To the Batcave (E-ring 215)

Go Terry Go!

2005-10-04T17:30:00.000+02:00

I was asked to blog on this little event. Might as well.

I would have thought that the wizards, witches, trolls, unicorns, hidden worlds, jumping chocolate frogs, owl mail, magic food, ghosts, broomsticks and spells would have given her a clue?

Terry Pratchett, only one of the funniest men alive and super awesome writer and creator of one of my favourite characters (i.e. Rincewind, inept wizard) has taken a swipe at JK Rowling with regards to her interview in which she proudly claims she no likey fantasy and that she was attempting to subvert the genre.

So one ponders...what genre is JK writing in? Mystery? Conspiracy thriller? Soap opera? Shallow teen romance ala Sweet Valley High?

Only time will tell... {a lame attempt to finish off lazily and openly...the sort that English teachers hate}

Day 1: 24 September 2005 (Saturday)

2005-10-03T14:08:00.000+02:00

After about ten hours on the plane (Malaysian Air) with surprisingly decent food but crappy legroom (and I am pretty petite, minus the iccky gut), we arrived at Kuala Lumpur International Airport.

After proceeding to the arrivals hall and immigrations, we spent some time trying to figure out how to fill in the many facets and questions on the immigrations card. Noticed that the card said: Africans must report to Health Quarantine Services AND Plant Quarantine Services.

Marched off to the small little office, only to be told that they didn't REALLY care for us South Africans...only the central African states.

Hopped along to immigrations.

My Professor and colleague had no problem...immigrations officer apparently had some problem with me...(or maybe he was just super curious or friendly)...detaining me for a few minutes, he asked me several questions like where I was from (my passport has this information, doesn't it?), purpose of my visit, followed by instructions on how to get to the KLIA Express train.

After obtaining our baggage and exchanging money, we proceeded to the express station where we took a ride into Kuala Lumpur...my sharp eye for [irrelevant] detail caught sight of a Jusco shop in some mall en route.

Arrived at some station (Central Station, I think), we took a cab to the JW Marriott hotel. Stepping out into the streets was pretty much murder on me...the humidity was pretty hard to handle for someone used to hot temperatures which were also super dry. Managed to arrive at the hotel and made a dash into the hotel lobby where aircon prevailed.

Had some trouble communicating our situation with the desk guy at the hotel in English. Eventually got it right. He told us he had to charge us...surprise.... 15%, 10 of which went towards service charge and 5% towards government tax.

Nice one...we'd barely hit any shops and my credit card had been used...oh well, at least my Mom knows I have arrived in KL safely... *rolls eyes*

I was assigned a room on the 19th floor. The view from there is pretty good, considering I have an awesome window looking out at Menara Tower and the KL Twin Towers (or whatever it is they are called). Also discovered they have some Hong Kong tv channels and NHK. Plus complimentary high speed internet connection! If only I'd bought my laptop! Ugh!

Headed downstairs into the heat again. Dropped by McDonalds. Followed by my mad search for [classified]. Went as far as beyond the borders of the tourist map before I finally found it. Thankfully, I speak Cantonese because queries in English usually returned only confused glares and stares and whatnots.

At least in exploring KL east side...I had scouted out a few malls and so forth...to my surprise...Andy Lau was having a concert. Well...in December. No loss to me though...I am not a super Andy fan.

Returned to the hotel super tired and signed up for the Malacca Historical (YEAH!) tour. Set back by 200 ringgits...ouchie....well, ouchie to me...my wallet was pretty slim to begin with.

Had dinner at Planet Hollywood.

The End of Day 1.

Reporting back from Malaysia

2005-10-03T14:00:00.000+02:00

Was in Kuala Lumpur for over a week for a conference. So the biggest question was...how was it...to live nine whole days without internet?

Well...highlights include:

Dehydrating...a lot

Panicking for conference...somewhat

Getting annoyed with having to hunt down a shop that sold LEGIT DVDs

Will blog on the the days in detail at later stage...

All Stars--Batman & Robin #2

2005-09-17T14:49:00.000+02:00

This is NOT a review...a review has more class. This is more of a collection of random thoughts...

Today, I managed to get hold of issue 2 of the decidedly overhyped title by Jim Lee (comic book artist demigod of just about everything fame) and Frank Miller (the comic book writer demigod of Sin City fame).

Can't say I am familiar with Miller's stuff because frankly, I have never read a single one of his works. Secondly, not even the hype of "ooh, Sin City was sooooooo cool!" could get me to invest a smidgen of interest in his works.

Despite reading that issue 1 left quite a lot to be desired and that Mr. Miller was definitely smoking something, I decided to make my own assessment by examining #2 on my own.

Here are my findings:

Yes, yes, yes! I now know...that the first Robin (there are three in total in the DC Universe, alternate realities notwithstanding) was 12 years old when the terrible deed (the muder of his parents) occured. Thank you for reminding me just about every panel...it felt like the HP recruitment people telling us they make 80 billion dollars annually all over again.

Did Batman grow a beard in the span of an issue?

On the other hand, what was mentioned made sense...maybe...because:

Vicky Vale was in shock...she could hardly believe that that poor little 12 year-old boy's parents were so brutally murdered before his very eyes! But then again, neither could Batman, it seems, for that same matter...

As part of the disguise, Batman pastes fuzz all over his chin when he's out on the prowl as [cue Batman theme] BAT-MAN!

From what I understand of Frank Miller, his heroes may hardly be role models and I suppose that's the case in this retelling of the first Robin's transition from orphaned circus boy to the Dark Knight's sidekick. It's a different angle and it paints Batman in a very overzealous, uncompromising light, having revealed that he's willing to kidnap a 12 year-old to do his bidding.

Although the overall feeling amongst other reviewers is that this story really sucks and that Miller is high on something (and I agree this is nothing like the Batman I know), I'm staying with the book because I can't wait to meet the other members of the DC universe as seen through the eyes of a little 12 year-old circus kid.

Damn Frank Miller for getting me into this age thing...

Girls suck

2005-09-07T12:19:00.000+02:00

Currently on my hour lunch break.

Today, the class had to do a hands-on experiment with firewalls of the physical-level variety. So no, ZoneAlarm(TM) and co were not out to play.

And it grieves me to say that the two groups consisting only of girls really, really, sucked at their task of opening up a DELL (absolutely no screws involved) machine to install that second network card.

One group even looked like they went through a wrestling fight with some evil hellcat before asking me (with much despair) whether they had to uninstall the network card after they were done. Needless to say, my answer was distressing to them.

In other news, my brother adopted a puppy (German Shepherd cross Rottweiler) who was seven weeks old last week. The owner said her siblings had already died and that she would need medical care asap. My brother hurried her to the local animal shelter hospital the very next day but unfortunately, it had been too late. :( Just wished the owner had bothered to do something about the poor pup earlier and she might have survived. Furthermore, the puppy's mom was apparently too busy being horny to give a hoot that her daughter was going away. So much for animals having more compassion that humans.

Intro 3

2005-09-06T07:52:00.000+02:00

With so many options to park one's blog these days, have decided to finally just restart my blog (for the third time round) here at blogger (it's got a link in the Firefox browser!)

The title "To the Batcave" refers to a phrase commonly used in the Masters Lab where I live for most of the hours of a working week (the other phrase currently considered fashionable by our temperamental lot is "eighty-beeleeon dollars!" thanks to the hp recruitment spokeswoman...).

This week is supposedly Recess Week.

By convention, it equates to me getting to sleep in late as ever and drowning in movie after movie. Instead, I am at university, having somehow volunteered myself to assist in Information Security in the WWW.

Not so bad, of course...I am forging new bonds with my awesome assistants.