Thursday, October 30, 2008 - 11:48 pm

Gone in a Poof

There're two main reasons I keep this blog.
  1. To rant
  2. To brag
I'm here now because of reason number 1. I'm mourning, my external HDD is dead, bringing together with it 250GB of data, if not 300. Mind you, that's a colossal loss:

Photos - Fortunately, I happened to backup part of them on a DVD. But still, bye bye to all the photos taken between April to July this year.

Videos - Not many but just two or three video clips that I was considering of submitting for screening in next year's Cannes Film Festival.

Documents - The blueprints for a new Death Star, the ingenious plan for world domination (and oh, some of my assignments and reports) are gone forever.

Others - This accounts for 90% of the loss, but no further elaboration on this because they are stuff that'd incriminate me for copyright infringement. Well, you know what I mean.

But now that I think about it, I should have seen this coming. You see, when I went back to Malaysia during the spring holiday earlier this year, I did something unimaginable. Without realizing that my external HDD was without a power adapter, I simply plugged it in and, horror of all horrors, it exploded. No kidding, it exploded a soft poof and white smoke wisped out from the air vent.

That happened less than 30 minutes after I reached home from the airport.

Come on, why on earth does Japan has to have a different power voltage from the rest of the world? And what the hell, don't all electrical appliances nowadays come with a power adapter that supports different kind of voltages? Sigh, some people are just too stupid to consider about what stupid things some idiots like me can manage to do.

Anyway, after sulking for a few days, I managed to persuade myself that it was the power supply that went kaboom; that the hard disk was still intact. True enough, I managed to get it back to life by plugging it into a new casing.

That worked, at least until recently. Sometimes, it just went on strike. I guess the damage was done during that little incident that happened back home. Yet, I didn't expect it to go so soon. I guess that's what it means by "death comes at least the expected times".

With my dead comrade relegated to the neglected dusty shelf, I've just got a new one. This time, a 500GB. (Heck, it cost less than my former 300GB.) Cool. Now I've got 500GB worth of virtual real estate at my disposal. Frankly speaking, I'm quite at a loss about what to do with it.

Anyway, I'm still trying to persuade myself that my former comrade is just in a comatose state. Perhaps all it needs is a new casing...

Saturday, October 25, 2008 - 12:09 am

No Entry

An hour away from Tokyo, in Yokosuka, there's a U.S. Navy Base. During normal days, the place is off limits to everyone without prior registration. But once every year, it is open to the public - during a local festival known as Mikoshi Parade (みこしパレード). This year, the festival was held last Sunday. As the name suggests, it's a procession of portable shrines (mikoshi) and floats. It is taken place along the main road in front of the Chuo Yokosuka Station (中央横須賀駅) and within the premise of the base. That's probably the only time when the public is allowed into the base.

There's a catch, though...

I've heard rumours that you can get really, really cheap Coke in the base; 100 yen for a dozen when that's not even enough to buy a 500ml bottle of Coke elsewhere. (Well, anyway, it's cheaper than anything.) Thinking I could confirm it for myself (and grab enough Coke to make it my staple food for a week or so), I decided to hop on the train and head there last Sunday.

After getting bored shotting photos of the parade by the road, I joined the crowd queuing up to enter the base. Obviously, bags need to be checked before entry. But I didn't make it all the way there. Whether it was because I resembled a perverted dog rapist - or a maniac who bombs public toilets, or an inhuman psycho who beheads cactuses - I was stopped 20 meters before the gate.

"Do you have an ID card?"

Of course I do, you idiot. Do you think I'm an illegal immigrant or what?

"Oh, you want me to show it to you? I thought you wanted an autograph."

The fella passed the card to a second fella who popped up beside him.

"One moment please."

After an eternity, the second fella came back and whispered to the first fella, "OK, it's genuine."

Cool. Do I really look that suspicious?

I was too dumbstruck to establish any intelligible conversation but this is how it'd go had I been able to.
"Thanks, but you could've just confirmed with me."

"Just doing my job, you know. Oh, we haven't done humiliating you yet. One more moment, please." After disappearing for a while, the first fella returns with a faint smirk on his face which he doesn't care to conceal.

"Okay, now what? Can I go in?" I try to sound as innocent as possible.

"Unfortunately, no. Because you're from Malaysia." He pointed to the part where "Malaysian" is proudly printed.

"And Malaysians aren't allowed into the premise without prior registration." It sounds so well-rehearsed.

"But, I'm no terrorist. I wouldn't even hurt an ant, I swear!"

"No no. Rules are rules. Now off you go."

"But, but... But..."
Of course, that conversation did not take place. But, the truth is, Malaysians were denied entry when the place was supposedly opened to the public. That's an interesting revelation. Who knows, a Malaysian is probably considered to pose a threat risk no less than a taliban. I presume, Malaysia is blacklisted by U.S.

That must be it, or it was just because I look like a beardless, heard-scarf-less, AK-47-less, accent-less taliban.

Saturday, October 11, 2008 - 12:34 am

Photo Slide 1

Just a short photo slide I made in one night using Flash. It's my first Flash project so there's still plenty of room for improvement. Photos featured in the slide are taken in various places in Japan from December 2007 to September 2008.


Yeah, I know the colours are terribly compromised after the compression. But all photos are featured in my Flickr Photostream, so feel free to drop by.