MyDoom (and yours)

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mydoom worm

MyDoom raped me a bit over the course of the day…I had to delete
thousands of Mydoom/Novarg emails, but that wasn’t that bad since the
worm does have characteristic
[mcafee.com] subject and body text so a string filter to dump those
mails straight into the Deleted Items folder can clean things up easily.

What isn’t so funny is the 22 kb payload…multiply that by
thousands and there’s wasted bandwidth for you. I just paid US$ 60 for
excess bandwidth usage today. Which reminds me, sixthseal.com would
have to be moved in the next few days. I have already aquired a US$
34.94 per month VPS/VDS hosting package since this site has outgrown
the current host. That’s RM 132 each month, but I reckon it’ll be
cheaper in the long run.

I will be moving as soon as possible, the backups are ready, so
let’s hope this would be a smoother server move than my first host
(HostNexus) to my current host (ICDSoft), where I’ll still be keeping
castitas.com. The last move was gnarly since the sql database dump
somehow got fux0red and I had to use the import feature, which breaks
the sequence. I moved last time because sixthseal.com started to
outgrow the old host and it’s for the same reason this time. I’ve had
good experience with both of my hosts, this blog just needs a higher
end package since the visitors increase each month.

RM 132 might seem like a lot to pay with my soon to be 2k salary,
but yeah, I don’t mind the expenditure. Oh, and I also picked up two
domains today, which will be revealed in due time. That makes the
sixthseal.com family 5, which is always a nice number. 😉 I don’t know
what I’m going to do with the domains though…I might run a nameserver
on one since I have two static IPs so yeah if anyone needs a secondary
NS, feel free to approach me when that happens.

Right then, this post has been rather site-centric, sorry about
that. Just a notice that sixthseal.com might be down for up to 48 hours
in the next few days while the DNS records propogate. Sleep tight
everyone and don’t let the mass mailing worms bite!

KLIA Unit Kawalan Vektor monitoring units in toilets

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flight over kl

Greetings from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia! I arrived in KL this morning
after excessive drinking last night. Hell, I was still intoxicated when
I woke up! I can’t remember the last time I threw up but I regurgitated
last night, took off my clothes to soak it up and climbed into bed and
passed out. 🙂

When conciousness was regained again, I saw that it was 8:15 am, my
friends are picking me up and sending me to the airport at 8:30 am and
I threw everything into a bag, wiped up the previous night’s excess,
showered and got into the airport and somehow arrived in KL. 😉 You
know one of those days when you’ve had a big night out (with alchohol)
and you wake up still drunk? Yep, that’s today. 🙂

I shall update again later, I have stuff to do. Meanwhile, amuse
yourself with this photo I took this morning at the KLIA airport:

klia toilet vector detector

It reads:
PEJABAT KESIHATAN KLIA
Unit Kawalan Vektor
Kajian sedang dijalankan

which translates to:
KLIA DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH
Vector Control Unit
Monitoring is in progress

Sibu flood!

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flood central roads

There was a flood in Sibu in many areas of the town today. The water
levels started rising last night, allegedly from the rains in Kapit
(upstream from Sibu via Rejang River). The central roads were even
flooded and unfortunately I did not take the Sibu town/Lanang Road
route but the parallel one, passing through Jalan Alan (!!!) instead.
Jalan Alan is a notoriously low level area where I was also caught
unaware during the rainy season last year. I drove through anyway…

flood drive photo
I have crossed swords with greater foes than you, puny pool of water!

I did not manage to take any photos of me navigating the Jalan Alan
route though because I was too busy doing battle with the water. I felt
like I was driving a boat instead of the car and had to rev the engine
really hard to keep moving. I feared it would stall in the middle and
it nearly did, I think water got into the exhaust and it wouldn’t start
properly. However, revving the engine (which I would imagine would
clear the water out) helped and I was soon on my way again.

flooded cars

The above photo was taken today at Jalan Alan. Two cars stalled
there – a Proton Perdana and a Proton Iswara. I managed to get through
all right though (always rev the engines hard – amateur advice, but
tried and true nevertheless). The Jalan Salim interchange was too much
for me to brave though:

flood_trailer
You may not pass!

I reckon if that trailer didn’t dare to risk it, it would be common
sense for me not to pass that way either. For what it’s worth, it was really deep, much deeper than the Jalan Alan flood. Here’s a final photo to cap it all up:

flood perahu

The police were getting out perahus/sampans (boats) to rescue trapped people.

I got out alright though, except my car had partial amnesia…the
front licence plate was washed away by the force of the water pressure
while driving through the flood lar. :p

On another note, I’ll be flying to KL early tomorrow and I won’t
come back to Sibu again, I’ll be flying straight to Kuching on the
morning of the 31st.

More Chinese New Year visitation photos

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We went for another round of Chinese New Year visiting today. It’s
the 4th day of CNY (“chu shi”) today so this would probably be the
final Chinese New Year visitation photos since no one really goes
visiting on the 5th day (“chu wu”) unlike in the old days. I hear
people visit up till Chap Goh Meh (15th day) in the past. Anyway,
here’s the three houses we visited today:

hie yieng house
Hie Yieng’s house
L-R: Ting Chuan, Ah Ping, Huai Bin (me), Hie Yieng, Siew Fua.
I’m the one in black attire.

Hie Yieng is a friend from my college days in Sibu. I used to study
at MPI which was where I met Siew Fua too. I think we kept Hie Yieng
waiting from 10 am till 1:15 pm…she was planning to head out when we
wanted to visit. Oops. 🙂

winnie ha house
Winnie Ha’s house
Winnie is the one in blue.

I haven’t seen Winnie since she went to LA six years ago. We were
from the same primary school and went to the same high school as well.
It was great to catch up with her after all these years – found out
that she was in KL and also in Melbourne at the same time I was, albeit
the interlap was just a couple of days. She’s in Melbourne now. It’s
always good to catch up with old friends after a long time. 🙂

ming tze house
Ming Tze’s house
Ming Tze is the one in the middle.

Ming Tze is also another old friend from primary school and we were
in the same class in high school. I think the last time we met up and
talked was two years ago. She’s also based in Kuching and I’ll be
working there starting February so there’s a good opportunity to catch
up. 🙂

It’s been a great Chinese New Year! I’m glad I came back. 🙂

Graduation in the papers and my Kuching plans (accomodation?)

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newspaper grad

Sin Chew Jit Poh and See Hua (local Chinese dailies) had graduation
photos of me and my sister today. Anyway, about my future plans that
I’ve meant to post about – I’ll be based in Kuching starting February.
I’ll be pulling in a 2k salary, which was part of the reason behind the
decision to move. There’s also an EPF (KWSP) contribution and Kuching
living expenses are much cheaper than KL which means I’ll have more
money to pay for the unholy excess bandwidth charges that sixthseal.com
racks up. :p

My field is somewhat similar to what I was doing in KL, except I’ll
also spearhead their networking solution in addition to being a
programmer. I’ll be working a six day week (well, five and half days to
be exact) – 8 am till 5 pm weekdays and 8 am till 12:30 pm Saturday.
I’ll be driving in Kuching so the earlier start time wouldn’t be an
issue. There you have it, I’ll be flying back to KL on the 27th to pack
up the remainder of my stuff and flying back to Sibu on the 30th and
it’s off to Kuching I go on the 31st of January.

Speaking of which, does anyone know of any rooms to rent in Kuching?
I’ve heard of several, which are either too expensive or not suitable.
I’ll like a room in a house with a washing machine and air conditioning
(optional), the ability to get a phone line installed and privacy (that
means no barging into my room and I have the only set of keys to my
room). I am not noisy (I always use headphones) and do not mind noisy
environments (I have benzos ;)). Open minded and discreet fellow
residents would be appreciated.

Visiting during Chinese New Year

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We went for another round of Chinese New Year visiting today. I
didn’t sleep till 4 pm as planned…woke up at 9 am (alarm) and zoned
out till about 11 am. I was quite scattered from the previous night but
it’s all good, we headed out to visit a couple of people. The first
house we went to is Siew Fua’s.

siew fua house
Siew Fua’s house
L-R: Huai Bin (me), Siew Fua, Ting Chuan
I’m the one in the Monash University T-shirt.

We sat around and talked for a while before heading (unannounced) to
Datina’s place. It’s a good thing she was home and we spent more than
an hour catching up. Here’s a shot of us:

datina house
Datina’s house
Datina is the one in white.

It was about noon at that time so we were invited to have lunch with
their family. Great timing, we haven’t had lunch yet. 😉 I loved the
tea – it’s a fruit and herbal fusion that tastes great!

datina lunch

Next up is Vivien’s house, have been meaning to visit her since it’s
been a while since I’ve talked to her. We also met her sister (Hello Jennifer!) at her house.

vivien house
Vivien’s house

I somehow inherited some chai lei firecrackers here.

happy boom

It’s made by the same company as the original Chai Lai but this one
is called Happy Boom instead of the misleading Coloured Flowers. These
firecrackers seem to sound slightly louder than Coloured Flowers and
actually have a nice plume of sparks as the primer.

vivien hii
This is Vivien, who occasionally comments here as “vivi”. We’re all from the same high school.

Anyway, Vivien came along with us to visit Thien Na. Thien Na is one
of my classmates who was in Melbourne with me. I’ve since graduated,
but she’s planning to settle there. Here’s a shot of us:

thien na house
Thien Na’s house
Thien Na is the second one from left.

The final destination was Chiew Yieng’s house…er, mansion. We
spent the rest of the day there talking until about 7 pm. Here’s a
photo of us at her place.

chiew yieng house
Chiew Yieng’s house
She’s the one beside me, second from left.

Feng tau Chinese New Year (a police raid and the great escape)

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This New Year is going to be very auspicious for me because we
narrowly avoided being raided by the police. =D It started when we went
to My Place for some good old feng tau action to celebrate the Chinese
New Year.

my place raid 1
1 1/2 Marquis dengan Mandelin biru, lima dan bir.

my place raid 2
Here’s another shot of us, didn’t get everyone in, unfortunately, our convoy of 13 people were scattered at the venue.

sixthseal.com’s My Place video clip [sixthseal.com]
(1.17 MB zip file, right click, save download as)
Extract from the zip file – it’s a .mov file (Requires QuickTime Player)

Click the movie above for a small video clip of the place.

Anyway, much fun was had until exactly 3 am when everyone started leaving in a hurried pace in droves.

Rule #1 – When people start leaving en masse, get off your ass and fucking cabut with them.

I managed to mobilize most of our group and we all headed out of the
place. Not a second too soon, there was a fucking group of police
walking determinedly towards the venue. Hell, the first wave was nearly
at the doorstep and we nonchalantly (as close to nonchalant as we could
manage anyway) took a sharp right. None of us could afford to
get hauled in if you catch my drift. I got into my car with my friend
and drove off, just in time. Close call…

Phone calls were made to ensure that everyone managed to get out
safely and we set a rendezvous point outside a nearby hotel. Bad news,
one person in our group didn’t get out. Last we saw, he was behind the
speakers. By that time, the place was swarming with police – there were
patrol cars, sapu vehicles (those trucks used to load people in for
drug tests) and personnel. I wanted to take a photo but that would be
an extremely stupid thing to do, so unfortunately there’s no raid
photos. We waited a while and turned back to search for our missing
friend.

Stroke of luck, he managed to get out as well. 🙂

Alls well that ends well, let me get some nitrazepam and alcohol into me and no one wake me till 4 pm. Party safe everyone.

Chinese New Year visiting photos

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The first round of Chinese New Year visitations kick started as I
was awakened at about 1:15 pm by a phone call, and we arranged to meet
at Johnny’s house to start things off:

johnny house
Johnny’s house
L-R: Lee Ling, Daniel, Johnny, Huai Bin (me), Ting Chuan.

Next up is Frank, stopped by his house and played with his kitten. 🙂

frank house
Frank’s house
L-R: Daniel, Ting Chuan, The kitten and I, Frank, Johnny.

Picked Frank up and we headed down to Diana’s place. She’s actually
living in Kuching now, but comes back during Chinese New Year. This is
the first shot (facing inwards):

diana house in
Diana’s house #1
Front row
L-R: Huai Bin (red Quiksilver T-shirt), Doreen (holding the baby, Diana’s eldest sister), Diana, Daphne (Diana’s elder sister).
Back row
L-R: Frank, Ting Chuan, Johnny, Daniel, Lee Ling.

We took another shot facing outwards:

diana house out
Diana’s house #2
Front row
L-R: Daphne, Doreen, Diana, me.
Back row
L-R: Lee Ling, Daniel, Johnny, Ting Chuan, Frank.

Next up is Lisa’s house. Here’s a shot of us:

lisa house
Lisa’s house
The one in the red shirt (not me, the female in the red shirt) is Lisa.
The others can be recognizable from the previous photo captions.

We finally adjourned to Daniel’s place here:

daniel house
Daniel’s house

I’ll have to go out again in a while. I’ll try to reply all the
comments until I have to leave. Chinese New Year, quite busy, my
apologies. 🙂

Chinese New Year in Sibu

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A photo story

stringing firecrackers

There’s the stringing of firecrackers over the balcony to avoid using the unwieldy pole method.

shun lee hung cloth

The lesser form of firecrackers (Shun Lee Hung) doesn’t sound as
loud nor does it have a lucky banner (it has a cloth instead) but is a
common replacement considering the dearth of the traditional “fuck you”
loud ass Chinese firecrackers.

firecrackers second floor

We wait for the clock to strike 12 am.

burning firecrackers

Everyone lets off their firecrackers at the stroke of midnight.

red carpet

A red carpet lies in our wake.

dual chai lei

Other shenanigans like lighting two (or three, or four) firecrackers at once can be attempted at this point.

sibu 1

It’s not Sibu if there isn’t a man made fog after midnight! 🙂

sibu 2

We won’t have it any other way. Here in Sibu, Sarawak, we aim to scare away the nien ghost the only way we know how to – light the fuses comrades! 😉

Chinese New Year reunion dinner

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poh_clan.jpg

This is the Poh Clan after the CNY reunion dinner. I think I got
everyone, though not all relatives have arrived yet, but the core group
is in, with the matriach.

[Edit: Snip. Snip. Sorry, ya, don’t think many people would
be happy at me posting about that. Chinese New Year, we try to make
other people happy. :)]

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