i was browsing (again!) when i came across an airplane over gurney… i know there are hundreds of these images from all around the world… but this is closer to home so… anyway… gurney plaza’s the most happening mall in penang… you’re bound to bump into a friend everytime you’re there… cos there probably aren’t any other interesting places to shop on the island? i’m sayin’ this cos during my few visits there over the past year… i ran into some friends from school… friends from uni… and an ex-housemate… well… it’s indeed the place to be seen in penang… not to mention… the place to go sightseeing… if you know what i mean…

well… i’ve decided that since i don’t have so many topics to rant about… and a rather monotonous lifestyle… i’ve come up with a new style of posting… an aerial photo and a story to accompany it… :)

as this is the first post in this series… it shall be a fitting one… exactly twenty one years and ten months ago… this is where i first saw the light of day… well… technically… i am guessing i was first greeted by the light of fluorescent tubes… but anyway… you get what i mean… well… the hospital’s currently under rapid expansion and it’s about twice its size in the pic… the satellite images are kinda outdated for this region i suppose…

it's been a quiet week… the uni campus was almost devoid of any life… whether it was midday or midnight… moving vehicles and people were a rare sight… and after seven days of just lazing around… i've only managed to get a little bit of work done… many thanks to a helpful bandmate of mine…

the skies have cleared up much to my relief… almost everyone had some cough or fever over the past few weeks… some still do… well… i'm grateful that i've not been infected even though i could very well have been… with all the contaminants in the air… and the people i hang out with…

well… my previous article was on digg… it's a cool social bookmark site for the uninitiated among you… do check it out sometime…

in a couple of days… there shall be some new features on my site… if all goes well… :)

my analytics shows that a quarter of my visitors use ie6… i guess they're just used to the old crappy browser from the prehistoric era of the web… ie7 is out and after taking a look at its reviews… i can safely conclude that there isn't anything innovative about it… it's pretty much on the same level as firefox2 which is due on tuesday… the firefox sports a couple of new features over its 1.x versions… most notably… an anti-phising tool… a dropdown tab selector… needless to say… ie7 was a drastic leap from its predecessor… an answer to firefox's growing market share…

however… the topic of today shall be flock… the social web browser based on the firefox engine… only much better in terms of features… let's have an in-depth look…

1… a built-in search bar where you can look for anything using the search engine of your choice right away without ever navigating to the search site itself… google… wikipedia… dictionary… ebay… and even scrapetorrent for all you download freaks out there… just type and enter away!

2… the photobar… this feature ain't in firefox… it enables you to view the photostream of anyone's flickr or photobucket accounts… provided they're shared by the owners of course… it makes browsing so convenient… and again… you don't have to specially navigate to the person's account page to view their pics… flock also enables you to setup your own account through the browser so that you can upload your pics to any one of these webhosting services directly… at a click of the button… 3… tabbed browsing… most of you wouldn't need an introduction to this i assume… it simply allows multiple pages in various tabs to be simultaneously loaded… a convenience you can't live without once you've started using it… it's such a simple feature… and yet it wasn't around in all the older versions of ie… 4… live bookmarks… also known as rss (really simple syndication) feeds… there's a built-in news reader in flock where you can instantly view the latest articles or blog posts that you have subscribed to… gone are the days where one had to visit each and every of their favorited blog or news source to update themselves on their friends and worlds… just simply get all the updates live and fresh in your browser… and yet again… there's no need to navigate anywhere! to subscribe to the sites of your preference… just click on the orange icon on the right of the address bar… importing your bookmarks is also possible… so don't worry about losin' your old faves on another browser…

5… snippets bar… just drag to the bar any text or images that you wish to save or refer to at another time… well… it doesn't need any further explanation does it? simple and user-friendly…

6… foxytunes is an extension which allows you to control more than a dozen kinds of media players… includin' web-based stations like pandora… it's so cool that you don't have to leave your browser window to play or skip your mp3s… and of course… the best part about broswers like flock and firefox are the amount of extensions and add-ons available that provide (almost) any functionality and feature you can dream of…a notable one is videodownloader… which lets you save flash videos from the likes of google video and youtube…

7… social bookmarking… set up your del.icio.us or shadows account through flock and share your browser bookmarks with the rest of the world… or for your personal use when you're at another computer… either way… exporting your bookmarks to the web has never been easier…

8… blog… with flock… you can write and post to your blog directly from the browser… just like how you can upload photos as explained previously… various blog engines are supported… such as blogger… livejournal… wordpress… typepad… movabletype… and etc… just press ctrl+b… type your thoughts… and submit… as easy as 1-2-3… what's more… you can even add which notification service you'd like to ping about your new entry… for example… technorati

as you can see… there is just so much you can do with flock… so much you can do in half the time… from blogging to photo-sharing… reading news and browsing for information… flock makes the www experience… pleasantly wwwonderful…

so… it's the multi festive season again… where about close to seventy percent of the nation from different creeds are celebrating their respective religious festivals… happy holidays to all… :)

my family's all back in ipoh for the long holiday stretch… all but me… it's not like i wouldn't wanna be with 'em… but travellin' for long hours and joinin' the rush just ain't what i have in mind… i'm used to being away from home anyway… and besides… i should be concentratin' on gettin' some real work started on my project… and maybe be a nerd for the finals? haha… who am i kiddin' here…

it doesn't matter if people who don't matter misjudge you… as long as those who do see you the right way…

time for supper… at three…

it's hard to kick the addiction off even though i know very well it's bad… being dependent is a sign of weakness… which is somethin' i wished i didn't have… i know very well that the road leads to nowhere… at least its not headed to the place i have been dreaming about… but that doesn't mean i should stop travelling this way… for it would be in total contradiction of what i've said before… i gave my word and i shall keep to it…

the truth is… i see only goodness coming out from wherever the path ends… it's just a matter of how well i wake up to reality… i know what's true and what isn't… the problem lies in the fact that i always wish for somethin' too far away… and i'm hooked to this self-destructing habit…

don't panic is the coldplay song that was performed by lukas rossi… the winner of rock star supernova… and i've been listenin' to it a lot lately… and hence the message on my IM a day or two back… contrary to (popular?) belief… it's not about asking anyone or myself not to panic… i have been getting misperceptions from people… my other favorite performances include ryan star's losing my religion… and toby rand's pennyroyal tea…

sadly though… i haven't got the chance to watch any of the rock star episodes… as i don't have satellite tv… and with the current bandwidth throttling… streamyx might as well as rebrand itself as tricklyx: malaysia's premier narrowband provider… with intermittent connections and data rates so slow… it trickles like a dripping faucet…

finally i’ve gotten some parts which i hope are suitable for my yet-to-be built hovercraft… lack of funds and places to source for parts are a serious hamper to the progress of my work… nevertheless… i guess i’ll just have to take a small step at a time… but i must be able to reach the finish line in time too…

a little sleep-deprived for the past few days… and next week’s gonna be a dozen times worse… truly i am pushing the boundaries of the term last-minute…

the archery game yesterday was… in many ways… reflective of how life is for most of us… despite all the hard work that we put in… we do not get the results that we would have liked… and our true objectives are not realised…

many a time… people don't get what they deserve… and deserve what they get… take for example… the diligent student who is constantly careless in his exams… the hardworking employee who goes unnoticed except when she screws up… and the kind-hearted soul who is always misjudged and prejudiced against…

all of us have our high-flyin' ambitions… but what happens when we fail to achieve our desired target? are we strong enough to pick ourselves up and try again? i might be wrong but i feel that failure is the leading cause of stress… failure in coping with the workload… failure in meeting the high expectations of others…

it would be motivational for me to say that no target is impossible to reach… however… realistically speaking… there are various limiting factors to hinder everyone's aims… and not all of them can be overcome…

as the serenity prayer by reinhold niebuhr goes… Lord… grant me the serenity to accept the things i cannot change… the courage to change the things I can… and the wisdom to know the difference