Google <3 Islam?

Try using Google for a day and it should not take you long to realize that the autocomplete feature can sometimes come up with eyebrow-raising results that make you go WTF?! In case you have never heard of it before, it is basically a mechanism that suggests or predicts what are the words or phrases that you are going to type without the need to complete the whole line.

However, recently there has been a big hoo-ha when it was discovered that Google's autocomplete feature somehow favours a certain religion as displayed below. Note that I only tested six religions with the most number of followers.


Christianity is bullshit.


Hinduism is monotheistic.


Buddhism is not a religion.


Sikhism is false.


Judaism is false.


Islam is ?

Go on, give it a try if you are sceptical about these screenshots. Few websites claimed that Google has acknowledged this as a bug but hey, the earliest website that I found to report this issue was written on 17 December 2009; this must be one die hard bug!

-sigh-

Goodbye Mr. Ng Teck Meng

Today marks the last day of this special colleague of mine in Dell. Of all the types of people I have worked with in the span of 3 years, I have only met his twice - the first was Lee Hin.

Magnificent? Outstanding? Impressive?

Ptui! These flowery words clearly do not do them any justice. Worse still, it would be such an understatement to describe them so.


Teck Meng and his Japanese girl in Malacca. Do let me know if you happen to know her.

His departure really got me to reconsider my decision of staying put in Penang, or at least Dell. Perhaps it is time that I step out from my comfort zone and venture southwards to Cyberjaya? This might sound arrogant but I have literally reached the very last stage - or the most advanced position - a Technical Support Specialist can be. It is a dead-end with nothing new to learn. I have to either change my role, move out or join the queue in waiting for someone from the higher echelon to resign. But why wait when Cyberjaya pays so much? 200% is no small amount and let us be frank, what are the chances that I land myself a position high enough to offer that much in Dell?

-sigh-

Looking back, I find it hard to believe that I first got acquainted with both of them as a Phone Buddy and finally parted with Shell as their next destination. What a coincidence!

In case you are reading, I shall hold back my manly tears and bid you farewell, albeit with a heavy heart. The team will definitely never be the same without your presence here.

I better stop here as I am already running late to your farewell party. In parting, allow me to dedicate you this song to cherish these past few years' worth of companionship we have shared:



Gosh, this entry is full of gayness.

Happy New Year 2010

Looking at the number of entries I posted up for year 2009, I guess I have to admit that I am pretty much lazier compared to the years before. Hrm... instead of lazier, I believe the right term should be demotivated. Work has been killing my mood off rather efficiently these few months to the extent that if I were a girl, people would have thought that I have been suffering from menstrual pain almost daily for the past months. :D

Most of my friends who took up blogging have been hibernating for some time too. Take a look at the list of links at the right section of my blog interface and tell me, how many of them are still actively writing? Why the lack of update I wonder? Being the only one with new entries is no fun. It is akin to being the only guy talking in a support group while the rest of your peers are dozing off or minding their own businesses. Is writing blog a hobby that requires commitment, which I am sure everyone is short of since the day we elevated our status into the working society? It seemed so to me, hence the inability of me to keep churning out entries after entries as frequent as I hoped to. Of course, that is not the only reason I am such an inconsistent blogger. I have always tried to avoid writing in a casual manner, leaning more towards professionalism with the aim of improving my English vocabulary with each entry. These, coupled with the nature of being a perfectionist usually leads me to a wall of writer's block whenever I failed to coin a suitable term to describe something I had in mind.

So, it is now year 2010 and to be frank, I am not the type to come out with a list of resolutions each time January comes into view. Are you one to do so? Nevertheless, with such a crazy 2009 I had, perhaps it will be of no harm in trying to pen down a few sketchy 2010 resolutions.

While 2008 was a year full of health problems, 2009 did not begin any better. In fact, it was such an emotional turmoil that I would volunteer to go under the knife three more times rather than experiencing the same April again. However, if I were to look at things from an optimist's perspective, this unfortunate event would later on became a catalyst to the birth of ABCDE and subsequently, landed me a fiancée after 101 months of courting.

The second half of year 2009 was much more stable, though still inundated with all sorts of good and bad news. Weekends were the only days where 24 hours are never enough for me. If there was such a thing as a see-saw with 3 ends, then it would be the best representation of a triangle conflict I had been plagued with all year long - 靖璇, weekend overtime and basketball.

-sigh-

Sunday was the only day I get to do sports, particularly basketball but there were times when my basketball buddies suddenly dwindled due to some new activities they were interested in. However, going to basketball means forgoing Sunday overtime and this did not go very well with boss. In fact, he has been using it as an excuse to mentally deduct a few points off my performance review even though I had contributed various accomplishments towards the team. The fact that 靖璇 is working far away from home did not help at all since she would only be available during the weekends as well. As much as I wished to abandon the weekend overtime due to the overwhelming stress, I do realize that it would provide me with much more financial flexibility at the cost of 靖璇 and me gaining a few extra slabs of abdominal fat. :P

Hence, 2009 saw me trying to make a few amendments to balance out these triple commitments. I have given up DotA to spare myself some quality time for evening tele-conversation with 靖璇. Moreover, realizing that there were way too many things that I was trying to be good at, I have trimmed my interests down to a probationary series of three - basketball, go and StarCraft. With the success of my maiden attempt at half-marathon across the Penang Bridge, I might turn to running to compensate for the lack of basketball which will definitely give me much more space to breath during weekends... if only I can get myself to sleep and wake up early to run. :P

For the final two months of 2009, I was swarmed with more than 5 wedding dinners and these would have definitely made a good curtain call if not for the few close friends of mine who ended their long-running relationships.

I have also started looking for a house to call my own. The price of properties on the island have been ballooning and sooner or later, it will be inevitable for me to move across to the mainland for a home that better suits my current salary. I did locate a condominium project that I was interested in but alas, it only proved to be a bitter pill to swallow that no matter how much overtime I made, my monthly income is evidently insufficient to even secure me a house loan of approximately RM250,000.

Bad news aside, I finally had a passport with my name on it. Just like a credit card, I have to keep reminding myself to be prudent with it. Overall, I have only travelled to three locations for year 2009 - Thailand, Kuala Lumpur and Langkawi. Was that considered as too many trips in the span of a year?

Someone once told me that bank passbook is one of the many items you can use to evaluate the way you lived your previous year. I have always brushed it off as a tad too materialistic method but if it was true, then 2009 must have been a massive failure since I almost emptied my savings. Three rings, a personal computer, a secret project - plus one or two more major spending that escaped my mind at the moment - and BAM, almost 90% of my savings were gone!

Since I had a lot of three's mentioned above - knives, hobbies, vacations and rings - I shall make the list of resolutions for year 2010 short, with another set of three's:

• registration of marriage
• vacation in Singapore
• accumulate and maintain a minimum amount of RM10,000 in savings

So what about you? How do you cap off your 2009 and what do you look forward to in 2010?