I can SOOOOO relate...
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Trekkies Unite to Save "Enterprise"

Fri Feb 25, 5:50 PM ET

By Sarah Hall

Loyal Trekkies--er, make that Trekkers--beamed across the globe Friday to express their discontent over UPN's decision to axe Star Trek: Enterprise.

Earlier this month, the network announced the show's impending demise at the end of its fourth season, leaving Enterprise devotees facing the prospect of network television devoid of a Star Trek series for the first time in almost 20 years.

Aghast at the realization that the show had reached its final frontier, viewers galvanized a plan to keep Enterprise alive by attempting to raise $32 million dollars to fund the cost of a fifth season and alerting the powers that be to the show's committed fan base.

On Friday, Trekkies held "Save Enterprise" rallies at the Paramount lot in Los Angeles, the offices of CBS and the Sci-Fi channel in New York, the Fox affiliate in Washington, D.C., the offices of the BBC and Channel 4 in London and at Tel Aviv University in Israel.

Tim Brazeal, a systems administrator from Knoxville, Tennessee who is spearheading the project, said that three people have pledged $3 million toward salvaging the show, while fan site TrekUnited.com had raised $49,410 by Friday afternoon.

According to chatter in fan forums such as TrekUnited.com and SaveEnterprise.com, the L.A. rally drew the most participants, with an estimated 200 to 400 Trek enthusiasts voicing their support for the show.

Rather than channeling their inner Mr. Spock, participants were urged to come dressed in normal attire, as a statement on SaveEnterprise.com advised, "Although we think that coming in dress would be great, we also think this would stereotype us all as 'Hardcore' Trekkers and would hurt more than help. Please wear your daily wear."

Most of the rally attendees complied with the dress code, though some could not resist donning Vulcan ears for the cause.

Enterprise, a prequel to the original 1960s Star Trek series, currently draws about 3 million viewers a week, about half the number who watched its first season, and way down from the 12.5 million who tuned in for its 2001 premiere.

As of now, its final episode is slated to air on May 13.

Efforts to save shows headed for cancellation typically fail, though dedicated fans managed to breathe life into past struggling shows such as the WB's Felicity and Roswell and ABC's Once and Again through Internet campaigns.

If the Trekkers fail in their mission to keep Enterprise on the airwaves, money will either be refunded to donors or donated to tsunami relief, Brazeal said.

However, even if Enterprise bites the dust, there's still a bright spot on the horizon for Star Trek fans.

Earlier this week, Variety reported that scribe Erik Jendresen (Band of Brothers) has been hired to pen the script for Star Trek XI, the latest installment in the long-running sci-fi franchise.

The project was reportedly shelved in January, but production is apparently back in motion, though Paramount has not yet set a release date for the film, which is rumored to focus on the Romulan War, which took place before the original series.

My faith has been restored!



Last night, the branch manager of Nandos Sunway Pyramid buzzed my door bell and presented me with a full chicken dinner spread consisting of a whole chicken and 4 sidedishes. She also gave me Nandos cash vouchers valued at RM40! I was amazed and very surprised. You must know that Nandos is like my all time favourite eating place!

The reason for the visit was that a week earlier, I visited the Nandos in Pyramid for the first time and had an awful experience. They were swamped and my orders got lost in the confusion, resulting in an hour long wait. Being me, I worded a complaint letter and sent it to them, not expecting very much as most service oriented companies seem to want feedback but then do nothing about them. My views have changed.

At first the manager invited me over again to Nandos so that they could have a chance to right the wrong. I told them in all honesty that I don't know when that will be, as Pyramid isn't where I frequently visit. I told them that I'm loyal to the Nandos in Subang Parade and she instantly said, 'let me change your mind' and asked for my address. I was expecting maybe a coupon for a free drink but a whole dinner and RM40 in vouchers is definitely above and beyond expectations!

I love Nandos... :)

Post Chinese New Year Blues

You know it's after Chinese New Year when:

- You have gambling withdrawal symptoms.
- Your pants don't fit.
- Your fridge is stocked with leftover cookies.
- The mandarin oranges are no longer lush and juicy, but dry and wrinkly.
- Red becomes annoying, not prosperous.
- You are back at work filling up your blog with tirades.

Got to say though, did enjoyed my break tremendously. It was a good celebration in all for me and will look forward to the get together at Chun's!

Happy Chinese New Year!

January has been pretty nifty. Not everything's a bed of roses but the momentum has been good. Among the highlights for me are:

1. CreativeKids has 15 kids so my target of 20 seem reachable.
2. Working hours has been changed to only 40 hours a week, including lunch hour!
3. No more work on Saturdays!
4. Got a meagre bonus and increment but it's my first time receiving it :)

Hope things perk up and continue. Eagerly anticipating the results from my second semester now. Hope I can maintain my perfect CGPA from the first semester.

All the best to everyone this Chinese New Year. Those travelling, do be safe yeah. And those who are in Melaka, feel free to pop me a visit :) I'm off to Melaka come this weekend!

It's that time of the year again...



Every Chinese male colleague and student are sprouting neatly trimmed hair. There's a certain vibe going about with people humming familiar 'gong xi gong xi' tunes and there are red packets hanging from ceilings and plants everywhere!

No matter how crass and commercialised this celebration can be, and even during the frenzied cleaning and guest entertaining, it really is a fun fun celebration. I got my lanterns and token decorations up yesterday at home and I'm all geared up for a week's break, and a whole lot of eating and merry-making :)

In anticipation....

Warning: Grumpy Dan is about

Grr... am grumpy grumpy grumpy. Having another bout of allergic reactions, so am spotted, itchy, and very edgy. You can't imagine how annoying an allergic reaction can be until you one. Worse still, mine are those long sustained ones that takes weeks to rid. Gah... terrible...

Been quite nasty at work as well, biting colleagues who irritate. No regrets though, some of them deserved to be bitten, muahahahaha! :)

Chinese New Year is coming but it's somewhat lacking in spirit this year. Looking forward to the break nevertheless, and oh, LONG weekend coming up! WOOHOO!

Freeze Frame

I'm the kind of person who carries torchlights, basic first-aid and a fully charged handphone whenever possible, just in case. My car is loaded with a first-aid kit, water, and 3 torchlights on top of contact numbers for car repairs, emergency services, and a whole bunch of other stuff. So at home, considering I don't have the budget for a full-fledged alarm system, I've installed rudimentary ones at all entryways. The kind that will let loose an ear splitting 120 decibels of mayhem when the door is opened.

So the other day, I was home alone, in the middle of the night and was walking down the stairs when smack in the middle, the back alarm went off. There I was in my jammies, standing in the middle of the stairway dumbfounded. Should I run back up to the room and lock myself in? Should I go down and explore? It was a weird, seemingly forever decision but after considering the possibilities, I decided a quick venture is appropriate (plus I didn't want to drain the batteries and drive the neighbours mad).

Apparently a cat snucked in and triggered the alarm. If I thought I was shocked, the cat was going berserks. The loud sound probably got to it as it jumped aimlessly, seemed disoriented and was frightened silly. Gave it a smack with the broom and promptly showed it the way out.

Interesting...

The passing of time...

Been quite a while since I've blogged, largely because I've been quite tied up and also because it seemed frivolous to blog about daily life when the tsunami tragedy still permeates. Like all things however, it is slowly tapering from the greater consciousness (and Yahoo! has relegated news on the tsunami after-effects to a small sentence link) and life (with all our selfish needs) come to fore.

Work has been quite interesting for me. I came here with the intention of just doing my job and bide time to study my Masters and build up CreativeKids. However, I'm getting more and more responsibilities with very likely promotions in the wake. Not too great time wise since I've maxed all free time on weekdays. Not sure what this will mean but will see.

I've been quite occupied so when I've been asked to do some superfluous work lately, I've been rather biting. Among other things, I:

1. Barked back at the Vice President of the group because he wanted changes in the presentation I was doing which really isn't necessary.

2. Demanded the IT people to unblock Blogger. Barring messenger I can understand. Barring blogs is too much. They complied within 5 minutes.

3. Put my foot down so many times I've probably gave a lot of people sore toes.

It's going to take me awhile to get into the groove but darnit, I am so thankful that Charmed is back on air :)

Bullock Donates $1M for Tsunami Relief
Monday January 3 3:07 PM ET

Actress Sandra Bullock has donated $1 million to the American Red Cross to help relief efforts in countries affected by the deadly earthquake and tsunamis in southern Asia and eastern Africa.

Bullock, whose screen credits include "Miss Congeniality," "While You Were Sleeping" and "Speed," contacted the American Red Cross last week, the organization said Monday. She also donated $1 million after the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

"At this critical time, I am grateful to Sandra Bullock for once again demonstrating her leadership, compassion and belief in our global humanitarian mission," said American Red Cross President and Chief Executive Officer Marsha Evans in a statement. "Sandra continues to enable our lifesaving work and is a model for personal generosity."

.....

sigh... so sweet :) i sooo want to marry her...

First blog in the new year!

It's finally 2005, and amidst all the gloom and tragedy, it is still a time for optimism and hope :) Kicked off my year with family with me (due to an unexpected incident) so it kinda turned my plans upside down but comforting nevertheless. And then sis needed to stay with me for a week or so, so that messed up my schedule even more. So my year started with backdated work and a heck load of stress! :)

It's gonna be interesting though... I will be working 9 to 9 from Mondays to Fridays now (because of additional classes and stuff) and only consolation will be better income stream. Masters is picking up pace so this added workload may not be too smart in retrospect. Will see how things juggle out. Like I said, it's gonna be interesting :)

Have been majorly neglecting friends... have not even managed to do dinner with Saw who lives 5 mins away. Time is really maxed out... can't imagine that just a year ago I was lazing my bum off watching tv from dawn to dusk. Ah... all because of a meeting with a friend who pumped me up to do more.

Anyways, to all friends, have a blessed new year! Like I always say, count your blessings before you dwell on the negative. Most times you find that the blessings more than make up for the shortcomings we all have in life. Take care :)

Together we grieve...



Climbing Asian Death Toll Passes 22,500

Merry Christmas Everyone and a BIG Birthday Wish to SAW!

Tersangat Lebih...

I am doing a course in web design this semester for my masters and it's really strange studying it from a postgraduate academic point of view. There are whole literature on type sizes, spaces between borders, colour schemes, and the like. See whether you can make sense of the following excerpt:

Two visual subsystems work together when viewing dynamic displays to produce a scan path. The peripheral subsystem carries out the initial parallel pro-cessing and determines where the next point of attentional fixation will be placed. The foveal subsystem is then directed to this point and performs more complex operations such as reading and object identification. Visual conspicuity is a factor that influences the selection process executed by the peripheral system. This conspicuity can be defined as a combination of an object’s properties, relative to its background, which attracts attention and is
therefore seen and is based on color, shape, size, orientation, and other properties of the display.

Grr...

The Phantom of the Opera



I caught Phantom on opening day, even though I finished work at 8:30pm and was dreadfully exhausted. When other teenagers grew up with Nirvana, Metallica or other soulful angst ridden music, I had the Phantom. Learning line by line, reliving song after song, so the movie is definitely a must see, especially when I've yet to have the opportunity of seeing the musical on theatre.

The viewing experience is amazing and rich in overtones and lavishness. It is a movie for the fan and for the romantic and it's just so beautiful :) It's been awhile since I've watched any movie with this kind of emotional repercussions and it's just wonderful.

Sigh...

Zap Zap Zap

I thought I would freak out on Thursday but I was surprisingly calm before my scheduled laser eye surgery (surgery is a tad overstating it as it is a quick procedure without pre or post surgery preparations required). Having a partial tear in my retina and needing it sealed, the surgery is somewhat unavoidable but dreaded.

I checked into the crowded clinic at 3:30pm. Got my eyes dilated at about 4:30pm and twice again at 5:15 and 5:30 before the procedure began at 5:35. Insanely long wait because this particular opthamologist seemed to attract patients from the entire state! At least there was some assurance of his skill.

The procedure was nightmarish. Please note that I have an intense aversion to touching your eyeballs so it was doubly horrifying. You get yourself seated into a machine like those that they use to check your vision, except that they strap your head tight and there are warning signs everywhere. Then they place this Borg like eyepiece onto your eyeball which allows the doctor to see into the retina and focus the laser beam.

At this point, all I'm seeing is this intense bright light and am getting superbly uncomfortable with eyes wide open and being unable to blink. Doctor will say things like, 'look left' 'don't move' 'hmm' 'good good' and then all of a sudden, ZAP ZAP ZAP! You see this flashes of green light followed by a burst of red in staccato motion as the doctor clicks on this joystick thingy. You can actually feel some heat but the worst part is the extreme brightness which makes your eyes water (and you can't blink).

It's over in about 5 minutes and it isn't painful but gawd... so uncomfortable. All I can think of is this must be what Borg-to-be must feel like. GAH!

I am just GLAD it's over (woe if it happens again) and will only need to go for another visit (if it stays corrected) in a years time. Thanks guys for the well wishes... I am just so blardy relieved...

Away, away, on a holiday!

Will be on leave the entire week coming up. Although there's the slight nervousness (ok, not so slight) about the eye surgery on Thursday, still looking forward to an entire week of doing nothing. No work, no CreativeKids, no assignments, and no studying! Will just lay back, enjoy the close of the year and start cracking with work after :)

Have a good week ahead and a great weekend to come! Dan will be hibernating!

I don't mind Mondays... it is Thursdays I don't like.

Yawns... took quite an effort waking up today. Not a good sign for a sleep dependent person like me. Will have to make up for the sleep debt by sleeping early tonight otherwise my whole week will be screwed. When I'm sleepy, I'm:

1. Incoherent
2. Grumpy
3. Prone to sneezes

This week is a busy week for me. I have an assignment due by Friday (which I've yet to really start) and I also have a Virtual Facilitation Exercise. This is rather unique as I'll have to facilitate an online discussion at a topic of my choice for 3 days and at the end of it, I'll be graded based on my ability to facilitate the discussion and arrive at a consensus with everyone being satisfied. It carries 20% so grades are quite hefty. A little nervous but can't wait to get it over with. (I volunteered to go first).

Been having some calls for CreativeKids so that's a good sign. Aiming for 20 kids by February and 30 by June. If that happens, I'll be so so happy. :) I'm also taking a class at The One in January. What with work, CreativeKids, studies and all... I hope I'm not over burdening myself but the money will really be useful.

Am on leave for the entire week next week :) Having a mini family vacation at PD. Looking forward to the break!

The Blog Challenge

In a class, for extra credit, I've tasked the students to use all Internet tools at their disposal to do the following:

FIND MY BLOG! :)

Let's see if anyone succeeds. For clues, they get to ask me one question a week. Question this week was, what is your blog colour scheme. Don't know how that will help but that's what they asked.

And the quest begins...

Down memory lane...



For the inclined, visit this site for the rest :)

Aieee....

I've been having some vision problems, namely floaters (specks floating about in the scope of vision) and tiredness so over the weekend I went to an opthamologist. After a tedious 2 hour wait (even with an appointment), here's a snippet of the dialogue with the doctor:

Doctor: So, how can I help you?

Me: Well... I've been having an increase in floaters in my vision (and I go on at lengths using jargon learned after hours of Internet surfing).

Doctor: I'm guessing you've already been online and did some research.

Me: Err...

Any doctor that recognises the Internet and its use is good in my books! Anyways, he proceeded to fill in the gaps in my knowledge and proceeded to do the test.

Doctor: So, why don't you wear contacts (as he removes my glasses).

Me: I have a phobia about touching my eyeballs, it's gross.

Doctor: I see, then you really will not enjoy what's happening next as that's what we're going to do.

Me: (planning dramatic escape from clinic, except I couldn't because by this time they had dilated my eyes and all I see is swirly lights).

Doctor proceeded to check eyes with this nasty machine, that puts a lens right on your eyeball and magnifies it for his diagnosis. Awful experience, and makes a dental exam a walk in the park. Gawd...

Diagnosis is, (drum roll), I have a thin retina in one eye and need to undergo laser eye surgery (due next month). Woe... more eye exams and surgery to boot... sigh... am such a nervous wreck...