Family & Friends

Happy birthday My Love

The Recycled Bits Factory — Sat, 02 Jun 2007 08:19:00 GMT

A Dedication To My Wife

To whom I owe the leaping delight
That quickens my senses in our walkingtime
And the rhythm that governs the repose of our sleepingtime,
The breathing in unison.

Of lovers whose bodies smell of each other
Who think the same thoughts without need of speech
And babble the same speech without need of meaning.

No peevish winter wind shall chill
No sullen tropic sun shall wither
The roses in the rose-garden which is ours and ours only

But this dedication is for others to read:
These are my private words addressed to you in public.

T.S. Eliot (1888-1965)

It's not been easy - no, that's wrong - it's been downright tough. And I've definitely not said this clearly, or often, enough - I Love You Dearly.

And there are oh so many times that I fail to show it - when I get lost in the necessary pursuit of mere work. So many times when I fail to express it and so many other times when I even fail to imply such.

I know I've seemed crass, sometimes, in my treatment of you and your needs. And yet here you still are - perservering - and I think you understand what we are going through.

I could not thank you enough for your patience and love, and I promise to do better.

Happy birthday my love — with hope for many more futures with you.

My daughter the Fish Tycoon

The Recycled Bits Factory — Mon, 20 Nov 2006 14:46:00 GMT

OK, how harmful can a program called "Fish Tycoon" be? Sounds pretty harmless, and technically it is... you are the owner of an aquarium and you make money by selling fishes and aquariums. The more fish you sell, the more money you earn.

So we thought nothing of it when Yasmin (4+ on the date of this posting) found this attractive game on the Shockwave website, and started playing it online (she knows not to use the downloaded version as it expires after 60 minutes)

The yesterday afternoon I went to check up on what she was doing she announced proudly "Daddy, I know how to play this game!"

Me: How?
Yasmin: You have to make the fish pregnant and get more fish and sell them for more money
Me: What?!!! How do you do that?
Yasmin: Yes, you drag the male fish over to the female fish, then they kiss and the female fish gets pregnant.
Me: I see! (oh, my!)

Daddy, can I have...

The Recycled Bits Factory — Tue, 14 Nov 2006 01:33:00 GMT

Oh, no its already begun.

Just kidding, one of the highlights of my mornings is when Yasmin goes "Daddy, can I have pancakes today?"

so here we go

She has to help me make them - amazing she remembers all the ingredients. The other day she convinced mummy to buy premixed Buttermilk pancakes and threw a fit when we didn't mix in eggs and milk. I showed her the box and she read "Just Add Water" Well... we won't buy that next time.

Yasmin usually has 8 mini (I make them small for her) cut into 3 pieces each, and she'll choose the topping - usually maple syrup with whipped cream and sometimes chocolate sprinkles.

Fly me to the moon...

The Recycled Bits Factory — Tue, 14 Feb 2006 01:51:00 GMT

image courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech

Just a …

The Recycled Bits Factory — Mon, 01 Aug 2005 23:20:00 GMT

… short note to say thanks everyone for the nice weekend!

I love hanging out with friends, and have missed that since moving here. (Maybe tentative steps towards a lembing.sg?) It's great meeting new friends - what was that saying - there are no strangers, only friends you haven't met.

I love my wife's cooking!!! (and hate it when I have to diet) And hon, I may complain about having to go out on Sunday afternoon to take Yasmin to classes, but I love it when we're there, and the time we spend after.

What is not a diary?

The Recycled Bits Factory — Sat, 19 Mar 2005 14:01:00 GMT

Mankind discovers blogging

Years and years ago, when caveman Ugg discovered he could make marks on the stone wall of his cave he decided to write down what he did that day. Not everything of course, though I wonder why — there are tons of cave drawings depicting killing animals, but i'm pretty sure they did a lot of screwing around those days too. Fortunately there was no TV, or the human race would have gone extinct then.

I mean lets face it, there wasn't much else to do. Sleep, find food, eat, f*ck. Before fire, there wasn't even cooking involved. Maybe the paleontologists are keeping quiet about these other prehistoric cave doodlings to themselves, you think? But I digress…

Anyone and his brother could walk into the cave anytime and peek at these drawings and see what Ugg had been doing — even without the concept of dates, they could probably tell when Ugg did what. Even though mostly these drawings were of interest to just Ugg himself everyone moseyed along, read his blog and sometimes even admired his work of art.

Pretty soon however, Ugg decided he also wanted to doodle some private thoughts he was having about Ugee, but he didn't want anyone to be able to see them. The back of the cave was no good… not enough light and if anyone should ever discover them it would be difficult, to say the least.

Ugah: Interesting drawing.
Ugg: Er, mmm uh.. erm
Ugah: It's turning me on just looking at it... hey, is that my sister? Why, you...!!

Worse, he could get killed by Ugee's maniac neanderthal big brother, Ugah.

Ugg just had to find something else to write his dirty thoughts on, and the concept of diaries was born. He got quite good at hiding them, although if Ugah ever found one both Ugg and his diary would be er, history. We might never know, as no paleontologists have ever discovered a diary. All they keep finding are blogs.

Gosh! a chain blog

Feisal Kamil — Sat, 19 Mar 2005 10:32:00 GMT

…whatever next ;) I guess if it weren't about music CK wouldn't have sent it to me however, so I'll play.

1. What is the total amount of music files on your computer?

Which computer? Home desktop, not much we've archived all the older stuff from CK's napster days and now play them from CDRs, if she's feeling nostalgic. Notebook, some. Office desktop's got the most stuff. Whenever I buy a CD it gets ripped to the office desktop for listening during work, so there's probably about 5GBs on it now.

The Creative PC-works on the office computer sounds good, especially with WMP10 running Ozone plug-in, a parametric equalizer software (this PEQ software kills the 60Hz peak that makes it sound boomy, among other DSP stuff)

2. The CD you last bought?

Bliss Quiet Letters. To quote a review site: …a chill-out masterpiece, one of those albums that you have always been looking for without ever finding. Captivating vocals, gentle ethnic percussion, gracious orchestration and blissful ambience. Fans of chillout music will recognize Dunia and Kissing, either of which have been included in almost all the chillout lounge compilations fdor the last year or so.
Marillion Marbles. Been a fan of Marillion since the start, but I thought they lost their way post Easter. Anoraknophobia from 2002(?) was a return to form almost, but Marbles is really good progressive rock and as strong as Misplaced Childhood.

3. What was the last song you listened to before reading this message?

The Shadow II (Blue Man Group, from The Complex DVD-Audio). Awesome rhythms created with their home-made instruments (out of plastic pipes and stuff). Especially captivating when heard on a multichannel (home theatre) system as the instruments surround you.

4. Write down five songs that you often listen to or that mean a lot to you.

In no particular order… although picking 5 is difficult

Stairway to Heaven (Led Zeppelin, IV) This is not only the best ever mixture you can get of mysticism and hard rock, but the best ever song, period. Yes, there are two paths you can go by, but in the long run, there's still time to change the road you're on…
Comfortably Numb (Pink Floyd, The Wall) Probably Floyd's best song, with that atmospheric guitar solo. Hello, is there anybody in there…? Haunting.
The Prophet Song (Queen, A Night At The Opera) This song is linked in my mind with one of my favourite books — Illusions, The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah by Richard Bach) so I get 2 for the time of 1 when I listen to this I remember parts of the book. The song is probably the heaviest Queen ever did, and is simply amazing in multichannel.
Rag Doll (Maroon 5, Songs About Jane) Every guy has had a Jane, and I was a rag doll until CK found me and took good care of me (I love ya honey, for everything you do). Oh, and an awesome guitar solo too.
Wrapped Around Your Finger (The Police, Synchronicity) Not the most popular Police song, but this music is just perfect (for me at least).

Honorable mentions: La Villa Strangiato (Rush, Hemispheres); Tunnel of Love (Dire Straits, Making Movies); Going For the One & Awaken (Yes, Going for the One); Year of The Cat (Al Stewart, Year of the Cat); I'm Not In Love (10cc, Mirror Mirror); Blinded by the Light (Manfred Mann's Earth Band, The Roaring Silence); Old and Wise (Alan Parson's Project, Eye In The Sky); Avalon (Roxy Music, Avalon); Scenes from an Italian Restaurant (Billy Joel, The Stranger)

Sheesh.. desert island discs would've been easier ;)

5. Who are you going to pass this baton to (3 persons) and why.

hmm...

Disney on Ice

Feisal Kamil — Sat, 19 Mar 2005 10:24:00 GMT

We took Y to the Princess Classics yesterday. I think she had fun — at one point she got to dancing along and sort of got lost in the whole thing ;)

This is starting to make me wonder about the origins of the Che Ku pronym. A friend told me once that the Che Ku line descended from Trengganu Royalty who had married into commoners. All their children were called Che Ku. Of course if these male children married, their children would carry the Che Ku further. Unfortunately for our little princess her mum — Che Ku — married a commoner and the blue blood diluted further. (Little girls do not need blue blood to act like princesses, however.)

It would be interesting to see some real documentation about the origins though.

Before I stop, just a note to anyone going to Singapore Expo about how insidious it is. Shopping Malls are nothing compared to it. Walking back from Princess Classics to the taxi stand, we passed by The Adidas Warehouse Sale, Kidz Connection Warehouse Sale and a Halal Food Promotion. You can guess what happened, and I even managed to resist going to the Adidas sale :P If you go to a mall, you expect being sold a lot of stuff and so are prepared to resist it. Plus, they are not usually on WAREHOUSE sale. Eeeesh!

A Blast from the Past

Feisal Kamil — Mon, 20 Dec 2004 15:44:00 GMT

Sifting through my harddisk unearthed some gems from the early days of Lembing (formally known as The Malaysiana Forum). I'll look through all the stuff and slowly move everything into our new ckayfei.net archive, but for now I'm pleased to announce

Family Day at FRIM (report by Anas Faizal Aning)
The one and only Lembing Bowling Event (report by Aida Idirs)

Look carefully on the bowling pages and you'll find some “bonus photos” *evil grin*

TT in JB

Feisal Kamil — Thu, 16 Dec 2004 17:18:00 GMT

CK had "met" Sheryl in ryze.com sometime back, and subsequently all of us ended up on the mckk8286.com forum, so it was a good time to have a TT in JB and finally meet her and some of the other forum members.

We can't thank Sheryl enough for being such a wonderful host, not only belanja-ing us coffee @ Starbucks and the TT proper @ Taat House, but also driving us around to HP and finally delivering us to the taxi stand. I think if she had her passport, we would have been driven all the way home to Singapore.

It was great to have met you Sheryl, Rizal and Kamal — hope you guys make it across the causeway soon!