I am Danny Foo

Birthday present to myself

Another year, another number about to be changed in my age. Unlike Benjamin Button, my number doesn’t decrease though come to think of it I’ve never thought if I’d want to age younger than older. Hmm… *spacing out*

Anyway, so I bought a deck of playing cards. I question my decision whether I bought it out of social influence or I really wanted it. But I guess no point pondering over what’s been done. So, here’s the RM36 (it was 20% off) spent on my 1st deck of Bicycle playing cards.

bicycle-playing-cards-karnival-renegades-box — Ze box

From what I’ve read, this brand of playing cards are normally used in poker games or by magicians. Obviously the ones used in the world poker series doesn’t look so fierce and loud. 😛

bicycle-playing-cards-karnival-renegaes-bottom — Designerfied

The Bicycle playing card company produces a large variation of playing cards alone. If you look in their official online store, you’ll find designs inspired by Steampunk and others. The company also has projects where some purchased decks are part of a social responsibility project. I was tempted to get the Eco deck but it wasn’t practical because the diamonds and hearts were green. *slaps forehead*

One of the other reasons people purchase Bicycle playing cards is because of their design. So far in most of the decks by Bicycle I’ve seen around, designs are normally kept to the Jokers and Aces. In my deck, uniquely designed cards were the Ace of Spades, 2 Jokers and 2 extra cards.

bicycle-playing-cards-karnival-renegades-faces — Not your too ordinary playing cards

The feel of the cards is smooth and canvas-like. It’s kind of like plastic cards but not as slippery as the RM5 ones I purchased once. Overall, they make for nice displays while using them.

The other deck of cards I aim to purchase are the Bee playing cards.

They look like your standard cards found in casinos. So I’ll pull out these cards for use when there’s some big moolah to be exchanged on the table. LOL! 🙂

P.S.: My birthday is tomorrow. Happy birthday to me!

What I really do

In case you didn’t get the part about what my clients think I do. The pictures are:

Programming
Photography
Design
Copywriting
Computer repairs

I’ll admit that photography is my hobby and I did write a story about vampires when I was 12 (and sold it for RM0.50 LOL!), but please take note it’s not my profession. And I’m not a computer technician. As much as I like computers, I may know how to assemble a computer, I’ve no professional training in solving computer problems.

My Valentines Days

Me and a friend were discussing how commercialized Valentines Day had become. Flowers; specifically roses, had become overly priced on such a date and you’d expect to pay double or triple the cost if you ordered even 1 week before. *phew*

Retracing back my Valentines Days

Thinking back when I first started celebrating Valentines Day, it’s really a kids event to me now. For the adult, probably an excuse to be romantic with your other half.

barney-stinson-thumbs-up — Some even say you'll get lucky

I don’t recall my first Valentines but here’s some of the stuff I’ve done for Valentines Day before.

Bought 1 rose for a girl in primary school.
Made a Valentines Day card.
Wrote a sappy love letter back in primary school.
Gave a set of silver earrings and necklace to a friend.
Got an overly priced box and filled it with Hershey’s Kisses to be given to another friend.
Had dinner and watched a midnight movie.
Bought a bouquet of roses for my now fiance and got it delivered to her in college.
Lastly, bought my fiance one of her favourite drinks. Story follows.

This year’s Valentines Day, I wanted to surprise Ariel by meeting up with her for dinner before her Japanese class because I normally wouldn’t. So once I was parked nearby her language centre, I messaged her casually asking if she had left work yet – she didn’t suspect a thing. Win!

Unfortunately, traffic was horrendous making her unable to attend class so she called to tell me she’s headed home.

Instead of just leaving right away, I changed the surprise. I told her that I’ll see her at home, as I was getting her a cup of bubble tea – still without her suspecting. When I saw her at home, I gave her the bubble tea and just wished her happy valentines day. She was happy enough to put on her smile for me. 🙂

Though every girl may expect a gift. It doesn’t have to be judged by its price tag. Being with them is more important.

By the way, that friend of mine who I was talking about the roses said in Cameron, cost of a rose is around only RM1.50. So, how much did you spend on roses this year?

Da Vinci Machines

The last time the Da Vinci machines exhibition was in town was around 2 years back, said the counter person at the Mines International Exhibition & Convention Centre. It was previously hosted in the national science centre located in Bukit Kiara. Me and Ariel were thinking of going but our funds were overly tight at the time.

So we made it a point this time to pay it a visit. In addition, it was kind of our pre-Valentines date since the actual day falls on a weekday. 😛

Now, photography and video recording was apparently not allowed in the exhibit. Though I witnessed some other lady happily recording the whole place with her iPad2 as we exited the exhibition. Thus, as a disclaimer, let me say that my photos here are primarily to help promote the exhibition and isn’t used for personal gain.

da vinci exhibition — About the Da Vinci Machines exhibit

Although the exhibit space wasn’t huge, there were quite a number of machines, some paintings and even manuscripts to read. Note though Leonardo Da Vinci wrote backwards.

The Da Vinci machines were downsized replicas of what the man envisioned in his drawings. Some replicas were so cool that it allowed you to interact with the machines itself. Look out for the ones which says, please handle with care.

The coolest machine me and Ariel liked was the Archimedes machine. It was a machine which drew water using a pipe wrapped around a cylindrical object. By turning in accordance of the pipe, it pushed water from a lower portion to the container above. Cool!

In the TV series Doing Da Vinci which was on Discovery channel, they recreated a life-size replica of what was known as the armored tank.

The exhibit had a few sections starting from war machines to flying machines and other machines used by Da Vinci to create new inventions by experimentation.

Unlike a changing room, explanation written for this exhibit was to observe the person in it – beats me, what what Da Vinci was observing. 😛

Some of the famous paintings you’ll see at the exhibit are the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper. But they’re more like printouts than fake paintings. Nonetheless, I now know few other paintings which he did and what’s the story behind them.

Overall, it was an alright exhibition. Inspiring to see how one man, inventor and artist, actually visualized machines and ideas which gave birth to some of the things we use today.

The exhibition is on the Ground floor at the Mines International Exhibition and Convention Centre (MIECC). The entrance fee is RM28 for adults and RM18 for students. I personally recommend arts people, engineering backgrounds or people who appreciate Da Vinci to pay the exhibit a visit.

It just might be the spark you need to solve a problem. 🙂

Andale, andale! Arriba, arriba!

Yeehaw! Well, I suppose there’s some truth to that now that I’m on 10mbps…bitches! *throw retarded gang sign with fingers all twisted up that it hurts* 😛

Streamyx did not serve me excellence but it did serve me well. That’s after I got a really nice technician come over and help me bump up the line. So thank God for him and may he and his family be blessed. Lol.

You-ini-fai

In the end, me and my sister-in-law decided it was probably strategic to upgrade the Internet line. Counting more than 10 devices connected to the Internet with more than 4 always connected and at least 2 downloading heavily, I only hit a wall deciding whether 5mbps was enough. So, I thought 10mbps made most sense..

Anyway, enough jibber-jabber. Let me show you how’s the performance based on the time and server locations.

During this hour in the morning, I’m assuming the speeds may have been inaccurate because some people at home may have been downloading. But I’m not surprised with the international connection performance. To say the least, it’s better than using my so-called 1mbps connection.

This speed test was done while no one was using the connection and I believe it’s more efficient since most people around my area would be at their workplace than home.

Other known factors which affect the Unifi performance, similar to Streamyx, is the number of users in your area or how much bandwidth is being taken up.

The verdict

Is Unifi good? It’s alright.

So why upgrade? Because it’s just faster.

Is it noticeable? Kind of.

Then why not get the 20mbps? No budget.

So…can I leech your connection? Let me ask my imaginary friend first.

P.S.: LowYat forumer was helpful enough to get me signed up and he delivered his promise; installation within 7 days. Plus, installation team (2 young dudes) came on a public holiday and arrived 30 minutes earlier than the appointed time. Lovely.