The Matrix Reloaded is action-packed (as expected)... but I do feel that the storyline is a bit slack... and the scene with "The Architect"? Boy! You might hafta be a math genius to understand what he's talking about. Probabilities... statistics...

Yesterday, I had a scrumptious lunch with my family and some of dad's guests at the PSC. We dropped by my aunt's place for dinner since she invited the whole lot of us in her extended family to her daughter's 1-year old celebration... Then I rushed home to watch F1.

The Austrian F1 GP Race was a rather disappointing one for me... so sad! Montoya had a good chance to win and then his BMW engine blew... bah! Also... both Saubers didn't finish... the only thing I'm content about the race is that Raikkonenen is still maintaining his lead in the driver's championship by a mere 2-points margin.

My car has been away from last Sunday til Wednesday evening... and I've gone to work on Wesak Day... just coz Agilent doesn't recognize it as one... so essentially - I did nothing interesting to date. I'm gonna drown myself in my workpile as I countdown to the hours... minutes... and seconds til the time I'm going to watch "The Matrix: Reloaded". Have a nice weekend everyone!

Mon, 12 May: The PBA has been replacing pipes along my home's street since Saturday. It's kinda fun to see some brainless drivers honking at the big mean metal machines that blocks off the whole street while they are working... only to turn down a street somewhat opposite my house - and then reversing out when they see that it's a dead end.... hehe... it really cracks me up!

Meanwhile, I can't believe Jenna won the 1 million in Survivor 6!! Like many others, I actually hoped that Matthew would win it. But anyhow, it was refreshing to hear Jenna commenting on herself as she reviewed the videos of Survivor 6 during the Survivor 6: Reunion - "I'm so annoying... and I've learnt a lot..." (p/s: they all look much better too and much more endearing after all the "carnality")

The biggest about-turn decision was definitely from an admirably strong character, Christy. She also proved one thing by being the first ever deaf person on Survivor - A handicap doesn't mean not getting far into the game - all you need to do is have confidence and play ball. ;)

And yeah... I had a good laugh too with the Reunion's cheesy start where the show host, Jeff Probst, takes motor ski to the marina and takes a subway ride before getting into the Late Show's theater. It's also an amazing thing that David Letterman loaned them the use of the theater...

... well... u know since Letterman especially loves to make jokes about Survivor. A very kind gesture indeed since the Survivor Reunion was originally set up out in Central Park... with just one problem... It's being hit by a strom. Another amazing feat is that the Survivor's crew managed to set up an elaborate set in Letterman's theatre within 12 hours!!

Fri, 9 May: Oh yes! Yes! Yes! One of the 2 (super...?) dumb bitches of Survivor 6 has been voted out. I feel it'll be an all guy last 3. If Rob makes it to the last 3 and doesn't get immunity - he should be the chosen one to accompany whomever gets immunity. Rob's no angel in the game and he's got a lot of people in the jury who's out to get him - so whoever gets immunity should take Rob to the final 2 to ensure a cool million in their own pocket.

And... oh yeah! Dad brought back some stuff from his trip to Houston... including a set of 4 Harry Potter books that costs him just an amazing USD16.99 (that'd be RM64.56) - there's no way we can buy 4 of those books here at that kinda rate.

Sat, 10 May: Can't believe I started playing Neopets again for the past week or so after giving it up about a year ago. Just gotta remember feed, groom and play with my online pet once in a while... and keep a check that I don't waste too much time with this.

Mon, 6 May: Don't quite remember what I was doing on Monday... can only mean that nothing significant happened... or maybe it's my short term memory failing me...

Oh!! Aha!! Now I remember... I went to watch X-men 2 at the Prangin MegaPav with Jase. It sure lives up to the first movie and maybe even surpassses it. Thumbs up to the hairdo makeover for Storm. Kinda shows that she has calmed down a little and more in control of her emotions.

Tue, 7 May: I was called to be given an official verbal job offer and asked to go for the routine pre-employment medical check-up in the morning. I joined my colleagues for lunch at a Thai Restaurant called Siriwan at Crystal Point. It's pricey but highly recommendable. Later I took a 30 min break from work to have the medical check-up done at the nearest clinic ;P

On my way to hand the medical report over to the HR rep, I stopped by to chat with one of the people who's involved in setting up this new team of people that I'll be working with. It's regarding transition and how I can manage my time to help them out as soon as I can with their web-buletin/communications. Ahh... I look forward to a new leaf!

Wed, 8 May: After being told that I'm medically fit (last hurdle of red tape) - I've officially signed with Agilent starting sometime in June 2003. Later at night, Joce joined me to go to Gurney Plaza. I had a few things to pick up including a Book/CD set for learning to speak, read, and write Japanese. After our evening out at Gurney, we went to get some tandoori chicken from Kapitan along Chulia Street.

At first when we got there, we sadly thought the shop was closed... only to notice that they've moved to a nicely renovated shop somewhat slightly further up the road. Ahh... lovely, lovely tandoori chicken and garlic naan with lots of mint sauce *slurp! yummy!!*

The F1 Spanish GP, Catalunya Circuit, Barcelona:

The race starts with a Bang! as Raikkonen hits into Pizzonia who's stalled on the grid. Other than that - the whole race didn't have much drama. The fallouts were mainly because of mechanical failures. Williams had a pretty good run considering the difficulties they've been experiencing... Sauber just isn't having a good weekend and have lots to work on... McLaren had a lousy day... while Minardi finally gets to see both their cars finish

...and of course an excellent run for Ferrari in their debut with the F2003 car and also for a good race by Alonso for Renault - an underdog team now much in contention for the championship

Fri, 2 May: Hmm... my watch ticks but the hands are not moving *raises an eyebrow* Looks like I'll go and buy myself one of those metal Swatch(es) way earlier than I planned to. Anyhow, looks like my trusty watch has marked 2 significant points of my life. It was given to me by a friend as a farewell gift when I was leaving college and it "dies" when I'm moving to a new job.

p/s: Oh yeah! I've finished watching the first set of CardCaptor Sakura! Just waiting to get the remainding episodes from Nick... and woohoo! Here I go again!!

Sat, 3 May: I've got work today... *bleh...* Anyhow, after lunch, mum & I went out to do some banking before heading to Gurney Plaza. The Nokia Roadshow was there... and I took some Nokia info-cards from their promotion kiosk. At Swatch... I took some time to choose between 3 watches and ended up choosing a black-faced Swatch Irony. It has a nice weight to it too. We later went to MPH where I told mum to choose a book and I'll buy it for her as her Mother's Day present.

Sun, 5 May: Nothing much happened today. I've finally gotten round to watch the VCD of "Chicago". Catherine Zeta-Jones, Renee Zellweger & Richard Gere sure looked spiffy doing their dancing parts on their own... and Zeta-Jones sure have a pretty commanding and dramatic singing voice for her part as Velma Kelly.

Other than that, I glued myself to the TV for the Spanish GP in the Catalunya Circuit, Barcelona... and my computer for 2 episodes of Smallville.

The Charity Costume Ball for the Children's Protection Society (Wed, 30 Apr):

Oh well... with whatever miscommunication that occured within HR - it sure caused me quite some time. I found myself rushing home and getting stuck in rush hour traffic. I arrived home at about the same time my colleague arrived at my place. We were car pooling up to Rasa Sayang (that's the venue). Aargh! Again... I found myself rushing about. In about 10 mins, I've tossed everything I need into a backpack (including my SLR camera).

When we finally got there - we headed straight to the toilet where I took about 45mins to get myself dressed into my somewhat Greek outfit. Happily dressed up - we finally graced into the ballroom. It looked like a harem!! ...at least the deco made it look like that ...and guys? I think you would've gotten an eyeful at the pretty girls in Arabian outfits (including the belly dancers who were in sheer outfits) XP

Thu, May 1, Labor Day! I slept like a pig - waking up at about 1pm. I'm replenished in rest tho' I have to note that I only slept at 3:30am since I watched about 3 hrs worth of CardCaptor Sakura after I got home. Feeling superbly energized at night - I couldn't go to sleep early and ended up watching another 3 hrs of CardCaptor Sakura ;)

Bizarro things about my interview:

As you know, last Monday, I had an interview. What I didn't mention was while I was at the interview rooms waiting area, early, and waited for my turn... one of the interviewers who knows me greeted me ever so cheerfully when she noticed me there while she was about to call the next candidate to be interviewed. I bet whomever else was there got chilled to the bone assuming that people doing the interviews are familiar with a fellow interviewee. I would get slightly freaked too if I were in their shoes.

A while later, when I saw my interviewer (Sunny) guiding a prior interviewee out I thought, "Hey, OK! He's guiding someone out!". So I wait a pretty long wait... 10-15 mins to send someone out sure is darned long. Weird... but anyhow when he came back - he was stunned to see me already at the waiting area and said, "I was looking for you! I called you and Lyne (the secretary) to look for you but no one picked up the phones. Sorry to have you wait."... so I just said "Erm yeah... I was waiting here when I saw you guiding someone out *smile*"

On Wed, I was to have another interview. This time I waited an hour or so... but when Sunny walked in - he had that same stunned look he gave me on Monday, as he exclaimed - "What are you doing here?! I thought I've done your interview...". I went "Well, I'm not too sure myself but Seok Eng called me on Monday night to come again today." He then said, "Okay... let's go check with Seok Eng what happened"

And so we later found out that Seok Eng somehow got confused and called me in for an interview instead of just asking me to remember to hand over a copy of all my necessary academic certificates. That's quite a bit of time wasted.

Mon, 28 Apr: Minding my own business when I got a call from Sunny Kan that he'd like to interview me at about 4:45pm today at 11am-ish. I said OK... and soon as I put down the phone - I panicked. It just hit me that I have no copies of all the documents required for attending interviews *sweats!*

At 4pm, I walked to HR to take one of those interview application forms to fill and was told that my name wasn't in the list of interviewees for the day. Nevermind that... if Sunny called personally - it should be on anyway.

At 5:40pm, I came out from the initial interview. I was told that the interview was just a formality and that he (Sunny) wanted to profile me for the most suitable spot that he can think of among all those job openings that are being rolled out. *That means I'll have a new job?! Cool!! ...but wait! I'd be happier when I see the offer letter...*

Later at 7-8-ish, a HR admin from Agilent called to ascertain certain details and also to arrange a 2nd interview... and so I was scheduled for an interview on Wed, 5pm. *Wonder what will happen, nih?*

Oh... p/s: I need sleep!! Came in earlier to work to reach a deadline and ended up having a Nod-Off at a traffic stop. For the split second that I relaxed and let go of the brakes... my car slided forward and lightly kissed the car in front of mine. Thankfully there's no damage to that guy's car. Mine just suffered a partially broken license plate. I glued it back together much later at night.

Tue, 29 Apr: Photostated everything I needed for the interview in multiples of 3 - I hope they don't mind that I have only one passport photo left. Too much of a short notice sure doesn't allow me to get new copies done in time since it's quite hard to find a photo shop that opens til 10pm or something like that.

At home, I continued with my makeshift sewing for the costume... I just need it for one night so all those temporary sewing stitches will do. Of course it doesn't help that the cloth is soft or else I could make use of the sewing machine. I'm going ala Greek.

Sat, 26 Apr: Went shopping at Kamdar with Sze Lin. I bought 2 lengths of cloth, one white and one purple - more than enough for me to experiment with. Can probably wrap myself into oblivion? Yup! Very likely. We later met up with Vijaya at Gurney Plaza. I managed to find some accessories while Vij bought herself a pair of pants.

Sun, 27 Apr: Woke up early today for my road trip to Taiping with Chin Chin to visit Lokie. Left Penang at 8:15am and reached Taiping in slightly more than an hour later. Luckily for us the directions to Lokie's place were easy to follow - if not I'm sure we'd be lost in an unfamiliar place.

Lokie & her husband took us round Taiping. First stop - we had koay teow soup for breakfast. It's slightly different from the one we have in Penang. Next, they took us round to see Lake Gardens and we decided to go into the Taiping Zoo too. It's a pretty nice place and most of the animals looked OK except for the ostriches who look like they are half plucked. We also had the chance to play with a young horn-eared owl. Cute little fella... :)

Later on, they took us round to see some other landmarks near the town. We were also taken round the base of Maxwell Hill (Bkt Larut). Then it was lunch in town at a place Chin said her colleague said that the "Mee Rebus" was good followed by a little bit of window shopping. After that we went for tea before heading back to Lokie's place for a short rest before heading back to Penang at 4pm.

Later at 8pm, I went to Gurney Plaza's Nandos to meet up with Dan Khoo, Malcolm, Ash, PK, Jen, Pei Ling, Poon Wei, Jacob, Steven, and Norlman. We later moved to Segafredo's to chat. A busy but nice day indeed.

YeShHHh iT's FriDaY!! Wonder what kinda outfit I will end up with for the charity ball in aid of children's aid/protection that my colleagues asked me to join them for.

It's on 30th April. Must be dressed in a Mediterranean-like costume or be fined a hefty RM50 (if I'm not wrong). Not much time left so must think about something simple that needs the least time sacrificed for putting it together.

So what's been going on for the past few days? I housekept my work mailbox coz I nearly hit my quota on the server, dealt with a cranky data entry system, and a frantic data entry requestor because... well...

as usual... some people just realise stuff at the very last minute and feel as though the sky is falling on them. Of course it didn't quite help that the system was cranky and it is difficult to explain in detail to my customer (without using technical jargon) on what's screwy. Amen.

Anyhow, I've passed my resume to Angela late Tuesday. I do hope I get the interview and a new job soon. Having too little to do kills braincells faster than you can say... Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome.

Yes... blogger has been rather cranky - Get this: Pre-typing in notepad, copy & paste would usually work fine... but clicking the post & publish just gets me a screen of "Page not Found" and other quirky errors. Ah well...

The weekend was a pretty quiet one for me. So what did I do? Let's see... Saturday (19 Apr) morning - went for a hike up to the Air Itam dam and back with Kok Keong, Sze Lin and her sis Evan. Sze Lin was pretty much the most exhausted one among us on the hike up. Later in the afternoon, dad had the car towed back. The radiator is leaking... brave of him to even attempt going to Prai. So car will be visiting the workshop on Monday. *sigh*

Tried to meet up with the Kalamari but we couldn't really find the time to do so. In the evening, it was time for plastering myself on the seat for the San Marino (Italian) GP Qualifying round. The weather looks sombre as though it were reflecting the mood of the Schumacher brothers. Their mums in coma and they were to return to Germany with their wives to see her in the hospital after qualifying.

Easter Sunday (20 Apr) is yet another quiet day for me. Morning - cartoons and cartoons and cartoons. Couldn't go anywhere anyway... the car is still best left alone and thought of as out of commission. Don't wanna get stranded anyhow. Evening? You guessed it - glued to the TV like super-glue.

The 2003 Italian F1 GP race is on... it was a fairly boring one at that. The only really interesting things to observe were the pitstops where some fuel rigs were malfunctioning... and Montoya was one hell of an unlucky driver to have to go in for an extra pitstop just to get fuel coz it didn't go in the first time round. It cost him the contention for a 3rd or 4th position and finished in 7th. *sigh*

Anyhow, the Schumachers did well although they've been told of their mum's passing hours prior to the race. As Michael Schumacher puts it, "...she would have wanted me to race...". Ralf ended up 4th and Sir Frank Williams sang his praises for his driver who managed well although he was under emotional distress.

Meanwhile, in light of their situation, the understanding race committee announced before the race start that they have made a decision to exempt the Schumachers from participating in post-race formalities if they choose to do so. All in all, a great race for both Ferrari and Williams albeit a bittersweet one for their top drivers of the day, a good one for McLaren, and a pretty disappointing one for Sauber.

Today: Woke up with minor headache but as I grow more awake - the worse it got... Quickly took something to eat b4 taking a painkiller and 2 panadols... and the decision that I should not drive today. And so... I have a lunch appointment with friends and still haven't settled transportation... sweEeeeEet :) -

Updates: I have a ride to and back from lunch - neato! Had a nice bowl of glass noodle soup for lunch today. The group included Chin², Ashwin, Malcolm, Dan Khoo, Julian & Angelia.

A Happy Good Friday to those observing this day... "Gosh, TGIF already!!" to all others... and a Happy Easter way in advance! May the sweeter toothed among us be blessed with loads of candies from the Easter Bunny... hehehe... :D

According to World's Smallest Political Quiz - I'm a centrist. "Centrists favor selective government intervention and emphasize practical solutions to current problems. They tend to keep an open mind on new issues. Many centrists feel that government serves as a check on excessive liberty."

Your Personal Self-Government Score is 70%.
Your Economic Self-Government Score is 40%.

Thu, 17 Apr: I took a day off and found myself in the NRD to apply for MyKad. The time on my ticket, numbered 1152 and last number called 1050, was 8:34am. About 10 mins later, I saw a college friend - his number was 121x. 50 numbers in 10 mins... amazing! I was called to have my photo taken at about 10am... and was shepherded along with 9 others to an office.

Just our luck that the last 4 of us had to wait a while coz something went wrong with the NRD digicam and the lady didn't know what to do with it... until some guy came and saved the day. Turns out that she didn't know how to focus the camera... ahh... bless the ignorant.

With photo taken - it was time to go back to the main waiting area to have my number called again so that I could be thumb-printed. Application completed at about 11am. Next - I decided to drop by KDU to visit a bunch of my favourite people there... it's nice to catch up with them. Then it was home for lunch.

After lunch, I bugged my mum to move faster since she was taking her time to preen herself... banks close at 3:30pm and I was afraid of long queues for the ATM card upgrades... it was 1:30pm when we left... and surprise! Maybank on Jln Masjid Negeri had virtually no one there... no numbering system to contend with... total time taken to complete all our banking transactions - 15 mins.

Next, to town to find a Commisioner of Oaths 'coz mum needs to sign some insurance claim legal documents... we are finally getting back the $ from the accident I was in on 30 Aug 2002. Then it was a tea stop at McD Drive Thru b4 heading home and a nap. At 5pm, I was woken up w/ what seemed like a headache... "Nvm" I thought... just get grandpa home. But when I got home... headache was just getting worse... Watched TV until 8 and decided I've lost all want or need for dinner. Slept at 8++pm.

Tue, 15 Apr: Had a sinfully heavy buffet lunch with my colleagues in Shangri-La's Coffee Garden... *burp* We were celebrating a belated birthday for Lyne (our secretary) and also the promotion of Angela (my soon-to be former supervisor).

Anyhow, my brother arrived home from KL in the afternoon but he'll be going back late tomorrow evening. For once after a pretty long while - I indulged in some "char koay teow" for supper...

I finally continued with watching my Smallville episodes of 15 and 16. I bet guys would love season1 ep15 (Nicodemus). Look out for it and you'll know what I mean *wink* May your jaws drop to the ground.

News of war is depressing yet I've managed to watch up to 6.5 of 10 episodes of Band of Brothers over the weekend. After watching so much about soldiers during World War II - my heart also goes out to soldiers who have been roped in to fight in arms. Some will lose a limb or two, some others severely injured and may not fully recover, some will not be able to even go home alive. It's a job they can't get out of even if some of them don't believe in the justification given by Bush/Blair and their respective military top dogs.

F1 Updates: Fisichella is officially awarded the win for the Interlagos GP! With the results now changed to be based on the results at the end of Lap 54 instead of Lap 53 - there were some winners and losers in this instance. Meanwhile, Fisichella will get his rightful podium for the Brazilian GP in a ceremony organized by Ford, days prior to the San Marino GP.

F1 Updates: It looks like the F1A is reviewing the results issued on Sunday and Fisichella may be announced the victor. Fisichella will not set himself for disappointment before an official decision is declared after an F1A discussion scheduled for Friday.

Looks like the Jordan team and Fisichella might be having a celebration after all... and also... Fisichella might finally get his first and well-earned GP win!

With so much being said and reported about Coronavirus Pneumonia (previously known as SARS) and the war in Iraq... that's all we hear about while walking in public areas, and read about in the newspapers. Heck! Even TV stations are putting up hourly updates regarding the war. There's no escape from it all!

For instance - last Saturday morning. While taking a "cool down round of walking" around the Botanical Gardens after hiking halfway up the tar road trail to Penang Hill and down a dirt trail with Kok Keong - a bunch of people jokingly asked their acquaintance, who they bumped into, if he had SARS when he was heard coughing...

Next thing you know, they were playfully interrogating him along the lines of making a diagnosis to confirm whether he is a health threat to the public or not.