Just from blog-surfing I have noticed quite a lot of sad posts lately. All these depression and death and howdifficultlifeis… *cough* Tiffy *cough* Naomi *cough* Kim *cough* Chrissie *cough* Irene *cough**cough**cough*. Sorry I had a major cold. 😉
I can understand how everyone feels. All these personal issues are further compounded by the events of the past year. Let’s face it, 2004 in general was pretty crap. 2004 shall be remembered for the continuing war in Iraq, Bush and Howard’s re-elections, South Asian Tsunami. For myself, I learnt in 2004 that my father has contracted cancer.
Why don’t we think of one happy event, and blog about it. Just do it once for a change, ok?
I shall start by writing about one of my joys of living.
Meet my son Jayden. He’s 18 months old now. It all happened one passionate night two years ago…
Ok so I lied, he’s not my son. He’s my nephew. But look at him, isn’t he just the cutest little boy ever?
Like me, Jayden is also in the process of “re-discovering himself”. I’m pretty sure he’s still not quite there yet.
Sometimes Jayden thinks he’s a monkey.
Sometimes he thinks he’s a dog.
When Christmas is near, he thinks he’s a reindeer.
But most of the time, he sleeps like a pig. Ahhh… the days free of worries. Sometimes I wish I were Jayden.
Jayden has a little sister. Her name is Kirsten and she’s born on Christmas Day, which means she’s only two weeks old. Kirsten cries all the time, and Jayden is mystified by this new addition to the family. Sometimes he pokes her head with his finger when she cries.
I’m not quite sure how Kirsten will turn out when she grows older. But if the following picture (taken on the day she’s born) is any indication, I’ll be very very worried.
Selling off everything
Short update today.
Finally I managed to haul my ass back to the gym after a 2 months hiatus. In 2 months I had manged to gain back all the weight I’ve lost and I’m back to square one. How sad.
Nicole has possession of my digital camera. That means I’ll be using old photos / camera phone photos / no photos at all to update my blog. 🙁
I finally updated the About Me page. Talk about procrastination. I still managed to get all mushy and poetic about it though. 😉
I’m desperately trying to sell as many of my stuff as possible. In fact I’ve got many items up for grabs on My eBay. That’s not including the bigger and heavier items like many of my house furniture. I still have to sell off two sets of living room furniture, two sets of dining room furniture, three TV racks, three sets of TV of various sizes, five desks, two bookshelves, two gas lift chairs, and two cars. So those of you in Perth, please help me spread the good word.
About Me
Kenny Sia.
That’s my name. If you happen to come to this site, chances are we’ve met in real life and you already know who I am. If not, here are some quick and simple facts about me.
22 years old.
Male.
Dog.
Kuching, Malaysia originally.
Perth, Australia currently.
im(a)kennysia.com
When asked to give a subtitle to this website, I thought for a while what best describes me. When routine isn’t exactly normal. I always thought my life has been so normal, and so similar to most other people. But its usually when you start thinking that way that life throws you a curve ball. My life is routine, but its not always normal.
I graduated from Curtin University of Technology in Perth in November 2003. My academic title is BSc (Applied Physics), BEng (Electronic & Communication) (Hons). At the moment, I’m working as a Software Engineer with Spectra.
I go to the gym. I drink socially, but I don’t smoke. I hate it when people I care about smoke. I love my computers. I love my family.
I started this blog to keep in touch with my loved ones, to expand my creativity, and to re-discover myself. Why does one need to re-discover himself? Because I thought I’m normal. I was wrong. The only thing constant in this world is change, things change, and I change. This time next year I might be writing a totally different ‘About Me’ page.
There’s not much else to write about myself. After all, this whole website is dedicated to me. Talk about how vain one can get.
But this is me. I am Kenny.
UPDATE 14/05/05: This is very out-of-date. But I can’t be arsed editing it right now.
My job at Spectra
I work at Spectra. It is a small company of about 20+ employees that is based in Malaga, 20 minutes north of Perth city. From my place in Waterford, that’s about 30 minutes of driving each way to and from work for 5 days a week. Spectra manufactures analogue radio base stations and repeaters. These are then used in, say, a police headquarters so that they can communicate to their units on the road.
I am a Software Engineer. My job is to program and maintain the various software that the company uses, a large part that is the in-house testing software. All the base stations here need to pass through rigorous testing before it is sold. Recently though, I’ve been asked to do many graphic design related work, including designing the company website at spectreng.com.au
I started working for Spectra about a week after I finished my final University exams. I was doing my work experience initially for AUD100 a week. 3 months later I was officially employed with a starting annual salary of AUD2x,xxx. By April, I was up to AUD3x,xxx per annum. Just before last Christmas, I received yet another payrise – this time to AUD4x,xxx. In Australia, our dough is paid fortnightly. So this translates to AUD1,xxx.xx a fortnight, of which AUD408 is taken away by the taxman, leaving me AUD1,xxx to spend. By law, my company also have to pay an additional 9% of my income (AUD138.47) into my superannuation fund (or EPF). I am happy!
Whilst this is probably 3 times more than what an average Malaysian earns, bear in mind that Australia is the place where outside food costs on average AUD10 per meal, movie tickets are AUD15 per adult, petrol is AUD1 a litre and many other living expenses are 3 times as much as well. Add the cost of feeding a girlfriend’s penchant for good food, good shoes and good handbags – I’ve got very very very little left for myself. Unfortunately. *sigh…*
The Weirdest Voice Mailbox Message Ever
I touched down in Perth at 5am this morning. First thing I did when I landed was to check my voice mailbox. Now, because I spent my new year ‘celebration’ (or there lackof) in Kuching instead of Perth, I expected tons and tons of people leaving me Happy New Year messages. After all, I’m so damn popular – at least I’d like to think that I am.
*Kenny dials 321*
“Welcome to Optus Voice Message System. You have… three… new voice messages.”
Hmm… just three messages? Oh well, something is better than nothing.
“Message One. Received January 5th at 2:24am.”
Gee that’s kinda late for a new year message.
“Hey…. Hi Natasha!”
Natasha? What’s this surfie dude with a strong Aussie accent talking about?
“This is Pete calling, from… from… *slurred message*.
YEAH! I’ve just got your message and thought FUCK! I must have missed that. *slurred message*
So yea I’m just here having a few… few… Marijuana pipes hahaha.., HAHAHHAA *bubbling sound* Fuck… Umm….Yea… We should catch up sometime. Call me soon huh. Bye.”
Gee Pete, that is so sweet. Perhaps if you weren’t so stoned, you could perhaps have heard some guy called Kenny asking you to leave a message after the beep.
Saturday Night in Kuching
Hmmm… That lasy entry was kinda weird. My apologies. I more or less wrote it under the influence of alcohol last night. It was totally unplanned. Nicole and I happened to be in town, and we decided to check out the Saturday night crowd in Kuching pubs.
This is the Grappa signage I happened to pass by on our way to SoHo:
Once in SoHo, we bumped into Kenneth. Kenneth is a very nice guy from Penang. We met him once before through Averil and friends, and he’s been very friendly to us since, often buying us drinks. He’s a heavy drinker himself. A bottle of Chivas costs RM240 in SoHo, and Kenneth would drink almost a bottle a night, for four nights straight.
It didn’t take long for more people we knew to arrive. Averil and Faith are Nicole’s close pals from her TAR College days, and Anna is a common friend of theirs. David, who is a pilot for MAS, soon joined us. Luckily he didn’t drink too much, or else I wouldn’t be taking another MAS flight ever again. From left to right, that’s Kenneth, Anna, Averil and David.
We hung around till about 12, and Nicole and I decided to call it a night. By then I had about 8 glasses of Chivas with coke/green tea. We passed by the Grappa signage again, and this is what it looked like to me:
Heh. Anyway, I just sent Nicole off to the airport today. She’s flying back to KL. As for me, I’ll be leaving for Perth in 2 hours time. It won’t be life as usual for me by then, as I would be selling off everything there and return to Kuching for good by March.
Until then, Kuching. Goodbye.
United Colors of Benetton Condoms
I was walking around Watson’s in Sarawak Plaza today, and guess what I found?
That can’t be… United Colors of Benetton CONDOMS ?! For the uninitiated, United Colors of Benetton (or UCB) is a clothing company group based in Italy. The brand is famous for its young adult clothes and bags. For them to produce condoms?! That’s really kinda odd.
Curious, I plonked RM9.90 and purchased a box of UCB condoms right away. The box comes with 6 condoms, which works out to be RM1.65 per fuck. What a bargain!
The UCB condoms come with a green wrapping with overprints of the United Colors of Benetton logo. Because of its designer brand name, I’m pretty sure it would make any girl all horny and say something like “Put that on you and put it in me… RIGHT NOW!”
On the reverse of the wrapper, it says “Manufactured by Okamoto Industries. Made in Japan. Exp 2008/03”. Japanese condoms! So, it must be good, right?
All the condoms are lightly lubricated and all comes in green. I’m not sure why, but I’m pretty sure its not meant to make your male member look like some sort of vegetable.
This is how much the reservoir teat of the condom can hold. Honestly speaking that’s not very much.
I pulled a bit too hard when I was removing the condom, which resulted in condom breakage – an undesirable effect. So much for Japanese condoms huh? At least we know what that says about Japanese penises.
Unwilling to accept defeat, I pulled out the Galliano bottle.
And this is the Galliano bottle, now fully protected against all STDs and unwanted pregnancies.
So, should you try it? My advice is this: If you have a small and thin penis like the Galliano bottle, you could perhaps impress your female partner by using this designer branded condoms. (Meanwhile, you might want to pray that Louis Vuitton does not release some RM500 LV monogram-printed condom or something like that.)
But if you’re big like ermm… like me, don’t use UCB branded condoms and just stick with Durex or Ansell ok? 🙂
A Place Like No Other
The sign says “Welcome to Sarawak – A Place Like No Other”.
I left Kuching when I was 14. I studied in Perth for 7 years and worked for a year after that. During that period of time, I had spent very little time in Kuching. I was complaining that Kuching has very little to offer. I think most people who have been to big cities like KL or Singapore would agree with me. Kuching is the biggest city in East Malaysia, yet it is does not have what other big cities have. That’s why when Coffee Beans and Kenny Rogers opened in Kuching, everyone went crazy.
But how do we measure how much a city has to offer? Is it by the amount of franchised shopping and food outlets? Is it by the amount of highways or the number of *sniggers* toll booths?
Nicole and I were in Sarawak at 5:30pm drinking caramel latte from Coffee Bean. It took us 45 minutes to travel from there to Hui Sing Garden, when normally it would take no more than 15 minutes. Traffic congestion is hitting Kuching the way it hit KL.
People are getting irritated. Despite the city council spending taxpayers’ money trying to improve roads with big visible monuments like the three flyovers, traffic is still an issue. Meanwhile, taxpayers’ money were spent on building a nicely architectured South City Council building with nice manicured lawns near Lumba Kuda. Nowadays people are scared of being mugged, and I’m surprised the “decision makers” have not yet come under fire for failing to reduce the alarming crime rate.
Why do we have to treat politicans like royalty when half the time they treat us like shit? I really hope that Kuching can be different. I hope that it can really be a place like no other. Unfortunately, Kuching is slowly turning into another KL.
Logitech MX1000 Laser Cordless Mouse
I am a big fan of Logitech. In fact my computer desk is cluttered with more Logitech products than any other stuff. Their products are always sleeker, cheaper and simply better than many of their counterparts. To date I have had Logitech webcams, PC gamepad, PC flightstick, PS2 gamepad, keyboards and mice.
Recently however, my precious Logitech MX Duo decided to die on me. So I called up Logitech support and they replaced it with Logitech LX700 which I absolutely hated.
The first thing I did was to chuck the mouse away. Whilst Nicole was in KL I asked her to make a trip to Thundermatch to get me the Logitech MX1000 Laser Cordless Mouse.
The mouse comes in a beautiful Logitech green-and-white packaging. Inside you can find the usual suspects such as the power adapter, cordless receiver/docking station, a USB-PS2 adapter and of course, the laser mouse.
The MX1000 is slightly bigger than most computer mice (and slightly smaller than most household rodents). Despite that, the contour of the mouse fits my palm perfectly. There’s a nice deep indent for the thumb which helps prevent sore thumbs commonly associated with prolonged mouse-stroking. A plethora of special mouse buttons placed at intuitive locations secures the MX1000’s place as the one of the most comfortable mice available on the market.
Obviously the biggest selling point of the mouse is the use of laser as the tracker instead of the now ubiquitous red LEDs or *sniggers* balls. The laser is invisible to the human eye, but it can be detected by my digital camera as a white-purplish light.
Logitech claims the laser manages to ‘see’ the surface detail 20 times better than conventional optical mice. However, in my normal usage I have yet to detect any incredible improvements. I have also found out that I am unable to reach the ‘forward’ button and the ‘cruise up’ button without manoeuvring my wrist slightly.
The laser technology is nothing to shout about. However, I willingly paid RM305 for a solidly constructed mouse that has plenty of useful buttons and sleek curves.
My advice: if you have any mice from Logitech’s MX series, stick with it. Otherwise, if you have the cash to burn, get the MX1000.
Snake Sighting!
Yesterday, Nicole and I were walking back home from Kenyalang. I was at the gate of my house when coincidentally my mother arrived in her car as well. Just when I was about to press the door bell, my mother yelled out that there’s a snake behind me! Nicole shrieked and ran away, whilst I was looking around for the snake. Guess what I saw?
A two meter long green fella slithering down the wall to the meter box!
Judging by its colour I wouldn’t be surprised if its poisonous. Maybe its because I’ve watched Anacondas one too many times, but I visualised that it might leap out and take a chunk out of my neck or something.
Obviously that did not happen (otherwise I wouldn’t be here!) . Our little green friend happily crawls away into our neighbour’s garden, preying on its next victim. Could it be you? Heh heh heh…