30 posts from 2008

So I was busy writing a new post for the Notebook, photographing subjects under the light of my decorative table lamp, and the moment it was switched off, I thought I had a headache. No, what really happened was the much-feared 'vertical striping LED backlight' phenomenon on my MBP's display!!!

Just like 'the rest of us', I do not like it when there are no updates on my Notebook. Same goes to I Got Shot. But you have to understand that other than lab coats, no one dresses up to the hospitals... Right. I'll think of something.

Are you like me? Fascinated with all things print, colourful, cutting-edge, foreign and expensive? I've got some suggestions. Three, to be exact.

Kasino comes from Finland [when was the last time you touched something Finnish?] and now available at Borders, The Curve [shrink-wrapped, at that]. The cover is in human skin, with pores and fur and all. I remember feeling a lot of newsprint pages while skimming through the magazine. I don't remember what it talked about, though.

Anorak is a magazine for kiddies made in the UK. Not afraid of colour, collages, nutty rhymes and  all are compiled into an old-school layout that makes you want to have kids just to gift them this magazine.

PIN-UP is not European but from New York City. It has a comfortable resemblance with Fantastic Man magazine, from the paper quality they use [newsprint forever!], text overlapping images done in the most controllable carefree way. Very suiting for those in search of 'architectural entertainment'.

All three magazines love Helvetica forever and comes in a single copy. Good luck in finding them, considering that the picture was taken two weeks ago.

Now, something else that is foreign and expensive. This time it's edible! And it comes from San Francisco! What is it?

I don't know how it ended up at Cold Storage The Gardens, but it was placed nearby the RM 30 Klondike bars. I am so going to get this and keep the box. It looks like it just came from M Sasek's book I bought not too long ago.

Lastly, typographic shot of the moment-

A star badge for those who already know what a fri-jado is.

For the past week, I have been hospitalised in a modern medical institution in an area where Nurul Izzah is responsible for. I could say that I had some mental problems, fractured my rib cage, a yummy appendix surgery or something 'impressive' but no. The real case was dengue fever. Very dangerous! PJ's a hotbed for Aedes mosquitoes but luckily my case wasn't as severe as you could have imagined.

Amazingly I found food to be the worst invention during my hospitalisation. Subway sandwiches, mee bandung, asam pedas became irrelevant. My liver wasn't into being responsible and I lived on pouches of liquid called 'drips' and Air Yasin, and this resulted in a 5 kg weight loss.

I hope I'll never be hospitalised for dengue fever, ever again. To all my visitors : Terima kasih daun keladi. Rupa-rupa masih ada lagi yang sayang...

And now, back to real life [and maybe if those ultrasounds of my spleen come out interesting, I'll put them on here].

Today, Friday the 13th, I was in Jalan TAR with my mother to buy some fabrics to make into Hari Raya clothes. We had our breakfast of Meehoon Hailam at Capital Cafe, which fuelled our three-hour shopping spree. It was at around 10.30 a.m., the time when Nasi Padang dishes are served right off the stove and Hailam bread's burnt parts are being sliced off.

After our brunch we checked out Euro Moda, Harisons, Hassaram's and other unmemorable ones. We spent a lot of time at Gulati's where I bought two fabric designs; a highly Scandinavian abstract print for the top, and a flat colour for the bottom. Doesn't it look like the next slipcover for IKEA'S KLIPPAN sofa?

After that we had a drink at Secret Recipe and observed the 'gomen-gomen' crowd, especially the baju kurung-clad ladies taking advantage of the 3-hour lunch break by crowding up the fabric stores and SOGO. Then, something surprising came by.

It was scheduled for the pact of Opposition parties [Pakatan Rakyat or PR] to have a lively gathering after the Friday prayers at Kampung Baru's mosque. They were there to protest the fuel price hike which was implemented a week ago and wanting Pak Lah [the PM] to step down.

"I don't like Pak Lah increasing the fuel price. Everyone in Malaysia do not like Pak Lah increasing the fuel price. Pak Lah should be sacked promptly. Pak Lah has promised to the people that the price of fuel will not be increased. Pak Lah has forgotten himself [?]. This August, there are rumours that the price of fuel will increase again. Pak Lah swindles the people's money. Everyone, don't support Pak Lah, support Dato Sri Anwar Ibrahim"

I was in the crowd for only three minutes, before running off to avoid myself from being 'arrested'. Here's a bonus video to enrich your visual experience.

I patrolled the most of the important parts in Section 14 for about 1.7 hours. It was a really sunny day, and my skin probably turned one shade darker. I lurked about Dataran Tiga Dua, the playground nearby the rukun tetangga hall and other non-busy roads. I hung out with a cat while I ate some bread;

To all Mac enthusiasts and curious by-passers, please be on your desktop/laptop with macrumorslive on your browser to follow almost real-time updates from the World Wide Developers Conference [WWDC] in San Francisco, where Steve Jobs will begin the keynote presentation at 10 a.m. GMT -7, which is 1 a.m. GMT +8 [Kuala Lumpur] today / tonight. 3G iPhone? Facelift for MacBooks and MacBook Pros? .Mac revamp? Steve Jobs in a different outfit?!

While waiting, I shall be finishing up the fourth part of 'My MacBook Pro'.

Update: Here's what the both of me think of WWDC. Don't take us too seriously.

A: Hi!
Q: Hello.

Q: So what did you think of the Apple event thing?
A: It was quite a wow thing, especially with the iPhone SDK, although I am not too keen on MobileMe.

Q: What's wrong with MobileMe?
A: For starters, the name and the design of the logo.

Q: It's in blue... and... it looks like a cloud.... and....
A: Yeah. It looks like Skype or something. Represents something fun and lively and... all those positivity.

A: It doesn't look like an Apple product. Blue is never an Apple colour.
Q: I don't remember the last time the colour blue represented Apple...

A: And it looks like it's designed for people who... loves life.
A: Who loves their family and friends, go hiking, post recipes of spinach quiche and lemongrass lemonade, keep lunch appointments... basically sounding like a fun-loving businessman on-the-go or sociable housewife. Or something.

Q: ...
A: ...

A: And it has completely replaced .Mac!!! I want a .mac as a part of my website's name!
Q: But you don't even have a .Mac site, other than that one time you took a trial and had your site named cathoderaytreason.

A: It still sounds better than a me.com! Me. All about me. All about my life. All about the dates I have, the things I need to get fixed, the meetings I have to attend, the lakes I want to boat, the list of Free Trade products I can buy from the grocer's...

Q: You sound like a non-person person.

A: I have all the right in the world to do so!

Q: No one cares.

A: Shut the hell up. Another thing I am not digging is that... what the hell does 'Push' mean?! Push e-mail, Push contacts, Push calendar...

Q: It means that anything [alerts, notifications, changes etc.] that comes into an  application will go up to the 'cloud' [server] and then pushed to any other device [iPhone, desktop, iPod Touch...] that is connected with me.com.

A: Stop sounding smarter than me.

A: Oh look. Me.com automatically directs to the Apple site. Before this it had a link to Snappville.

Q: I'm not listening.

A: Then I'll stop talking.

Q: Good.

...

A: I'm watching the WWDC keynote right now. Well, not really watching and more of hearing because the visual only updates like once a minute.
Q: That's really slow.

A: That's what you get using a mobile broadband modem.

A: Anyway, iPhone SDK seems to be a pretty big thing. It's like... the planet we live in. You have no idea how big it is.
A: Especially the part when the guy shows the medical stuff... shows that iPhone doesn't exist 'just for fun'.

Q: After this, no one will use a Blackberry.

A: But 2. megapixels camera? This isn't 2004!

A: I don't know why I am not convinced that the iPhone 3G is worth buying.
A: With all of those features and apps, I could be on the phone all day and not care about anything else. That's not how I want to live my life.

Q: Right.
A: Unless you're a scientist or someone who is really important and matter to everyone else, an iPhone is just an elaborate communicating device.

A: I'd rather have a brick phone.
Q: Say what you want but iPhone is better than you or anyone else, except Steve Jobs, of course.

Q: Steve Jobs looked skinnier than ever.
A: I want to be like him.

How has Malaysia been for the past week? Has Anwar Ibrahim become the PM? Haha, no. From what I read in the UMNO-owned newspapers on the airplane, the price of fuel has gone up. Crap, now it would probably take RM 60 to get a full tank for my car. Nevermind, I'll avoid pointless 'scenic' drives around the city and use some other mode of transportation.

My trip to Bandung and Jakarta was mediocre. I am sorry to say this, but it didn't have anything for me to admire. Even though I find the Soviet Union-esque statues are interesting, enjoying the abundance of Teh Botol and malls filled with items I can never buy, my hopes for shooting dozens of fashionable people on the street was crushed because... I didn't see anyone breath-taking. Just girls with 'skinny jeans', gladiator sandals and cardigans and guys with frizzy hair and 'uncle' glasses.

I am not going to document the entire 'vacation' day-to-day style, like how I'd naturally do in my 'week in reviews', because it's getting predictable. Instead, I will just highlight the interesting bits and toss in my own comments.

On the thirtieth May, I [and my family] flew to Jakarta, then took a Kijang to Bandung using the expressway. It was a very hot day and the fumes from various buses, lorries and MPVs made it clear that Indonesia is one of the world's leading CO2 emitters [I think?]. The view was a little more interesting than what you'd see along the PLUS highway, because there would be little houses crammed into one area where kids fly their kites, often getting caught in electric cable lines. Other than that, there were tea plantations with funky tall trees;

and frightening elevated railway tracks;

The so-called two-hour journey actually took us six hours to reach Bandung, for vague reasons. For those who don't know how Bandung looks like from a bird's eye view, here's one.

Bandung has loads of beautiful bungalows lined along tree-shaded streets, once owned by Dutch settlers back in the day, but today many of them are converted into small offices, education centres, restaurants, hotels and factory outlets. It was very tricky to photograph them from a moving vehicle so... I've only got one semi-good picture of it.

On the second day, we were taken to an inactive volcano called Tangkuban Parahu [literally meaning 'capsized boat']. Our van had to climb really high on this hill where there would be a luxury mansion sitting next to a stall like this.

The traffic was slow-moving for the most part of the journey...

... mainly because the 'bupati kabupaten' [anyone care to explain what that means?] was campaigning.

The road leading to the volcano's crater went through a forest of... I don't know what trees, but they look kind of European.

The temperature was as cold as a freezer door left open and I was in a mini skirt. But it was OK because it was still tolerable.

Then, somebody in the family had the genius idea to scale down the mountain through this rough and slippery steps through the forest. My mother wasn't digging the journey at all because it ruined her  RM 200+ patent leather flats [which was thrown away at the end of the day].

An hour later, we reached this valley where the hot springs are, primarily for feet-dipping.

Half the day was gone as we head back to the city, through hill farms of tomatoes, salad leaves and berries.

There was one morning when I had my breakfast buffet and there was a cotton candy stall by the pool, making all sorts of sugary shapes for free. If too much sugar isn't bad for me, I'd like one in the shape of a 'TOPI ALADIN' [refer to the diagram].

After three days of factory outlet-shopping in Bandung, we went off to Jakarta, and this time, it took us only two hours. There, we did more shopping and mall-hopping and travelling in super-cheap taxis along the forever-congested roads of Jakarta. Plaza Indonesia has some sweet boutiques where you can find Sergio Rossi platforms in the millions [of Rupiah, of course]. I could only afford a Krispy Kreme bag at Rp. 75 000. Next door was a massive mall called Grand Indonesia which made Pavilion in KL look like a Sungei Wang [exaggeration]. It's a new complex so there weren't many people shopping.

The second day in Jakarta was spent at Pasaraya Grande, in the area known as Blok M. There is an entire floor dedicated to batik products, for your bed, for the cushions, for the wall, for you to carry, for you to wear. It can really make you 'pengsan' with the selection. I got myself a funky head-dress and a tie-dye robe. My mother bought Rp. 3 million worth of goods. The thing about Indonesian batik is that it's wearable and not boring. And everyone wears it, unlike here in Malaysia where only the Datins wear Tom Abang Saufi's creations and kampung dwellers' uniform while they bathe in their open-air wells.

Following Adit's advice, I visited Aksara bookstore in Kemang Raya, where Jakartans [?] shop for design and art books, non-mainstream music and desk accessories. I was excessively fascinated by a particular book nearby the children's corner. Written and illustrated by Miroslav Sasek, these books are sort of the Wallpaper* guides for kids in the 1960s. Cities / states / countries like Hong Kong, Texas and Ireland were documented in technicolor-like illustrations, making any mid-century enthusiast weak in the knees.

Another book that caught my attention was the Wallpaper* guide for Kuala Lumpur, in green. It was cool to find Yut Kee and Eight guesthouse in it, but there are a few errors like Liquid still existing in Central Market Annexe and Kenny Hills to be called as 'Taman Tunku'. I can do a better Wallpaper* guide!!! As predicted, Hotel Maya, Frangipani, Menara Tabung Haji and Sekeping Serendah were featured [very pro-Hijjas Kasturi and Seksan].

The following day, we went to ITC Mangga Dua to get our minds boggled with the excess shoe stalls overflowing with jelly sandals and PVC flats, fake designer handbags and la-la shops. I half-heartedly gave in to a block-coloured dress and elastic-waisted drainpipes just to lighten my envelope of two million Rupiah.

The taxi took us around Ancol, where the beach and theme park is, but the only thing that fascinated me was a couple of Nu Rave-esque Volkswagen vans.

One last visit to Kemang Raya to check out Club 21. It was really not my kind of place, as if I entered a museum where I can only look at the artefacts on the clothes hangers, but never actually owning it.

Introducing a new section for all of my posts from now on. Dedicated to my font buffs and text freak readers, if I have any, each post will end with a picture of something typographic. I thought of doing it since that I shoot so many signs / labels / posters / notices but don't know what to do with them. Who in Flickr would care, right?

These were shot along a busy road in Kemang Raya, while walking towards a cheap seafood restaurant called D'COST for dinner.

Here are some of the things I bought during my trip [all clothing items are in the wash].

And a look inside Miroslav Sasek's This Is San Francisco [I nearly bought This Is Israel].

Something random: I think I saw around fifteen different cars with an Apple sticker stuck at the back of the car. And some of my favourite Indonesian-speak moments were when people asking me about 'Siti Nurhalija' and getting a 'Ya Ampun!' reaction at the salon when the shampoo girl learned that I cut my own hair.

Lastly, in true Bill Nye style: Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got a Vice Versa episode to catch up. See ya!

So last night I was watching a movie on the television called Pirates of Silicon Valley. Haha, that movie made Steve Jobs come off as a megalomaniac or something. After the movie ended, I did an online research of it and found out that the guy who acted as Steve Jobs appeared during the... I'm not sure what it was but it was when the iBook G3 was introduced. It inspired me to get a Steve Jobs outfit. Anyway, I will be out of the country for the coming week so... check back later for the fourth 'My MacBook Pro' post.

For amusement's sake, here's a picture I took during a religious TV programme I channel-surfed into yesterday. Guy's using a MacBook!

This post discusses the eccentricities of my MBP and my hopes for Apple in the future.

Odd characteristics.

Electric shocks.
This freakiness reminds me of my father's Titanium PowerBook [an RM 16 000 machine that doesn't even run on OS X] which zaps my wrists when it's in contact with the edge of the notebook. Didn't occur when I had my Glaucon Fortran. But now, it happens with my MBP. Whenever it is plugged to a power source for a battery charge, my wrists gets zapped, which can be annoyingly painful. It even extends to my legs, whenever they touch my steel drawer underneath my desk. Does anyone have a scientific explanation? It's sucky!

iSight fear.

Knowing that there are so many lunatics in this world who'd do anything just to lurk into other people's system for fun, I have applied a square of duct tape on my iSight. This surprisingly has limited my time on Photo Booth, especially during those midnight hours when the online life is the last thing I want to live in. But don't worry, I have exercised the method of de-stickifying the duct tape [like how you'd stick masking tape to your clothes several times to lose its adhesive factor before taping it on your tracing paper to draw over your plan (flashback to interior architecture classes)], before it covers my iSight.

Nooks and crevices of rubbish.
Even though I try to avoid eating cookies, tuna puffs, crisps or kaya toast near my MBP, it's impossible to stop crumbs of food / microscopic mites / dust bunnies / glitter accumulating underneath the keyboard, the narrow gap by the click pad, the latch catchers, speaker grille and ventilation ducts. I wish I could just suck them all out of there but, is it OK to use a household vacuum cleaner [no, that would just suck out the keys altogether]?

MagSafe and its disappearing act.
Those who are familiar with power cords that existed before MagSafe, remember the detachable tubular plastic thingie that covers the plug when not attached to the portable? And three weeks into usage, the tubular plastic thingie disappears into oblivion? Now with MagSafe, there's no more tubular plastic thingie to protect the plug, but a different plastic thingie in an indescribable shape. I lost it two weeks ago. "Even the power cord is a feature". Hah! How about making the cover for it a practical feature, too?

Hm, oddly enough, the tubular plastic thingie is still intact with Glaucon's power cord, which I still keep.

Caps Lock forever.
I use the shift key to enter shortcuts, commands and type in characters like !, @, #, $ and so on. But never for capital letters!!! I am diehard caps lock user. So when I came across the caps lock key lag on my MBP, I had no choice but to either type slower, or type as normal before realising that my sentences turn into this:

mACbOOK pRO FOR LIFE!

before deleting the typotic sentence and construct it the right way. It's frustrating. I don't type blazingly fast, even, so I don't know why my caps lock key behaves this way.

What I want from Apple.

- Thanks for including a suede-like cleaning cloth, but what's more important is a case/sleeve/envelope to go with the MBP. I mean, like an official one, with an understated embossed logo of Apple on the same spot where the one on the MBP is at. Or maybe in gauze, so that the logo peeps through.

- Bring back Classic OS!

- Better resolution for iSight [might be revised in the next fleet of MBPs]. A dual-sided iSight would be great for producing live broadcasts, but then it would wreck the minimalist facade and go one step closer to looking like a gross non-Mac laptop.

- No need to look for third party apps like Undercover to trace stolen MBPs. Apple should have their own department for handling those cases!

- Make .Mac free for all Mac users.

- And after we all get our free .Mac accounts, there would be an official website serving as a portal for all Mac users. I mean... let me explain it this way. When you meet someone new, you'll find things that both of you have in common. Using Macs can be one of them. But you can't say the same about Windows users, right? It just doesn't sound right when you hear, "Fanny and Manny both are Windows users". And if this portal idea thing comes through, the Mac-utilising community won't be so fragmented like how it is now. But... well, with every other person saying that they want to switch to Mac nowadays [with the enticing ads, better-than-everything-else industrial design, the 'cool' factor] Apple will soon have a larger slice of the market pie and... Macs won't be something to get excited about when you learn that your idol/crush/stalkee uses the same OS as you. Hm... I am dreaming of an advanced search engine with my query reading, "MacBook Pro user, male, 14-17, IQ 140+, interests: Fritz Lang, geothermal energy, charting maps..." [I could go on for hours on this].

Excessively-incredible features of my MBP, in the fourth part of 'My MacBook Pro'.