My cool ride

Here's my spiffy blue beemer!! Love the ride man!

Look at the reflection on the bonnet. I stayed there for a while, Wan's sister's place. Nice huh?

TWL Scrabble, why oh why??

Played in my 3rd tournament in USA. Not faring too well. Won 2, loss 4 today. I'd say I can do better than that, and that's not just coz I am big-headed. The rules here are different, and different enough that I am playing at probably 60% capability.

One thing is the TWL dictionary. It is so typically American that they don't accept OSW, where English actually originated from, the UK. As per a seasoned veteran, it is not likely to change anytime, when most Americans don't even have a passport, and could care less about the world at large. I played UEY# today, and of course, got it challenged off. (# - OSW only words, not acceptable in TWL). I almost played KAGO# too, but of course, was not sure, and played a safer INKER somewhere else.

Second difference is the double challenge rule, where you lose a turn if a challenge a good word. This makes people really think about challenging, which is good in some case, I suppose. But 5-point challenge rule is definitely more forgiving. Sometimes, the 5-points loses you the game. But in double challenge, you give the opponent 2 turns in a row! I think you will probably lose about 20-points on average because of that. Of course, if your word power is good, that is to your advantage. For newbies (and not so newbie like me, a SOWPODS player), that is tough. But you can also fake it a bit more, if you establish yourself as a word power player.

Well, I got my first rating at 922 in October 2005. So, having on 2-4 in Hayward 2 weeks ago, and 2-4 today, I'd probably drop down to sub-900, I think. Sigh.... hope I can break the 1,000 rating point soon.

Looking forward to 2006!! The new word list will come into play, and with it QI#. And a lot more 2-letter and 3-letter words will come in play, words that I already know. And a new word too, ZA (short for pizza). Yes, the Americans think some words in UK English is not good, and they add ZA!!

Goyang Kaki

It is interesting to note how drugs fill the TV ads in USA. And not the narcotic types, but drugs for illnesses.They advertise for every type of illnesses: eg. diebetes, heart disease, mental illness. No V*iagra or C*ialis though. After all, it is family TV. I only get those in my email spams.

But I saw one tonight that takes the cake!! Imagine..... there is a drug for..... ***drum roll*** the "Restless Leg Syndrome"!!!! No kidding.... saw it live on TV is my own 2 eyes! It is defined as, if you sit down and yet your legs feel like moving... what has the world come to! For us back home, it is simply 'shake leg', or 'goyang kaki' or whatever lah! If only I get to do that every day.... sigh...

Morning person? Oh please....

Guess what? I have been waking up at 6.30am every morning for the past 3 weeks!! Not by choice, really. Staying in San Jose, and getting assigned to a client in San Francisco, about 55 miles away (that's about 80km). Dragging myself from bed every morning is not fun... those who know me well enough knows that I am a late, late, late person.... (I can sleep at about 2-3am, and wake up at 3pm....built into my body system since uni days...)

Been driving up daily, which is a 1-hour drive up, and then an hour back home in the evening. It can be a pretty nice drive in the morning, going past lakes and hills beside Highway 280, but very dark at night. Oh, it is getting dark by 5pm now, being autumn now. And we are on daylight savings time now.

So, I was thinking, maybe public transport is the way to go. At least I get to sleep on the train, right? And save some miles on my spiffy Beemer. So, I braced myself last night to take the Caltrain, which leaves the nearest station to my home at 7.13am! So, I wake up earlier than usual, left my apartment earlier than usual, and guess what?!? Missed the darn train by 3 mins. And the next one arrives an hour later!! Darn, wake up earlier, and yet still have to drive up to SF... not a good start to my day.... *Sigh* will try again tomorrow, and wake up even earlier....

How to start?

Hmm, how do i start this blog.... wondering for a while for something smart to say..... and finding out i had none, haha!

So, went clicking on to random blogs (you know, the little button at the top right corner?). I was surprised to see quite a number of Malay-language blogs.... learn something new everyday.

Anyway, it was a beautiful day in San Francisco today, as I see it from the 29th floor of my client's place. Nice view of the city and the bay. But gonna rain soon, so gotta run... end of the day, and a looooong commute home....

Have to find something to write about... darn, I am so boring...