barghers.com

Liberated, Freed and Emancipated

Serious post ahead, might be boring.

Exams are finally over, and so should be my stress. However, to me, that’s not exactly the case though…. There has been many distractions for me throughout the year, resulting to minimal study on my part. As a student, I didn’t think I fulfilled my responsibility. There are various instances where I should have done something, but instead more than often, nothing is done. Even if there’s some action on my part, that act it self doesn’t contribute to my final goal as a university student.

Disappointed I am, with myself. I really am not sure what the hell on Earth has gotten into me since I left school a few years ago. Perhaps it has always been like this, perhaps it is just that I had two pairs of watchful eyes that ensured that I did what I am supposed to do back then. Freed of the guidance, I guess that part of me which had always been sealed off is awakened by various stimuli present in the real world.

Funny as it seem, hardwork is not so much a virtue anymore these days. People, the younger ones, often try put on airs by claiming that with minimal or no work on their part, they are able to achieve desirable results. The value of hardwork is depreciating, as a function of time. It appears that the new generation are placing inborn talent above hardwork, so much so that everyone wants to be part of the gifted group who are bestowed upon by the heavens. I sure was a fool myself, to believe such moronic lies, and to share such deluded views. If indeed I was given a choice of the title of geniuses, I’d definitely choose to be a Genius of Hardwork.

Stupid and foolish are the only words that can describe me, though they are not sufficient. Sloth has gotten into me as well, a result, I believe, of my foolish views of nature of things. No more did I believe that I should work for things that I desired. Instead, I was began to wished that things would just fall off the sky, right through the roof and onto my laps. Foolish indeed.

Perhaps this is one of the few times where the better part of me is conscious. But I do not know how long this state of mind will last. I truly fear that I might slip back into the oblivion conjured by Sloth. All pleasure’s the same, it just keeps me from problems. Problems that I ought to provide a solution to. Perhaps I should just find comfort in pain. It will be tough, but I don’t think I’m left with much options.

I don’t intend to say more, I think I’ve said enough. I also don’t think I will be responding much to this post. If you find it meaningless, sorry I have wasted your time.

Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition

Today marks the release of Dungeons and Dragons (DnD) 4th Edition. For the uninitiated, DnD is currently the most popular role-playing game (RPG) system available. Pencil-and-paper role playing began in the 70s and exploded into mainstream popularity in the 90s. It is a game where people gather around a table and forge their own adventures. There would be a storyteller (called Dungeon Master) and a few players. The Dungeon Master is the creator of the adventure and the players are the participants in the story. All of the ‘adventure’ actually occurs in one’s imagination.

I remember playing pencil-and-paper role playing game with my cousins back in the 90s. I was always awed by the polyhedral dice that my cousin own and had always wished that I had a set of my own. However, they were expensive (at least to me that time) and I couldn’t afford them.

I don’t really remember what rule system that my cousin used, but the adventures that we had was sure fun. Being a young child, my imagination was very well alive (most of our imagination died when we enter adulthood). There are many unexplored dungeons, unvisited towns, unmet people and unseen things. My cousin would build a world where magic and monsters are common and me, being an adventurer in that world, would try to forge a legend of my own. I would hack monsters down, discover magical items and meet beautiful princesses.

Sometimes, there would be fights between my cousins. Being too engrossed in the game, it is very easy to get emotionally attached. The Dungeon Master, my cousin W, was the elder brother of J, a player like me in the game. Both of them would fight whenever J felt that W was picking on him by steering the story against his advantage. It is quite funny as even though the fight usually ends up in tears, we would always plead W to play again whenever we met. It was truly addictive, as it provides an outlet for our fantasy to come true.

Being 21 this year, I think I have lost some of my creative imagination. I was thinking of restarting RPG but I cannot seem to find people who plays them anymore. I never really had a proper group that I get to play with throughout my entire life, apart from my cousins. Now that I got the money to buy the relevant books required, I cannot seem to find players. Lol, life sure is funny.

Anyway, if there are any DnD players out there, perhaps we can meet up when I’m in Malaysia to have a game or two. I’m a total newbie that really wants to play. All the sweet memories that I had, I wish that it will come back to me once again. Do leave a comment here to let me know if you play RPG.

p/s: Pat, remember the other meaning of RPG? :P Come to think of it, sure had fun teasing you back then. Hahahah… But I think it is really inappropriate to utter it now that we’re adults….. *sigh, being kids is still the best…..

Here In My Home

Hey peeps, I happen to come across this video on the Internet. Thought that I might share it with you. In my initial hearing of the song, it isn’t very ’smooth’, I must say. But on my second hearing, I found it very likable.

There are many artists that came together to produce this song for free. Their aim is to promote unity and everything is explained in their site at http://www.malaysianartistesforunity.info/. Somehow, I think the lyrics in the song reflects the political atmosphere in our country at the moment. I think I shall refrain from commenting anything political; I don’t wanna sit in jail under ISA.

When I heard of this song, I suddenly had a homesick feeling….. Guess it is only natural, cause I do love Malaysia a lot.

I Found My Answer

Finally! An answer to my lifelong question that I have spent so much time thinking about. I’m sure all of you here would like to know the answer to the question too: Why is Zi Dong so perverted???

Now, now, before you girls (especially Renly, Pat, MJ, CM, Jinni, Crystal and Kristy) start blaming me for every perverted thought, speech or actions of mine during the our secondary school days, it’s time to look into the mirror and ask yourself the question, are you to be blamed too? Well, according to a reputable source, Malaysian school uniforms are actually sexy.

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/5/22/nation/21326822&sec=nation

Quote:

KUALA LUMPUR: A Malaysian group condemned the uniform worn by girls at government schools, saying it encouraged rape and pre-marital sex.

“The white blouse is too transparent for girls and it becomes a source of attraction,” National Islamic Students Association of Malaysia vice-president Munirah Bahari said in a statement.

“It becomes a distraction to men, who are drawn to it, whether or not they like looking at it,” she said, calling for a review of uniform policy so that it did not violate Islamic ideals.

Given that you girls tempt me with such sexy uniforms everyday, can I solely be blamed for those perverted thoughts?

Look at the above, aren’t they sexy? Come on, being a normal hot-blooded guy, how can one not have perverted thoughts? It’s already a great feat that my eyes never pop out whenever I’m with you sexy girls.

So, you should be grateful to all the self-control that I exerted on myself throughout all these years. So, the next time you want to blame me for being a pervert, remove those temptations first. Then we can talk.

p/s: The post is satirical. This means: DON’T SUE ME!

Got My Survivor Today!

No, this is not an entry about the Survivor Rap from Phua Chu Kang. This is an entry about my new Corsair Survivor (non-GT) 8GB USB flash drive that just arrived less than 3 hours ago. I’ve been waiting for this baby to arrive for almost an entire week, and naturally I’m excited.

If you’re wondering about what got me so excited, for one, it’s the price - I paid about RM 250 or £39 for my Survivor. Now, why on Earth would someone in their sane mind purchase something that costs more than 2.5x of any other fully-functional, albeit ordinary USB stick which can be purchased for less than RM 100?

Lo and behold the world’s most rugged USB flash drive:

The Survivor is encased in CNC-milled, anodized aircraft-grade aluminum, which provides the foundation for its extreme ruggedness. Needless to say, it is both shock resistant and water resistant up to 200 meters. Revealing the contents of the package, we have a Corsair dog tag and a USB extension cable along with the Survivor itself.

To use the Survivor requires one to unscrew one side of the casing. I cannot help to notice that Survivor is indeed built to precision as everytime I screw the cap back, it always ends up at the same spot.

There are tonnes of glorious reviews on the ruggedness of Survivor available on the Internet, most of it done by professional reviewers and thus, I shall skip the ruggedness test. For your convenience, I have provided links below to those reviews so that you can view them at your pleasure. Instead, I shall just mention in brief about the survivor instincts of Survivor:

• It survived the pressure test of being run over multiple times by a 2 tonne four-wheel drive.
• It passed the crucial washing machine and dryer test
• It still works perfectly after staying inside a cube of ice in the freezer for more than 12 hour
• It refuses to be cooked by boiling water

Although I skipped the ruggedness test, I did do a speed test to see the real world performance of Survivor. After all, what use does it do if it function like a giant tortoise when plugged into the USB port? Armed with a stopwatch, I conducted 3 tests:

1. Copying many MP3 files (total size 1.03 GB, average MP3 file of size 4 MB) from my computer to Survivor took 196 seconds - An average write speed of 5.38 MB/s
2. Copying one large AVI file (size 700 MB) into Survivor took 89 seconds - An average write speed of 7.87 MB/s
3. Copying one large AVI file (size 700 MB) from the Survivor into my laptop took 39 seconds - An average read speed of 17.94 MB/s

I don’t really have a yardstick to measure as this is the only flash drive that I have at the moment, but do feel free to test the speed of your flash drive and post comments below.

Official Site: Corsair Memory - Survivor

Reviews: Everything USB, Phoronix

Comparison Reviews: Core Computers, Driver Heaven

Some of the reviews above are for the Survivor GT version, which is a faster version of Survivor. However, mine is a non-GT version (GT version costs more than twice of the non-GTs, can’t afford them) and thus, the speed review is not a description of the Survivor that I currently own. Nevertheless, the ruggedness and everything else are the same for both editions.

As a final note, I’ve read Corsair’s support forum and they seems to have a great support for their product range. Did I mention that the Survivor comes with a 10-year warranty? This means that if there are problems with your Survivor even after using it for 2 years, they will replace them for free. :)