boon's log 3009.07: 40 years after the 1st moonwalk, Condolences, Repairs, SSDD

40 years ago, this week, man first walked on the moon. That kinda sparked some interest to dig up some old space-themed movies, so we ended up finishing Apollo13 and Armageddon. It is really amazing that, at a time when "fitting a computer into a room" proved to be a impossible task - we successfully sent 2 men to the face of the Moon. Although there are many controversial comments as to whether Neil and Buzz REALLY were on the face of the Moon - I, personally, am a believer and believe that they really did land and bounced on the Moon. To be able to transport a human from one planet to another is really amazing - I'm still awed by it till today.

"... things like a computer that can fit into a single room, and hold millions of pieces of information." James Levell (Tom Hanks), Apollo13.

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Anyways, it's been a while since i blogged and so much has happened.

1. Michael Jackson passed away [1958 - 2009] - the story that shook the world. My deepest sympathies to the Jackson family and as a Michael Jackson fan myself, I will miss him greatly. Rest well and in peace, O' Talented, Gloved and Crotch-Grabbing One. There were tonnes of speculations and stories on how Michael accepted the Lord during the last few hours or days of his life, but the truth remains between him and the Lord. And we will soon find out whether he did indeed say and agreed to the sinner's prayer.

2. Teoh Beng Hock was murdered [1979 - 2009] - the story that shook the Malaysian Politcal Scene. I personally deemed it as a murder case because I cannot find any sense for him to kill himself at the eve of the day that he was supposed to get married (register). As what people are saying - let's just pray that his death will not be in vain and that perhaps this is the true turning point of Malaysian Politics.

3. Yasmin Ahmad passed away [1958 - 2009] - I recently blogged about her latest product for the Singapore Family Campaign - Beautiful Imperfections. What an irony - the story was about the husband "departing" earlier than his partner. This story really shook the local media world and those fans of Yasmin. Malaysian festivities will never be the same again without those Petronas Ads that we so look forward to. We will miss her greatly.

4. Walter Cronkite passed away [1916 - 2009] - there are only 2 instances that I remember him by - one from Jim Carrey's Bruce Almighty when he tried to immitate Walter with the hair brush; the other when I was watching Apollo13 where they showed Walter reporting about the Apollo13 mission failure (to land on the moon).

my deepest deepest condolence to the families and close friends...

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It was also a season for repair works... As in Ecclesiastes 3:1, the bible says, "There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven."

And so it is.

These past few weeks - it's truly been a season of Repairs...

First was our wash area piping system - our neighbor below us has been complaining about leaking that may be related to our piping that was not properly waterproof'd. And so it was. We were pretty disappointed with that piece of news since it was out Church friend / contractor who did the renovation for us. And it seems like he may not have done a thorough enough job in making sure that everything was in order. Anyways, we had to fork out another few hundred bucks to hack/wateproof/seal/re-tile that part of the wash area... messy. As with all Malaysian (cheap) tiles, it is almost impossible to locate the same design tiles after >5 years. So we had to settle with something very similar to the original. Sigh.

Second repair has to do with my 10 year old Nissan. Yup, the good old car is turning 10 years this coming August 31st. To date, I think we've dumped close to 3k ringgits into reparing and overhauling the car. She is at her final leg of repair and should be done tomorrow (finally!). EY was suggesting that sell her away since it is costing so much to get it reparied and in good working condition. Well, I think I'd rather spend the additional 3k+ repairing it than to trade it in for another car. Since it is not really in THAT bad shape, we thought we'll keep the car for a couple or more years before we write it off. I've already been approached by a couple of my friends and strangers on whether I want to sell the car - one was at a petrol station at Juru - interesting.

Third was my company notebook - it needed to be rebuilt - died on me 3 weeks ago and I had to had the IT guys replace the hard drive and rebuild the whole system. Now, it's been given a new lease of life. Feels so much better working with it now.

Fourth - a close relative was also given a new lease of life when a cancerous kidney was removed from his body with no signs of spreading. The operation was successful and he is now resting back at home. His comments, "Old engine is like that - needs repair here and there." He's also been through a bypass a few years ago... May God continue to keep him safe and healthy.


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Apart from all that work has been rather crazy these few weeks and the latest issue we're facing is still in the dark - with no signs of the light at the end of this tunnel... Man, I really hope we'll see it soon. Else, we'll just be aiming and shooting in the dark.

Well, okay... this entry was actually a combination of a few posts that I combined into one did not manage to publish the last few ones, so i've decided to combine them all into one.

No new pictures so far (I think). Let me dig, there may be something to share...

Will be heading down to Kay El this weekend - bring the ladies down for the Superband Concert at the Bukit Jalil Indoor Stadium.

Till later, back to work...

boon out...