wolfman

Kong Hei Kong Hei. So a whole bunch of us went out yesterday to see Wolfman. After seeing the trailer i could not make up my mind if it was a horror movie or not.

Before i go any further i must say that the vampire/werewolf genre is saturated already. We have seen everything from twilight to blade and there's no more story there so hollywood, move on.

I don't have much to say about the movie except that it tries to be scary but its not. It certainly is gruesome, there's a lot of blood and arm ripping by a renegade werewolf. Not much in the way of humour also. There's no real story. Again they try to add a love story but it didn't really hold.

Overall it was a disappointing experience. I guess all 14+ of us were tired of house visiting and wanted a change in pace. I will rate the movie a mediocre 4.5 out of 10.

-ONWARD

dell inspiron 1420 graphics card issue

I felt compelled to share a bit of my experience with my computer. 2 years ago i bought my current Dell Inspiron 1420 {Delia} with the Nvidia Geforce 8400m gs graphics card because my previous computer, a BenQ Joybook 2000e, {Ben} one of the first notebooks the company release lacked one so I didn't get to play serious games on it. I miss Ben especially the fan noise. Its easy to mistake it with a plane's engine.

I've always regarded Dell's customer service to be one of the best. This and the customization feature on their website contributed to my decision to get one. In the 2 years since I've had Delia I've not run into any problems what so ever. There have always been a suspicion that the fan may be blocked which explains some of the heat issues I've been experiencing but no deal breaker. Until a few days ago after using it for a while, I shut down and headed for home only to turn it back again and be greeted by a blank screen.

There was no familiar Dell logo and the option to choose between windows 7 and ubuntu. Nothing. So as you can imagine i freaked out. This is not the kind of thing you want to experience when your warranty expires. After exhausting all alternative options i called the Dell helpline and took the option to extend my warranty since they didn't provide any other alternative. It was that or nothing. The nice lady didn't expect me to complain about my computer having display issues but I didn't care. I explained that this issue is suppose to be resolved by Dell since its a known defect with this particular graphics card and I read online on the Dell forum that they were providing replacement motherboards for customers worldwide with this issue free of charge so I made my claim and sure enough one day later I get a call from one of the Dell technical officers with a replacement motherboard. He even cleaned my heatsink and thats where I found out the heatsink was blocked with dust and stuff.

What have I learned?
Know your rights. I think its dubious of Dell to keep quiet when they know this is an issue. And i think they don't do well to inform their customers. I would expect a recall of all the 142o models and a change in either firmware or graphics card. They are big. They can pressure Nvidia to deal with this issue.

Extend your warranty. Yes the computer was dirt cheap but there's a reason for that. They don't make them last so they recover some of their money with warranty costs. From what I understand from the technician, its cheaper if you extend before it runs out. Here too Dell is dubious.

Backup. I was not too scared to lose my data even though I didn't since most of the important documents are in a separate harddrive sitting at home in miri. My songs are on a separate harddrive, portable enough to carry about. Same goes to my pictures.

Get your hands dirty. I know for some people opening up a computer is a scary thing. For me its not. I can't count the number of things i've ruined just because I was too curious and got a screw driver. Especially for laptops its good housekeeping to open the heatsink once in a while and by a while i mean months to clean it, get rid of the dust and things that clog up the vents.

Stay aware. In this age of the internet, ignorance is not an excuse. Make sure you know atleast the basics about your computer. The make, model, and components inside. Occasionally go to manufacturers websites and look for updates to the firmware on your system.

Hope it helps. Gong xi fa cai to all the chinese :)

-ONWARD

again and again

We've been going through the book of John as a church using a system called SPEAK. Basically you read a section of the bible and you try to see if there's a Sin to confess, a Promise to keep, an Error to avoid, and Action to take and a Knowledge of God to retain and its been really good.

The first week has been 'ok la' but this week has been different. I feel like i really get something out of it. Because i lead devotion for a bunch of kids every morning monday to friday, i've been forced to actually do my 'speak' and one recurring theme so far i've found in the book of John is Jesus professing who he is to the people. On and on you will see this. He's telling them i am the way, i am the light in the darkness, i am the messiah but yet they don't seem to get it. They are more concerned about punishing him for healing on the sabbath day.

This morning in devotion, well actually last night it came on so strongly. There are things in our lives that Jesus or God, which ever you prefer has been reminding us over and over again but we don't seem to get the message. Its not sunk in yet. For me its been this phrase 'be strong and courageous'. From my first camp to last night when i was chatting with a friend. She just said it as a kind of encouragement but i know its more than that. Am i listening? Or am i busy with other things?

I've been blessed to have the life that i have and although i don't do it a lot, i want to thank God for his love for me and for persisting on my behalf.

-ONWARD

candlelight

I'm on a Relient K overdose. I just love their forget and not slow down album. Here's candlelight my current favourite song :)

-ONWARD

kuching and some

Happy new year. So Christmas is over and so is 2009. Lots of memories, lots 0f challenges and stuff but this is a new year.

Just a brief update on whats been happening. I'm finally in Kuching after much struggle and uncertainty. Now i think about it, i should have taken the damn bus and come earlier. I missed most of the Bethany performance at the spring shopping mall. It would have been nice to be there but oh well.

Finally had laksa for breakfast today. For some reason it didnt taste as good as i expected, was so-so. In the past few weeks i've watched avatar in 3d, sherlock holmes (homer sherlock, inside joke), played badminton with bare feet - very embarrassing, played futsal with bare feet - equally embarrassing so today i went and got a pair of cheap futsal shoes. Its still tight so its not so comfortable. One disadvantage of living in Asia is that its hard to find shoes size 8 and above. They stock very few in those higher sizes because the majority of shoe sizes are below 8.

My online time has been cut down drastically because of where i live and its making me miss my house in Miri. Just found out i have a new housemate who's from Kuching so its going to be an interesting final year.

What else.. ah resolutions. My resolution for the year? I've decided its a waste of time but i will try to live a better life, be a better friend, housemate, president, son...

I guess thats all for now. Have to be back before starbucks closes. I miss my favourite times square starbucks, dont have to pay to use the wifi huhu. Oh yeah, my insomnia is gone. I finally sleep like a normal human :)

In all your dealings this week don't forget nothing is bigger than our God.

-ONWARD