Happy Thanksgiving

It is a pity that Thanksgiving is only celebrated in the States. I think it is a wonderful tradition where families get together, share what they're thankful for in their lives and have a meal together.

I have many things to be thankful for in life. I hope you have the same.

Here's wishing you and all your loved ones a very Happy Thanksgiving!

Couch Camping

Last night, I slept on the sofa.

No, the Mrs didn't get tired of my constant grumbling and toss me out. I was feeling a little under the weather. Kinda felt like a bad flu coming on so I decided to vacate our room where our son also sleeps so that they might not come get what I have.

The last time I slept on the sofa was a few months ago - at our old home - and for the same reason. The sofa was a nightmare to sleep on. It was half my height so my legs would be hanging off the arm rest. I'd wake up feeling even more ill than I was the night before. Understandably, I was a little worried about sleeping on the new one.

The new sofa gets 5 stars out of a possible 3. No, that's not a typo. It provided excellent support and even gave me enough room to sleep comfortably on my tummy. It was long enough for me to lie on without any of my limbs hanging out.

But the highlight of camping in our living room were Eddie and Casey. For some odd reason, they gave up the comforts of their doggie beds and decided that they wanted to hang out with me. They shared the ottoman that was right beside my sofa.

Here's a picture of the two fellas curled up taken from where I was lying. Pardon the picture quality as it was taken in the dark with my phone's camera.

Cute, aren't they?

Calculatingly Funny

NEW YORK -- A public school teacher was arrested today at John F.Kennedy International Airport as he attempted to board a flight while in possession of a ruler, a protractor, a set square, a slide ruleand a calculator.

At a morning press conference, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said he believes the man is a member of the notorious Al-gebra movement. He did not identify the man, who has been charged by the FBI with carrying weapons of math instruction.

"Al-gebra is a problem for us," Gonzales said. "They desire solutions by means and extremes, and sometimes go off on tangents in search of absolute values. They use secret code names like 'x' and 'y' and refer to themselves as 'unknowns', but we have determined they belong to a common denominator of the axis of medieval with coordinates in every country.

As the Greek philanderer Isosceles used to say,'There are 3 sides to every triangle'. When asked to comment on the arrest, President Bush said, "If God had wanted us to have better weapons of math instruction, He would have given us more fingers and toes."

Baby Proof

Last night, while trying to steer (pardon the pun) a conversation with my wife towards cool new cars on the road, my wife, looking down at our little boy sleeping in her arms, suddenly smiled and said "I can't believe we have a son!". "Nice way of dodging the topic", I teased.

I know she didn't mean to detour from the subject (which inevitably would lead to talk about getting a new ride) but a sudden revelation had overcome her. I knew what she meant because I could definitely relate. When I am at work, everything seems like pre-fatherhood days but when I suddenly remember that I am now a father to baby boy, everything feels different. I feel I have to work harder, prove I am a very important cog in my company's wheel and present myself with utmost dignity. Not that I was ever sloppy but the need to do everything better was overwhelming.

If it sounds like I am complaining, I'm not. In fact, it makes me feel good.

Today, my wife and I were out plant shopping. A fengshui expert earlier said we should have a Money Plant to welcome good fortune into our home. And since we needed all the good fortune we could get, we set out looking for one at a nursery. While there, we scouted for a nice glass vase to put it into and have it perched on one of my ridiculously expensive speakers. My rationale was if it truly brought fortune, I could upgrade my speaker system if the plant ruined it. *pat on back*

Anyway, our conversation from that point on went like this :

Wife : Is it ok to place it on the speakers?

Me : Its ok. We'll just need to put some tabs below the vase to protect the speaker's surface. But what about Captain Crib?

Wife : Hmmm... He's starting to turn on his side and he'll soon be crawling.

Me : He might pull on the speaker wire and the whole vase might come tumbling down.

Wife : (wincing) You're right. No glass vases. Lets get a light plastic one instead.

And so we did.

The discussion came very naturally - like we were seasoned parents. Long story short, I think parenthood has just permanently hit home. And I guess we've just embarked on Step One of baby-proofing our abode.

Our joyride with our son is just about to shift to a higher gear. Time for everyone to "buckle up". *smile*

Tales From The Crib

Our little fella, code-named Captain Crib, has his very own blog right here in our community. Clicking on the image above will take you straight into his crib (aka online blog).

Do pop by when you can. Mrs Prem might just be blogging there from time to time too! So will I.

Hope that's incentive enough. *wink*

Zune-less This Christmas

Alright... The Premster is MIFFED!!

Over the last 13 years as an IT professional, I have developed a certain level of disdain for Microsoft and their products. Their operating systems / software require to be patched every other day and troubleshooting problems are almost impossible because of the ridiculous / cryptic error messages. My life has been filled with "This program has performed an illegal operation and will be shutdown" or the infamous Blue Screen Of Death (BSOD). Here's the craziest - "Unable to detect keyboard. Press any key to continue".

On the bright side, it keeps me gainfully employed.

It was only recently that Bill Gates and his boys were getting into my good books with the introduction of better designed software (Windows 2003 and Windows Vista) as well as their entry into the multimedia portable player market with Zune. Then, I read this!

Back in the dog-house you go, Mr Gates. My dollars will be ending up in Mr Jobs' pockets this Christmas after all.

Eddie and Me

In my quest to be "intellectual", or at least appear to be, I have gone back to something I loved doing when I was a young lad - reading.

I was mostly hooked on local writers as they wrote about people and things close to home. I think I must have read at least 80% of the works of local writers back in my teens and early twenties. Some of my favourite writers back then were Sumiko Tan, Philip Jeyaretnam, Adrian Tan, Sylvia Toh and Mr Spooky himself - Russell Lee. After reading almost every ghost story book ever written by Russell, I got a chance to see him in person a few months back at a book signing in a local mall - with his trademark black hat, black suit and black face-mask to hide his true identity. No one knows who he is or what he looks like. And "Russell" is not his real name either. He is, after all, a ghostwriter. *wink*

Anyway, I didn't want to be overwhelmed by the likes of Stephen King or Tom Clancy so I started off with a charming little book called Marley & Me - Life And Love With The World's Worst Dog by John Grogan. It is a story about the life of Mr Grogan and his new bride Jenny. In their journey to becoming parents, they started off by 'training' themselves with what seemed to be a sweet loving little Labrador puppy named after their favourite performer, Bob Marley. Marley grows up to be a riot (not in a good way) but still retaining his unconditional love and affection for his master and mistress. In one chapter, Jenny, suffering from post-natal blues, is seen pounding on Marley when the latter ruined their house. Instead of reacting, the dog just lay there and took the painful beating. It brought tears to my eyes.

Such are dogs. They have a way of understanding their owners and taking the abuse because of love, respect and loyalty.

The story, for the most part, is a reflection of our life with our Jack Russell, Eddie. As a result of a very low period in my life, my wife and my Dad decided to cheer me up with a puppy. Eddie became the baby in the house and my Dad would sometimes tease "Let Eddie be practice for the both of you". And practice he was. On his first day at our home, he kept us up all night because he had kennel cough. I remember I was worried sick about him when we left him at home to go to work the next day. He looked so tiny and frail. I prayed in between work that he would be ok when we returned in the evening to bring him to the vet.

Although a real rascal (he sunk his teeth through our cupboards, pee'd on our bed and clawed his way through our doors), he was forever loving and faithful to us. He saw me through the best and the worst days of my life and even if I scolded him purely out of personal frustration, he'd still come back and ask for "forgiveness", as if he was in the wrong. I love the times when he'd snuggle up by my side with his head on my lap while I watch TV. These days, Casey (our other Jack Russell), fights him for this position. Being the gentleman that Eddie is, he always gives in.

I've yet to finish the book and I should be done sometime this week. But I fear the ending would be a sad one. I won't spoil the ending, for those of you who might think of picking this one up, by posting it here. But if you are a dog lover and enjoy a bitter-sweet story, this is a must-read.

My next conquest will be iWoz : From Computer Geek To Cult Icon.

I know. Stop smirking. I can't help it. *smile*

Firewall

More gadget posts? No, this is not. I get the hint. *wink*

This one's on a movie my wife and I caught on DVD on Saturday night. It's a movie from early this year called "Firewall" starring Harrison Ford as a Vice President of systems security in a large bank.

Jack Stansfield's (Ford) family is held hostage and in exchange for their release, Jack is required to hack into his bank's computers and transfer millions of dollars into the captors offshore bank accounts. For a movie buff like me, I found the story highly predictable because it reeks elements from Air Force One (also starring Ford), Ransom (starrring Mel Gibson) and Hostage (starring Bruce Willis).

There was a little McGuyver moment when Jack took the image scanner part of his fax machine and attached it to his daughter's iPod to 'scan' account numbers off a computer screen. Being a tech-head, I know full well that this was impossibe without the proper circuitry in-between the scanning device and the iPod. I tried hard to explain this to my dear wife but I think she was more impressed that Jack came up with the concept than with my technical knowledge. Oh well....

Overall, a watchable movie but I'll bet one would be even more in tune with the story if they didn't bother with technical intracacies - like me. Definitely not for hardcore techie / geeks.

And if anyone wants to know what a firewall is, read here. Or feel free to ask a question via comments!

Hope you guys had a good weekend!

Something To Crowe About

I am so proud of myself and my Treo today. It just goes to show that The Premster does make sound judgement when he invests (read : flushes hard-earned money down the toilet) in top-notched gadgets.

Palm's Treo has starred in many TV series such as Grey's Anatomy, Criminal Minds, House and even CSI:NY. Everytime the resident heros of these shows whip out their Treos, I beam with delight like a proud parent. The only thing that could make me more proud was if one of my son's first words were "Smartphone". "Dada" can wait.

While trawling the Internet hunting for new gadgets to obsess over, I came across an article titled "Treo plays prominent role in Ridley Scott's new movie, "A Good Year", starring Russell Crowe". Although not a fan of Russell Crowe, I am now anxious to see the movie.

More on what should be the story of the year here.

His Heart Will Go On (Hopefully)

Here's the deal. This young man, after going on a first date, had fallen head over heels for the young lady. And as a sign of his affection, he made this video for her.

Watch (and be severely irked) at your own risk.

Love does make a man do silly things but this fella definitely takes the cake.

Wonder how the damsel of his desire reacted. My guess would be to relocate, beg to be on the witness protection programme and... upload the video on YouTube for the world to see.

Crash! Boom! Bang!

Nope... this is not a Roxette album review.

One year ago today, I met with a car accident. Not my first in almost 20 years of driving but this one shook me quite a bit. Not that an accident would actually scare me from ever getting behind the wheel of a car but the circumstances behind it.

I drive a car that looks fast but really moves like any ordinary sedan on the road. And because of the mentality of young drivers on the road these days, they have to try to out-do you - in terms of flash or speed. If they can't out-do you at one, they'll try the other. The former is relatively safe because it simply conjures the green-eyed monster. The latter, however, can lead to the loss of life or limb. Allow me to elaborate.

While heading to town this day last year, I stopped at a junction waiting for oncoming traffic to clear before making a turn into a major road. I noticed a beat-up white multi-purpose vehicle (MPV) coming to a stop behind me. Not thinking anything about it, I continued to watch for oncoming traffic. A few seconds later, the vehicle that had stopped behind me overtook and stopped on my left. Again, I didn't think much about it and assumed that he was in a hurry.

When traffic cleared, I made my turn and so did the other driver. As I sped up on the clear path, this driver cut into my path from the left to the extreme right side of the road. I slowed down to give him way only to realise that he decided to slow down to a crawl. I was in no hurry so I followed him at the snail's pace he was driving at. Shortly after, he sped off and I continued on my journey. About a minute later, cutting across three lanes of traffic into my path again was the same beat-up white MPV. This time, I had to jam my brakes hard to avoid a collision. The driver proceeded to travel at snail's pace again in an attempt to slow me down. Again, I repeat that I drive a car that looks fast but does not get anywhere fast.

As we approached a bend, he sped off again. I shook my head and continued. I approached a traffic light and noticed that I had stopped beside him. When the lights turned green, I sped up and moved off. Mr Beat-up White MPV chased after me and overtook. That beat-up MPV could really gallop. And anticipating his predictable act, I prepared my foot on the brakes. True enough, he swerved in, narrowly missing the front right corner of my car. I sounded my horn loudly at the driver for his dangerous and inconsiderate act. For this, he responded by slamming on his brakes and my car landed straight into his rear bumper. Fortunately for me, I already had my foot on the brakes or the collision would have been far worse.

I got down and approached the driver, who turned out to be a military man in full uniform! I thought to myself "How can a man entrusted by our Government to protect the country and its citizens endanger the life of a civilian motorist?". Having served in the army myself, I knew what wearing a military uniform bearing our country's insignia meant. When I told him about his dangerous manoeuvers, his casual reply was "It doesn't matter what you say. You collided into me so you're at fault."

This was not far from the truth. According to insurance companies' representatives I spoke to, this appears to be the standard practice. A lawyer acting for my insurance company said that our Courts operate on the same premise. Knowing full well of his position of power in that situation, Mr Beat-up White MPV endangered my life, inflicted damage to my two year old car and was expected to get away with it. As a result of these unwritten 'rules', people have started advantage of this. Cars that require extensive 'rear cosmetic surgery' recklessly overtake unsuspecting innocent drivers and slam on their brakes to cause a collision. With the insurance payout, the "victim" gets to update his car.

We often talk about how crime rate is very low here and how our country is safe. But everyday, I am sure that at least one motorist faces an "attempted murder" and because everyone turns a blind eye, the perpetrator gets away scott-free. One word describes the situation - Disgraceful.

One year on, my insurance company is still fighting the case as, unknown to Mr Beat-up white MPV, the way the cars collided does indicate that he had cut into my path. He thought he was going to get away with this easily. Little did he know that I am not one to back down especially when the accident was caused intentionally.

If I have learnt anything from this incident, it is that people are generally self-serving and if they can take advantage of a situation or another human being, most will not pass up the opportunity.

Drive safe everyone, wherever you are. Although there are still decent people out there, you'll never know who you'll encounter or what their intentions are.

The iPod Killer

In about a week (14 November 2006, to be precise), Microsoft will unleash upon the world (well, to the US for now) what could possibly be the iPod killer. The Zune is Microsoft's first foray into the portable media player business and despite their very late entry into this saturated milieu, it looks like they're headed straight for worldwide success.

For all of you iPod fans out there (me included), here's a list of things that the Zune has / does that the iPod hasn't / doesn't.

Wi-Fi Compatibility (great for updating your firmware - anywhere a hotspot is available!)

WMA and WMV support

3 Inch Screen

Video viewable in portrait or landscape mode

13 hour battery life

Music sharing (via Wi-Fi) with other Zune users (you get to listen to shared songs for 3 days)

FM Radio

Custom background images

Wi-Fi transferring of photos or images.

XBox Streaming

I haven't had the opportunity to try one out myself but the reviews have all been glowing. And anticipating the success, many accessory manufacturers have already produced cases and add-ons for the Zune. So, you'll be able to accessorize your own Zune as soon as you unwrap it.

Considering my 15GB iPod is old and dying (excuses, excuses), I'll definitely be checking it out when it hits our shores. Hmmm.... Zune, it will be mine.... *evil cackle*

If my wife reads this, she'll probably slap her forehead and say "Good God, here we go again!"