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Archive for November, 2004

The one where I partake in a charity I don’t even care for

WHY is it that people seem to have an affinity for large-scale charity projects which are manpower-intensive and bloody logistically demanding?

SAO demended 2 people from each hall today, to support them supporting NTUC in collecting and sorting books for needy children.  My first response was, “you gotta be kidding me”.  Absolutely no one I know is going to get all warm and fuzzy and volunteer.  Tough, but that’s the way it is.  No pay?  No lunch provided?  No ECA points?  Fuck you. 

What happened to the Welfare Services Club?  Something is wrong if the goodness of a community boils down ultimately to me. 

Was about to argue with them again, when I realised that this was actually my problem, not theirs, and no amount of bickering was going to change that.  Fair enough.  So I shall be one of the two volunteers, and I shall be going to pack used books on the 11th to the 14th of december.  Hopefully I will get the chance to abscond halfway through.  With some books.

Which brings me back to the point at hand.  Why is it that some charity projects have to be this big and manpower-intensive?  Given NTUC’s influence, what’s so bloody difficult about offering a cash donation?  or BUYING new books?  I think it is inefficient, even stupid, to first decide to collect every old tome the public throws out, then try to enlist an army of “volunteers” to sort out the whole godforsaken mess.

Not that I don’t care about the children.  I’d be happy if they had A NICE NEW COLLECTION OF BOOKS, but if any part of any plan involves me sorting out old books for the wretched meatbags, then I say fuck the children.  I have no emotional stake in the children, so… *shrug*  They’ll prob be saying “fuck you” too when they realise they’re getting old books instead of the latest Happy Rotter or whasisface novel.

Also, exactly how “disadvantaged” are these children anyway?  They’re still alive, so they can’t be THAT poor.  And NTUC acknowleges that too, else we’d be delivering BAGS OF GRAIN as opposed to books and plastic smiles.

We live in a pay-to-play world.  Nothing is for free.  You don’t have money, you don’t eat.  Blame your alcoholic dad.  You swallow too many marbles as a kid, you don’t live to have kids of your own.  Blame Darwin.  I hope those meatbags realise their books come at a cost.  My time.  They fucking owe me.

Merry Christmas.

PS.  Next time I pass a Salvation Army bin, I’m gonna thrown my drink can in.

PPS.  Show me one charity staffed ENTIRELY by volunteers, all working off the goodness of their own heart, with zero pay (this means absolutely NO ONE AT ALL has any income - even the toilet cleaner), and maybe I’ll reconsider everything I’ve said.  No?  Thought so.

Gary :: Nov.30.2004 :: Old Deadjournal posts, Bitchin' :: Comments Off

I slept for 14.5 hours

making up for the lack of sleep these days, i managed, somehow, to hit the sack at 11.30 last night, and only got up and about today at 2.  mmmmm…. the smell of rain.

next week’s gonna be another busy one… sigh.  less sleep coming right up!

now it feels justified.

i watch my phone and my email inbox with dread nowadays.  i cringe at incoming messages until i determine they’re benign, like someone suggesting dinner or saying he’s bored.  everything else has something attached… an arrow, perhaps, or more sai kang.  especially mails from SAO.  sometimes i read mails a week late so i can frankly say i missed the deadline.  meh.

in other news, spent close to 400 bucks last week.  bloody broke now.  still gotta think about getting a new bike.  dammit.

i think i’m playing too much half life 2.  a mine collapsed in china, and when i saw this,

i was like, OMG city 17!

Gary :: Nov.28.2004 :: Old Deadjournal posts, All the news that's fit to print :: Comments Off

Impulse buy… but coming to terms with it.

Muahahaha.

Gary :: Nov.23.2004 :: Old Deadjournal posts, Tech, w00t! :: Comments Off



Yup. It’s been that long since I got my first modem.

Gary :: Nov.12.2004 :: Old Deadjournal posts, w00t! :: Comments Off

Wherein I injure myself (twice), take pictures, and produce art.

They say if life gives you lemons, make lemonade.

Yes, so I injured my foot and bled all over the place.  Don’t ask.

Wasn’t even aware that I had injured myself until I decided to take a walk.  That’s when the slippery, slimy sensation of blood underfoot told me something was amiss.  Funny that it should happen, really… cos just earlier in the day I was entertaining the idea of producing a drawing from my own plasma.  Oh well…

Slime.

Skid marks.

Had to act fast, before the damn thing clotted. Quickly I dipped my finger in, and in a moment of little to no insipration, wrote “DIE” on a plain sheet of paper.


The problem with blood art is the little time you have to gather inspiration before your medium dries.

Proceeded to attempt to frame the thing, since I happened to have so many of those spare Ikea frames lying around - and that’s when i cut myself. Again. This time it was the edge of the frame glass, against the sensitive inner joint of my finger.


This hurt like a bitch.

More lemons, so I made more lemonade, and added splotches of finger blood to the drawing.

Also sealed the frame with a dab. Just for good luck.


Ta-da.

Right now, I can’t walk properly and I can’t bend my finger. Back at you, Life. Fuck you.

UPDATE: Added one more large pic here.

Gary :: Nov.10.2004 :: Old Deadjournal posts, Bitchin', A thousand words, All the news that's fit to print :: Comments Off

“Let’s turn the Middle East into glass!”

HAHAHAHA…. *wipes tear from eye.*  Funniest quote all day.

Well, you either get it, or you don’t.  I, for one, find it hilarious.

Close second, cos this made me chuckle:

“Not to get into a deep philosophical discussion on a Sunday morning, but at times I am jealous of simpleminded folk who are fascinated and excited about, for example, metal things that they find in the back yard. These guys and all their friends are no doubt talking nonstop about The Thingie and the press coverage it garnered, and it brings them joy, the same joy that I try to get through more complicated, tricky, expensive avenues. You can make a great argument that life is ultimately about trying to trigger the pleasure and joy centers in the brain, however you can, and these types of guys seem to have shortcuts. I doubt that my joy is less real than theirs. Bastards.”

Gary :: Nov.08.2004 :: Old Deadjournal posts, Funny, 1337 :: Comments Off

Caption writing.

The Nine Commandments of Caption Writing

Also,  farker Halfmast Trousers pointed out in a comment:

That, and to recognize the four main smalltown newspaper photo types, taken from “The Newspaper Designer’s Handbook:”

1) “The Grip and Grin” (someone receiving an award, shaking a hand and smiling).
2) “The Execution at Dawn:” The whole Chamber of Commerce or Ladies’ Club members lined up and photographed against a wall.
3) “The Guy at His Desk:” Your local administrator, mayor, etc. just sitting at his desk, smiling, with a phone and pen and whatnot.
4) “The Bored Meeting:” A long table in a nondescript room, and the usual nondescript suspects just sitting there.

Gary :: Nov.07.2004 :: Old Deadjournal posts, Funny :: Comments Off

Pic of the Day

You win.  Case closed.

”" 

Gary :: Nov.06.2004 :: Old Deadjournal posts, A thousand words, Games, 1337, w00t! :: Comments Off

Oh, the irony!

IRONY (irony)
Pronunciation: ‘I-r&-nE also ‘I(-&)r-nE
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural -nies
Etymology: Latin ironia, from Greek eirOnia, from eirOn dissembler

1 : a pretense of ignorance and of willingness to learn from another assumed in order to make the other’s false conceptions conspicuous by adroit questioning — called also Socratic irony

2 a : the use of words to express something other than and especially the opposite of the literal meaning b : a usually humorous or sardonic literary style or form characterized by irony c : an ironic expression or utterance

3 a (1) : incongruity between the actual result of a sequence of events and the normal or expected result (2) : an event or result marked by such incongruity b : incongruity between a situation developed in a drama and the accompanying words or actions that is understood by the audience but not by the characters in the play — called also dramatic irony, tragic irony

Gary :: Nov.06.2004 :: Old Deadjournal posts, Good readin' :: Comments Off

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA. My fault ah?

people often berate me for laughing at the stupid.  know what i think?  i think God (if he exists) made some people stupid for one purpose only.  to be laughed at. 

i neither sympathize nor empathize with you.

Nov 2, 2004
He’s another victim of ‘modem jacking’

I SHARE the same plight as Miss Rina Poon (’Charged for calls she never made’; The Sunday Times, Oct 31) except that my phone bill was nearly double hers.

On Sept 28, I received a call from SingTel’s billing department, informing me that I had incurred IDD charges of $193.40 from calls to Cook Island. On Oct 6 I requested that SingTel conduct an investigation. Two weeks later, it got back to me with the result, giving the same explanation as that given to Miss Poon and I still had to foot the bill.

What protection do dial-up users have? Why didn’t SingTel’s billing department alert me earlier as there were no earlier calls to Cook Island?

I am now awaiting an official report from SingTel before heading to the Consumers Association of Singapore.

Ho Kwok Chuen

Oct 31, 2004
Charged for calls she never made
Dial-up Internet user could have been a victim of ‘modem jacking’

By Arlina Arshad

HUMAN resource executive Rina Poon, 28, was shocked when she received a SingTel bill two weeks ago, asking her to pay $108.

The bill was for international calls to Norfolk Island, in the South Pacific Ocean, and Sao Tome, off the coast of West Africa.

The trouble is, she never made those calls.

‘A SingTel staff member said that it’s not uncommon,’ said Miss Poon said of such occurrences.

When interviewed by The Sunday Times, a SingTel spokesman said Miss Poon could have been a victim of ‘Internet dumping’ or ‘modem jacking’.

When dial-up Internet users visit certain websites, usually porn, gambling, games and music sites, they inadvertently download a program that instructs their modems to dial an overseas number instead of their local Internet Service Provider (ISP).

The Internet connection would be terminated, and a re-connection would mean making a more expensive international call.

These sites originate from various parts of the world and usually do not require a credit card number for access to the premium content, said the SingTel spokesman.

She added: ‘Less than 1 per cent of the total enquiries on billing issues involve Internet dumping.’

She declined to elaborate, but said that SingTel had stringent checks and balances in place to ensure the integrity of its billing system.

In the cases handled, the calls had been made from customers’ telephones.

‘Hence, the charges will not be waived,’ she said.

Miss Poon said she does not visit such sites.

‘I’m very wary of pop-up instructions that require me to click proceed, and I wasn’t online when the calls were made,’ she said.

‘It’s not fair that I have to pay for calls I didn’t make.’

SingTel said it would follow up on Miss Poon’s case.

ISPs which The Sunday Times spoke to said such cases were ‘negligible’.

Mr Thomas Wee, vice-president of consumer business for Pacific Internet (PacNet), said that in the last three months, the ISP had received only one e-mail message from a subscriber reporting a similar incident.

He added that these incidents usually happen to dial-up users who have IDD access on the telephone line used for Internet connection.

Broadband or cable users are unlikely to be affected.

ISPs advise users to download and install a spyware application to scan the computer system and remove the malicious software to stop modem jacking from happening.

As a safeguard, they should make sure that they are calling the ISP, and not an overseas number.

Ms Cassie Fong, StarHub’s assistant corporate communications manager, said that Internet users should not download any program from suspi- cious sources.

She added: ‘Turn off your dial-up modem and computer when not in use. As the Internet is an ungoverned public network, Internet users play an important role in ensuring their own online safety.’

that’s what you get for surfing for warez and kiddie pr0n, loooooser.

Gary :: Nov.03.2004 :: Old Deadjournal posts, All the news that's fit to print :: Comments Off