Greetings from Strasbourg

Update from Vienna...

After a month in Vienna, I find that life is chugging along with the good and the bad. Should I talk about the good or the bad? Well, like my very respected ex-BF used to say “No news is bad news, good news is bad news and bad news is good news”…I am not quite sure how this applies here. Its been quite an experience in just a short one month here. Met so many new and interesting people in just a short time ! My classmates are all mostly young chubs (some said cute looking too!) and friendly which makes studying a lot easier! Thats the good news here.. is this really good when there are so many cute looking austrians around me in class? Though there seems to be a problem with the "subjects" here... .I guess what they don't teach in Malaysian Universities are always the tougher subjects! So this is the bad news which I am not quite sure is good news at all after making the move all the way here..

Socially its just been hectic hectic hectic! Impromptu having coffee (or the famous melange) with new friends and walking in the parks and central of the city is just so "gemutlich" as they like to say about austrians (means comfortable). Though this is also breaking my wallet... seems the same culture like going to the warung (coffee shop) in Malaysia but the coffee is expensive coffee (for a malaysians like me - each time i have a kopi, I spend around 3-4 euro per cup!)...So its nice but I got to watch the wallet. The food here is just so good.. .dessert-wise ...mmmmm.. the apple strudel and the cakes... all done in the traditional cake houses once frequented by mozart (i think so! hehehe) and other famous celebrity. The main cuisine is really too heavy for me but delicious nonetheless. Gaining weight is always a good thing.

My problem with the uni hostel is temporary solved as I am now living in a ferien wohnung (something like a service apartment) where I can cook some rice finally! You know how it is with asians... There's also broadband Internet here, so I can still keep intouch with my friends in Malaysia. Thanks Daddy Chub Zahari for allowing me to stay with him and keep him company.

More stories on my adventures in Strasbourg, France .

The Chub ... (a graphical poem)

The beauty of this poem is that if you look closely, there is another 3D picture within it. Takes a couple of minutes for the untrained eye to see. Walla! not only have poetic value but esthetic as well.

I take credit in creating this lovely creation, just killing processing time on the Cray Supercomputer. LOL.. just to show - what a combination of literary verses and prose with high technology can do.

Greetings from Vienna

Upon landing at the Vienna International Airport, I couldn't help but wonder if there is anything else going on in Vienna apart from the waltzes of Strauss, world class concert haus(es), and the Danube river.

Well, it didn't take me long to find out that Viennese – partly due to German being their first language - had the same passion for chubs as the Germans do.

Just stroll along their high-end shopping street Karntnerstrasse, often referred to as the centre of Vienna, and you will not miss Steffl – the lifestyle department store. On the fourth floor, I hit the mother lode: chub heaven. There we no signs of skinny skimpy twinks around. Most of the patrons here are above the average sizes.

Later I found out, that it sells extra large attire. The Kauffman Big and Tall Store is also a popular chub cruising place. They are even considered an alternative lifestyle activity here – cruising - something the predominantly German-speaking Viennese must have adopted.

How shall I put it in context for you? Imagine finding a whole complex floor devoted to chubs in KL. (KL Sentral?). The people here are polite and direct. If they like you, they would approach and ask.

I was pleasantly surprised to find most of the popular chubs here are Asians, with a bonus that they are super chubs. I think it's the darker skin that attracts them. The tanned looks perhaps. Whatever it is, I'm just plain lucky I guess. I was approached by several suitors, whom I regrettably had to turn down due to time constraints.

A short walk down south to Mariahilferstrasse, the longest shopping street in Vienna. You'll find various assortments of chubs abound. Tall ones, shorts ones, wide ones and even beer bellied ones. An awesome sight indeed.

A cute Viennese chub couple I met at the sidewalk café said that you could pick up just about anybody here. With a little persuasion, even str8 ones. That reminds me of our own Bintang Walk in KL.


Till next time…

Today I lost a friends....(14 August 2005)

....in loving memory

During afternoon tea, i got an urgent call from Adie informing me about the depature of one of my closest friend. I didn't believe it at first until i called Riez's family and they confirmed my worst fears. Riez passed away on the 14 August 2005 at 4.00 pm malaysian time at his home. The funeral service was done at 10.00 am the next day.

Our last conversation was a few days ago where he told me that he suffered with some breathing complications and is going to be hospitalised. My initial reaction was anger. I was angry with the haze. I was angry with the unpredictable weather. I was angry at the people who had no concern about the environment.

In the 5 years that I had known Riez, he was not only my best friend but also a strong believer of love. He has a big heart which can only be match by his body. He is more concern about other people's feelings than his own. He is also comfortable with himself and takes no concern about what other people thinks about him.

brunodiehard: aku tak sangka sampai camni, last week yg dia masuk wad sakit paru2 bengkak tu. Dia mintak balik rumah lepas sehari pasal katil sempit tak selesa. lepas balik dia makan medication dooktor bagik tuh, dua hari lepas tu ada side-effect dia kata, badan dia sejuk semacam, pastu entah badan bintik2 merah. Aku suruh dia bawak ubat tu gi jumpa doktor ckp pasal side effect tuh, mata dia yg jahit dulu tu pun merah dia kata. Aku suruh dia refer doktor jangan pandai2 sendiri tapi dia stop ambik ubat tu dah 3 hari tak makan. Sebab dia taknak gi jumpa doktor tu balik pasal doktor tu cakap dgn dia 'takmau tengok muka dia lagi kat hospital tu' sebab rizal cerewet.

To Kebab, be brave and take this as one of the test in life.

Rizal a.k.a Riezchub, we will all miss you dearly....

Ummmm.... Cakkk!!!

Sebenernye moks dah update dah blog terbaru. Kisah2 gi lepak kat Cameron Highlands and Penang baru-baru ni. Tapi entah camano, tetiba je the server kat opis ban plak. Nak kata penuh ngan carut-marut, tak der la plak. Nie musti gara-gara kerajaan ban site2 lucah. Tapi blog moks maner ader benda2 lucah? Iskk.. poning! poning!

Anyway, moks malas la plak nak tulis pepanjang macam pagi tadi. Cukup la ngan blog pendek ni.

FAV MOVIE
- Star Wars / Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy / I Robot / Bicentenial Man (mostly sci-fi)

FAV TV-SHOWS
- Tremors / Babylon 5 / Star Trek / Queer as Folks

FAV FOOD
- Assam Pedas / Steak & Lobsters / Sara Lee Ice-Cream

FAV PAST-TIME
- surfing the net / writing stories / computer programming

FAV ACTOR
- George Dzunza / Paul Sorvino (Chubby Italian Daddies Type)

FAV RADIO STATION
- Light & Easy / Gaydar Radio

FAV WEBSITE
- MyChub.ORG

FAV CAR
- Proton Satria GTI / Gen-2

Cuti Cuti Malaysia

"Bersama kapitan tokey kebun durian"

Dah lama tak update blog nih. Maklum le aku kat Johor sekarang ni. So takde masa sangat nak online lama-lama. Ini pun aku postkan entry pendek je, tapi harapnya menarik perhatian korang.

Ari tu si kap ajak pegi makan durian kat dusun durian bapak dia. Haiyoo, makan free beb... mesti tak tolak punyer. So pegi ler kami berempat; abu, moks, arwah riez ngan syed. Tapi kami tak tahu pulak yg dusun tu punyer la jauh masuk ke dalam estate.

Sesampai kat dusun tu, Kap plak lupa bawak kunci pagar dusun. Jadi terpaksa le lalu ikut celah kawat pagar berduri. Riez (sebab badan dia besor), terlekat kat kawat pagar tu. Kami dlm gelak ketawa, tolong le dia.. kesian gak, terkial2 dia nak lepaskan badan (ada la dekat 15 minit). Merah padam muka dia.

Tapi tak per la.. dia sporting. Dah lepas pagar, terus kami kumpul durian untuk makan. Hmm.. best jugak. Tapi tak dapat lepak lama kat dusun tu, sebab hari dah nak gelap. (mcm biasa le, kalu plan gi mana2 mesti last minit). Kami cepat2 la makan, sbb biasanya kat dusun durian ni ada HARIMAU !! Fuiyooo...Takuttttttt

Balik kenyang perut.. senang hati. TQ Kap! Musim durian lain kali jemput le lagi kami melantak kat kebun ko tuh.. sure habis nyerrrr.. ahaxxx

Pejam celik pejam celik, cuti sekolah pun dah bermula. Tapi aku punya cuti tinggal lagi sebulan. Sepanjang cuti ni aku jarang online dan tak berkesempatan nak update blog. Sebenarnya banyak cerita yang aku nak cerita, tapi asyik tertangguh-tangguh sampai lupa topik yang nak diceritakan.

Cuti sekolah, juga dikenali sebagai ‘musim mengawan’ di kalangan orang-orang muda masyarakat kita. Ye'lah, time ni lah ramai orang memenuhi chatroom mychub dengan pelbagai harapan. Tak kurang juga bapak-bapak budak yang mencari anak-anak ikan. Kemeriahan terasa terutama diwaktu malam. Tak menang tangan berceloteh melayan kengkawan.

After 6 hours...

Phew!!! Managed to reconstruct 1/2 of the server functions. It was no easy task. The Active Directory keeps fumbling with all sorts of errors. My back-up server was an old Win2K. It didn't connect very well with Win2003. But after a few trial and errors, i managed to find a trick to fool the system into believing it's a PDC and overwrite the old configuration.

The second problem was Oracle 9i. The enterprise edition was very fussy about it's settings and with the scarce documentation that I had with me. I set about to re-install the whole thing instead of trying to salvage whatever i can from the old back-up tape. Fortunately for me, there was a system snapshot of the old config so that I have at least a way to revive the database.

The third problem was with the ApacheTomcat installation. The provided documentation was totally different with what my system was configured. So with what little I have on my hands, i changed the whole lot of the XML files to suit the system need.

Well.. things to do:-
1) Optimize and tweak the system for peak performance.
2) BACKUP! Backup! backup!
3) Harden the security of the system to prevent my stupid apprentice from fumbling with the system.
4) Claim exorbitantly for the service so that it could pay my trip to Europe (i wish*)

Hahahha... 6 more hours to go

Server FUBR!!

My boss called me up today and asked me to come to the office PRONTO!!. Took me about 6 hours of driving just to find out that my apprentice had fucked up the main Xeon server beyond human repair in just about a week of my absence. Even the back-up recovery software could not help much. Darn!!! This will set us back about 1 year of development. What I really missed the most is the fact that i had lost all the data collected last year. This is a terrible loss as it took me months to program. Now I have about 12 hours to re-construct all the data back into the server before the end of the week.

NOTE TO MYSELF: Never ever use Windows 2003 again. It's slow.. it's buggy and it's totally fucked up. Kudos to Bill Gates for successfully making such a "pain in the ass" OS.

GOAL: Rebuilt a Windows 2003 Server in record time of 6 hours. Additional software to install:-
- Oracle 9i
- Apache Tomcat
- Apache HTTPD
- MySQL
- SquidNT
- Mail Daemon

Ok.. that's about it.. (for now)
BTW: FUBR = Fucked Up Beyond Repair

Sabbatical Holiday

Today is the start of my sabbatical holiday. Yeap.. i've taken 1 year off to finish my thesis and pursue my doctorate degree. But that does not mean I won't be around. Just not as frequent as i use to be. I'm really looking forward to this holiday as it means I can better focus on my studies and take my mind off of things.

Besides that, I am thankful that some of the problem that have been around mychub have been eliminated. The culprit have been found. Thank you to all the Mychub Webteam members who had work so hard in keeping and maintaining mychub in order.

So what's planned for my holidays ? Hmm.. well.. I will be going to Taiwan for a a couple of months visit. There are a few places in Taipei and Kaohshioung that hold the key to my thesis as well as a few old time friends that wants me to visit them.

I'm doing research on VLSInet (Very Large Scale Information network). A new concept of bringing broadband internet via multiple points to provide critical information and data across remote areas. (Through mountains and Sea using atoms and molecules within the matter to convey data). That is all that i can say, other information is classified at the moment. It's very exciting for me as this sort of work has never been actually produced.

Okay that's all for now.. hope to write more soon.

Points to ponder

every once in awhile, for no particular reason, something good just happens. And when these good things happen, no matter how small, it's worth taking note.

There are so many times in life that things are at their worse and yet when we stand strong something good comes out of it.