Snail mail from Nicole Tan

nicole mail

I just came back from a really enlightening conversation about life and relationships in general to a dark house and picked up two pieces of mail – one was for my car insurance premium for RM 1,704.60 (=_=!!!) which I have to pay before next month and the other was a padded largish envelope.

star metro

The writing at the back says “Sorry it took so long, but here you are”. It’s the autographed copy of The Star from two months back with a feature of me by Nicole on sixthseal.com.

star leaf

I have read the article in the online version of The Star and was surprised at the more positive key in the actual paper.

sixthseal

The front page Saturday Metro text has Drug blogger turns over a new leaf” which is a much better angle than the “Former drug blogger comes clean about his past” headline that the online version features.

star metro kissed

I asked Nicole for an autographed copy of the paper and she finally got around to sending it to me. πŸ˜‰ The article is an interview about sixthseal.com and my experience as a drug blogger in the past and how I’ve turned my life around.

nicole auto

Nicole wrote “To Huai Bin, Hope you continue to thrive in life, be happy in whatever you do” on the top of the article…

nicolekissed

…and autographed the bottom with “You’ve been Nicolekiss-ed!!” πŸ™‚

Thanks for sending me the papers Nicole, much appreciated! I like the article in the off-line version, it’s much more positive.

Harian Metro

Well, at least it can’t get any worse than this. πŸ˜‰

Former drug blogger comes clean about his past

sixthseal

I was featured in Nicole Tan’s column of The Star today. I logged on this morning and saw the rather…dramatic, shall we say, title and and the first thought that came to my mind was not a thought per se, but rather an abbreviation – OMFG.

Word has also been going around that I’ve been dating around the office (which is totally untrue – I go out with coworkers for lunch, but I don’t have any relationships in the office). If I were any younger, my immediate reaction would be anger and disappointment rolled all into one huge boulder…

…but having mellowed out a bit, I have learnt to accept that gossip will go around, and like Chinese whispers, everything gets twisted into something nowhere even near the resemblance of truth.

[Edit: Hmm…I realize this may have been a bit of a low blow on my part. I apologize. My bad.]

Nicole, don’t worry about it, it’s not your fault. I agreed to do the interview and all credit AND blame should rest with me for the consequences that come after that.

God, grant me the Serenity to accept the things I cannot change
Courage, to change the things I can
and Wisdom, to know the difference.

sixthseal.com 4th Birthday!

sixthseal.com was officially launched on 19th April 2002. πŸ™‚

4th birthday

sixthseal.com celebrates it’s 4th anniversary today! It’s been up to close to half a decade and still going. There were several setbacks this year, mostly due to a drug possession case which severely restricted the nature of my posts so I’m going to do one last experience report to commemorate the fourth anniversary of the site (which is a traditionally unlucky number in Chinese culture, and certainly is an unlucky year for me).

Ecstasy pill name: Red apples
Pill color: Pink with red specks
Circa: KL, Malaysia 2006 (er…I mean 1906, sorry about the date confusion ;))
Suspected contents: MDMA with ketamine (qualitative findings, not reagent tested)
Other substances consumed: Yes. πŸ˜‰

4th anniversary ecstasy

MDMA and ketamine pill combinations are actually pretty common in Malaysia. These are nicely pressed pills (hard) with beveled edges and a solid, high quality imprint of an apple. These are nicely done pills, not a shoddy home kitchen pill press product.

The subject (male, 60 kg) and a companion (female, 50 kg) swallowed 1 1/2 pills each (crushed up) on an empty stomach and interesting dissociative effects characteristic of ketamine started to manifest, so the decision was made to powder the remaining pill and insufflate it.

Subjective characteristics associated with MDMA (empathy, initial “Ecstasy coming up rush”, blurred vision) started to manifest so the remainder powdered pill was split into lines and selective sensory deprivation (scientists refer to it by the technical term “switching off the lights and turning up the music” ;)) was initiated.

4th anniversary lines

Nystagmus and mild hallucinations started setting in at the peak (T+ 0:45) and the lines were insufflated over an unknown period of time (snorting the powdered pills produced a “speedy” rush with dominating ketamine qualities e.g. confabulation and time-space disorientation).

4th anniversary cannabis

Cannabis was smoked at about T+ 1:30 and throughout the next few hours which mellowed out the trip (not an intended effect) but the visual anomalies and nystagmus and CNS MDMA effects lasted until T+ 3:00 before tapering off. Subject’s companion also reported similar experiences. Other substances consumed:

4th anniversary other substances

Erimin 5 (nimetazepam)
Xanax (alprazolam)
Alcohol

Rating: 6/10
(The “pig” imprinted pills circa December, 2005 from Kuching seems to have a higher MDMA content)

Thank you for allowing me to make one final experience report of a substance consumed in…er, 1906. πŸ˜‰

Without further adieu, here’s a recap of the troubled history of sixthseal.com during the past year:

I got arrested, everyone knows that by now, so I won’t go through any drug or pharmaceutical posts.

[sixthseal.com]
A tongue-in-cheek comparison between the two popular ED (Erectile Dysfunction) pharmaceuticals. Oops…did I just say “pharmaceuticals”? πŸ˜‰

Water slide for shit [sixthseal.com]
A reminder to the kids that opiate dependency is Not Fun (TM).

The bird nesting outside my window [sixthseal.com]
Before the H5N1 avian flu hit, people were actually rooting for birds! No shit!

Turtle eggs preparation recipe and report [sixthseal.com]
Before the…oh alright, people have always been rooting for turtles.

I sneezed and my atomic bomb went off [sixthseal.com]
I still think this is the funniest post title for the last year. MapleSEA.com is another corporate time drainer – active in sixthseal.com via MapleStory since 2006.

The cough syrup that locals abuse [sixthseal.com]
In the name of science!!111

PPS Bash 2005 [sixthseal.com]
The Project Petaling Street Malaysian blogger meetup writeup. Quite a mouthful.

Google AdSense cheque [sixthseal.com]
sixthseal.com was doing good on Google AdSense (trial case study since the site involves drug and pharmaceutical content) until too many complaints flooded in (from other bloggers *rolls eyes*) and I was informed of it by my trial case handler after only the third cheque was received.

Gone fishin’ [sixthseal.com]
sixthseal.com vs. South China Sea

Mount Kinabalu – The Summit Trail [sixthseal.com]
Mount Kinabalu summit – Climbing Lows Peak [sixthseal.com]
sixthseal.com vs. Mount Kinabalu

Snorkeling at Manukan Island, Sabah [sixthseal.com]
sixthseal.com vs. The Beach

Laman Web Dajal (Evil website) [sixthseal.com]
sixthseal.com vs. The Establishment
(sixthseal.com lost – “vs. The Establishment” is never a good nor fair, fight – I strongly suggest you avoid it ;))

Tongue Piercing – Photos and videos [sixthseal.com]
sixthseal.com goes tongue piercing (again)

Dragons Playing Pearl Fireworks Mines and Shots review with videos [sixthseal.com]
sixthseal.com in “How not to light a cake firework”
(but he does it anyway)

CNY firecrackers and fireworks roundup – a sixthseal.com Chap Goh Meh special [sixthseal.com]
sixthseal.com in “Playing with fire”

Jong’s Crocodile Farm report [sixthseal.com]
sixthseal.com vs. Crocodiles.
A tribute to those of you who can identify with crocodile farms, reptilian or mammal. πŸ˜‰

and the other “Noteworthy Post” in the sixthseal.com blog year from 19th April 2005 to 19th April 2006:

I won the Sports Toto 6/42 Jackpot! [sixthseal.com]
I won the 4D TOTO (Lotto) Jackpot!
…but only got RM 30 (USD 8) out of it.

Read more in the sixthseal.com archives [sixthseal.com].

Despite everything, sixthseal.com has managed to conquer sand, sea and surf during the past year. We’ll see what challenges the next year provides. πŸ™‚

sixthseal.com has been online for 4 years and counting and it won’t stop until I stop.

The first anniversary of sixthseal.com can be viewed here [sixthseal.com].

The second anniversary of sixthseal.com can be viewed here [sixthseal.com].

The third anniversary of sixthseal.com can be viewed here [sixthseal.com].

A big “Thank You” goes out to all the readers of sixthseal.com. The support is very much appreciated, as always.

It’s been great, guys! πŸ™‚

Hail to the King, Baby!

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OMG! I actually thought sixthseal.com's birthday is on the 16th instead of the 19th of April

I spent the weekend in the arms of opiate withdrawal, shitting bricks with my nose running to the ground and throwing up every time I eat anything. It wasn’t pleasant…and reprieve was brought today in the form of 12 tablets of DF-118 (360 mg of DHC) which I had intentionally saved up – I’m just buying time Morpheus, I’ll pay you back tomorrow.

I promise. I don’t need to – you come and make me pay you back anyway. It’s not like I can run and hide. *shrugswithazasinshrugz”

I had a dream last night. I can only remember bits and pieces of it, but I remember a dismal landscape, with only a girl there, of my age, who guided me through it. Except she wasn’t helping me, she was just providing warmth and company through the journey and I was just getting more and more lost in the dreamscape. The strangest thing she said to me when I confronted her about that is that “I am you. You just don’t know it yet.”

…and OMG! I just used up my opiate allowance for making a birthday post…but it’s not due yet! ZOMG! GOM!111

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sixthseal.com is back up – it’s bigger, better! (er…maybe not)

Hello everyone! sixthseal.com is still in the testing phase as I,
alas, do not have the habit of performing regular backups and thus is
left in the lurch when my host went tits up. I have signed up for
another server with a different hosting company and I’m trying to get
most the stuff back up – although I seem to have lost a significant
chunk of my images archive…

Rest assured, dear readers, nothing nefarious (except a catastrophic
server failure) happened to me. I’m perfectly fine, much to the ire of
my detractors, I’m sure.

Hell, I can practically feel you fuming at my general direction through cyberspace. πŸ˜‰

Deadline: 3rd December, 2005

Harian Metro
[Image from Harian Metro Ahad]

I have been contacted by the authorities and I’ve agreed to delete
all drug and pharmaceutical related posts in two days (before this
Saturday – GMT +8). I will not write about drugs and pharmaceuticals in
the future on this blog.

I hope that all of you understand why I have to do this – the alternative is very
unsavory. I will still continue to write about other things (alcohol
and tobacco is still okay, as is all legal things) on sixthseal.com and
I hope that you can understand and accept the decision I’ve made.

RIP to the first drug blog in Malaysia with photos and videos.

2002 – 2005

It was good while it lasted…

Thanks to:
Sashi [sashiweb.com]
Lainie [tabulas.com]
John Kuan [johnkuan.com]
mahagurusia [blogspot.com]
Shaolin Tiger [shaolintiger.com]
mmulibra [blogspot.com]
annabella [xanga.com]
Applegal [blogspot.com]
asiapundit [asiapundit.com]
cyber-red [blogspot.com]
laineylashes [laineylashes.com]
Lainie [tabulas.com]
loquterz [msn.com]
kimberlycun [kimberlycun.com]
Terenceg [terenceg.com]
Silly Wabbit [sstwo.net]

and everyone else who showed their support during this difficult
time. Thank you everyone – from the bottom of my heart, as always.

Viva la veritas!

sixthseal.com 3rd Birthday!

3rd birthday

sixthseal.com has been leading the wild into the ways of the man for three years and counting! πŸ™‚

This blog has been around for nearly 1/3 of a decade. Oh, and
doesn’t switching the chronological measurement units make it sound all
the more impressive? πŸ˜‰ I’m in this for the long run…tomorrow will be
the premier of the fourth season of sixthseal.com – a big thank you
goes out to everyone who has been with me for the past three years!
Hola!

The words of encouragement and support despite my numerous
shortcomings and constant relapses means a lot to me…it shows me that
no matter how bad I fuck up, there will still be friends there to help
me. People like you make me think that maybe the world is not that bad
after all. I know I don’t reply my emails as often as I should but I
want everyone to know that I read every single one of them and it’s
nice to know that you care. I love you all.

I have been blogging for three years now, and it always brings me
down a nostalgic memory lane to see what I’ve been doing for the past
few years. I was a university student in Melbourne, Australia when I
started sixthseal.com. I worked as a programmer with XM Malaysia in KL
after I graduated, and I arrived in Kuching to be the system engineer
for Huygens Asia after that. I’m still with Huygens Asia, and have been
since I moved from KL to Kuching.

The past year of sixthseal.com has been interesting…the blog
started receiving a lot of publicity, and that has resulted in many
situations where people stopped me in town and asked if I’m the
“sixthseal.com guy”. It’s nice to be able to meet new people from
different walks of life through an online weblog…I’m glad I managed
to bump into readers outside – it brings a more personal touch to
blogging. πŸ™‚

It seems to be a strange coincidence that sixthseal.com happens to
change a different digicam each year – my trusty Nikon 5700 was
replaced by the more compact 7.1 MP Nikon 7900
[sixthseal.com]. The mobile solutions for updating anytime and anywhere
in the world have also been realized this year, with the purchase of a
capable notebook equipped with Wi-Fi and CAT-5 network sockets. The
connectivity has depended on mainly GSM cell phone GPRS/EDGE networks
using IrDA or Bluetooth.

3bday hx4700

The purchase of an iPAQ hx4700 also allowed Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and
IrDA connectivity modes, with ample dual memory slots (SD-Card and
CF-Card). The Pocket PC running Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition
ensures that sixthseal.com is just a fingertip away and allows the
replying of comments without lugging around a notebook. The pocket able
iPAQ has been very useful in comment management. The connectivity is
provided by a SE K700i with Bluetooth and IrDA ports [sixthseal.com].

This year also witnessed several sixthseal.com expansion and
diversification efforts. There was a supernova in the sixthseal.com
universe which resulted in an aggressive push in domain name
acquisition. LimTeh.com
[limteh.com] was registered on the 1st of February 2005 to be used as
the “official” sixthseal.com forum. It has been planned out to be a
self sustaining operation and thanks to the help of the moderators team
BIG D, Vertigo, PatrickISU, Swedish-Chef, Lainie, kisps, deadbill, sweety, justine, Astrum, Dear Sergio, shanks, chemist_tip, simplicity, *Limo*, Skwermy and jadephoenix;
the LimTeh.com forum has been running smoothly. Let’s hear a big one
for the LimTeh.com moderator team for helping out! Cheers!

The sixhseal.com conglomeration of sites also added two new domains to the family – tiuniama.com [tiuniama.com] and tiuniamachowhai.com
[tiuniamachowhai.com] on the 29th of March 2005. The two mirror domains
are meant as a sociological experimental catch-all for trolls. The
other domain acquisitions made this year includes sixthseal.info and
louisalee.info, which would not be used to avoid diluting the main
blog’s name. Another little known fact is that the LimTeh.com forum is
also associated with limteh.net, limteh.org and limteh.biz domains,
although it’s not recommended for use or book marking as I only plan to
maintain the .com domain.

The “Holy Trinity” of .com, .net and .org was also acquired for
sixthseal.com – it all redirects to the main premium sixthseal.com
blog. The .net and .org domains was registered on the 9th of April,
2005. The domain name MalaysianBlogs.com
[malaysianblogs.com] was also registered on the same date – it’s going
to be a portal of Malaysian based or owned blogs, a directory of sorts.
I haven’t gotten that project up and running yet, but it’s going to be
fully automated – so bloggers can just add their own sites into the
relevant categories. SarawakBlog.com and SarawakBlogs.com was also
registered on the same date but those two are going to remain dormant
till I find an application for it.

3bday castitas offline

The sixthseal.com group of sites also witnessed a downsizing exercise, with castitas.com
[castitas.com] shut down for good on the 17th of September, 2004.
castitas.com will no longer be updated. However, the domain name is
still going to be maintained and all the previous posts will be kept as
a historical archive. The first drug blog in Malaysia has been forced
to be discontinued due to various reasons. If veritas decides to post
again, it will be at sixthseal.com, not at castitas.com – future
castitas.com content will be absorbed into the main sixthseal.com blog
from now on.

The pengsan.com
[pengsan.com] assignment outsourcing service has also ceased to operate
due to logistical and human resource issues and the associated pengsan.com twin blog
[pengsan.com] about substance use problems is going be suspended
indefinitely. The decision is aimed at streamlining the sixthseal.com
universe to allow more time to be spent on the main blog. The past year
has also been hard on a personal basis due to escalating substance
dependency issues, in regards to excessive and dangerous
methamphetamine binges. My struggle with methamphetamine use will
hopefully be contained before the 5th anniversary of the blog comes by.
πŸ™‚

There were six main events during the third year of sixthseal.com
that were directly responsible for creating greater awareness about
this blog:

1. The MAC Red Ribbon Media Awards (RRMA ’04) held at Mandarin Oriental, KL

I was honored when Ely Azyze from MAC informed me that my entry on Guide to HIV Testing in Malaysia
[sixthseal.com] won the main award for creating HIV awareness in the
new category of Non-Traditional Media (Blogs). It was an all expenses
paid trip, including the stay at Mandarin Oriental, courtesy of
DaimlerChrysler.

I was actually flabbergasted that I got the main award coz if you
remember, the post has a link to another post regarding methamphetamine
in castitas.com and the Red Ribbon Gala Dinner 2004
[sixthseal.com] had the Prime Minister of Malaysia YAB Dato Seri
Abdullah Haji Ahmad Badawi, the ex-Prime Minister Dr. Mahathir and MAC
president and daughter of Dr. Mahathir, Datin Paduka Marina Mahathir in
attendance.

Thanks to Ely Azyze and the staff at MAC who made this happen! πŸ™‚

2. sixthseal.com in The Sunday Times, Singapore

The biggest newspaper in Singapore, The Straits Times, came out with
a front page blurb with another full page pull-out inner insert bearing
the title “Drug dealers with stethoscopes?” on the Sunday issue of
their publication – The Sunday Times, on the 20th of June, 2004.

This is the only newspaper in Singapore – the other one is
considered a tabloid. Thus, I was surprised when one of my readers in
Singapore emailed me to inform me that sixthseal.com has been mentioned
in a drug related article of their national newspaper.

The full page printed paper and online article talks about doctor
shopping and the moral and professional judgments GPs have to make on a
patient-by-patient basis on whether benzodiazepine therapy can be
justified in patients fitting the monograph indication and also goes
into the exploits (I prefer the term “working the system” ;)) of doctor
shoppers such as myself. It paints a picture of a Singapore that seems
to portray doctors apparently forcing benzos on their patients and
mentions that:

“But the practice continues, and not just in Singapore. There
are Internet chatrooms – like weblog sixthseal.com – where addicts
share their favourite drug recipes and experiences.”

I think this is the first time the blog made it into a foreign paper.

I remember writing a long rebuttal letter to the author to let our
side (doctor shoppers) explain and raised the issue of sensationalism
by getting a stereotypical “junkie” like “Micheal” (if he even exists),
instead of attempting to maintain journalistic integrity and interview
a more realistic representation of the substance users of today –
young, well-paid professionals with respected careers.

…and I’m not even going to go into the offensive and derogatory
ending phrase “It would not only cut down on addiction, but also
shoplifting and other crimes that go hand-in-hand with drug abuse.”

I’m not even going to look up, it’s only going to throw me into a
righteous rage. The last statement is a logical fallacy and is just
there to create anti-drug use sentiments and spread FUD. It’s like
making the statement “a couple of journalists make up characters for
their articles to fit the story, therefore every single journalist uses fictional characters”. Logical. Fallacy.

That said, I understand that the columnist had articles to write,
deadlines to meet, and may not be aware of the more intelligent
recreational drug users choosing to enter altered states of mind to
seek more life experiences. I’m glad the columnist was kind enough to
get Singapore Press Holdings Publications to mail a complimentary copy
of The Sunday Times to me. Thank you!

P/S – Thank you, Salma, for mentioning my blog. πŸ˜‰

It made traffic jump by an unpreceded 16 fold. The article helped me
reach the average Singapore family unit by mentioning sixthseal.com as
a place where “where addicts share their favorite drug recipes and
experiences” to pique paper reader interest into the online world.
Spoken like a marketing spin doctor, I only need to retain the interest
of *pulls number out of ass* 3.5% of the original paper inspired
visitors to sustain my readership for several years, with an estimated
*again from the place where the sun don’t shine* 0.1% of those telling
acquaintances and co-workers about the blog, which in effect creates a
grassroots viral marketing campaign.

Okay, I’ll stop now. πŸ™‚

I’m not pissed off at all about being mentioned in the paper.
sixthseal.com is a firm believer of the truism that goes “any publicity
is good publicity”. πŸ˜‰

3. City, state and nationwide newspaper coverage

The third catalyst that is responsible for either directly or
indirectly leading dead tree media readers to the sixthseal.com blog is
the coverage that’s divided into three sections:

4. Personal

These include personal appearances on the papers e.g. like in the Jolin Tsai concert.

5. Work-related

These are the news releases that are work related and involve the company.

6. Site-related

This is the direct publicity and reference to site(s) in the
sixthseal.com conglomerate. This one involves a magazine featuring
castitas.com.

Here’s a review of the more notable posts featured in sixthseal.com from 19/4/2004 – 19/4/2005:

Note: (V) denotes that the post contains a relevant downloadable video clip.

May 03, 2004
The Devil’s Kiss
Home baked Devil’s food cake with Hershey’s Kisses write-up. The entire process, from mixing the batter to baking is documented. (V)

May 07, 2004
Kuching bloggers meet @ Hot Seat
This historical event marked the first time a large scale Kuching bloggers meet has been organized.

May 18, 2004
Kapak (axe) brandi (brandy)
The Kapak brandy local distilled liquor is sampled and reviewed in this post. (V)

June 05, 2004
Download my nosebleed video while it’s still fresh! πŸ˜‰
This post is another one that contains potentially disturbing material. (V)

June 12, 2004
Jolin Tsai Promo Tour Malaysia – Kuching Concert
Jolin Tsai is the young Taiwanese actress/artist that starred
in a few TV series and has a string of albums to her name. She came to
Kuching, Sarawak to perform for the first time.
(V)

July 12, 2004
Mild Seven PITPARTY 2004
It has F1 racing cars, girls, beer, and more girls. What more can a guy want? πŸ˜‰ (V)

July 19, 2004
The Definitive 7th Mile Teh C Peng
The Teh C Peng at 7th Mile (Kota Sentosa) is a local favorite –
families drive up from Kuching just to drink the three layered teh c
peng. This post features the original outlet.

July 31, 2004
Meth Dragon Video Download
The controversial video which features me smoking crystal meth. (V)

August 02, 2004
Kuching Festival 2004
This is the annual August Kuching festival which marks off a
month of celebration with fireworks, boat processions and a converted
gigantic outdoor food court. It’s a popular event with the locals and a
must-see for tourists.
(V)

August 07, 2004
Ice Sculpture Exhibition
The famed ice sculptures from Harbin, China comes to Kuching to
show their legendary ice carving skills by creating various monoliths,
including a complete palace made out of ice with an ice slide. The ice
sculpture exhibition was held in Kuching for a month in a -8 Celsius
temperature controlled enclosure.
(V)

September 21, 2004
Red Ribbon Gala 2004
The Malaysia AIDS Council biannual gala dinner and Red Ribbon
Media Awards ceremony that was attended by the Prime Minister of
Malaysia. I managed to win the Main Award for Non-Traditional Media
(Blogs) which was recognized with a large engraved pewter bowl and RM
2,500. The Red Ribbon Gala 2004 is the crowning glory of my blogging
career to date.
(V)

October 06, 2004
“I don’t want to feel” – Videos of me cutting myself
Self-inflicted wounds made with a balisong (butterfly knife)
during a period of depression. This is not a suicide attempt or a plea
for help, but just one of the things you do just coz you haven’t done
it before. I want to experience the feeling of holding a knife, knowing
exactly when and where you’re going to start slicing yourself. The
feeling of having full control towards the pain mechanism provides a
totally different scenario in an uncontrolled environment e.g. a fight.
It’s novel.
(V)

October 12, 2004
Magenta, Kuching
Magenta is an excellent art deco concept restaurant in Kuching with great service and excellent food.

October 26, 2004
Louisa’s 23rd @ TGI FRIDAY’S, 1 UTAMA
TGI Friday’s at 1U in PJ is where we celebrated Louisa’s 23rd birthday. Happy birthday! πŸ™‚

January 14, 2005
Carvery Restaurant Review
The best restaurant for meat lovers in Kuching.

April 02, 2005
Guide to rolling a concealable cigarette joint
How to make smoking cannabis look legitimate. πŸ˜‰ (V)

April 05, 2005
It’s my birthday today, but don’t wish me a Happy Birthday
Methamphetamine IV use videos…on my birthday. (V)

April 11, 2005
Slash and Burn – The compulsion to self-inflict pain and leave scars
We have our ups and we have our downs. πŸ™‚ (V)

There will be constant changes and improvements to enhance the
sixthseal.com universe and feedback from readers is always welcome.
This year saw the introduction of heavy bandwidth utilization content
such as video files and movie clips. There are no plans to cease this
practice as video clips have managed to complement text and photos to
provide a more satisfying and media rich experience. There will be a
server migration planned in the third quarter of 2005 to manage the
increasing demands on the current server.

The visitor stats have also shown tangible growth in readership
numbers over the years, and I thank each and every one of you for
taking the time to drop by and share. πŸ™‚

The first anniversary of sixthseal.com can be viewed here [sixthseal.com].

The second anniversary of sixthseal.com can be viewed here [sixthseal.com].

Much love to all the readers out there!

Long live sixthseal.com! πŸ™‚

sixthseal.com forum suggestions

I’m peaking like fuck right now (insane dose) but you didn’t need to
know that, I’m sure. I’ll just get straight to the point – in this
tweaked out, I-want-do-do-something frame of mind, I’ve decided to jump
on the forum bandwagon. I figured that since I’m not around most of the
time, I’ll make this blog more interactive.

I’m going to set that up today (while I’m still productive – that
is, if I don’t die from a stroke in the next few minutes, which is a
big if, considering the probably malignant hypertension that I’m
currently experiencing with extreme cranial pressure extending to
behind the eyeballs, permanent chest pain, ultra rapid heartbeat, and
extreme breathing difficulties, but I digress and bore with details)
and I’m open for forum topic suggestions.

Off the top of my head, there will be:

Open to all:

General discussion
It’s like a pre-requisite for a forum, or so I hear…

Forum member introduction
Please make this your first stop – a short post to tell us about
yourself. It can be as detailed as you want (feel free to tell us the
details about your bowel movement patterns) or as vague as you want
(just say hi).

The sixthseal.com Lounge
Inspired by bl – talk about any topic under the sun, perfect for the
bored reader who wants to talk, or just while away some time at work at
your employer’s expense. πŸ˜‰

Food and snacks forum
This will be a forum for all foodies – talk about anything and
everything related to food, excluding restaurants. Basically, if you
can eat it (without fatal consequences) it goes in there.
Except if it is psychoactive, there’s another forum for that. This will
be a celebration to food and food only. That means no other threads
besides ones that elicit saliva in response.

Restaurants and cafes
Venues for food – know a great place for eating? Share your cuisine
experiences! We want details. Pictures allows in here, so go crazy.

Tech and gadgets
Tech talk…consumer electronics, PDA’s, cell phones, anything…you
can buy/sell/trade here too, but caveat emptor. I’m not going to be
responsible for reader-reader exchanges.

Music and bands
This is where you talk about anything with a beat, and even those
without. Warning: Posting about how you love a boy band is probably
going to get you flamed. πŸ˜‰
I’m thinking about allowing .mp3 files to be uploaded here.

Movies and TV
The latest blockbuster to the lamest B movie – talk about films,
movies, anime, whatever rocks your boat. Links to torrents/direct
downloads are unofficially encouraged, but uploads are impossible
unless it’s a paid privilege, due to bandwidth issues (bandwidth costs
money, ya know ;)). Oh, and XXX movies doesn’t go here – it goes into
the other forum.

Books and literature
The written word – talk about books, literature, hell, even The Bible,
if you like. Reviews and recommendations to critical dissertations, as
long as the source is printed, it goes here.

Events
This is where you can talk about upcoming events or organize one…

The Rest of the Known World
The forum for Australians, Americans, etc. πŸ˜‰

Adults-only forums (passive age check):

Passive means that it’s not going to be enforced, I just have to
legally state that these forums are not for the ones under 12/16/18/21
(refer to state laws) years of age due to its content, but if you tell
me you’re 18, who am I to say you’re not? πŸ˜‰
Basically, there will be a checkbox saying that you are 18 years and
over while registering as a member (free), and you have to check that
in order to view and post in these forums.
That means I’m counting on you to tell me if you’re a minor – if you’re
a minor and you check that box anyway, I can’t be held legally
responsible…but that is not officially condoned or encouraged, since
I have to legally say that too.
In fact, from a legal standpoint, I shouldn’t even be stating the
obvious, people automatically check the 18 an over checkbox anyway.
But I don’t encourage that. At least I can’t legally say that I condone that practice. πŸ˜‰

Drug discussion
Illicit, OTC, Rx, any recreational drug discussion forum, and that includes pharmaceuticals.
Heroin, methamphetamine, ketamine, benzodiazepines, pharmaceuticals,
psychedelics, anything that has recreational potential – please post
about it. Legal or illegal, prescription-only or over the counter, from
the usual suspects to research chemicals – if it can be used
recreationally in the broadest interpretation of the word, we want to
talk about it.

Note: The server farm I’m on is drug-friendly, it
took me a long time to find one that is, so don’t worry about legal
ramifications. Anonymity is encouraged, but not enforced. Just use
common sense, don’t slam law enforcement here, but don’t get unduly
worried too – the server is hosted in the US and I’ve been assured that
in the unlikely event that a US law enforcement arm request details
about the blog, the good people managing the hosting center I’m with
will do a complete transfer of content to The Netherlands instead,
where they have another server farm.
That’s the reason I chose this particular hosting service – no one can
legally get on my server due to ambiguous legal circumstances that I
have the privilege of enjoying due to the geographical (and thus
jurisdiction-wise) location of this server and where I am currently at.
I was advised to host my stuff at the server farm in The Netherlands,
but I didn’t want to, coz I wanted to be on the US internet pipeline.
However, I’ve been assured that I can and will be moved there, in the
unlikely case that legal issues arise. Thus, don’t worry about IP logs,
I won’t log the forum IP addresses – and don’t worry about what you
post…if push comes to shove, this will all be moved to The
Netherlands. The significance of that particular country? One word: bl
is hosted there. OK, maybe that’s 4, but you get the point. πŸ˜‰
Your privacy is protected here.

The Dark Side
Just like the bl forum, this is the yin to balance the yang – drug
dependency and withdrawal, health issues, quitting drugs…it’ll be a
supportive forum, no flaming the addicts and all that. The drug forums
are not meant to replace the great ones out there – it’s just “our
place”, a more personal forum with more accurate regional context.
It’ll be the friends of veritas helping each other out (literally, if
you’re in the same geographical location) kind of thing. Like the forum
above, no dealing is allowed, please take that elsewhere. By elsewhere,
I mean email me directly instead. πŸ˜‰

Clubbing and nightlife
Share how you got wasted during the weekend…drug culture discussion goes here.

Ethanol and tobacco
The intoxicating liquor and the flavorful leaf – cigarette and alcohol
topics, legal vices only. There will be a certain (perhaps significant)
group who uses drugs and drinks and smokes too, but the former should
go where it belongs. You’re welcome in the Drug discussion forum. You
may not be over here, coz a lot of people who smoke and drink do not
take illicit substances.
Thus, ethanol and tobacco related subjects only. Oh, and Bhutan
citizens are welcome here, we know your government is legally insane. πŸ˜‰

Life and living
These forums are not strictly adults only, but the threads are not minor friendly either, so age-check will be used.

Working Life
The forum for the working class (white or blue, there’s no such distinction now) to bitch about work. πŸ˜‰

College and University
Tell us about life in varsity. No holds barred, this is the place where
you can run Top #10 most aesthetically pleasing girls in your faculty,
talk about which classes to avoid in a university coz of the lecturer
from hell, or conversely, which ones to take, coz of a lenient
lecturer. Hell, you can even talk about that guy you like in your
class, and hopefully a friend of his can post the phone number.
It’s everything about the best years of your life – who is fucking who,
which chicks are easy, ways to score points with a tutor, how to bypass
that web proxy in your halls of residence, what clubs to go to around
your uni, etc. A place to hook people up in the same university, create
networks for friendship, relationship, clubbing events management,
meet-ups, or who has “stuff” in your city.
Oh, and that last one will be deleted, no dealing drugs in the forums.
Stuff is alright though, that generic term can mean anything. You could
be talking about who has that Chemistry textbook you need for Chemistry
101 for all I (legally) care. πŸ˜‰

The Grapevine
Tell us about a rumor you heard, or just slander someone you hate e.g. one of my co-workers is a drug user.
The place where reputations can be torn down to shreds and characters figuratively assassinated.
There is only one rule: You’re responsible for what you write, so if
you call me in the middle of the night, asking to remove a certain
derogatory and untrue post you made while drunk…I will, but it would
be easier if you didn’t post that in the first place.
Cheaper too, since I would appreciate a token reload to my cell phone
so that I can get online using EDGE/GPRS coz I don’t have a net
connection at home. πŸ˜‰

Sex, Love and Relationships
Discussion about relationships – not porn, rather relationship advice
and sexual issues. Advice on whether or not to break up with that
cheating two-timing boyfriend of yours (yes) or whether to break up
with the drug using boyfriend of yours (no ;)) – it’ll be the forum for
all relationships – love, sex, friends with benefits.

Local news and political discussion
The place where you discuss news and political decisions – anything
which affects you, be it legislation that is about to be passed, who
you’re voting for, issues like arming the National Drug Agency (bad
move)…let us know what you think. You have a right to express your
opinion and the moderators have a right to delete it if they deem that
it’s unconstructive.
Examples of comments that will be deleted: “I hate (insert race) coz (reason).”
sixthseal.com does not tolerate racist or bigoted remarks. Policy
discussion is encouraged, as is calls for reform, but not attacks based
solely on racial/religious/cultural differences.
It’s in adults for two reasons: that’s the age of suffrage and to facilitate more mature discussion.

XX chromosomes
The forum for XY chromosomes. The posts are likely to offend:
Feminists
“Empowered new age women” or whatever they call themselves nowadays. πŸ˜‰
Females
Most likely the above and then some. Let’s not forget about SNAGs, rushing to defend a female to get in her pants. πŸ˜‰
Unless you’re “one of the guys”, or has a sense of humor, please don’t
go flaming around in here. Lesbians, homosexuals of the feminine
variety, females who has a non-hetero sexual orientation, or whatever’s
the PC word of the day – you’re welcome too. πŸ™‚
It’s a place for the people to enjoy feminine aesthetics (doesn’t
matter if you’re male, female, or “other”), and posts may contain
“juvenile language”, “vulgar depictions”, or “derogatory remarks”, and
most likely all three.

Site related:

Suggestions and complaints
Let’s hear it – this forum will be a work in process, and suggestions
and criticisms are always welcome, but not always implemented. πŸ˜‰

Restricted access:

Ministry of Truth
(Forum members with access with have a symbol)
veritas will post here, and the said posts may or may not be reposted
on sixthseal.com (and as it stands, it looks like it won’t be). This
forum is access restricted – it’s for trusted people only, with strict
screening and perma-ban on violation of NDA.
My apologies to my family, my gf, my co-workers and known acquaintances
of said groups of people – for obvious reasons, you will not be able to
view this forum.
No, it will not be spidered or cached, and no, I won’t allow access to the abovementioned, so don’t bother asking. :p
This will contain posts by veritas – complete with pictures and videos. Just like it was. Just like it always will be.
There, I found a solution to the authentication problem. πŸ˜‰

sixthseal.com blog posts
(Forum members will gain access upon reaching 35 posts and will have
posting privileges upon 60 posts – this will be indicated to
differentiate active forum members and lurkers)
This is where new sixthseal.com blog posts will appear in advance of
the actual posting at the blog. The lead time can be minutes to days to
never – this is where the drafts are posted for earlier reading (if you
have reading privileges) and comments (if you have posting privileges).
The comments will be ported to the blog, chronologically.
This will also be where the “missing” sixthseal.com posts will be…as well as entries that will never be posted on the blog…
Note: This forum will not be accessible to the people who’re associated
with my family, girlfriend or co-workers, even if the requirements are
met. The rule does not apply to people who are not in that group, but
the posting requirements are, to establish that you are not affiliated
with the abovementioned groups listed in veritas’s ban list.
Moderators and bloggers I know will have automatic access without having to hit the 35 post requirement.
The same NDA also applies to everyone, since this forum will contain
posts of a sensitive nature. Leaking out information = permanent ban.

Moderator news
(Moderators only – the moderators will have the Moderator tag)
This forum is open to moderators only. Policy, news, stuff like that. Moderators will be emailed upon a new post.

I would need moderators to well, moderate the forum, and if you want to be one, you can email moderator@sixthseal.com
and I’ll get back to you. I’ll give you an @sixthseal.com email address
with POP and SMTP privileges (which I won’t cap, so you can go crazy
and put up attachments up to 6 GB and run amok with the bandwidth*) and
web mail (IMAP) access. I’ll foot the bill. I’ll throw in a token
angpow of RM 6 as a small gesture of appreciation and a hand written
letter to boot.

*Please read The Fine Print (TM) below. πŸ˜‰

Preference will be given to people who’re online a lot (it’s a bit
of a requirement, since you’ll need to pop in now and then :p), and
people who comment a lot will be given #1 priority. It’s open to
lurkers too, basically anyone who’s interested will be considered.

The Fine Print:
The accounts going over 5 GB per month will receive a polite email from
me to request reasonable use and the suggestion of Gmail as an
alternate p0rn exchanging system. I won’t shut down accounts, but in
the case of non-compliance, I’ll kill one kitten for each 1 GB over 5
GB you use and email the gristly video to you so that you’ll have the
conscience of that weighing on you before you decide to send that email
with the 645 MB p0rn .avi attachment. πŸ˜‰
One kitten will be massacred with a balisong and gutted in a manner
which RSPCA will not approve of and recorded to be emailed to you for
each 1 GB over 5 GB you use per month until the guilt convinces you to
stop or I run out of kittens, whichever comes first.
The above does not apply if you can email me back within 48 hours (hey,
I have to search for kittens, that needs time) with an acceptable
explanation.
Acceptable explanations include:
1. “I was using it to send a 6 GB zip file of my recently deceased
(insert family member) to (insert another family member) for
remembrance.”
2. “(Insert primary email service) died on me, and I had to send that
extremely important 7 GB presentation/assignment/company accounts to my
(check one: employer/lecturer/client) which will (cross out the ones
that does not apply: get me that 1 million dollar worth contract/either
make me graduate or have to repeat another semester/be instrumental in
my career for promotion prospects and/or huge bonuses).”
3. “Don’t get your panties all in a twist, proleate. Jesus, it’s always
with the bandwidth bills, I’m sick of hearing about it. Here’s $1
million from my trust fund, don’t bother me again.” (In the case of
which I will give you all the bandwidth you want, and my soul thrown in
for good measure)

Explanation #1 and #2 will make me release the kitten and explanation #3 will never happen. πŸ˜‰

Unacceptable explanations include:

“I was using it to exchange movies and/or porn to with my friends”

and will result in an email reply to request that you use your
work/uni/ISP email instead…and a movie clip of one kitten being
killed by me. πŸ˜‰

Please add any suggestions and email me if you’re interested in becoming a moderator.

Oh, and if I kick the bucket today, please tell my parents I love
them, and that I died happily (if not peacefully). One other thing,
tell them to keep this blog alive, renew the domains and hosting. My
password is (insert root password before passing out). πŸ˜‰

Feel free to post-humorously kick my ass for not taking sensible
counter-measures to quickly self-medicate by chemically overriding the
screaming NE and DA production, arresting the absorption of the
time-released stimulants (had a combo of IV, smoking and oral ingestion
at the same time, and the last one can be nullified with charcoal
pills), lowering the seizure threshold with a combo of quick acting and
long lasting cocktail of lorazepam and clonazepam, and heavily sedating
myself with midazolam and massive doses of alprazolam and diazepam (all
of which is in abundance just 3 meters away), but illogically choosing
to ride the high instead. πŸ™‚

Come to think of it, while you’re at it, you might as well tell my
gf that I’m sorry about everything, send my employers my regrets for
not being able to finish the current project I’m working on due to my
untimely demise (and tell them to get a C# programmer to finish it, the
code I wrote is near completion for RC 1 and is well documented to
boot, so a 30 day fixed term contract C# programmer should be more than
enough to complete the build, the latest of which is in my notebook,
which you can have (the code, not the notebook), on the condition that
no other files or folders are touched, coz some of them are quite
incriminating, and not just to myself, but 5-6 (maybe 10) other people
as well, but if said files and folders (which will be referred to as
“photos and videos” henceforth) are accidentally viewed, please
promptly forget that you saw what you saw, and for Christ’s sake, don’t
tell my gf, but my parents already know, so pass the notebook to them
after said source code is extracted, and remember, the notebook goes to
my parents, not my gf, it’s very important, the difference between
grief and anger, I kid, there’s nothing incriminating here ;)), and
nominate someone amongst the readers to keep the comment spam at bay.
Oh, and pass my non-existent Cayman Islands account number
1-6-0110-666-6 to my lawyer so he can disburse the funds in this order:

60% to my parents and sister
30% for him to do the necessary money laundering to legitimatize the
profits from drug trafficking which that account contains (it’s cool,
he’s a lawyer, he does stuff like this all the time)
6% to my gf (and it should be reminded that my notebook, CD-Rs, hard
disks and other media storing device, inclusive of anything which can
potentially store .jpg, .jpeg, .avi, .mov, and .mpeg suffixes goes to
my parents, not my gf, a very important distinction)
and 4% to the person who actually believes this. πŸ˜‰

Excuse me, I should be setting up the forum. Hit me in the comments or email moderator@sixthseal.com
to express interest in becoming a moderator. There is no time frame or
cutoff period coz I don’t even have the forum up yet. I’m putting it
between my work related programming and the Sunday mass I have to go to
tomorrow. Kidding. About attending mass, that is. πŸ˜‰

Well, enough verbal diarrhea, it seems that I’m not going to die
tonight, since I feel slightly better now, but I’m going to take more,
so it’s 50-50 either way, but I’m serious about the forum. Hit me to
tell me the preferred forum you want to be moderating, and understand
that some forums will be less popular than others and that I will be
choosing based on qualification for certain forums (e.g. drug
discussion, which shouldn’t be moderated by someone who hasn’t taken
anything stronger than Asprin, or the dark side, which wouldn’t bode
well should it be moderated by someone who only smokes cannabis, or the
grapevine, which would be hell of a forum to moderate and still thread
the thin line between free speech and libel lawsuits against me ;)).

General discussion and The Lounge and others like that doesn’t need
a prerequisite except having a strong online presence (that means you
have net access at least 4 hours a day, it’ll be good if your job
involves sitting in front of a computer), since those two are the
probably high traffic ones.

The forum will hopefully be self-sustaining and provide fresh
user-contributed interactive content so there will be something new to
read every time you hit the blog. I’m working on another project (for
the blog, not work) which will be announced soon as a feasibility
study. I’m counting on the latter to create a self-sustaining blog,
literally, so hopefully that one pans out.

First things first though…hit me at moderator@sixthseal.com.
I’ll be here all weekend, which sounds sad, but is necessary to
complete both work and personal projects, with chemical assistance,
naturally. πŸ˜‰

It should be noted that the forum will have a different intellectual
property stance – the stuff you post is yours. You retain all the
copyrights to it, and “own” it, to put it bluntly. Thus, please ensure
that it’s not copyrighted by someone else i.e. post photos you have
taken yourself/have the copyrights of or those under public
domain/Creative Commons (remember to give credit) licenses only.

This IP stance goes for all the posts people make as well – you own
the words you write and you’re responsible for it. Basically, anything
you post here is (C) (Insert Your Name). This allows forum users to
retain their intellectual property and distances myself from IP dispute
issues at the same time. It also relieves me from libel lawsuits if you
decide that talking about your boss/some prominent politician/etc and
putting real names (both yours and theirs) is a good idea. πŸ˜‰

That’s not to say that I won’t delete posts you regret making
though, here at the sixthseal.com forums, we go the extra length to
make sure that you can speak freely and protect you* at the same time.

Nifty, eh. πŸ˜‰

*Fine print is here: I’ll protect your rights the best I can, but in
order for me to do that, you have to understand that you can’t e.g.
slander someone with a good lawyer, unless it’s true (in which case
you’ll have to convince the court with hard evidence) and even then,
political figures attracts unwanted attention. In line with our free
speech stance, you can do whatever you want, and we’ll protect your
right to do it, but if shit hits the fan, it’ll be best for all if it
doesn’t have a real name to fly to, if you get what I mean…

For those who don’t – if you’re going to slander someone, for
Christ’s sake (or for your sake) don’t put your real name, and since
the IP’s are not logged, that means you can say whatever you want.
Unless there is a takedown notice issued to me, in the case of which I
will comply, to protect my own interests.

The gist of it is – use common sense, I won’t hand over server logs,
coz I can’t, but don’t get me in trouble either, coz I can’t afford to
since I’m a *newsflash* drug user and all, and that means that I will
be in trouble, should the police, say, raid my place, or, do a urine
test on me. You won’t, of course, but think of the children! I mean,
think of me. πŸ˜‰

OK, enough writing, I’ll be doing more forum creation from now on.

I’ll furnish progress reports from time to time in the comments.

Jesus, now that sounds really sad…

Right, moderator@sixthseal.com if you’re interested…

Red Ribbon Media Awards 2004 Thank You Luncheon

mac letter

I got a letter today from the Malaysian AIDS Council (MAC).

letter rrma

It has the Red Ribbon Media Awards logo in the upper right corner of the envelope so I knew it was about the RRMA Media Awards [sixthseal.com], where I was nominated for the Main Award Winner for the Non-Traditional Category – Blogs category.

rrma card

There was a card inside with a see through window cut into the cardboard with the words “Thank You Luncheon”.

thank you luncheon

Here’s a closer look at the invitation. It’s for a Thank You
Luncheon at the Pacifica Grill and Bar at Mandarin Oriental, KL at
12:30 pm – 2:00 pm this Saturday (2nd October 2004). It’s an invitation
for two – it goes “Poh Huai Bin & partner”, and although I would
very much like to go, I won’t be able to make it, so I emailed back to
tell MAC so.

I work on Saturdays so I’ll have to take leave if I were to go and I
already applied for leave later in October. I appreciate the gesture
though and I’ll like to say a big Thank You for Ely Azyze for
everything that she’s done for me. Thanks! πŸ™‚

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