My tech stuff

Depressing stuff aside, I just felt like writing a post detailing all the tech stuff that I've amassed. I have a philosophy when it comes to my tech stuff, so everything I buy is well-justified, both cost wise and practicality wise. I guess I'll try to sort it via reverse chronological order of purchase.

1. SanDisk Extreme 64GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive [link] - arguably the best USB flash drive (thumbdrive, pendrive, whatever you call it) money can buy. I wanted one because my mom recently got a new TV, upgrading from the previous SD TV to a HD TV that goes up to 1080p. Of course, the output is only as good as the input, so my movie files have to be large enough to display all the details it was meant to display, and that means files upwards of 20GB. While a cheap, basic USB 2.0 flash drive transfers at 2-3MB/s, this beast goes up to 60-70MB/s on my laptop. I'm not sure what it's potential is, but that's good enough for me. UserBenchmark rates it as one of the top USB flash drives too. I believe it retails at RM255 [Harvey Norman], but it's only $32 on Amazon.com. In the end, I got mine for RM150 from Lazada, but it took 2 weeks to arrive (28 days earlier than estimate, though).
2. Samsung SL-M2020 Laser Printer [link] - cheapest laser printer money can buy? I think so. At RM150 (inclusive of delivery) with the use of vouchers I had [Lazada], I was incredibly happy with my purchase. I needed a printer for infrequent use, and inkjets have never failed to increase my blood pressure in the past. Also, inkjet cartridges are known to dry up from infrequent use, and I believe toners of laser printers do not. I was deciding between this and another low-end mono laser printer, the Brother HL-1110, but ultimately went for the Samsung one as the Brother model only had 1MB memory, whereas the Samsung one had 8MB. Furthermore, I believe the Samsung one retailed for a higher price, so it seemed like a good deal to me. At this price range, I expected very slow printing and a lot of noise, but I guess I've been using inkjets for way too long. For the first time in my life, a printer that didn't get on my nerves. What a time to be alive! There's also a SL-M2020W version with wireless capabilities but I didn't really need that.
3. Logitech M280 Wireless Mouse [link] - I'm not sure why it took me so long to actually get myself a wireless mouse. I guess I thought it wasn't necessary. Now that I've switched over, I don't think I'll go back. It retails for RM76 (I've seen some shops price it above RM80), got mine for RM56 inclusive of delivery, so many great deals to be found online! I found it significantly better than the more basic Logitech M185 model in terms of the clickiness and the scrolliness of the wheel (very technical terms, yes). There's also the Logitech M545 but I figured that the additional buttons are really useless to me since my previous corded mouse, the Logitech MX518 had them and was more of a hindrance for me when I accidentally clicked on the other buttons. The Logitech Marathon M705 was really appealing to me but that model can only be imported, I believe.
4. Xiaomi Mi Band [link] - It retails for RM69 but I managed to snag one for RM35, so I decided to just get one to play with. Least justified purchase, I guess. It's a very basic fitness band, but the built quality is great. All it does is track your steps and your sleeping patterns, which you can then set alarms and it will vibrate within half an hour of the time you've set whenever you're in "light sleep". I've ran a bit with it, not sure exactly how accurate it is since I don't have any other fitness bands to compare it with, but I guess it's really nifty for something that cheap. The alarm function could potentially be very useful, but I haven't had the opportunity to use it that much.
5. D-Link Wireless N300 Range Extender DAP-1320 [link] - The Wi-Fi coverage in my room is quite weak, so I was determined to find a solution for it. My laptop works fine, but watching YouTube videos on my iPad was a pain. Some say that range extenders such as these are pretty useless but it worked perfectly well for me. The key is to put it where there's still some signal, not where the signal is already out of reach. I was choosing between this and the TP-LINK N300 Wi-Fi Range Extender, but ultimately chose the former mainly due to PCMag's reviews (D-Link vs TP-Link). Got mine for RM65. Also, I've done some speed tests and results vary from device to device, but all in all I would say that it's an improvement and not much is sacrificed.
6. PlayStation Vita 2000 [link] - This retails for about RM840, can be found on Amazon.co.uk as of writing this at £150 (and above!!). Probably the best deal I found; I got myself one at about £90, brand new with some bundle that came with an 8GB memory card. Long story short, it was a tax refund gift to myself. I wasn't comparing this to other handhelds because all I really wanted to do was to play Final Fantasy X on it. It's kinda sad how Sony has pretty much given up on it, but having spent more than 200 hours on it I have no regrets. The PSP was a much successful handheld in comparison.
7. RHA MA750 in-ear headphones [link] - I can't comment on the sound quality of it as I'm no where near qualified to do that, but I guess the general consensus was that it wasn't too bad, and I found some Amazon warehouse deal on it for £68 so I decided to just go for it. My old pair of IEMs gave up on my anyway. Sound quality aside, I really like the built quality of it. From the thick cables and the stainless steel construction, it's really as premium in real life as it is in the pictures. Heck, I wouldn't even mind sacrificing a little bit of sound quality for them (as I probably couldn't tell either way).
8. Nokia Lumia 1520 [link] - I wouldn't say I regret buying it, but I definitely wouldn't recommend it to anyone else. It takes a certain kind of person to actually want to give Windows phones a chance, and the majority of people aren't that. I would say the camera's great (though I don't really have other phones to compare it with) and I really like the navigation app (HERE app, but it's available on every other OS now so ...). I'll just wait for it to die on me and switch to another phone. For now, it works fine because I don't use my phone much anyway.
9. NOOK Simple Touch [link] - Discontinued, but I got one for £29, which is extremely cheap for an e-ink reader. I used to read a lot when I travel, so it beats lugging around 3-4 books all the time. It's decent, but in the end I still prefer my physical books.
10. Shure SRH440 headphones [link] - Probably not high on recommended lists, but I remember getting them for RM300, which was cheap. For the most part, they are pretty okay when I need a pair of headphones. Looking out for a pair of open-back headphones ...
11. Lenovo Y510p laptop [link] - I believe it's 3 years old now, and I'm not sure what the lifespan of a laptop is but it's as good as new for now. Decent for gaming, big enough to watch movies on, way more responsive than most other laptops I've used, a great purchase.
12. iPad (3rd generation) [link] - It's holding up surprisingly well for something released 4 years ago. I would say keeping it at iOS 7 (current one would be iOS 9) helped make it still perfectly functional. A little bit heavy, but with no problems at all so I can't justify an upgrade.
13. iPhone 4 [link] - I wonder how many iPhone 4's with functional home and on/off buttons are still out there. If anyone's looking for one for collection purposes and is willing to pay a premium for it, do contact me. It's now the device I use to listen to music while running (which is very infrequent). I believe it's on iOS 6? Well, at least Spotify still works on it.

I think that's pretty much it. It was actually quite fun to write! Time to look out for the next gadget ... 

Much at stake

It's probably the best-case scenario up till now, but I just can't seem to chill. I wish I had more people I could talk to about this. Heck, even my mom couldn't fathom how big of a deal this is, to me at least. 

Here's hoping that the next time I check in, I will have good news to tell.

One step forward, two steps back

Every time I decide upon something, something else would pop up and make me question everything that I've painstakingly convinced myself to believe in.

I really shouldn't waste time torturing myself and just dive headfirst into the unknown, but it's just my nature to do so.

If my uninteresting life were to be written as a fictional novel, the main theme would be "unnecessary internal conflict".

If only I could find a way to cash in on this.

12th of January

My room is suffocating.

For some reason, my room is significantly warmer than anywhere else. Despite the heavy downpour and the open window, the heat just stays there, stagnant.

I don't like it when people say "have a blast" or "have a good one" or even worse, "I'm sure you'll have a good one". What's with this unnecessary pressure to make sure my birthday celebration exceeds some sort of an expectation? Is it wrong to just treat my birthday like any other day, but with a larger number of messages from a bunch of people that I don't talk to often?

I'm grateful to actually have people in my life who actually bother to celebrate my birthday with me, but it's certainly no blast when there's this lingering misery looming over me like a dark cloud.

Anyway, my laser printer arrived today. Having only used bloody inkjets at home, I was pleasantly surprised when the super low-end laser printer slid out a flawless black-and-white document like clockwork.

This all seems pointless, really.

2k16

It's 10 days into the new year and 2 days before my birthday.

I contemplated phrasing "2 days before my birthday" as "2 days before the date I was born" but realised that wouldn't be accurate, because "date" includes the year, which would imply that we've successfully travelled back in time to 1993. I wasn't exactly satisfied with "2 days before the day I was born" because one, it doesn't convey what I'm trying to say without any sort of ambiguity (though really, any reasonable person would understand what I mean but there's always that one very anal pedantic person) and two, I would like to avoid using the same word too close to each other in the same sentence. So I looked up the definition of "birthday" and realised the word "anniversary" was used, which then led me to look up "anniversary". Why would you use the word "anniversary" to explain the word "birthday" to someone who needs the word "birthday" explained to them?

In short, I decided to use "birthday".

Happy new year, and welcome to a peep into the workings of my brain.

I will almost certainly use Google's extremely helpful "define" feature for any posts that I've written. Just one of the many quirks of mine that I desperately cling on to in hopes of being different from other people. Lol jk.

* * *

Still in the process of job hunting, which can get pretty depressing in many ways. I've decided not to dive into that, but let's hope something interesting happens soon. Meanwhile, I shall try to find something to do that would make life slightly less miserable.

"There’s been a Death, in the Opposite House"

There’s been a Death, in the Opposite House,
As lately as Today —
I know it, by the numb look
Such Houses have — alway — 

The Neighbors rustle in and out —
The Doctor — drives away —
A Window opens like a Pod —
Abrupt — mechanically — 

Somebody flings a Mattress out —
The Children hurry by —
They wonder if it died — on that —
I used to — when a Boy — 

The Minister — goes stiffly in —
As if the House were His —
And He owned all the Mourners — now —
And little Boys — besides — 

And then the Milliner — and the Man
Of the Appalling Trade —
To take the measure of the House — 

There’ll be that Dark Parade — 

Of Tassels — and of Coaches — soon —
It’s easy as a Sign —
The Intuition of the News —
In just a Country Town — 

Emily Dickinson 

I'm amused that this poem popped into my head. Never considered myself much of a poems guy, so it came to me as a surprise when this did despite only having once studied it in school many many years ago. I could still remember one of the handful of uninspiring questions that would appear alongside this poem: Who is the man of the appalling trade?

I guess it seems pretty obvious now. I find it weird that they would make us study such a morbid poem at such an age, especially since I believe the majority of students at that age couldn't really comprehend the subtlety of this poem. Then again, probably no poems would be taught if they had that objective in mind.

I guess it wasn't so much the words of the poem that stuck with me, but the tone of it. My eldest uncle was admitted into the hospital today, and the Whatsapp group consisting of his siblings and family periodically notified us of updates. Things were not looking good, and the phrase "there's been in a death in the opposite house" kept circling around in my head.

My dad decided against going to the hospital. There was no need to. He even explained his case, which seemed like he was justifying it to me, or maybe to himself, but it really wasn't necessary. For the past 7 years since my uncle has been in a nursing home due to a stroke, my dad was probably one of the few that visited him on a regular basis. My dad would talk to him, bring him the occasional siew yok or KFC, or even bring him out if my dad was in a good mood. He did all this despite the not being in the best of terms in the past, and you could always tell from the way he retold his stories that he still felt the pain after all these years.

At 9.36pm, my uncle passed away. Earlier tonight, when the updates started coming in, instead of retreating to my room like I usually do, I decided to just sit in the living room with my dad. I felt like I was giving him moral support as every notification could mean the last, although he probably didn't really need it. There's no doubt that my dad feels happy that his eldest brother is finally relieved of his suffering here on Earth, but I cannot imagine what it must be like to have someone that you see at least once a month just ... cease to exist.

Before the last message, he started telling stories of his past once again. He would always say he hates reminiscing about his childhood because he never had a good one, but he would then proceed to contradict himself and repeat the stories of being mistreated by people around him. It probably helps him to be grateful of what he has now.

Rest in peace, uncle. It was nice seeing you three days ago.

Rise and shine

"Is it ... morning yet?"

I thought to myself as I stare through the curtains, trying to figure out whether is that the light from the gentle morning sun or the glow of the urban night that doesn't get as dark as it should. All this is happening while my brain slowly starts to boot up.

I turn to my side and switch on the iPad that has slept beside me for several years like an overly attached dog, realising to my dismay that it was only 7am. That meant that I only slept for a mere 4 hours, when there was really no reason in the world for me to sleep so little. I contemplated checking my fitness tracker for the amount of deep sleep that I've had the last night, but I could already conclude that it was insufficient.

The late night once again reminded me how disappointing last night's visit to the book sale was. For a short time I had this sense of overwhelming hope that I could find the book that I've been wanting to have as there were similar books and a vast selection. But that hope slowly diminished as I circled the place again and again, unconvinced that I could be so unlucky.

Anyway, iPad. Notifications. Email. Seems like it has become a recent morning routine, checking for emails. Ah, an update, exactly what I was hoping for.

For a brief moment, my heart sank, thinking a "but we're sorry" would follow the "thank you for applying", but it didn't. Thank god it didn't.

My mind has been preoccupied for the past few days with the prospects of landing this "dream job". The higher than average pay, the late commencement date (allowing me to not start work so soon), the induction overseas, it all seems extremely attractive. I don't even care anymore even if I eventually have to sell my soul, dread waking up every morning and spiral down into a state of depression; all I know is it would be a blessing to be granted that opportunity.

Much like my previous job application process in the UK, and a man who fantasises about life after marriage when he has only been dating for a week, it all seems like a set up to a huge disappointment. The cycle of telling myself that I probably wouldn't get it and subsequently telling myself I need to have the confidence to actually stand a chance just repeats itself ad infinitum.

All the best to me?