*Crumbs Lurking In My Keyboard*

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The above jumble of alphabets is the result of trying to clean my keyboard with the laptop still running. These days, computers are no longer cupboard sized machines found only in company offices but in almost every home in the world.

The time that we spend in front of our laptops or desktops is increasing rapidly. Including the time we spend facing the not so idiot box in the office and at homes, some if not most of us spend a minimum of at least 6 to 8 hours working, surfing, gaming or typing away at one’s blog.

The more time that we devote ourselves (either voluntarily or not) means that we tend to do more things in front of the laptop or PC that we normally don’t. Either due to the short time left during lunch or social-networking the web while one has dinner means the probability of getting “debris” into the keyboard increases.

Food of course is one of the main crumbs that finds its way into the creases of the keyboard and is second only to maybe dust or cigarette ash. I’ve seen keyboards which have its own ecosystems as a result of the organisms living on the crumbs left by having our sandwich or even smoking while we’re at our laptops or desktops.

While some just resort to buying a new one when the keys on the keyboard become stuck due to some pieces of bread getting stuck in between the keys, its not really that hard to do some spring cleaning on the keyboard. Of course, when it comes to a laptop, it isn’t so easy to replace a keyboard indeed.

If you have a conventional keyboard that is attached to your desktop or pc, cleaning it is the easiest. Just flip the keyboard over and shake like hell. Be prepared to either be amazed or shocked with the amount of crumbs that stall falling right before your eyes. If you have those mini vacuum blowers stuff thingy, that would make your job a whole lot easier. Wipe off the keys which have probably inches of smudge since the day you bought it and you’ll have a new keyboard, almost.

For those with laptops, safe to say it’s not so easy to clean the keyboard. You’re probably better off getting one of your techie geek friends or relatives to help you out as it does require some disassembly of the laptop to get the keyboard separated. One piece of advice that I must stress, if you accidentally spill water, coffee or tea (now now, I’m sure we’ve all been guilty of that) the first thing to do is not wipe the liquid off but to shutdown the laptop as quickly as possible.

Laptops are built into such compact designs that shutting off the laptop as quickly as possible would prevent the water or liquid to get into sensitive electronics like the motherboard or the hard drive while it’s still running. So remember, when you spill liquid on that brand new laptop, don’t scream or curse or run for a cloth, just shut it down first and let it dry properly (preferably over night) first before turning it back on.

Of course if you have one of those fancy virtual infrared keyboards than of course all of the above are pretty meaningless. Logically we do spend more contact with the keyboard than we do with the mouse. Just a little bit of spring cleaning may not necessarily give you the feeling of an entirely new keyboard but maybe almost like a new one.

There you have it, some of my tips. Now I’m no technical support specialist or expert on such stuffs but I think some spring cleaning on your keyboard and your rig overall would do you no harm.

From the jumble of alphabets at the beginning of the post, could you guess which key that piece of “crumb” was hiding under that I was trying to clean? Drop me a comment with your guesses ya ;)

Cheers!!! :D

*Be Mine*

When I was younger,
Never wanted to wonder far,
All my feelings...I never wanted ever to start,
Till I met you..I diddnt know,
What you were gonna do with my heart..

When you talk,
I hang on everyword you say,
When you move,
Like the breeze of a summer's day,
When you smile,
The skies change from grey to blue,
That's what you do...

And you're the kind of girl I think off,
And you're the kind of girl I dream about,
My heart is failing me I need you in my world,
Cause you're my kind of lady,
You're my kind of world...

When I am with you..where ever you are,
I'm counting and hoping that I'm still in your arm,
All I want is to have you here with me,
Every night and everyday...

I need you here by my side,
And if you're there everything's alright,
Cause this is the time for us,
Be mine.....

I found this while cleaning some of my older stuff the other day, I think I wrote this quite awhile back but it does sound like a song though.

Cheers!!! :D

*Going Bonkers at Ikea*

I and my Lokee band mates used to have this term of “naik sheikh” which can loosely be translated to going berserk or bonkers at certain times during our jamming sessions. This normally happened at certain song’s chorus, bridge or outro depending on the song. We’ll suddenly start strumming faster and our beats would be all over the place.

Kind of the same thing that I’ve observed whenever I’m at Ikea buying stuff (yes, unlike most people who would travel hours just to window shop, I do buy stuff from there) for the house or a gift. Almost every time without fail I see shoppers “naik sheikh” or going berserk/bonkers when they do their shopping at Ikea.

Now Ikea of course is what it is here but ask anyone who’s ever been to Sweden or Europe, they’re no more exclusive, classy or artsy than your local Kedai Perabot Ah Kiow but I’m not posting about Malaysians obsession with what our parent’s generation deemed normal wood furniture but the actual shopping itself.

Somehow when people go to Ikea, they forgot how they got there in the first place don’t you think? I mean the amount of stuff that people buy there would most definitely not fit into most Proton or Perodua cars for sure and yet, they still buy it without a single thought of how they’re going to carry the stuff back to their homes.

It’s like the minute they enter into the blue and yellow colored building, they just go berserk/bonkers or in this case, “naik sheikh”. They’re already thinking where to put that cupboard or in which corner would the double-decker bed be in the house. Such forward thinking is obviously good except when you forget that you have to bring home the stuff first.

I’ve been guilty of this before though not on purpose. Went to help my BIL to get some remaining parts for a cupboard he bought the day before and was told it wasn’t too big and would fit into my sister's Mini Cooper. So I and Shuqri went on our merry way to Ikea to pick up the remaining items only to be shocked at the actual size of the item as compared to my BIL’s earlier description.

Now of course what ensued was comical at best. Even trying to get the trunk open was already a scene though I’ll save that for another post. There we were, 2 guys trying to fit an almost 6 foot long beam into a sporty Mini Cooper. Running around the cooper as we tried to get it into the small 2 door car must’ve been amusing to the onlookers around us.

That’s the whole irony isn’t it? While my case was pure miscommunication (happens a lot with my BIL), these people seem to do it on purpose or they might have been influenced by the yummy curry puffs and Swedish meatballs in Ikea. It’s always fun to look at their reactions when they realize how they were actually going to fit a 10 foot bed beam into a Perodua Kancil or Proton Savvy.

I know laughing at other’s mishaps is never a good thing but in this case, I don’t think it’s such a bad thing. One should always remember how one arrived at Ikea before going on a shopping spree there. If you know you’re going to buy a bed or a huge cabinet, come in a bigger car or better yet a pick up truck or even better, why not get Ikea send it to your house and forget all the hassle of trying to fit square pegs into round holes.

If you ever want to experience what I’m posting about, please feel free to come to Ikea on any day of the week. Grab yourself a soft drink (free refill) and either some yummy curry puffs or hotdogs and enjoy the family feud that’s about to start when they realize they can’t fit all the stuff in the car.

Maybe I should start a new game show on such a theme eh?

Cheers!!! :D

PS >> This post is never meant to be racist or anything even remote to that. Apologies for any “sheiks” who might take offense.

*Enough already, life's too precious*

I’ve posted about Monday’s on this blog before, some of them were good days and some of them weren’t on the sunny side of things. However this past Monday has really reminded me about how fragile life is and how we should stop arguing over trivial things (read today’s news papers, blogs or tv) that matters so little.

First I was awoken in the middle of the night with the bad news. An ex-colleague of mine from my banking days suddenly passed away in Putrajaya. He was in his late 30’s and leaves a family behind totally in shock. It seems cruel that someone in his prime to be taken away when so many still depend on him.

Later in the day, I received even more bad news of another death. This time, an ex-client of mine from my previous employer lost her dad. Having lost my own dad a couple of years back, I can understand what she and her family are going through and how tough it can be for her mother. When someone has been a pillar of strength in your life for so long, suddenly losing it would shake the foundation of any human soul.

The fact of the matter is that life is far too precious to be taken for granted. Everyday we wake up from our temporary death (sleep) and go about our merry ways without thinking that even the thought of waking up from our sleep is a gift from the heaven’s above. I’m guilty at times myself of just that and I hope I’ll remember to be thankful the next time I wake up and start another day.

It saddens me to see, hear and read how some people continue to fight, argue and blame over such pittance. You can imagine what I’m referring too and it really sickens me that nothing else matters except for showing off that one is right and the other is wrong. Isn’t there any sincerity left in these people’s heart or are they just too blinded by their own ego and needs to even be bothered.

Life is too precious to be bogged down by such childish things. We will never ever know when we will be taken away from our loved ones and our lives. Only He has the answer to that and in time all will reveal itself accordingly. It’s really hard for all of us to value something or someone till it’s too late, till its taken away from us. I guess that is part that makes us humans in the first place though that shouldn’t be used as an excuse for what we have.

Mother’s day just passed and if you missed either intentionally or not, pick up the phone or better yet give her a hug. If someone that you love and care for dearly is next to you, tell that person how much he/she means to you instead of reading this blog post till the end. If there’s something that you’ve been wanting to say or do, thank or apologize to someone, do it now and stop procrastinating. At the end of the day, this life is just temporary and we’ll meet our maker sooner or later.

One should not only enjoy life and live life but also to value and treasure life and all the things that comes with it. Al-Fatihah to the family of the late Shahrul and also Pn. Normah. May Allah bless their souls.

Amin.

Cheers

*Strange Bedding Mates*

What is the link between the mamak stall owner and the tobacco conglomerate anyways? Its amazing how despite different ways in which both earn revenue for their respective stakeholders, both seems to be sleeping in the same bed. Its an observation that I've made not only on myself but also my surroundings.

To the smokers out there, do you realize how much more you would smoke at the mamak stalls over a teh-tarik session? I for one have to admit that it normally turns me into quite the chain smoker when I'm out with my friends chilling. The wonder is how come we don't smoke as much at other places, especially during work or at home?

What is it about the mamak place and tobacco? Most mamaks are open-aired areas while even those air-conditioned mamaks would still have a corner where patrons can smoke to their heart's content.

Is it in the drinks or maybe the food? Why is it that smoker’s ramp up their consumption the minute they enter a mamak. In fact, some people start smoking even on their way to the mamaks before even putting their behinds down on the familiar plastic tool which almost every single mamak uses.

I haven't heard of any mamak stalls adding nicotine into their 3 day old curry or a sprinkle of tobacco when they're about to "tebar" the roti canai. Then again maybe its not the food or drink that makes puffers smoke more than they normally do.

Maybe its the sight of seeing your table mate lighting up that you feel the urge to ensure that there is a continued supply of smoke eminating from the now advertised plastic tables we all congregate around. At the end of the day, the boss at the mamak gets fatter while the tobacco industry makes light of the sin tax that they pay for.

Of course, such a link to say that your local Makbul Nasi Kandar or PJ Indomee being a major shareholder in either BAT or Philip Morris would be really pushing the conspiracy theory over the edge. Then again, we can draw this seemingly dotted line between these businesses in our lives.

A few years back TNB profits shot up to all time highs on the back of the implementation of broadband to consumers. Why? Because suddenly, our PC’s are almost always on downloading stuff from the internet (the writer does not condone any illegal act such as copyright infringements). The more PC's stayed on thanks to faster connections, the higher our electricity bills were and in fact still is.

How about the almost natural sight of a Ramly burger stall in front of every 7-Eleven store in this country. Believe me that I could count with fingers on 1 hand the amount of times that a burger stall is NOT near a 7-Eleven store. What happens when you go to get a late night burger to feed the hunger pang? "Aiseeh, since I'm already here might as well I get something from the store" is the normal practise and vice-versa ;)

Mobile phone sales started to dip a while back once consumers got over the fact that design and function were no longer enough to have people changing their mobile phones every 6 months. However, boys will always be boys and girls will always be girls and true enough someone came up with the idea of putting capturing and playing video features on phones thus giving birth to the .3gp video file format. Now most of us would know what this has been widely popular for :P Guess what, mobile phone sales soon woke up from its temporary slumber.

There are so many more of such cause and effect around us if we care to look. Its amazing how sometimes they relate that they make for such an interesting observation. Maybe you've realized a few that you could share.

Now I'm no conspiracy theorist but if you let your mind go, I’m sure you'll find some interesting links between what seems to be such different entities coming together at our expense :P

Cheers!!! :D