inca gold exhibit, Toy Museum and a blacksmith. Yeap, a real blacksmith doing metal works and selling his wares at near by stand.

I surveyed the area, looking for a place to eat but they either too expensive or written in Czech which I can't read. so I headed toward the exit. There is another city overview spot right outside the exit. After taking a few looks I continue down the path. I soon encounter a fork in the road. I take the right path as it is a gorgeous hill side path with small vineyard and a restaurant with great garden. I continued down the path, eventually off the hilly area and onto the street. The subway station near the area is not hard to find but surprisingly the entrance is located in a medium size park. The entrance building itself also have a restaurant which I find rather odd :P

I took the metro back to Muztek station to get back to my hotel.

Day 1 Wednesday & Thursday - Flight to Europe

2009-07-24T20:59:00.009+07:00

I chose to work half day because my flight is at 23:25. This way I will have more leave time.

But, as things turn out, I should have just take whole day off because I find myself rushing to do things that needs to be done before the trip. My mom is taking me to the airport again. In the car she is pushing the idea of me running a 7-Eleven shop. As she said I would make more money. Be that as it may, I don't think I wants to just yet.

I also ran into an old collage friend. He was working at the information desk. We catch up a bit and then I went to find the toilet with cleaning hose. However, the area were closed off, as nature called, I have to start using paper earlier than I thought.

When I eventually arrive at the gate, I noticed that there was a downpour. Luckily, the plane took off ok without any problem.

As the flight progress, it was getting really cold in the cabin. Despite wearing my thick long sleeves shirt and have the iarplane blanket it still didn´t help much. It was also quite dry in the plane as well.

Eventually the plane arrived at Schipol airport. Before landing, they show a video of how to transfer the flight without boarding pass. It shows that there is a self-transfer machine where you type in your e-ticket number and the machine will print out your boarding pass. I walked into one not long after got off the plane. I type in my number but it did not work, the print out say that I need to contact the airline staff for assistance. It took me quite a while to get direction and walked to the said airline station.

I showed my print out at the station and the staff said I need to take a queue card and wait for my queue. I did and ended up waiting for about half an hour before it was my queue. Good thing that I have three hours transit time. After I finally got my boarding pass, I then went through the immigration. The immigration officer asked what I will be doing in Prague, and I answered. Then he asked to see my hotel booking and I showed it to him. Then I went through without a hitch. I felt pretty fatigue by the time I get to my gate. I have to wait for almost two hours before boarding time. I noticed a sport bar near by that sell apply pie. And then I noticed on the other end of the terminal there is a snack booth that also have the same apple pie. I ended up buying one. It was... not quite what I thought it would be but it was still edible and I am not going waste 3 euros snack just because it did not tasted the best :P

The ride to Prague was not very smooth but quite alright. I noticed a very cute guy in the waiting area of the gate. Then I found out that he sitting in the same row as I did :D. He was getting some shuteye most of the flight though and I need the same as well. It was not a long flight so they only serve a sandwich. It got a bit thrilling for me after we landed and I was waiting for my suitcase. They seems to be taking their sweet time unloading the cargo. I was getting nervous wondering if my suitcase was in my plane or not. However, my suitcase finally loading into the belt, I breath a sigh of relieve and headed out into the airport.

I had to ask for the location of ATM machines as it turns out they are all in the far side of the terminal. And then I went to buy my 5 days ticket and then look for the bus stop. It took me a while to locate the stop itself and then I am off from the airport. It took about 15 minutes, just like it said in the guidebook, to get to the metro station. It was a bit awkward getting into the station because there was no escalator. Once I got into the train, lo and behold, it was that cute guy from the gate again :D Though we only just nod at each other for the recognition. I got off at the Muzeum station. As it turns out, I came up from the station and greet by the sight of big statue. I actually came up at Wenceles Square! It was quite impressive indeed, although I have no time, hands, or energy to take out camera to take the photos.

I took out my hotel google map print out to get the location. It was not that hard to find, only that it is actually quite a bit uphill. Not to mention that it was oddly hot that day, almost Bangkok hot. I was panting by the time I reach the area where the hotel suppose to be. Turns out they did not use the name ´Majestic Hotel´on their sign but Best Western. Luckily I noticed the name in the print out and finally went in. I got check-in right away at around 13:00, local time, and got the room on the first floor. Not that I mind, since I am not planning to do sightseeing from my room anyway. I also got a corner room with a small view into the center courtyard, it was lovely :) The room itself is very beautiful, though rather small.

I quickly took a shower and start exploring around the block. But fatigue set in soon after so I went back to my hotel and take a nap. I set my alarm at 18:00 so I will still have time to see the city later. After I woke up, still groggy, but I forced myself to get up and start sightseeing by walking into the historical area.

All the street and the road are cobble stones, just like what I read in wikitravel. The sneakers work fine, so it was not a problem. I decided to check out one of the gay place in Prague, as it was evening soon. And then I went to bed.

The Eve of My Trip

2009-07-22T17:18:00.002+07:00

I am almost finish preparing for my trip. I guess it is a mistake that I choose to take half-day off from my work instead of a full day.

I was rushing to do this and that and right now the last thing I need to pack are my chargers and extension cord.

My mom called so that's my ride. I won't do half day off like this again... It's too much hassle.

Pre-Vacation Mishaps

2009-07-19T20:02:00.003+07:00

Although I am looking forward for my vacation, things happens that make me feel quite upset.

It is 95% certain that I will be flying solo in Prague. Both my friends could not make it after all. The German who live in London could not afford it. He already struggling to make ends meet as it is so I can't blame him. Although it is entirely his fault that I even go to Prague in the first place :pp

The second guy, a German who live in Berlin, said his company sent him to Bremen office on July 23-24, so he could not make it. Since my time in Prague is from July 23-29, it is quite true. What I don't understand about him is that he only ask his company for day off on Monday July 13. Despite the fact that we have been planning this for months. This is especially bad for me since I initially planned to cancel my hotel booking in favor of cheaper hostel. Although there are still time to cancel, the cheap hostel no longer have the cheap room. Also, all the other places that I have checked no longer have the cheap price that I got from months ago. So I guess I will just have to enjoy the hotel alone :pp

And then the sneakers that I ordered would not arrive before my trip. It is partially my fault for ordering it almost too late. I have look for some cheap alternatives today. I found a couple of shoes that I am interested in. But tomorrow I will look at MBK malls as well.

The plastic top of my USB MicroSD reader broke a while ago, before I wrote this post. So I will definitely have to visit Pantip Plaza to look, no just for another MicroSD card but also for the USB reader replacement.

I still need to finish packing, getting my hair cut and more packing...

So little time, so much to do...

The New Day Has Pass

2009-07-15T23:01:00.004+07:00

I survive the first day in my head office, barely.

My new boss informed me of my new tasks, his expectation of me, and when I will visit the other offices. I must say I am overwhelm by all the new things that I have been informed of (been ordered). However, I was slightly excited that he will sent me to do couple of Microsoft certified courses. I think that will do me good, especially for my future. Although they are just XP support and Applications on XP support courses, at least after that I can really say that I am official a certified support technician :P

The morning hours doesn't help that's for sure. I was half awake in the morning and getting sleepy in the afternoon. I hope that I will be able to adjust as time goes by... It certainly doesn't help my mood. I was able to be cheerful when greet by other people but I am not feeling as happy, relax, and comfortable as I was in my old office.

I will either have to adjust or else....

Quivering Mood

2009-07-14T00:30:00.003+07:00

On the eve of my last day at work, I find myself quivering inside.

I will definitely be sad. But I must remind myself that I will be visiting once a week. It is a fairly big deal for me. I know that this is not something very serious. I am still working for the same organization, I will return to my current office at least once a week.

Unlike some of my friends who is worst predicament of unemployment or struggling to get by. As I wrote many times before, I still feels upset. Although not at the soul shaking level that I had before.

It will over soon... Then it will be the adjustment period to the new office and so on... Although I wish this did not happen. I deserve to enjoy my trip to Prague and Amsterdam without thinking about the move...

The Move is Coming

2009-07-12T20:37:00.002+07:00

So it finally going to happen. This Tuesday will be my last working day at my current office.

It will be quite sad for me. But the consolation is that I will visit it every Friday. I maybe a blessing in disguise... Since my current boss will also leave to take another position in Europe in August. And the new boss, I heard, that he had a row with the head of Thai staff years ago. So it might be a good thing that I get to move. The work dynamic will change along with the new boss. This will goes both ways, both in the new and current office.

I decided to let the other guy get the Fri-Sat weekend this time and then we can alternate every three months. Since I will be on 2 weeks vacation soon.

In order to keep my mood up, I will just have to concentrate on the new Harry Potter movie. Which will be release in Bangkok on this week. I will go watch it on Monday, which should have less people by then. And then later that week I will began my trip to Europe. I start packing a bit already.

250 to 1000 :)

2009-07-06T22:44:00.002+07:00

It was more than a year ago since I last replace my harddisk. IT was ComMart show time so I went to buy it there.

I end up going on Saturday. Arriving at the show I felt a little light headed, I guess because I haven't eat yet. So I went to the food court area to eat. It is my policy not to shop with empty stomach. I feels that I would be more objective on my full stomach :)

I eventually bought the 1TB harddisk, an external box and power cable, all from different shops. All to replace the 250GB one. Then I went to check the Adidas sales like usual. I do like some of shirt but nothing really caught my interest.

After I got home, set everything up for transfer, and fire up the computer, something wasn't right. I heard buzzing sound coming from the computer case. It took me a while to figured out which fan made the sound. I eventually figured out that it came from the power supply. I was not happy with this. Since a new one usually cost about a couple of thousand baht for a reliable one.

It keep buzzing the first night and I have to turn off the computer after unable to fall asleep due to the noise. I decided that if it still buzzing by Monday, I will take it to an IT mall to buy a one power supply. Luckily the buzzing stop, I guess the fan was finally spinning in the right way.

It was the right decision that I went to buy the harddisk on Saturday. This allow me to fully enjoy my 4 days off this week. I really need these time off.

The Date Got Set

2009-07-03T15:55:00.003+07:00

My boss told me today that my moved day have been agreed. So this means I will start working in the head office on July 15.

The news did not feels as threathen as it was a few weeks back. I feels that I have been warming up to the move, eventhough I do not want it to happen. At least I will be there for a week and then it will be my Europe vacation :D

The new Harry Potter movie will also be release on July 16th. I am looking forward to that as well. I am also looking forward to this weekend. I am still deciding whether I should go to the IT fair on Sat after work or on Sunday to buy the new harddisk. Both have their own pros so I am still considering it.

The Delayed Inevitable

2009-06-30T18:28:00.002+07:00

It has been finalized. My move will be postponed for a couple weeks in lieu of new computers being deployed. The idea is for me to monitor if the new computers will have any problem or not.

This news made me happy. As this also help me finalized my weekend plan to go to ComMart fair. So I will probably buy the 1TB disk, since the price has come down to about 3,200 baht. Which is significantly lower than the 1.5TB one at 5,050 baht. I am slightly worried whether my power supply can handle all these large size harddisks. If it doesn't then it will be a trip to one of the IT mall to buy new power supply. Luckily I have taken leave day next week which will make me have four days off :DDDD. I certainly need that.

The Actual Move

2009-06-29T20:23:00.003+07:00

Due to some circumstances, I think my move will be push for a few more days. This is not my doing, since I have finish on my parts, but the IT manager. Not that I mind nor complaining :pp

But it is still inevitable. I would like to know the definite soon though. Since the ComMart fair will be held again from July 2-5. I need to know when will my weekend be. So I will have time to go to that fair and buy new harddisk along with the external box so I can transfer my data after the switch. That way I only have to open my case once and be done with it.

I know that I am just whining now but I need an outlet to whine otherwise I would have gone crazy.

I also went to see Transformer 2 today. It was an ok movie. I sensed some flaws here and there but it was not too glaring. The 'Bay Bang' was numerous and sometimes, in my opinion, excessive. The camera sway too much or move too fast sometimes and focusing on the expensive special effects of the robots. Overall it was worth the money. Next will be Harry Potter 6 :D

No Raise, No How!!

2009-06-26T15:25:00.003+07:00

The director of my office sent email to all Thai staff yesterday evening, to inform us that there will be 0% raise in our salary this year...

He cited several reasons but the gist of it are the economic recession, budget cut, and negative inflation. The email ended with a promise to look into providing some alternative package instead. All of which make the salary raise less justifiable, not counting the morale boost issue. Although I still think that even 1% raise would boost the morale of the staff, even if just slightly.

So now it makes me wants that promotion even more, although not by much. It certainly lower my already low mood about my own work situation, reading the force moving to head office. This surely is a sucky situation.

There will be a big meeting next week at the head office between the Thai staff association and the upper management. Hopefully something good would come out of that.

I am still trying to maintain positive thoughts about the move...
a) My new weekend would be Fri-Sat, which I preferred than Sun-Mon.
b) The places to eat in that area has a lot more varieties, it is close to MBK.

It's not a lot but enough for me to concentrate on.

The Harden Soul

2009-06-23T17:25:00.003+07:00

Today my soon to be boss had, again, voiced his frustration on the lateness of my progress on work here and, again, said that he wants to me start working at the head office on first of July.

This times, however, the fact did not shocked me as much as it did before. I guess the repetition dull its effectiveness. It may sound strange but my emotion felt harden by this statement. I suppose I have come to terms with it, slightly, on some level.

While I am getting stress and upset about my situation, I do not have a lot of people to complain about it to. My online friends who goes online often are not really good to talk with on this issue. Especially when one of them has been unemployed for months now. I know that my situation is not bad in comparison to other possibilities.

I must keep my head on straight and my mood in check. I hope that I will be able to come to terms with it once the move happens. I do have several leave days left after allocate them for my trip. I will start using it them once I moved.

A Tearful Remedy

2009-06-22T00:49:00.003+07:00

I have been feeling down for the pass several days. I would usually feels a little better if I gets to cry.

There was a time when I was really upset about something and I feels better after I got to really cry in cinema watching 'Nang Nak'.

So today I decided to watch some videos that I have that would make me cry, I was successful. Then I also got to cry a bit over Oprah's show about puppies mills. And again over something on TV which I forgot.

In total, I cried or shed tears three times since afternoon. I think I now feels slightly better after relieve some tension with crying.

I also buy some Euro money today, finally, as well as complete my sneakers order. That also help too, I think. I do understand how people find spending money feels quite therapeutic. I suppose it gave you a sense of control and power to be able to buy whatever you desire.

I like shopping for groceries, especially when my mom still haven't moved out. I will call her and ask what she would like me to buy and add a few of my own into the list. All of which will be cooked by her later. Nowadays though, I just buy various fruit juice to mix with my protein shakes. Occasional shower gels and shampoo and that's about it...

Anyway, I really needs to go to bed now... This week could be my last week at my current office. I better tries to savior the moment. Although I will be visiting again at least once a week...

Soul Shaker

2009-06-19T15:39:00.003+07:00

My soon to be boss that is... Today he gripe about how slow the progess of preping the new set of computers has been and that I should have been moved already.

This is not good for my morale at all. I feels like I have borderline depression since last week or so. It manifest as the feelings of not wanting to go to work. The sinking feeling and bad mood of having to go to work. I guess it felt like I have been betrayed by the office.
I know that my own boss had tried to keep me but it was beyound his control. I suppose my resentment has been direct to the establishment. Lately I have to reminded myself that I need to have a job, this is a good place to work, and if I wants to return to this branch office, I better remain part of the organization. I am also torn between using my leave day to rest my nerve or coming to work here since it is likely I will be moved very soon. I suppose I can use it soon after I move.

It seems very likely that I will start working in the HQ on first of July. My boss told me in our weekly meeting that his boss said so but he added that it was not what they agreed on. He said he will just let it simmer and see how it goes.

Also, my current boss' contract is coming to an end. So he will leave the office in a couple of months to take a position in another country. Hopefully the next boss will wants to have an IT personal, that he will have enough pull to open the position so I can move back :P It was a really long shot but one can hope. Not that I would pinned all my hopes and dreams on that hypothetical scenario. I do have to concentrate on learning the skills that I needs for the promotion. I can't just let myself feels too down to learn all that. The prospect of getting promotion is, for now, far more realistic than being moved back here.

No matter what happen, I will still be back here once a week anyway.

Harddisk Blues

2009-06-17T15:39:00.002+07:00

After a little more than a year since the last time I buy new harddisk, I have manage to almost filled it. Althought I did not feels like it's been that long, good thing that I did blog about it so I know when I bought it last year.

The price of 1TB (TB=Terrabyte which means 1,000 GB :d) harddisk became more attractive but I would love to buy the 1.5 TB one instead. However, the 1TB one is still about 1,300 baht cheaper than the 1.5TB one. The price which I do not wants to pay just yet. But it became harder and harder to make space for my downloads, especially in this series heavy season. The Closer and So You Think You Can Dance are running weekly now. Soon Leverage will began it's second season in July and then Dexter's fourth season in September :O.

I could not possibly housed all those files with my current 14GB space left on my biggest harddisk. Despite my wish that I wants to hold off buying new harddisk until the price of 1.5TB one reduce to about 4,000 baht. I don't think that I can wait that long.

My Funny Man is Going Home And That Sinking Feeling.

2009-06-15T19:57:00.005+07:00

I spend today with my friend 'Funny Man'. He told me that he is going home to New Zealand in two months time and ending his four years of traveling around the world. The news shocked me quite a bit. It makes me feels like I lost a friend.

Although, in truth, we will still keep in touch so we will still be friend. Except that it will be quite a while before I see him in person again.

I also help him located the washing hose so he can buy one for his apartment back in Wellington. He really love it as the way to clean up after the deed was done. I hope he will be able to install it easily back home.

I am going to miss him. He is very funny, fun to hang out with and fun to talk with. He did invited me to visit him in his hometown and that I can stay at his place. I think I will take him up on that in a couple of years time.

Lately I have been plagued by the 'Don't Want to Go to Work' feelings. Which I think, was triggered because of my soon to be boss. He reminded me over the phone, when we were discussing other issues, that he wants me to start working at the HQ next month.

My heart and mood sank when he said that. While I knew that this is inevitable, it still hitting me harder than I though it would. I guess I am mentally not still want this to happen. I did not expect the sinking feeling to occurred. It seems that I was put this out of my mind until it hit me again.

When I tell my current boss of this, he said that it wasn't the IT manager's decision to make but rather the higher level manager. So we will see when will that happen. But we both agreed that it would not be for our best interests to prolong this more than it should.

I suppose it will be ok once the move happen since then I will accept that it actually happen and not just looming around the corner, making me worried like this.

I know that I am lucky that I still have a job, a decent paying one in fact. One that it allows me both financially and enough free time to start traveling. Yet my feeling is not in the best of mood to appreciate that. I will tough it out and see what happens.

Weather Foiled Plan

2009-06-09T16:49:00.003+07:00

I decided to pay up and spend a bit of money to buy a snack from the coffee shop near my office to get their WEP code for their WiFi. Lo and behold it works!! I could open my WebGUI page on my Nokia 5800 :D

I tested it a bit and found that WebGUI page works nicely on my phone and everything works, albeit, slower than on actual computer :D

Too bad that by the time the TV show I wants to download, The Closer, became available online, there was a power cut at my home :ppp There was a brief heavy rain just when I walk back to office from my lunch break. And by the time I found that the show is available for download, I could not open my WebGUI page anymore. I thought that there could be a power cut at my home due to the heavy rain and my younger bro confirmed it. Bugger...

So now I have to wait until I got home and do it manually anyway :pp I suppose I will try this again on Friday for So You Think You Dance Season 5.

Experimenting With Remote BitTorrent

2009-06-08T19:06:00.003+07:00

After realizing that many of the TV shows I want to see is being shown again in US summer season.

Since I sometimes would not be home when the shows would be uploaded to the BitTorrent, I would like to know how to remotely add the one I wants to download when I am not home. I figured I could use my phone to access internet and did what I wants from it.

I use utorrent as my BitTorrent client. It has WebGUI function which allow you to remotely access your client through internet with an addon and a bit of know-how. It was pretty easy actually. Here is the instruction I use to do it.

http://lifehacker.com/software/hack-attack/remote-control-your-torrents-with-utorrents-webui-260393.php

I also learn how to create domain name since my ISP will disconnect my connection every 24 hours, thus, shifting my IP address.

It was all pretty simple and easy really. The difficult part is to find a free WiFi spot that I can use near my office. There is one WiFi spot but you have ot pay to get their WEP code.

I am looking forward to test this and see if I can work it when I am on my trip as well :)

The Museum Run, The 2nd Times

2009-06-05T17:37:00.003+07:00

About a week ago I went to see "Night at The Musuem 2: Escape From The Smithsonian", it was quite a fun movie but not totally.

It was still a very fun notion to have the *reviving* scenario taking place in the biggest Musuem of all, the Smithsonian. The art showroom sequence looks fantastic while the air and space looks surreal (er, more than usual). The villians were practically streotyped in their personalities which feels a bit flat at times.

Overall, it is a fun movie, but I do not appreciate the fact that it was more than 30 minutes before the movie begin after I enter the theater. Although I like to watch the trailers, the ads were too much for my taste. The fact that I had not eat anything substantial before the cinema that day worsen the matter even more.

All in all, I think it is no wondered why people do not go to cinema much anymore.

Chapped Ass Hot Sauce

2009-06-02T22:07:00.002+07:00

When I saw this one, I thought of Torn :)

Chapped Ass Hot Sauce by `ursulav on deviant ART

It is Ursula Vernon's latest piece, of which she lamented how it looks homoerotic relatively by accident :P But then we are all homos here so...

I think Torn would love this and get a good chuckle ;)

The Consolation Prize

2009-05-29T14:59:00.004+07:00

I finally called the HR manager today, since no one contacted me about the interview result. As it turns out, it was not all good news.

Although I pass the interview part, I failed the exam part. So, to compromise, the HR manager said the solution is for me to transfer my post without the promotion. It was not the best of outcome but it is better than the alternative of being laid off I suppose. She said I should look at this a development opportunity. Once I learned enough skills for the position, I can apply for it again in the future.

So it was not the best outcome but not the worst either. I did imagine what I would do with the raise in my salary. I guess I cannot put that in practice yet. At least I am not in the situation where I *need* that promotion just yet. But the added traveling cost will surely cut into my savings.

Although it was not quite how I thought it would turn out, at least this is over and done with for now. I am not complete happy about this, even more so now that I did not get the promotion. But at least I still have got a job and I know how hard it is to get one. The last remain issue, is when I will be moved to the HQ. So far not much has been progress on the move condition set by my boss. I hope it will not happen in at least 3 months or longer.

The Leo In Me

2009-05-23T20:57:00.003+07:00

Although I was born under Leo sign, I never felt particular extrovert or any of the typical Leo's traits that you would read about in the astrology articles. Especially that I am the dual fire sign one. Both my Chinese Zodiac, the snake, and my zodiac are of fire signs.

However, it seems that I did had it in me after all. Late afternoon the previous day in my office, we had another car exhaust fume coming into the office. It was particularly bad because the rain was falling heavily and the cars that leaving the parking lot were backing up behind the office where the A/C ventilation was located. I called the maintenance asking for a technician to come up to fix the problem. It was after 17:00, so only one or two technicians left on shift. But after about half an hour, no one came up. I finally had it and marched down to the maintenance room and found two technicians watching TV.

I called out "I Need one of you to open the A/C unit room, Now" The younger one get ups and follow me back to the office. I explain what I need him to do and have him to it. He later told me that he was not on duty.

Today, I informed their boss that my office still have this problem. He spoke in a patronizing, dismissive manner that either intentional or simply his normal manner. When he said that I will help with this issue. This made me through the roof. I proceed to forcefully tell him that we do not need his help but rather him doing his job properly.

The problem has not really been solve as it happens again around 11:00. So I call the maintenance again. After 10 minutes, I called again to tell them that no one came up yet and if no one came up in 10 minutes I will go down there to get someone myself.

That seems to make them step up their game a bit and sent someone up.

I feels that it is time to take gloves off, no more mister nice guy for them until the problem is really solved.

The Longest Work Week

2009-05-21T17:54:00.002+07:00

Although this is only the third day of my working days, it felt like I already had a full work week, since I came to the office in the morning...

Tuesday was my interview, Wednesday was office meeting day which I have to come in one hour early, and today we had major problem with one of the server. It was totally out of my league but the IT manager is just a phone call away.

Even he was stuggle with this particular problem a bit. Luckily he was able to tell me how to solve an hour or so before the classes began. I was nervous as hell getting everything ready in case the problem cannot be solve on time.

The good news is "So You Think You Can Dance" season 5 will premier tonight in US. Which means that I will be trying to download it before I go to work each Friday. This should cheer me quite a bit :)

Interview Was Done, The Anxious is Over, For Now

2009-05-20T17:28:00.002+07:00

I have done the interview... It was harder than I thought. I think I did ok, although I felt like I speak random things at times. They only need to *steer* me into the right direction a couble of times (that I noticed). When I asked about when I will know the result, they said I will be contacted next week.

My saving will be reduced significantly today, to pay my mom back for using her credit card to pay for the plane tickets. I will have to get a card of my own soon. Too bad the embassy did not return any of my documents... So I will have to spend another 200 baht to get the bank statement *sigh*

I tried The Sims 3 last night and boy it was quite fun :D. It certainly looks a lot liviler than the previous game. There are a lot more activities to do and gain skill of. Cooking is more tricky now that you have to do grocery shopping. Gerdening is quite a breeze as it included from the start. Now it completely occupied my time and my two other games has been put on tbe back burner :P

Booked Flights and Hotel and The Eve of Reckoning Day

2009-05-18T20:40:00.004+07:00

After a chance researched last night, I found out that I could book my flight online at a cheaper prices, at the time I wants and I can have the airline transfer my luggage through the system without unloading it into the transit airport. What I needs to do, is simply have the two plane tickets and state my intend at the airline counter.

The passport pickup required a fair bit of time than I though. They only use one counter to check and return the passport. I heard the staff said it is because the rest needs to process the applications. A fair enough explanation I suppose.

On the eve of the interview day, I am still rather nervous about it. I hope I will do fine tomorrow. I think I will do fine in the interview... I just hope it will be over with quickly.

Nature's Wonder and Slight Tweaking

2009-05-15T21:06:00.005+07:00

A friend of mine who started out as a fan of this blog had sent me these photo (he is the same guy who sent me the vintage Valentine's card). He said they were nesting near his house so he take photos of them as time passes. As you can see, they are hummingbirds :)

Aren't these looks like pictures from Animal Planet channel? :)

I also have replaced the header to something more related to the link name of this blog as well as the background which I am not too fond of.

It's been raining everyday this week. Which is great for bedtime. Luckily I only walked to and from work so it did not bothered me. Tomorrow will be another busy day for me... As well as this weekend.

I will have to prepare for my interview, pickup my passport, pay for my plane ticket and insurances and prepare for my interview *Ugh*

Visa Acquired and The Final Endeavour

2009-05-12T16:48:00.004+07:00

The embassy finally called me, I have got Schengen visa :D

So I will spend the next few days finalizing my plane ticket and hotel bookings. I will also gonna look into buying the fake AAA Nike sneakers as well. As of now, I do not have the appropriate walking shoes. Not the one for traveling in slightly cold weather anyway.

The Hr personal from the head office contact me today to set the date for interview. At first she wants to have me do the interview today or tomorrow. But my boss put his foot down saying it is too sudden and I should have to prepare for it. The HR manager agreed with my boss. So the interview will be set next week. My boss will help me prepare for the interview tomorrow.

I hope this would not be an obstacle to my travel plans...

The 24" Delivery

2009-05-11T18:04:00.003+07:00

The monitor I ordered finally delivered today. The delivery truck came in morning instead of the afternoon, which is ok for me as well.

Now it looks triumphantly perched on my new desk. Everything fit nicely XP detect the change right away and change the resolution automatically, which is nice. I think it will take some adjustment to using it. Everything have more space to moved around. Video files looks a lot bigger now and more TV like. Although many of the video files are a little too small for resolution this size and turn slightly blocky but it sitll nice to be able to watch them this big. I would have to turn the brightness level down a bit to save my eyes.

All my high price purchases are all done for about a year or two, not counting the traveling cost.

The Rain Spell

2009-05-09T22:37:00.002+07:00

It's Raining!! Hard!!! Fi-freaking-nally!!!!

It's been uncomfortably hot for the pass several days. The sky turn light gray since afternoon but it finally rain now, at about 22:30. Now it feels more comfortable in my room. I must say I cannot wait until Winter arrive to see how my new leather chair will feels against my bum...

The rain is great!

Schengen Visa Application

2009-05-08T15:43:00.002+07:00

Per my plans to visit Prague and Amsterdam in late July, I went to do my visa application at Netherlands embassy yesterday.

The odd thing, for me at least, is that they seems to have small office to receive the visitors. Only about 15 people waiting inside the A/C room and about 4-5 people in the inner room waiting for their turn to be interviewed. I have to wait outside for about 5 minutes before an officer get into the booth and do the initial check of my papers. Then I was given a queue number before I could get inside.

The wait was not too long but surely not that fast. The *interview* itself was more not that probing... Just how long I will travel, where will I stay in Amsterdam, and that's about it. They request more documents regarding my friends' passports. I was able to get those last night, so I went to the embassy again today to drop the paper off. They said they will contact me on Monday to tell me the result. I hope that is a good sign that I will get the visa. If I got the visa, I will also have to get an insurance and show that paper when I pick up my passport. They give me a list of companies for this. I am still deciding which would be the best choice...

The Exam Commence and general Rants

2009-05-06T17:55:00.005+07:00

I went to SSQ to do my test in my bid to keep/upgrade my position. The test was difficult, that much is true. The test was multiple choices with written part to explain your answer.

Most of the questions were network related, which are not my trade. But I muddle through and answered every questions to the best of my abilities.

Right now I am still tired from the lack of sleep the previous night. There was a road crew just outside my house working on something in the street with an engine that produce rumbley loud and exhaust fume that goes into my room... Not only they were here last night and tonight, they will be here for 2 more nights!!

I called the police and they sort of say that this is government works and asked me to call again later in the night. I will probably do so soon... I don't think I should take this without any complains...

I have not been contacted by Dell regarding the shipping of the monitor I had ordered. When I check the webboard that I ordered it from, the seller posted that the shipment of the lot that I ordered will be in BKK tomorrow :( Since Friday is public holiday, the goods will be delivered after Monday... That really screw with my plans to enjoy the big screen monitor during the 3 days weekends...

Hopefully I will not have problem at my visa interview tomorrow...

The Learning Experience

2009-05-03T01:09:00.002+07:00

I have been using 5800 for a few days now. I am still learning how to customize it to my taste and I am learning more and more about it.

Garmin GPS software works today, finally. It took about 10-15 minutes before it was able to pickup the satellite signal. I was waiting for a bus at the time, I open the software and let it search for satellite signal while I put it back in my pant pocket. When I took it out again, the map was loaded up as the signal was founded.

It was said on the 5800 community webboard that it will eventually work faster the more often you search for the signal. Hopefully that will be true.

I have also loaded up new themes and applications. One of which give the home page a new, more useful looks. I certainly prefer this *shell* over the default one.

Like many other 5800 owners, I am waiting for the new firmware to be release. Somehow only a few people were able to get it. No one seems to know the official release date though... Only speculation, while other countries for their update already.

The New Phone

2009-05-01T17:00:00.001+07:00

I finally bought new phone today. As planned, I bought Nokia 5800. Although I bought the red one instead of black, because they ran out of the black one.

I am happy with the big screen. But, for being tout as music phone, there is no button that directly play the music. I also have trouble making Garmin software works. Other than that I am quite happy with it. If only I have more reason to use it :p I do enjoy typing SMS more now, with the mini QWERTY virtual keyboard of the phone.

With bigger screen, it means that I have to redo most of my video conversion and upload larger wallpaper images from my collection. I am still learning how to best utilize it. Hopefully I will not have to change it again at least 2 years later.

The Rain Had Fallen, Finally!

2009-04-26T23:47:00.003+07:00

This morning I stirred up and greet by the sound of rainfall outside my room. The first sign was how I pull the blanket up to cover my legs.

It was gray almost all day today, which is lovely!! It bring down the temperature nicely, just when I bought a new white work shirt for summer :ppp The bad news, however, is that the new shirt is not wrinkle free type. And it looks more obvious with the

The chair and the desk works nicely. It seems to have overall space more than the old one. This one is wider, though narrower in some area with the wavy rim design but it looks nice and the curve in area allow me to push the chair in.

However, the chair itself create a problem I never thought of, sweating. I actually soaked the seat of my boxer shorts and the back of my tank top by sitting on it for a certain period of time. So I am now on my flat cushion again just like with my old chair. Although my butt feels a lot better because I now sit on a lot softer surface.

I am looking forward to 4 working days this week as Friday will be holiday. I will also have to step up my things for my visa application next week.

The Desk Arrived and Now Waiting for the Monitor

2009-04-25T15:31:00.002+07:00

The desk and the leather chair was delivered this morning. I was worried at first that the desk might be too small for the new monitor but once it is up to my room I can see that it will be just right. If not I still could shift things around to make room.

The chair is really really nice. I have made the right choice of the chair to buy the more expensive one for better back and head cushion. Although it did not tilt backward and stay there like the one that I looked at.

I also made the order for Dell monitor. It should arrive in 7-10 days. Can't wait :D

The weather also getting really really hot. It's like 39C in my room, right now. I also shutdown my computer when I am not in the room as well, to make sure it will not overheat. This Summer is Really Really Hot.

First Chunk of Purchase

2009-04-24T16:41:00.004+07:00

I finally went to the furniture showroom and purchase the desk and the leather chair, office stlye, to put my computer set on. Oddly enough, the chair is more expensive than the desk :P

I am finalizing my decision on which monitor to buy. I have not found a nice one from Samsung or LG just yet but I have found a nice, relatively cheap one of Dell. I have also got a price quote from Dell as well for LED monitor. Which made me wondering what will LED screen looks like but after reading up soem review cnet.com, it wasn't that much better than LCD screen except for energy consumption aspect.

I think I will probably goes for Dell. The price is cheap enough and Dell have good gaurantee. I will have to decide before Sunday before they close the order.

Charming Wombat

2009-04-23T14:09:00.003+07:00

I am a big fan of comics, although I am not familiar with Web Comic. I have been a fan of a few like 8-Bit theater and the now defunt Flintlock Adventure. I recently reading up and following a Web Comic of Ursula Vernon "Digger".

It is quite an unusual story, as the pretext at the top of the page said, "A wombat, a dead god, a very peculair epic". This is the story of "Digger", a female wombat who accidentally thrust into an epic adventure by chance. I would not say more, but would recommend you read from the start. While the art looks nice, the dialogues are pure gold. There are many great lines in this comic. I really love the dialogues :)

Ursula Vernon has always been a very entertaining writer, as you can see from reading her blog, and the same goes for many of her works as well.

I would highly recommend reading Digger, especially now that it is free to read.

Perception of Expensiveness

2009-04-20T15:34:00.003+07:00

I realized that my sense of "Expensiveness" has change a lot from when I was a kid. Although not by much and I think I do think in relative terms more.

Even now I do find some certain things *expensive* for 100 baht, while at the same time think some certain things are cheap for the same amount of money. Thinking back when I was a kid, I saved up my allowance to buy an SD gundum figure. It was almost 200 baht and I did thought that it was Very expensive but I just could not resist.

Now I am considering spending 30,000s baht on new mobile phone, 24" monitor, new desk and leather chair. It made me shuddered how much I am planning to spend, considering that I will made a two weeks trip abroad this year as well.

Although these purchases will be of items that I will use for more than 5 years (except the mobile phone perhaps), it still make me feels uneasy about buying those. I think it is a good thing that I still maintain this reservation about money. It means that I am still quite grounded and not lost touch with reality yet.

I will probably buy Nokia 5800 in a couple of weeks.

A Day Outside of My Room

2009-04-20T01:26:00.002+07:00

Today I went to see my *funny friend* who just came back to Bangkok after his long trip in India.

I went to see him at his guesthouse. He shows me many photos of India that he had developed. I must say that their colours are very rice and vibrant. Certainly live up to India's reputation :) Some of his photos looks good enough to be in travel magazines. He also brought me a box of chocolate, the Jameson Irish whiskey chocolate truffle! He assured me that the whiskey is just for flavour and should not make me drunk. I will definitely tried it out soon. After I finish the other two chocolate items that I had bought recently :P

After a while we went to the 7-Eleven to buy Walls ice cream, my recent favorite Berry Blitz ice cream stick. Which is a blended berry mix covered a vanilla ice cream. While I am not too crazy about the strawberry, the mix taste nice and I find it quite soothing during my recent stress periods.

Then we walked into the subway station. I noticed a white guy walk up to us waving his hands. It turns out that he is my friend's friend from the extras acting job that my friend got into the last times he was in BKK. We must have stood there and chat for like half an hour. From our chats, I gathered that his friend is an American veteran from northern state. He studied at Chula for free with his funding from disability leave due to lost of hearing during his service. He is married to a Thai woman and love the long shiny black hair women (darn!). He is also very energetic and seems like a fun guy to hang out with. We would probably meet again soon. Since I gave him a phone number to Kuroda and he love the idea of authentic Japanese buffet restuarant :)

All in all it was a good day.

The Brand Spanking New Look

2009-04-19T01:50:00.004+07:00

I finally done it. After been putting it off for quite a few months, I finally use new template for my blog.

Personally, I would prefer dark/blue colour motif but this is the best I could find with three columns that I wants. I tried to get some help but free helps are not easy to find. Plus, after I check the template more closely, most of the white are not code but rather image files. So it will be extremely difficult to change it. I guess I will have to just use it as it is.

The move is not a smooth one, as many of the page element can't be export easily. I have to let go a lot of stuff I used to put up. I guess I will do some new ones later or just left it like this.

One thing that I do not like about blogger, is the fact that they have not update their own template collection for a really long time. Which I think it's a real shame.

Let me know what you think of the new look :)

New Item in my Home

2009-04-16T00:49:00.003+07:00

This is the first times that I own a large electrical appliance, though I did not buy it myself. My mom gave me her old refrigerator.

She had bought a new bigger one as this one is not big enough anymore. Since she live quite far from the main road, she wants to stockpile more groceries. So I have got a hand-me-down fridge :P Which is nice, it is not that old yet. It not as big as the one we currently have, which is enough for my usage. It is about as high as my chin so it is not a large one.

I now kept my juice boxes in there. Now I am thinking about stocking some fruits and some snacks in there as well. I just bought a 6-packs of Pepsi Lemon today :)

Today I spend my day outside of my room, which is nice. I went to check the price of mobile phone at MBK mall and found that the price has gone down about 1,000 baht from its initial release. I will buy it soon, I think right after I am done with my bank statement for my visa application. I am sick of the current state of my smalltalk cable. I will just have to wait for about two weeks more.

Holiday Post

2009-04-14T22:18:00.002+07:00

I had spent most of my holidays so far at home and did not go out much, other than the mandatory meals time.

Mostly this is because of my lack of friends and desire to go out and partially because of the red-shirts riots. My mom called me a at least once a day to check on me during the riot. At first I was thinking about a rendezvous with my funny friend from New Zealand who is back from India. I have not seen him the last time he come back.

I am also looking at B&B websites and info in Prague to plan my trip. But all that I could find are quite expensive rate if about 60-70 Euro. However, I am started to find some decent price range on a website. I just sent emails to ask my German friend and my boss about those hotels.

Hopefully I will hear back from them soon. The booking needs to be done before my visa application interview.

Making Progress

2009-04-10T21:07:00.002+07:00

I have finished about 85% of the application with the guidance of my boss. I must say that I would felt quite lost with this had he not help me out. He likes what I write so far and he will help edit it before he went off to his holiday.

While I was not really stressed during the writing of it, now it's back at full force. To quote Big Daddy from "Raising Duncan" comic strip, now I feels like the devil is making a animal balloon with my intestine.

Now I could relax a bit and try to enjoy my Songkran holiday. I have a plan to meet my Australian friend who is moving to Hong Kong on Sunday. I am also contemplating whether I should buy new thumbdrive since I lost both of mine. Because I forgot to zip up the front of my backpack... Which lead me to lost mobile phone cable, camera cable, and both of my thumbdrive :((((

I also felt rather tired and sleepy but I do not want to go to bed and lost my free time... I recognise this feeling, the feeling that I wants to just stay in bed and do not get up. I heard of this symptoms many times on various TV programs that this is the symptom of depression. I do tried to keep my mood in check and try not to let this affect me more than it already has.

I will now concentrate more on my free time and that should do wonder for my psyche.

News Update

2009-04-08T17:35:00.007+07:00

Today the head of HR department call me to give me more info about the process of my job *promotion*.

It turns out that the job will be posted internally first. This give me the advantage to get the position. Since it would be most likely that I will be the only one applying for it. But this does squash my dream of the ideal scenario where a perfect external candidate comes along and the head office would wants to have him while let me stay in the branch office. However, it seems that my moving will be inevitable, provided that I would get the job. It is the company's policy that promotions will be considered through application process.

The process will take longer than I first thought. Since the interview was said to be happen around mid May. However, the move will likely happen, eventually...

The update, while still filled me with terrible dread, did not affect as bad as when the boss confirm the news. Although the more I think about it, the worst it make me feels. But I will need to concentrate on this for at least a couple of days to write my application. At least if these were finish within two days, I can rest my mind easy for a few weeks before the interview.

Part of me wants this to be done with other parts just wants to sleep and forget the whole thing.

I do not wants to move, one of my aspiration is to decorate my office for Christmas again and again... But I will just have to think positive, let the angst wash away and not bother me more than it already has. I also have to remind myself that I will be most likely visit my branch office rather often. I will have the time to do this. I am sure I will have some leave day left to visit later to buy more stuffs and use them to decorate.

I know it sound whiny of me to bitch and moan about this. After all, I will get paid more, with more responsibilities that should be good for my career and perhaps better future. While many others loose their job and have to look for jobs in this economic climates. Not to mention that the raise turns out to be quite a considerable amount. Almost one third increase from my current salary base. Which would more than enough to absorb the traveling cost and the meals which would be considerably more expensive in that area. Still... I would rather be in my current position than move.

A Lazy Holiday Weekend

2009-04-07T00:26:00.002+07:00

It was a 3 days weekend for me this week as Monday is public holiday. It is also my mom's birthday but since she does not do birthday, my mind slip... I should have call to say HBD though...

My mind still rather frazzle around the edge but it was not as bad as last week. Although I must say that the timing is really bad. Since I planned to start calling around for plane ticket for my trip in July, this just put a damp on my moment.

This week I will have to concentrate on writing my application. I still have the one I wrote when I apply for job in my current office. I think I can use that as a guideline. After all, I can't just use my old one now that I have more experience :P My boss will also start his holiday after this Friday, so I better start cracking.

Songkran is also coming up next week, again the timing is Really bad. I do not have any plan just yet, although I will probably hit Oishi express buffet again. I think that one of my friend would have sometime to meet up. He will leave BKK to take a job in HK after April. I hope he will keep in touch. He is fun to hang out with.

I must focus on both the application writing and my trip. Otherwise, I might return to the mild depression state that I was in a few years back. I am kinda know that this is not depression just yet. It just rather severe stress that I am experiencing. The word severe seems an overstatement but since I have little stress to begin with... Anyway I should go to bed now... It's been raining today and I do wants to take advantage of the cool night.

Mobile Phone Reflection

2009-04-03T14:30:00.003+07:00

To take a break from the mentally exhausting topic, I will post about my relationship with mobile phone.

About 10 years ago, when I started to earn my living, my mom began to push a pager for me to carried. After that I have a PCT, a quasi-mobile phone that connected to the home phone but with worse reception. I used to despire owning a mobile phone, thinking of it as an invisible chain that will yank by other people.

Now that I use w810i as my main music player, I hardly left home without it. On a contrary to one of my friend's behavior. He often turn his phone off or divert his calls, he sometimes even left it at home. He prefer SMS over call while I am totally the opposite. Maybe that will change once I bought Nokia 5800.

Right now I am barely tolerating the condition of my smalltalk cable which broken inside and need to be in particular position to make sound on both side of the headphone. I planned to buy it after I have got the statement from my bank for visa application. Which means that I will mostly likely buy it in May.

The price has drop about one thousand baht since its release. Added that to the fact that there should be some newer released, the price should come down nicely by the time I buy it. I can't wait to buy new phone...

The Development

2009-04-02T20:31:00.004+07:00

Today I went to the HQ office in place of one of my coworkers to attend a meeting regarding our telephone answering system. And by chance I ran into one of the big boss there (not by chance really... It's not a bit office)

As it turns out, this will not be simple move. There will be an application process, with the job being advertised in newspaper. As I mention earlier, I like how things are just fine right now but there is nothing I can do other than apply for that position. I suppose I have to take solace in the fact that this was not just my case. Due to the restructuring, they remove about 20s positions and create 10s new ones. Those that wants to remain have to submit their application still.

Anyway, this means that I will, again, have to do the job application and interview. Not that I mind but it's not what I signed up for in the first place. It still not a deadlock either. Since it will be advertised externally, I will be competing with other applicants.

But it could have been worst and so could the traveling. Still, my wishful scenario is that someone with the best qualification will apply for the job and they decided that I should remain in my current post.

I am not hopeful but hope is all I can do, and the application and interview preparation. The big boss said he wants to fill the position before the first of May. My own boss will help me with the preparation process and I hope to be ready for it.

The Good News and Bad News

2009-03-27T23:52:00.002+07:00

Today I finally broach the subject of my employment with my boss, regarding the rumors that I will be transferred to the HQ office.

With the corporate restructuring that happen recently, we were promised that there will not be any change. I guess that is not entirely true after all. As part of the restructuring, one member of the IT team decided to take early retirement. There will be just two of them left so that is not going to be enough.

The good news is that I will be promoted one step higher in the salary grade. The bad news is that I will be moved to the HQ. This decision, as my boss said, was made by people higher up at regional level. So this is not something that he, or even the boss in HQ (if they would), could protest or have any say. He said he did fought this but it did not make any difference.

I must say that I am not happy about this arrangement. While it's true that I will get more money and I am not getting fired. But I am perfectly content with my current situation. I love the fact that I could only walked to work, the workload is fairly light, and I have varieties of responsibilities other than IT related issues.

Now I have to look forward to travel to work, being in a close proximity with the bosses and less time to slack off :ppp

I am not suppose to know about this yet because they still ironing out the details of how I will be transferred. Also my boss seems to be able to manage that I will not be transfer anytime soon. At least not before the computer woes has been dealt with. Or at least, as the head of Thai staff speculate, until this boss got transfers as his contract expired.

While this is not entirely bad arrangement, I still feels horrible. I guess that I am not the type that handle change very well. I am not sure if this is due to the fact that we used to move quite a few times in the pass, before settled down at our current location. My boss did said that I have to concentrate on the good of it and not the bad. I also have to remind myself that it is not like I got fired and I can still come back to visit. I will probably got to visit at least once a week. I hope I will feels better after I woke up.

Although I will get paid more, at this moment I do not think it worth all the *monkeys* that I will be taken on. Before this year I will say that my job is relatively stress free. Perhaps not so much in the future.

Now I just have to wait and see...

Two Male Doing Tango

2009-03-16T21:28:00.003+07:00

I saw this from another blog that I read. I saw the preview image and I just have to see it :)

It is not hard to see that they must be professionals. The butt kicking was certainly cute :P It would be fun to dance like that, although I would prefer Cha-cha-cha over Tango but I get what I can see :)

I've watched the Watchmen

2009-03-10T18:22:00.005+07:00

I spend Monday hanging out with a fan of my blog :) Despite the minimal number of people reading this, I do have a good fan :)

We meet up in MBK and wandered around the area. I mention the movie 'Watchmen', he said he had watched it a couple days ago but badly jet lag and slept through half the movie. I said I wants to watch this movie in big theater, like the couple deck theater in the old days or IMAX theater. As it turns out, the IMAX theater in Siam Paragon is showing Watchmen, so we went up to buy the tickets.

Since I have not read the graphic novel, I cannot tell how much of the movie stay true to the original source. However, I feels that the movie is, somehow, looks very real. Most of the 'Superheroes' did not seems to have special power other than highly trained fighting skills. Except for Dr. Manhattan of course. I couldn't shake the feelings that the movie feels *real* somehow. The way the characters interacts, the way they think and how they behave. Although some of the characters seems rather simplistic in their behaviors.

The looks of the movie did not feels over the top, although many of the action sequences were. Some of the scenes were very violent, one was particularly grusome. Interestingly enough, they only censored the frontal package of Dr. Manhattan but not the behinds of all the people who show them :P

No More Japanese Suki and Waiting for the right Watchmen

2009-03-09T00:00:00.003+07:00

Today I was reminded why this is the second times in about five years that I have had Japanese Suki. I do not like it much.

Like I mention in my previous post, it was a meat-centric meal, particularly beef, which I am not crazy about. They were thin slices, but not too fond of it. My friend loved it, according to his bf.

So I propose another Japanese restaurant. A Japanese grill house this times, in Victory Monument area. I will probably do it with them in a couple of weeks.

I also wants to see Watchmen but the movie is not shown in the ex-IMAX theater in the cineplex near my house. Nor it is playing in the current IMAX theater in Paragon either... I wants to watch this movie in big screen like the old days with two decks seats.

The only theater like that left are in Siam Square area, which is quite far for me. We will see... I am planning to buy 24" monitor anyway. I will be one of the movie that I will download later for sure.

PS: It is so hot right now... I can't wait till rainy season...

Blazing Heat

2009-03-07T14:28:00.003+07:00

The Summer is now hit BKK in full force. Luckily though, it seems that the heat mostly generate from the sun as the night is still quite comfortable once the light was off.

Now I shower with the shower head turned to spray mode which feels very nice on my skin. As oppose to 2 months ago when I have to turn it to massage mode to get the water in thick stream which retain the most heat.

Tomorrow will be the second times I will eat Japanese style sukiyaki. Which is very different from the Chinese style that I usually see or had in BKK. The soup is different, the way you eat it is quite different not to mention the ingredient.

I only had it once several years ago. It was a meat-centric meal that I did not feet very good afterward. Maybe they will have some noodle this time around.

The Day I Handed out Cans of Whopped Ass

2009-03-04T17:11:00.005+07:00

Today I did a lot of follow up on various issues which still not resolved in my office. The ongoing process of Formica resurfacing bookcases, the broken projector, the car exhuast fume that came into the a/c vent, and the strangely high counter number of the new photocopier.

I have manage to express my displeasure with the way things are on the first three issues, which still goes unresolved for a couple weeks (The car exhaust problem is longer). Especially the bookcase resurfacing and projector cases. The resurfacing issue is by now, a week late. The work is just not up to par, the current carpenter just not have enough skill to do it neatly. After working on it for 2-3 days. I finally had enough and ask the vendor to send better personal who have enough skill to do the task. The new carpenter is said to come in on Friday morning.

The car exhaust fume issue is also a big problem for my office. So far, the problem has been handle rather poorly (in my idea at least). Since the building techinicians still cannot figured out where the leaks happen. Since it only happen after other normal office hour, as other office workers went home, their cars congested in the back of my floor and the fume gathered. After giving me non-specific "We are looking into what/where/how to fix the problem", I finally told the contact person to give me update every two weeks regardless. I considered this is serious issue. It is unacceptable that this happen, not to mention the rather nonchanlant attitude of the maintenant crew.

I call to follow up on when will we get back the projector. The supplier was not much help because they also have to send the projector to HP. So I decided to ask for HP contact number and do the follow up myself. After calling them a couple fo times, asking for specific finish date, express my displeasure with their service and some hardline questioning, I finally got a confirmation that the projector will be ready to pickup tomorrow.

The photocopier issue was a lot easier to handle. The saleslady who visited the office today had figured out the reason why the counter is so high. If bypass feed tray was used with default configuration the machine will count it as two pages. Maybe... it will also count double when the A3 size pages were made. I will have to check this out when the techinician comes.

All these incompetent raised my blood pressure. Although I partially enjoy railing on these people who seems to unable to give me the specific date or solution to my problem. Of which, then, it became their problem. I suppose this is my learning not to take crap from people and demand of them what I need.

Another Banned Youtube Account

2009-03-02T00:14:00.002+07:00

**Sigh** My second youtube account got permanent banned because I uploaded *copyrighted* materials...

For some of the stuffs, I admit that it is not quite right to uploaded them. But geez at least one or two things got me banned was uncalled for. I suppose I would hardly understand why youtube or rather Google now, feels that they needs to policing the copyrighted material on youtube. Everything that went up there got their quality reduced considerbly that it won't worth much. I Know because I had download videos from youtube and rip the audio into mp3 for me to listen to.

I had checked the video clip with codec analyzer and found that the audio usually got reduced to 22000 Mhz and 64 KBit. Sometimes it even got reverted from streo to mono!

I am not sure if I will make another account or not... After all I had uploaded a bunch of stuff that is well liked by a lot of people... I am not sure if it would worth the efforts anymore.

An Old Lesson

2009-02-19T18:17:00.000+07:00

When I was in, what would be the equivalent of the eighth grade, one of the teachers gave my class a life lesson on drugs and drugs use. Of which I am sure would get him in a lot of trouble, had he talk of this in USA.

He told us that if we wants to try drugs, it is better to wait until we are adults. Because then we will not interfere with the physical development and be responsible enough to take care of ourselves. He also said that he tried a bit if almost everything from marijuana to meths. And then he give warnings not to never ever try heroin because it will hook you from the first time.

I find that this is a sound advice. I have never tried drugs and never have the urge to do so. The closet thing I ever tried is popper :P For some reason, it never give me the affect people were raving about... Just a sniff of something that smell strange.

Vintage Valentine Card

2009-02-16T23:56:00.004+07:00

A former fan of my blog, now my friend, email me a scan of a vintage Valentine card. I like the looks very much. I ask him if I can post it on my blog, he said yes, so here it is :)

He said he found the card in his grandmother's belongings and it was from the year 1908. It looks amazing despite being made more than a 100 years ago. I would say it has the timeless looks of something that is classic and stylish :)

The Drill and The Summer

2009-02-14T21:42:00.003+07:00

The fire drill when along nicely today. The drill finish within 12 minutes, which is a good time. However, all the students were herded into the front lawn of the nearby furniture shopping mall and broken one of their ground spotlight in the process.

The shopping mall people was quite understanding and only asked us to pay for the damage. Which turns out to be relatively cheap for the office.

Summer started to show it's ugly side here. My room started to become hot. The heat seems to emit from my bed and my bedroom floor. Then the mosquitoes began to show up. I had bought an electric mosquito zapper for this purpose.

Oddly enough it felt relatively cool when I woke up. I wondered if it's really the weather or if it just my body readjusting the sense of warmth itself when I slept.

Anyway, tomorrow is my weekends, I am looking forward to wake up without using the alarm.

Office Simulation

2009-02-13T21:22:00.002+07:00

Tomorrow will be rather exciting in my office. There will be a fire drill exercise.

It's been a long time coming. We only had fire drill once since I join the office, and that was done by the building management.

Tomorrow it will be a real exercise for the students and teachers. It will be interesting to see how this goes. This will be my first time. I should remembering the details as much as I could since there will be more in the future.

Day of Yawning

2009-02-12T17:53:00.002+07:00

It began last night when I feels very sleepy just around midnight. Which is quite unusual since I usually went to bed around 1:30AM.

It was such heavy drowsiness that I barely able to sit straight in my chair, so I decided to gave in, take a shower and turn in soon after.

Today the sleepiness happens again since late afternoon. Now it is only an hour and a half until it is time for me to go home. I am looking forward to that...

I wondered why I became so sleepy lately... It would be nice if it only happen at home :P

Here Comes Summer

2009-02-09T20:57:00.003+07:00

Summer has finally arrived, though I have been kinda missing it, the thought went away once I am *in* it.

Today the sun shone bright and hot when I walk to Central Ladpraw for my meal. I did a bit of shopping today as well. Buy some more discounted shower creams, toothpastes, and face cream. I think I will buy one more item tomorrow since the discount was like 70% :)

I have also been playing game quite excessively. Been binging on 'Evil Genius', albeit, cheating heavily :P

I have also been playing quite a few DS games namely 'Big Bang Mini' and 'My World My Way'. There will also be a couple of games that I will play once they got released as well.

Tomorrow I will be having a pizza buffet at Narai Pizzaria in MBK with a friend. It will be the first times I do pizza buffet. Narai have buffet on late Thuesday afternoon only. The food there was quite ok and I am looking forward to eat them through. I hardly eat pizza, mainly because they are quite expensive here and not really filling, not to mention fattenning :P I will eat only light lunch tomorrow to make room for the buffet dinner.

Questionable Object

2009-02-03T21:05:00.002+07:00

I have found this... thing , in Ursula's blog comment.

Click here to see it. I will not post the image directly because of what it is.

It is a dildo on a harness strap on the chest... The sight of it boggle my mind quite thoroughly and make me exclaim, in my head, how did the person who make this came up with this idea...

I suppose there must be market for it, after all, it still being sold.

Food Reflection II: Green Dream

2009-01-30T15:20:00.002+07:00

Lately I have been accustom to eating more vegetables. Not just the simply white radish soup that was usually the only thing I would eat but I gradually added watercress and *gasp* brocolli to the mix.

I am sure that my younger self would be aghast by this fact if he saw the kind of vegetable I did ate now. I have been eating, not just carrot and cabbage, but brocolli, basil, bamboo shot, and bell pepper.

I still remembered how my mom told me that her younger sister used to not eat a lot of vegetable when she was younger and how she now eat vegetablea lot more. I never thought that that would happen to me. The fact that now it did happen, boggled my mind a fair bit.

It is better for my health I am sure so I am not complaining. I am also sure that I will not began eating salad anytime soon :p