Time for new Year resolution..2009 crashing out...2010 crashing IN!!!....

Phew!!!2 more days before 2010 greets us...2009 zoomed pass with so many ups and downs; Stress outs; fun and crazy times with nga mates; gettin heart squashed; true friends; new nose piercing; convocation; new friends; new activities; new bruises;  new job; new projects; 2 beloved people's passings and a new insight that I learned about myself. 2009 taught a lot about my heart, my principles and how far I would go to bend my own rules. Yet somehow the one year didn't change me instead it created a funnily ordered chaos in my already chaotic life. What was missing out throughout the year(as usual with every year) was responsibility, maturity and watever co-exist with those two elements.

2009's Few of Many Great Memories

My 10 2010 New Year resolutions

1. Top priority. Less accidents, falls and bruises.

2. Get A TATOO(even if mum n dad might kill me for doing it=P)

3. Go for all the planned group activities for next year. Gua tempurung, sphereriding, taman negara, sky diving, paintbal etc(which will definitely affect the top priority resolution - less bruises!!!=P)

4. Go for an island holiday. Tentatively Pulau Kapas.

5. Get a passport(as soon as possible!!!)

6. Arrive at work 830 am sharp everyday(hardest!)

7. Save up money for the Euro Trip. Must go by the year 2012; before the end of the world(at least according to the mayan calendar)

8. Get a new netbook and a broadband. And try not to spoilt them by the end of 2010.

9. Learn to cook from mum. At least to overcome the embrassing fact I can't cook to save my life.

10. Most important.HAVE FUN FUN FUN!!!

anyway...

Life is too short to be taken too seriously. Noone gets out alive anyway=P.

Sherlock Holmes!!

Sherlock Holmes..Guy Ritchie came up with a witty british comedy that was so cool, I didnt wink my eyes troughout the 2 hours screening. And I had the chance to catch the first show with a bunch of friends, even thought I was really tired with Information overload at workplace(No thanks to taking over Helpdesk that's not so helpfull till after New Year...uweeeeehhhh!!!) Ok maybe the story isn't as good as the Books or the short stories by Athur Canon Doyle..But it still had hints of Sherlocks twist and humor with a modern face lift. The chemistry between Robert Downey Jr and Jude Law was great to watch. The cinematography was excellent.Dark and Drudgy. Setting up the mood perfectly. Reminded me of Tim Burton movies. Overall it was satisfying movie and worth the lack of sleep(!!!!!!-.-")...

Alas, besides the movie, we were asked to shut up before the movie started by some less than polite indian guy. Well he could have said it more nicely.Anyway the movie hasn't started yet dumbwit!=P...I think he had problem of understanding the jokes because there were laughters at the wrong moments and silence at the right moments from that particular side...hehehe..seriously there are still people like these around.

AVATAR ...feast for the eyes..

A near-seamless melding of fantasy extraterrestrial landscapes and cutting edge computer-generated imagery, all inserted beautifully into the high-testosterone camerawork. You never spot the difference in the camerawork capturing the real images between the generated images. Finding flaws within the graphic supremacy of Avatar is like finding the needle in the haystack.

 The plot set against the love of two different souls from two different world. A broken human and a spirited alien!

The protagonist, Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), is a disabled former Marine who takes his late twin brother's place in the avatar program, a sort of bone thrown to the scientific community by the corporation in hopes that the study of Pandora and its population might create a more peaceful planet.

Without any training, Jake suddenly must learn how to link his consciousness to an avatar, a remotely controlled biological body that mixes human DNA with that of the native population, the Na'vi. Since he is incautious and overly curious, he immediately rushes into the fresh air -- to a native -- to throw open Pandora's many boxes.

What a glory Cameron has created for Jake to romp in, all in a crisp 3D realism. It's every fairy tale about flying dragons, magic plants, weirdly hypnotic creepy-crawlies and feral dogs rolled up into a rain forest with a highly advanced spiritual design. It seems although the scientists led by Sigourney Weaver's top doc have barely scratched the surface; a flow of energy ripples through the roots of trees and the spores of the plants, which the Na'vi know how to tap into.

The center of life is a holy tree where tribal memories and the wisdom of their ancestors is theirs for the asking. This is what the humans want to strip mine.

Jake manages to get taken in by one tribe where a powerful, Amazonian named Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) takes him under her wing to teach him how to live in the forest, speak the language and honor the traditions of nature. Yes, they fall in love but Cameron has never been a sentimentalist: He makes it tough on his love birds.

They must overcome obstacles and learn each others heart. The Na'vi have a saying, "I see you," which goes beyond the visual. It means I see into you and know your heart.

In his months with the Na'vi, Jake experiences their life as the "true world" and that inside his crippled body locked in a coffin-like transponding device, where he can control his avatar, is as the "dream." The switch to the other side is gradual for his body remains with the human colony while his consciousness is sometimes elsewhere.

He provides solid intelligence about the Na'vi defensive capabilities to Col. Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang), the ramrod head of security for the mining consortium and the movie's villain. But as Jake comes to see things through Neytiri's eyes, he hopes to establish enough trust between the humans and the natives to negotiate a peace. But the corporation wants the land the Na'vi occupy for its valuable raw material so the Colonel sees no purpose in this.

The battle for Pandora occupies much of the final third of the film. The planet's animal life; the creatures of the ground and air battle along with the Na'vi, but they come up against projectiles, bombs and armor that seemingly will be their ruin.

(summary of plot thanks to Kirk Honeycutt, The Hollywood Reporter)

The story, you might liken it to 'Dancing with the wolves' but not as moving as it predecessor, Avatar still managed to tug some strings in the heart. Still whatever lacked in the story was made up by the way it was told. Titanic showed us James Cameron is the King of the World but Avatar sealed the deal.

Late night movie and only an hour of sleep is all worthwhile for such a movie. =P

JAMMed Packed weekend!

The weekend started early this week(*wink). 3 long days with so much activities planned.

Friday started from 1030 am with Meera, Princess and the Frog. Disney's classic type of movie, hand drawn animation. The movie brought back my childhood memories. Movies in this genre are not many nowadays with 3D animation and all sorts of latest technology used for eyes feast. But, most of time, the human touch; that special element that draws people to the movie is lost. Story of the prince turned into frog kissed by the princess was given a new and fresh twist with some great soundtrack. Drama,laughter and love(the basic of all Disneys' movies) packed into the 1 hour and 30 minutes movie. I would recommend the movie with two thumbs-up to anyone.

It was lunch hours. I met up with some old colleuge for some catch-ups. Had great time talking to them. Missed having such a carefree collueges to strike conversation on particularly anything. Meera was kind of shocked, I guess, seeing the other side of my character that so unlike the Piria at the office.  I was so craving for pizza and Meera for her pasta so lunch was Spaghetti Grill.

Being girls, its hardcoded in our genes to shop shop till we drop. The next four hours we walked in and out of most of our favourite shops trying in and out everything that caught our eyes attention. At least I did =P. I was so tempted to add another pair of heels to my ever growing collection but victoriously overcame the feeling with no help from Meera who had only poured petrol into my burning temptation. In the end of the shopping expidition, I couldn't quench my thirst for books, when my hand automatically picked a book at MPH and paid at the counter without my mind giving me a minute to debate the importance of the purchase. Meera settled with a movie she bought at Speedy Video for Friday Night Movie with her cousins.

Friday Night was also a movie night for me. I joined a bunch of funny and nice guys whom I only know 1 of them that I have met once before. Storm Warriors wasn't a very bad movie. The story and the effects was quite good but not as good as the first movie, Storm Riders. Bit too much of melodrama and animated for my liking. And according to Loges, after the movie I run of from them. Which I didn't!!!...I had to catch a cab and midvalley cabbies after 10 are creepy. And I was so tired, after 2 movies in a day;almost 6 hours of shopping, tea at the disgusting Garden's Al-Bukhary mamak shop invitation not so tempting!!

Saturday, was D-Day!!...ATV!vrooom....I was so excited I couldn't sleep. I was wide awake before the alarm went off at 6am which is rare. By 830, I was meeting up with Jusrup and waiting for Kasthuri at Subang KTM for the 9.00 train to Bukit Badak our pick up point.As usual, the KTM was late for 15 minutes making all 3 of us the main reason for being late. Finally, we were on the way to Ayer Keroh, with everyone missing the meeting point from Nilai to Senawangl. In the end everyone met up after the Ayer Keroh Toll. And I was asked to show the way. Of all the people!hehehe...somehow we found the ATV place. To my astonishment, it was the same place I crashed the go-kart almost 12 years ago!

After applying on the sun block (at least the girls=P) and some quickie photo session, all 14 of us strapped on or knee and elbow pad. We were given chance to test ride the ATV on the circuit. After two rounds, we started our trail in the jungle. I was the last rider with the marshal following me. Had some weird and funny chit chat with him throughout the trail. Not even 30 minutes in the trail, Saritha crashed her ATV between the trees. I was hoping I wouldn't do the same stunt. The trail was exciting and slopes were adrenalin pumping, they were so steep I was praying I wouldn't  flip over. But it was loads of fun especially when I don't really drive a car or ride a motor. It was cool to be able ride the ATV.

Being Piria, the day wouldn't end without me doing something embarrassing and stupid! Somewhere between trails, we were given 3 chances to do a stunt that requires one to accelerate on a slope while making a turn at the top of the slope. I had to crash my ATV into a bush when I lost control in making the turn. Shoot!1st was his go-kart, now his ATV!!.The only thing that crossed my mind at the time. I gave everyone a heart stopping moment before being pullout by the marshal. I emerged from the  bush laughing my head off. I bruised my thigh and few scratches on my arm. Slight bleeding. Now everyone of them will remember I'm the girl who rode the ATV in the bush. The incident  became the highlight of the day. All thanks to my luck!

It was almost 3 when we decided to have lunch. I brought them to the famous Coconut Shake but ended up having not only Coconut Shake but food that was so hot; steam were coming off our ears. All thanks to me!Nobody was willing to call it a day,so we drove to Ulu Bendul waterfall. Once there, we were met with a man made pool. Cheap Sunway Lagoon!! Reluctant to leave without taking a dip, we walked in further to the waterfall. We spent about 30 minutes in a shallow stream. Playing around and photo session.s Dinner was at a famous seafood restaurant in Seremban. Which was way better than the 'cili padi' lunch we had in Melaka=P.

Everything was fine and everyone was saying their goodbyes when Siva had to spot my beaded sandal! It looks like some leg chain they use in jails at least according to the guys. Well its fashion!!!=P. The day officially ended with Jusrup,Loges,Rajan and myself had a drink before they dropped us of at Jusrup place.

The weekend was really loaded with fun and excitement. The consequences of so much fun, I'm down with bad flu and cough.

NO go LIVE decision!!

Finally they decided its better to not  go live on Friday!!!...Pushed forward to next week Thursday. Issues are being argued and disagreed. Anger flared but situations are controlled though. And the good news I don't have to work tomorrow. They seem to be a lot of miss communications among the team itself. But they are not divided into two teams as developer and testers. Maybe because the difference are not too diverse here compared to my previous projects. Either one teams' mistake or negligence can cause terrible lost to the project so they are not throwing the blame at each other. An admirable attitude if you ask me. But in conclusion everything seems to be not welled planned as it should be. Okey. Enough with my analysis that's in danger of  becoming daily reports now. Gotta go.my ride is awaiting. ERL PUTRAJAYA here I came!

Go LIVE stress test...Stressed out

Here I am. Sitting infront a laptop that doesn't even belong to me. Executed two session of manual stress test equivalent to 474 patient registration in the system. My eyes are sore from looking at the screen and my brain is numb from Copy,Paste,Enter for more than 200 times. And the clock is ticking!Its going to  7pm. They are discussing should a third manual stress test conducted after a new fix deployed in the system. The developers are given approximately an hour to do fixes for the new bugs.Each time a session ends and each time a fix is done, I wonder why they keep on hitting on new errors? So whats really the point?..clearly its plain that each time a fix is deployed more bugs are found than the number of bugs fixed.
!!!!!
The question is Are they willing to take the risk of going live with bugs and questionable fixes...even with a work around solution? Would it reflect the quality of the delivered system? I guess if they do go live;the clients minimal exit criteria was met but is there any exit criteria at all in the first place? Or the call is solely in the hand of the BIGGIES who would rather go live now than extend the time for a better deliverable?...Only tommorow can answer the question.

A Blinged Ceremony

Sunday 6.12.2009...marked the engagement of one of my friend, Jessvin. Held in Royal Lake Club at Tasik Perdana, it was truly a 'blinged' Punjabi ceremony filled with dance and music. Not forgetting the friendly and warm welcome the family gave with an open heart to celebrate the pre-union of not just two souls; Jessvin and Arvind but the two families as well.

As usual, being us, its quite a feat to arrive at any function on time. Punctuality never been our better attribute . So we reached the hall around 6.40 pm after chirping off how late we are, the bad jam,there is no car park; when some of us should have arrived at 5.00 pm per request by the bride-to-be(I think these some of us would know who they are). Hey we cannot help it!Whats an Indian if we don't arrive at Indian timing.

Being late always has its downside, we couldn't find a table to sit at. Every single table and chair are taken. Finally,  failing  to find a table, we decided to steal someone table that was already occupied by 3 elders. 3 very talkative elders if you ask me.Engaging us in a conversation,they asked whether we were employed. After awhile,  one quipped 'All the girls are employed.All the boys are not!'. Because the guys we stole the seats from were all unemployed! And one was a magician who looked like a bad clone of Elvis Presley. I remember the aunty saying something about the girls should be treated as a flower,'...I'm a gardener for 20 years....' when the husband intervened 'I thought you were a teacher all this while!'..hahaha...

With our stomach growling, Karen and myself resorted to cutting the queue and gettin us food to stuff-in since the official ceremony haven't started. And I was afraid by the time they actually serve us dinner, I might be a skeleton, out of starvation! After fulfilling my hunger(temporarily) we indulged in intelligent conversation on checking out the guys that were present. Coming out in conclusion that the guys mostly either to short or too young.

The engagement  kicked start when the groom and his entourage of family was received by the bride's family accompanied by the beats of dhol. Arvind took his 'throne' at the beautifully decorated swing awaiting his bride.Jess made a lovely entrance(with a background music that I don't seem to remember) escorted by her brother and sister. She was so nervous and beautiful at the same time.  Taking her place next to Arvind they started a mehendi ceremony where Jess's mother-in-law put on some mehendi on her hand and Jess takes her turn to pun on mehendi on 12 young girls. Her mother-in-law placed a chuni on her head(a head scarf presented to the bride from groom's mum). Finally they exchanged rings witnessed by 300 guests or at least the ones who were not busy eyeing the buffet tables. In the background, there was a slide show of Jess and Arvind photos taken by her brother to mark their 7 years together  and famous Hindi love songs. And we were busy filling up the plates with gulab jamuns, barfis and foods set on the buffet table which was conveniently behind us interfered only when we paused long enough to pose for a picture. Dinner was nice but only vegetarian dishes served as groom's family were vegetarians. I only missed out on the ABC  because the long queue and I was lazy and polite enough not to cut queue again =P.

There were also awesome performances by a dance group 'Bombay Rockers'.They made me tired just looking at their performances; they can really move it and shake it like you cannot believe it! Kavitha was so excited that she decided to get their business card to hire them for her wedding(which is inevitably not in the nearest future!).

With the night still being young(as per the words of the MC), they started the dance floor!Woohooo!That's what we have been waiting for! Without the fear of our sarees falling off we grooved for the Punjabi tunes the DJ spinned.90% of the songs were unknown  to Kavitha and me but thanks to Karen and Jusrup who were busy showing us the moves =D.

Plain as a Vanilla....

Plain as a vanilla...one of my friends had said the caption during our recent conversation. It struck a chord in me. Made me ask myself 'Am I plain as a vanilla?'. It doesn't matter if its in the  point of view of a girl or a guy.

Would someone describe me 'Plain as a vanilla'? Has my life been colourful like the Paddlepop rainbow ice-cream? Do i intrigue a different taste in people whom I had the chance to bump into?

A simple four word phrase uttered by my friend is haunting my thoughts. Never a person who actually cares what the world thinks. Lead my own way or let the fate lead its way when I'm lost. Springing out surprises when people least expects. But now I find myself more self-conscious because this four word phrase that seem to have rocked the core of my existence in the world(yet again I'm exaggerating myself here=P).Questioning myself, Am I the person I believed I am. Or  would I not be able to recognize myself when seen through the eyes of others.

Am I plain as vanilla? I think that's one question not answerable by me but depends on views of others.=).

A question that only I can answer...Years from now, when I decide to look back; asking myself; Will I change anything about my life? And hopefully without a hint of regret I would be able to say NO.

adios for now

Piria=)