Fat Cat Lim

axiszer0 @ 6:43pm: Life
Colour starts to drain from your life.

Everything becomes dull, grey and lifeless.

You lose your sense of taste. You lose your own desires.
You can't really pull yourself out of sleep; you painfully force yourself out of it.

In real life, you put on a smile, at work or when you meet a neighbour.
But your heart tells you:
It doesn't want to beat anymore.

This is the meaning of dying without death.
Soon, death is the only comfort left.

axiszer0 @ 5:58pm: Silent Night
Nothing much has changed since the day I started severing ties on LJ, at least with regards to LJ. The only difference now is I no longer have hope that someone might actually commune with me.

Absence makes the heart grow fonder, but ostracizing makes the heart colder. No matter what was said and done, fact remains fact, the very nature is cause and effect unto itself.

Its not about the "no one understands me" issue, at least not anymore. Its more of, I don't want to simply or translate my own words for others anymore. Heck, I even checked my previous posts for spelling mistakes.

---

I attended the company dinner & dance last saturday. Won 2 treasure hunt gifts (gave one away to someone that didn't win), a lucky draw prize, and oddly, a dancing prize.

Treasure hunt = snow globes.
Dancing prize = $5 cake voucher
Lucky prize = dining for 2 at Meridian Mandarin, wherever that is.
The lucky prize ranked 14th, and is supposed to be some classy, elegant place to dine at.

They were of no use to me, so I gave them all away.

There really is nothing left.

Hmm.. oh well. Life never said it was fair.

sycia @ 4:25pm: Downtown.

illusorynirvana, posting in malaysians @ 7:14pm: Lost License! Help?
Hi people..I have a question. If we lose the 2nd half of our driving license, you know the updated piece with the expiry date without out photo, can we get it replaced by getting another one printed at the postoffice, as you would normally do when you renew it at the postoffice?

As opposed to going to JPJ if you had lose your actual license with the photo ID?

I'm not in Malaysia at this point and wont be back for a year and was hoping one of my family members could do it for me. Any ideas?

karcy @ 10:31am: Shocked.
Brittany Murphy is dead.

sycia @ 10:11pm: This is cake.

It is not a lie; neither was it delicious.

endsindillusion, posting in english_majors @ 10:48pm: paper lateness stupid final grade question(s)
I turned in the final paper for my class at 8 pm and the professor said he would be picking up the papers at 5 pm. He said he was lowering papers a grade letter each day they were late.. When I dropped off my paper he had clearly already picked up the papers...

Do you think he ACTUALLY MEANT he would drop the paper a grade letter for each day it was late? Or is this a hollow threat?

If I get a B on that paper it will seriously F up my getting an A in his course... anyone have experiences with this kind of thing?

I didn't e-mail him because I don't want to draw attention to the fact the paper was late ...

sycia @ 6:33pm: Somewhat hard to find here.

Ikura don! :D~

sycia @ 7:23pm: A little sour.

More little sweet treats.

funkyturtle, posting in english_majors @ 3:51pm: Giving papers at conferences...
Has anyone on here ever given a paper at a conference?  How does that work, exactly?  I've been "strongly advised" to participate in a conference being put on by my school.  I've never been to a conference and have no idea how to present a paper at one.  Is it just standing up and talking about something?  What if you don't know that much?  Do you just go "Um... this is what I do know, which is probably more than what everyone else here knows, but really isn't much at all... and here are some resources I found"?  Is there a "giving papers at conferences for dummies" guide out there?  Is there a list of things not to do?  Any resources or advice or... anything... would be wonderful.

karcy @ 9:38pm: The outlook of real estate in the country
Via The Malaysian Insider:

House prices up 20% in 2010?

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 17 — House hunters will likely face higher prices next year as pent up demand and gains from the stock market boost the property sector.

Houses on the secondary market could also be hit by an additional five per cent increase in prices as owners looking to sell try to cover the real property gains tax (RPGT) which comes into effect in January.

According to the Real Estate and Housing Developer’s Association (Rehda), slightly over half the respondents in a survey of its members expect property prices to increase up to 20 per cent over the next six months.

About 30 per cent of the respondents expect prices to remain stable, while less than five per cent expect prices to decrease.

The stock market has made substantial gains this year and investors who benefitted will likely be looking to put their money in property.

“Six to nine months after the stock market increases, it goes into brick and mortar,” said Rehda deputy president Datuk Michael Yam at a briefing today on the property outlook for next year.

On the positive side, interest rates remain low and banks continue to be flush with extra funds, therefore making the arrangement of home financing easier.

Yam, however, stressed that there was still a relatively low barrier to home ownership in Malaysia and ticked off a list of factors in the homebuyer’s favour, including interest rates as low as BLR (base lending rate) minus 2.3 per cent; margins of financing up to 100 per cent; zero lock in period; stamp duty exemptions; and repayment periods extended to thirty years or up to the age of 75.

“Even I can qualify for a (30 year) loan now,” he quipped.

According to Rehda officials at the press conference, the average value of homes transacted in 2009 is estimated to be between RM200,000 and RM250,000 when excluding low cost homes, and about RM168,000 when taking into account low cost houses.

Fresh graduates, however, could face difficulty buying properties in the city where prices are much higher.

Yam said that there were no official figures available for the average price of link homes in the Klang Valley but said that there were terrace houses in some suburbs available for about RM400,000, as compared with RM200,000 in smaller towns and cities like Kluang and Kuantan.

“Graduates may have a problem without help from their parents,” he said.

“They earn maybe RM3,000 to RM4,000 a month, which means they can borrow only RM150,000 to RM200,000. It is not possible to buy a terrace house [with that level of income] but maybe an apartment.”

He added that developers might have to consider building smaller units for the fresh graduate market segment, in the region of 600 sq ft apartments that sell for RM300 per sq ft.

A long term boom is also expected for the housing industry that could put upward pressure on prices as Yam said that slightly over half of the population is below 24 years of age and would later enter the homebuyers market.

“These people will be pushing to enter the property market,” said Yam.

Housing prices in some parts of the world such as China, Singapore, Hong Kong and Australia have risen dramatically over the two years, prompting a public outcry.

Prices of private homes in Singapore reportedly rose by 16 per cent in the third quarter and there are concerns of a speculative asset bubble building in Hong Kong.

According to Ratings Agency Malaysia economist Kristina Fong, asset bubbles were not evident in Malaysia and an over-supply of units on the Malaysian property market is likely to cap price escalation.

I'm slightly worried -- the information offered in this article is far from accurate, which makes me wonder how accurate data collected by government or government-related agencies are concerning our economy.

The first thing that threw me off was the number given for the average salary of a graduate. Unless this person is calculating people who end up working as consultants for Khazanah and get paid in USD, there is no way the average fresh grad is earning RM 3000 to RM 4000 every month. Even if you calculate a fairly stable increase of income in the next few years, most graduates would just only reach the RM 3000 mark after several years of working.

Although the average value of homes is between RM 200,000 to RM 250,000, this is far from the prices of average homes in middle to upper-middle income locations in the Klang Valley. There are no good houses that can be acquired at this price, unless you count very distant development areas along the city outskirts. The average price for a fairly decent home, actually, is RM 250,000 to RM 300,000 -- even if you buy straight from the developer. So this number probably includes the vast number of lower middle income flats and apartments -- which can easily offer up to several hundred to a thousand units for every housing estate that can offer twenty -- or homes outside of the Klang Valley, where, unless you count cities like Penang and the Johor areas which are close to Singapore, don't really have a very robust real estate outlook.

Should I purchase a home quickly, even if it may not be perfect, or should I just hang around with my current apartment and pay the rent every month?

sycia @ 7:42pm: Something off.

Yoinked this from a colleague... What can I say? It's unique.

phantasmm, posting in english_majors @ 7:05pm: thesis about Herrick's poem The Vine
Hi, I'm trying to write a paper about Herrick's erotic poem, The Vine. I just have the hardest time thinking of Thesis statements. Can someone be willing to help me out?

Please and Thank You!

dietyoffreetime @ 6:04pm: better hurry and max my S.Links
The decade closes in to the very end, with two weeks remaining.

I'm beginning to wonder if I even really enjoy much of the stuff I do any more. I just seem to drift further and further away from a lot of things.

sycia @ 7:28pm: Something I miss.

A typical dinner whipped up by Mom.

karcy @ 4:41pm: People who look at rocks, rock.
Slow loading time aside, the Minerals and Geoscience Department is probably the best (Malaysian) government-run website I've seen. "Ask a Geologist!" is so cute -- though I have no idea how prompt responses will be.

devilishkurumi, posting in english_majors @ 2:23pm: MLA format for Epigraph?
Hello, everyone! I actually found this community when I googled the exact thing that's in my subject line. My senior thesis is coming along pretty well, considering I only have a few more days to finish it, but one thing has been eluding me: how do I format an epigraph in MLA style?

Currently, I have it indented on both the left and right margins, alignment: justified, with the quote in quotation marks and the source (Author, Book Name) in a line beneath it. I've looked everywhere, but as I don't have an MLA handbook on hand, I can't find out if I've done it right or not.


My thesis is on PostSecret, by the by, with an emphasis on Foucault. I was going to include Lacan and Derrida into my reading, but Lacan didn't pan out and Derrida... well, I love the man dearly, but when you're trying to finish three papers and study for two finals, it's a little hard to sit down and analyze him!

sycia @ 11:02pm: Say hello

To ecstasy!

karcy @ 8:13pm: "We're too busy saving our millions -- but we still have billions"
Fantastic. I have to look up information on AIG's corporate citizenship / community service. I don't mind the task, but navigating around the different incarnations and changes ever since the restructuring process took place is sure fun. Did you know that AIG Malaysia changed its name to Chartis Insurance?

I don't blame them. Several months ago I received a phone call from a cold-calling insurance agent. "Do you have an insurance policy?" -- "I'm interested in buying one, which company are you?" (this is me replying, by the way) -- "AIG". Immediately after that, I make a quick apology and cut the conversation.

Looking at the AIG board of governors is like looking at the MIC website after the March 2008 elections. All the nice little 'former' titles slapped there. It's like a hit list.

sycia @ 5:12pm: Roughly what most malls here look like.

Random car sale.

axiszer0 @ 12:52am: Flowers of farewell
Dear S and K,
I've removed you along with C and G if you noticed.

Its not intentional, not in the sense that I was offended in anyway by any of you.
Its just that, I don't think I was ever a friend to all of you people.

At least, for the time that we met, I was happy and honoured to be in your graces.

But right now, the things going on me are really rotten, and..
I'm weak.

My brain isn't functioning well right now, but it did tell me: I'm not so well off, nor qualified.
I wish to go find my own sense of self, to go hibernate, leave the known world as we know it.

And so I leave this message to you two.
Sorry, and thank you.

sycia @ 11:28am: Choc

Chocolate fudge cake. Oddly enough I find it hard to appreciate cake... Pie works a little better.

sycia @ 7:09pm: If they bothered to care.

I imagine that if cats were to be diplomats or something, they'd look like this at rallies.

karcy @ 12:04pm: =/
I watched The Princess and the Frog yesterday. The movie was perfect, but after some afterthought, I realized that it was only perfect because it was playing by the right notes. That's fine enough; I'm not the movie's target audience, after all.

At least this time, we have a prince that's interesting as a character.

-
It recently occurred to me that more women have been subject to domestic violence than I had expected, which makes me wonder if I should include trigger warnings concerning my re-tweets from The Pixel Project or referencing the website. Trigger warnings protect survivors; but it also deters those from reading information. Admittedly, we don't seek to look at unpleasant information, even if we have to confront it.

edgey_berzerker @ 8:22pm: Yaaaay!
After coming home from my long walk home, I learned that the bus drivers came up with a tentative deal. I'm... I'm so happy ;___;

I also learned that the 8-12 hours sitting out in the freezing cold for Dir en grey really made me used to the cold. I'm not even shivering since I got home from my hour and a half walk. Bully for me!

I've been watching Persona ~Trinity Soul~ and I have to say I'm really loving this series. (and yes... it takes place 10 years after Persona 3 video game) It's nice to have a new anime series again after so long. I haven't had one since Death Note.

I've started playing BlazBlue online and I finally found my character. I'm one of those Noel Vermillion players. Hoo ha!

Speaking of anime and video games, I need to get inspired. I'm thinking about going to Anime North this year. Something to do and frankly I think it would be fun. Also it would be nice to utilize my Canon Rebel for something other then my cats. XD

Anyways that's all I have to say. Quick update.