as lights

I spent a few minutes thinking how to start this but then decided just to write. Ok so before leaving kuching i had lunch with a close friend. I've always wanted to see more from him. I've always wanted him to be more active in church and stuff but talking to him made me think. He encouraged me without realising it.

He shared about his struggles and how God has led him through. How he had to let go of all his plans and dreams before God stepped in and opened a new way. And how through being a real friend he won his over housemate from the 'darkside'. And there's nothing spiritual in what he shared. Sure there was God but it was not in a religious spiritual way it was, i felt natural.

Naturally i reflected on that and thought what am I doing? How have I changed someone's life? I'm usually very hard on myself thats why sometimes it can seem like nothing is enough. I see only my mistakes and never some of the successes and improvements and being in an Asian culture does not help.

One thing he said that i agree with like totally is that we are all alone. Everyone of us. Yes we have friends and family around to support us but there are somethings in life that you go through alone. Where no one either can or will give you a hand with. I noted that it was a selfish world. Everyone is out for themselves. Its kind of depressing actually but thats real. Yet through everything we are not truly alone. For those who believe in Jesus, there's someone to turn to in these times, and its not just anyone. He doesn't get bored or tired or depressed with all your stories and emo-ness. He doesn't just listen, He offers help and healing.

The semester starts Monday and I've been here before. Another semester, i don't know what will hold. There's fear from the past. Uncertainty. Doubt. But these are not things that will help me go through everything i have to face. They will not aid me. So just now after playing badminton for a while, i went out for some air and to talk to myself. Faith is a wonderful powerful thing. So is love and if i want to make it through this semester and accomplish all that i want to accomplish. Faith Hope and Love must be my companions.

Something my mom always tell me. She always reminds me of David. When David encouraged himself in the Lord. With all that the world throws at people, sometimes the only cheerleader we have is our own self.

-ONWARD

home dusty home

Every time it comes for me to leave Kuching i feel sappy. The happy part having my room back with internet. There's no one here now so its kind of fast even though we've not paid the bill for more than 3months tsk tsk.

It so happens that i'm always the first to arrive so all the cleaning is on me. The house is tidy just dusty from inactivity for such a long time.

My landlord was nice enough to cut the grass. I just saw the neighbour's lawn overgrown with grass the height of an average human. But its good to be back.

I'm looking forward to this semester and the concluding one after it. I think its time to go back home :)

Ok i'll go clean now. My nose can't take it. Good thing i still have a box of tissues.

-ONWARD

on v-day

I know the 14th was 4 days ago but i'm bored so I might as well. Since it was Sunday and since it was the first day of the Chinese New Year, there was church service. Its a good thing pastor is not a Chinese. Understandably most of the congregation where Nigerian and there was no worship just the word. It felt different but good.

I got a call from my mum wishing me a happy valentines day. For some reason i found it to be strange. I also got a Facebook message from my sister with a long to Brooke Fraser's desert song video. I miss them, my family. Especially in this season when everyone comes back home.

Anyway i thought this picture was appropriate so there you go.

School starts 1st of March. I leave Kuching on the 22nd of February. Gonna miss it here.

-ONWARD

photo credit david_a_lea

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