Woohooo! I finally got my grimmy hands on a set of pics from my buddy's waterproof camera. I shared pics of the island a few days back; now I wanna share pics of the marine life wiv ya. These were taken during the snorkeling outings at the Redang Marine Park and Lang Tengah Island.

Contrary to popular belief, not all sotongs are natural swimmers. Yours truly trying his best not to drown ;)

*You can see the translucent part of the snorkel about to completely fill up wiv sea water. It was juz a matter of time before I started gagging like some bapuk faggot... bwaaahahaha...

The vast expanse of corals on the sea bed.

Fishies... fishies everywhere! I could only think of a ikan bakar+sambal fest at this point.

SHARK!!! Nah... not really... juz a little dinky baby shark...

Uh... some sorta coral thingy which looks a bit like air batu campur, or ais kacang, which I usually buy at Swattow Lane.

More fishies!!!

A shipwreak at the Marine Park... which is now a habitat for marine life.

Prewwtty prewwty little colorful thingies!!!

Uh... you guys may have guessed by now that I ain't exactly an expert (complete doofus would be a better description) on marine life. Would really appreciate it if any of you could enlighten me on what I actually saw down there. Arigato!

Oh... btw, I learnt something important. Live corals are beautiful to look at. Dead corals cut through sotong flesh like hot knife thru butter. Oww...

It was well worth it though ^_^

I heaved my fat @$$ back into the office last Monday, expecting the worst after my week long vacation. Which turned out to be true, with my mailbox hitting full capacity, abundance of work memos, plus dozens of unanswered work related mails.

As I settled down, adjusting myself back into working mode, my boss dropped by my cubicle. "Hey sotong..." he mustered. "Huh?" was my usual blur reply. "Get your stuff sorted out by today. Management decided to ship your sorry butt to some Timbuktian Institute of Higher Learning for a 3 day workshop... starting TOMORROW..." he said before leaving as quickly as he arrived.

Woohoo. It's been a while since I got to 'chiak chua' (Hokkien saying for escaping work). Anyways, I was enrolled for a Semiconductor Fabrication Workshop at the Nano-Optoelectronic Research & Technology Laboratory based in Universiti Sains Malaysia. The best thing about it... I dun have to work for another 3 days... nyek-nyek-nyek ^_^

Which explains my short hiatus. Basically, we were given a refresher course on semiconductor theories, loads of documentation and several lab sessions. We were required to fabricate and come up with a working silicon wafer at the end of the workshop. We learnt wafer cleaning, lithography, etching and a whole load more of kablooey I dun even know how to pronounce. Which was loads of fun since we get to play around with plenty of hazardous chemicals, inhale dangerous gases and play with a 1000 degree furnace. WOOOOWAAAAAH. I was like a kid in a candy shop.

I destroyed my camera during my vacation so I couldn't snap anything this time round. But my colleague was gracious enuf to provide me with some of the below photos taken with his dinky 2 megapixel camera. Here're some of them :

I sat at the very back of the lecture room. Gave me plenty of opportunities to grab forty winks during some of the super bosan lectures. Like what Hokkien ppl always say... if you wan to chiak chua... then chiak chua kaw kaw ;)

A shot of my colleague removing the photoresist layer from the silicon wafer.

Our 'babies' being prepared for oxidization in the furnace. Damn... that lab session was hot... stinky too...

Group shot. As usual, I was shoved to the back by my gila glamour group members. Reason? Tall ppl cannot stand in front... waramashit... waramahai... waramaput?! Apa mia excuse standard budak tadika ni? Blek... benci.

The end result. Voila! A working silicon chip (and I've got the printouts to prove it... muahahaha!) Fabricated from start to finish by your's truly.

Okies, here're some of the pics I promised to post. Which I managed to snap before my precious Casio digicam died on me... isk (there goes another one and a half grand... blek). No point me bloggin bout the trip, pictures speak a thousand words. Shots taken at Terengganu, Perhentian Island, Redang Island and Lang Tengah Island. 

A 9 hour bus ride to Jerteh, and another 20 minutes ride on a van, before arriving at Kuala Besut at approx 5.30am.

Sun yet to rise.

The half an hour boat ride to Perhentian Island. With at least 60 gallons of combustible gasoline in front of me, this wasn't exactly my idea of a worry free ride :)

The resort I stayed in.

The jetty at Perhentian Island.

The really enchanthing beach.

The crystal clear waters... aaaaah...

I like the way the locals think. Small boat... BIGASS OUTBOARD MOTORS... MUAAAHAHAHAA!!!!

Snorkeling trip... bliss.

Lazy chairs.

The speedboat trip.

Marine park in Redang Island.

Gentle swaying trees...

Frens I made along the way... really frenly ladies from Hungary and Netherlands. The dude is one of my ex-highschool mates.

The lonely kid... playing all by herself. Oblivious to her surrounding.

Er... no comments... hahaha... and no, I didn't Photoshop this ^_^

More shots of the clear waters... believe me now?

The blur beach sotong.

Beach view from my chalet.

The silhouette...

Prelude before the sunset.

Dinnertime...

Lights out... ^_^

Hope you liked the pics as much as I enjoyed taking them ^_^

Blur sotong is back ^_^

You won't believe how many ppl kept telling me not to go coz konon-nya there's gonna be a tsunami or konami or dunno what other fuckitukibikini which is going to happen. I went, I came back, and I had one heck of a time. Blek to all you nay-sayers... pbbbthhhh...

Suffice to say that I was blown away by the clarity of the water and the abundance of marine life. The sand along the beaches were talcum fine and one of the cleanest I've seen. Unfortunately, my digicam broke down on the second day (must be due to the sea spray), so I missed out on a number of photo opportunity during the later days. I will post what I have, but I'll need the workstation in my office since I'm still without a pc. I'll start compiling the photoblog entry soon.

Currently reading thru the blogs I've been missing out for the past few days at a mamak stall. WIFI + PDA rulez... nyek-nyek-nyek. Gaylord seems to be on fire with his latest cili padi posts, DdCat still religiously obsessed with DOTA, Archilles made quite a few emo-bapuk posts which are very well worth a read, while Pimp... err... your blog growing fungus hitam liao lar...

See you all soon ^_^

Goodbye my lovelies :wink: My vacation starts today. Don't do anything I wouldn't do k? See ya'all in a week!

**Muaks!**

Lucia, author of Menta l Jog dropped me an invite to attend a mini bloggers' meet she was organizing. Which was nice gesture since my blog was practically unknown in a sea of far more interesting and influential ones. Ikan bilis-lar. I missed the earlier two meets she organized, so I wasn't going to pass up this one.

I rode Motuki down to Prangin Mall during the evening; which was supposed to be the meeting point for this mini gathering. When I reached there, I was scratching my head... "Eh... since when Prangin Mall has a KFC outlet (which was stated in the invite)?". I searched high and low for it but I was like... duh?! So I gav Lucia a call on her cell. She told me there was a mistake on the venue and we will be meeting at the KFC in Komtar instead.

When I met up with her, she was busy trying to contact the rest of the attendees to rectify the meeting point. After bout 10 minutes, Andy of WittySquirrel arrived. Another 15 minutes later, B.K. Ong from SOS Penang (Save OurSelves) appeared. There were supposed to be a few others, but I guess they can't make it due to the sudden change of location or something.

Left to Right : Andy, B.K. Ong, Lucia, Blur Sotong

We exchanged greetings and introduced ourselves. It was interesting to meet up with this group of bloggers as all four of us have our own style and agenda in blogging. We spent close to three hours chatting about everything under the sun. Halfway during the dinner cum blog meet, we realized Ong was eating really little. We asked why he wasn't eating his portion of the chicken. He replied, "I'm a vegetarian". Oh-dear... it was kinda embarassing as we were pigging in all this while without realizing this fact. But all's cool as we all laughed off this "unintentionally over-looked issue" together and Lucia got Ong a lovely salad dish instead.

Ong gave each of us a copy of the latest article he wrote, which was printed on a flyer. He'll be distributing about only 3000 copies of this for public awareness reasons. Interesting eye opening stuff. Looks like he's still a really active activist even after all these years. Kudos to him ^_^

We left at around 10pm. Kinda suprised to see Komtar practically deserted by then. We traded contacts before bidding adieu.

Many thanks to Lucia for the fantastic dinner and being a gracious host. Btw, wanna wish you Happy Birthday again. It was a fun meet and I hope to exchanges ideas with you guys again.

One lazy morning, the powers that be (PTB) of company A delegated in a dimly lit conference room :

PTB1 : Darn... there's hardly anything interesting happening lately.

PTB3 : I'm bored. Let's go bug the employees!

PTB2 : Farkin brilliant idea! Any suggestions?

PTB3 : Oooh... oooh... I know! Let's go burn some company resources and hire some overpriced safety auditor from Timbuktu to audit the company and tell us what we already know.

PTB2 : Cool! Then, we'll make sure he comes up wiv all sorts of ridiculous suggestion on what pose as office hazzards and display embarassing/offending staff cubicle photos for all to see!

PTB1 : Genius! We could then force the staff to take some lame safety examinations online; which require them to read a gazzilion pages of waramashite powerpoint materials before taking the gay exam. After they have passed, we'll make it compulsory for them to go thru another half a day of bapuk presentation, to go thru the slides which they have just laboriously read 2 days ago.

PTB3 : ALRIGHT! HIGH 5! So everything is set?

PTB2 : Yup. We'll start immediately. This is so exciting! We rock!

You read right. The PTBs' of my company hired a safety auditor. And the results of this audit have basically been a pain in the ass. We took the lame online exam. We sat thru the sleep inducing presentation. Photos of some of my buddies' cubicles were placed on the pedestal for all to see with a huge "Safety Hazzard" label below them. You can read their experiences here and here. Machipet witch hunting exercise. Bleh.

Just when I thought I got off easy, my boss came over my cubicle. He pointed at my collection of Coke cans and said "Woi... safety hazzard. Dispose of them ASAP... auditor's orders." I was like WTF?! How the hell can aluminium canisters be a safety hazzard? For I might stumble and fall on them during an emergency? Damn cibai... no satisfactory explanation given. Ok-lar... I admit I'm a bit lazy to dispose of the Coke cans... but the pile serves as a good reminder of how many colas I down in a week. I gotta watch my sugar intake mar...

The ladies were not spared either. All the lovely flower bouquets sent by their honey buns will have to go.

One word to the PTBs. Tiu-lar... you could have saved the money from the cibai safety audit to give us a nice quarterly dinner or something instead. At least u make everyone happy. Blek... benci. Kiss my butt...

^

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Update : For the confused, this is the cyberspace numa-numa kid... not the author k? I'm no-where this cute... blek ^_^

It's been more than two years since I took a proper vacation. I'm seriously burnt out both mentally and physically. So today, during lunch, I plonked down some hard-earned moolah at the tour agency to wisk my sorry butt off to some dinky tropical island in the east coast, together with 2 ex-classmates next week. Hope to get some respite there. And mabbe some cuci mata exercise along the way.

One more week of slave labour to go... **whiiipiSHHHH!!!**

Blek...

Several ppl have asked me quite a few times WTF a blur sotong is or why I decided to giv my blog such a title. Well, there were certain points in my life where I felt I was as clueless as one and certainly behaved like one. That aside, I also thought it sounded kinda cute/catchy... hence I stuck by it.

For more information about blur sotongs... head over to an article in TV Smith's webpage entitled "Blur Sotong Kena Hantam Kau Kau".

Oh yeah, btw... for today's DOTA session, I picked . Before this, I have tried ,  and . Still got trashed worse than silly putty by the gang. Sometimes I wonder if my presence is there just to appease their sadistic killing spree... benci... ok-lar... I suck... end of story... blek ^_^

I just junked to 2 pages worth of blog about the DOTA session I had with the guys at Boot Sector today. It was supposed to be an ode to FF (Faggoty Frog... which happens to work wiv us... drives a DC2...), who decided to join us during lunch. Long story short, his obnoxious presense rubbed many of the regulars the wrong way; quite a number were tempted to giveth him the smacketh down.  Daddycat, Gaylord and Archilles did a much better job at blogging about the experience than my 2 pages of crap. So I'll leave the story-telling to them which can be found here, here and here. Enjoy ;)

Currently listening to : This Frog - Kermit the Frog (lyrics here...)

*Update : FF is actually an ok dude-lar... juz tat his senapang patah mouth sometimes gets under de skin... but he's cool after gettin to know him better ^_^

The rainy season is finally here. Which is a welcomed relief since the weather has been horrendously hot throughout most of the year. Makes you want to run around naked and shower yourself with ice cold Perrier. The heat does these things to you.

But the rain have not been all good. I think I was subjected to the brunt of it the past weekend. On Saturday, after a trip to the PC fair near Bayan Lepas, the sky broke into torrential rain. As I arrived at home, I tried making a dash from my car back to the house coz I forgot to bring some bapuk umbrella. Big mistake. My Nokia fell out from my oversized tiga suku pants pocket and plooped/submerged into a puddle of rain water near the drain. Panic gila. Immediately fished it out. When I tried operating it, I realized it went bonkers. The keypads shorted out and the speaker wasn't working. Fark. I disassembled the thingy and blow-dried it using a hair dryer. Still not working. Luckily, after 2 hours, I think the internal circuitry dried out and the cell was back online. Lotsa scratches though... sniff...

Then on Sunday, I visited a fren near Paya Terubong. Chat... chat... chat... suddenly the sky become black black. Sunshine to darkness in less than 5 minutes. Panic gila again coz I forgot to bring a rain coat and I took Motuki (my bike) instead of the car. Said farewell to my fren and rushed to start up Motuki. Barely 2 minutes into the ride, there was a freak storm and I was caught in the middle of it. I never knew rain water pelting against my bare skin could feel this painful. Like being shot with a senapang patah. When I finally got home, I was drenched worse than a sailor thrown overboard, soaked all the way down to my lucky underpants. Fortunate that I'm not a lady or else it'll be a free wet-T contest in the making... oooh... spray me again... blek. Fark. It'll take at least 2 days for my pair of Nike's to dry.

On a lighter side, I'm beginning to think I'm addicted to this game called DOTA. I have absolutely no professional trainin g in DOTA. I did my best and I have no regrets. That being said, I got my oh-so-smooth butt  throughly trashed by Archilles and Gaylord. Spent an obscene amount of time playing DOTA over the past 3 days in Boot Sector with Pimp, DaddyCat and the two other earlier mentioned waramashit machipets. Oh yeah... btw... Daddycat and Archilles are the co-owners of Boot Sector... one totally crazy tripped out cybercafe ;)

Currently listening to : Garbage - I'm only happy when it rains.