ask red wine dinner: may 2015

Q: I have an annoying friend. He only talks to pretty girls, he won't talk to fat girls. What must I do to change him?

A: No you don't. Instead, use him like you use one of your bathroom scales. If he talks to you, it means you've lost weight. If he doesn't, it means you've gained weight. You don't have to buy weight scales anymore for the rest of your lives! This lifehack is not as uncommon as you may think, other people use their neighbors as radio clocks.

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of forgiveness and saw 3

So someone asked in a forum "What is the one movie that you have seen that has changed your way of thinking?"

As strange as it may seem, mine is one of the Saw series. Saw 3. The one with rotten pigs juice in it.

Quoting sawfilms wikia: Hanging from a conveyor-like bar, emerged numerous rotting pig corpses. Each pig was dropped into the silo with the saw blades and grounded up, leaving the large amount of thick grey liquid remains to pour down a chute into the silo containing the judge, gradually filling the silo. More dead pigs were pulled in on the rotating chain and dropped, one after the other, into the saws. Soon, enough pigs had been liquefied to fill the silo nearly enough to drown Judge Halden.

The guy who had killed the protagonist's child hadn't get fair punishment on Judge Halden's court. The protagonist, Jeff, was given the choice to save the judge or not. Saving the judge meant he had to jump into the silo, full of unappetizing pork soup with horrible aroma.



So how did this change my way of thinking? IMO Jeff could have avoided being in that mess (and much, much more mess later, you'll understand once you watch the movie) had he forgiven his child's killer, the judge, and basically everyone in the screwed-up court system earlier.

Forgiving is not an easy business even when your loved ones are safe, and certainly not when they are hurt. But life's kinda like Jigsaw in the sense that withholding forgiveness is like piling more and more rotting pig carcasses on one's head while he/she stand in a silo. You keep doing that, you'll drown in the soup.

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appealing to target market, eh?

Note: this post by no means an attack to a particular group of people. What happened was the choice of an individual. It can be done by anyone regardless of gender, age, and sexual preferences.

So a colleague was promoted to an important position at job. He treated everyone at my department with a fried food. Later a female colleague of mine came to me wearing a strange expression on her face.


the fried food

"List the food you got from <insert the name of promoted colleague here>" she said, and upon hearing my answer, "I knew it! He gave our male colleagues one item more than the female counterparts."

The item she mentioned was a kind of sweet soup native to our country. My female friends and I did not receive that soup. It was known publicly that said promoted colleague was gay, and single.

I called this move 'appealing to target market'.

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dragon blade

Am I the only one here who thinks that John Cusack in this movie looks like Russel Crowe in Gladiator?

Also... Am I the only one here who thinks that the missing tooth of the boy who played as Publius is annoying? I mean it's not a big deal, but it tickled me everytime I saw him opening his mouth.

And... Am I the only one here who thinks that Jackie Chan being a hipster for still acting as someone girls' love interest despite other actors his age stopped doing that a while ago? And being a great one at hipstery, too, for having not only one love interest, but two, with one of the girls opened her clothes for him to see!

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printing to epson t20 from ubuntu

With the risk of making this blog looks like a tech blog, I will show you how to print to Epson Stylus T20 from Ubuntu.

My Ubuntu is a fresh installation of version 10, so first I have to install PIPS. Pips can be downloaded from Epson website, but what is PIPS? On their own words, Photo Image Print System for Linux (hereafter "PIPS") is a printer driver (filter) for high quality printing from Linux using a Seiko Epson color inkjet printer. On mine, PIPS is something you install to avoid 'pips-wrapper' error during installation and 'scheduler could not execute a filter' error later when you try to operate the Epson printer.

However, currently Epson does not list Ubuntu. They only list Fedora 9, Mandriva 2008.1, and openSUSE 10.3.


Who needs all languages in the world when my operating system is not listed?

I settled for Fedora 9. Extracting the downloaded file to a folder on my Desktop, I open the terminal and login as root. I installed the .install file using './' command. That's it for PIPS. But the job is not over yet.

Go to System > Adm (Administrative? Sorry can't remember) > Printing > Add. Choose the type of the printer, Epson T20, forward, forward, finish. This time you're really done for. :D

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aes vs tkip encryption

Sorry for taking a long(er than usual) time to post. A few fays ago, upon being connected to the Wifi, my Blackberry suddenly lost its BB logo that usually appears on the upper-right corner.

Turns out someone changed Encryption on the Access Point's Wireless Security from 'AES' to 'TKIP or AES'.

Blackberries are not compatible with TKIP encryption.

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unruly kids or unruly parents? -- part two

... Who knows that the chance to take revenge came real soon? But at that time I decided not to seize the opportunity! :(

The 7 Dwarfs is an animated movie of which plot wasn't thought througouhly, I suspect. A main character that's so awkward to the point that it became annoying. Inconsistent drawing style. Stereotypes. Lame joke. Add to that slow pace. And I mean slooow I could just sleep on my chair.

But you know what? About half of people in the cinema were adults. Seeing from experience, I'd anticipate at least some children whines now and then, and if I got lucky, one or two top-of-the-lungs screams.

... Instead I experience silence. Peace. Not a single mouth spoke. They are too mesmerized by the jolly characters on screen.

Yes children can behave when it's a show dedicated to THEM, not some R-rated or PG-13 movies.

... I still regret not getting back to the kids by covering the projecting window on the back with a gum or something. >:)

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unruly kids or unruly parents?

I just witnessed children's bad behavior escalated to a whole new level. During a movie, they utilize two mini-kentongans as swords and began running up and down the aisle, fighting.

Let me tell you about kentongan. A kentongan is a traditional noisy wooden instrument native to Javanese people that has can be used in many ways, none of them is to disturb movie-goers. It can be used as genre-specific music instruments, but it usually is used to alert people in the event of natural disasters, robbery, etc. If there's nothing wrong, night guards will just hit the kentongan to indicate the time of the night.

Yes you read that correct, there are parents who let their children slip into the cinema carrying things equivalent to loud alarm clocks that wake us up every morning. One for each child. One. For each child.

Whole cinema has been shooshing them to be quiet, but they do not listen. And no one of the parents got up from their seat to discipline their children.

What imb*cile parents bring their 4 and 5 years old, respectively, to watch a Taken sequel, anyway? It's a movie full of violence!

There were more or less 30 men and women who were harnessing ourselves from being completely savage to other people's children. Sitting among them, I had a strange idea to follow that stupid family home and make noises when those children are trying to watch their favorite show, as a revenge.

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carlo rino for the first time

I just bought Carlo Rino Exchange shoes from their oultet in Tunjungan Plaza. They gave me 75% discount. Can you believe it? Me neither!

I'm so happy right now I could fly! n__n

By the way, why do lines (usually clothing lines) use 'exchange' in their brand names? I mean, it's not like they'll accept salt or turnips in exhange of a pair of pumps. Or do they actually accepts them and I'm the only one who doesn't know about it? o.O

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bittersweet for the first time

Fishing for 70K++ from my purse, I'd never felt this cheated upon my whole life.

Rice and chicken karage, the chicken tasted bland, the sauce is scarce. Ice cream with such posh name: Lady in White tasted like McDonald's vanilla one. Lemon tea was over-diluted, no taste of lemon or tea whatsoever. Nasi lemak with fried chicken, my tastebud only recognize its hotness, no flavor at all. Top that with longest serving time in Sidoarjo. Definitely not coming back.

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some curious questions about redmi

So I did bought a RedMi. Two questions:
1. How do we turn off auto rotate in RedMi's Gallery?
2. How do we turn off RedMi's auto correct in Notes?

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the downside of marriage life -- part three

The decisions made by your partner affects you! Especially when your partner is a procrastinator, or at least slightly better at procrastinating than you do.

Let me tell you a story. A man promised his wife that he will do something, for example paying an electricity bill, but he kept stalling. The wife's waking up from nightmares of the deadline of the deed passed. If an electricity bill's particular deadline is passed, the home will not be supplied electricity anymore.

No, it is not because the money's too tight, I've told you the husband procrastinates and the electricity bill is just an example. What do you think the nightmares will affect the wife's health?

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a little too persistent aren't you google?

"New! Your blog posts will now be automatically shared to Google+ whenever you publish something new. You can disable this setting by visiting the Google+ tab."

I don't want this. How do I cancel this? All that are there in my Google+ tab is an option to connect my blog to Google+. To reach more readers in new ways, they said.

What if I have blogs that I don't want to share with the world?

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do not play victim

Everyday.

... I fought my tendency to be arrogant, to be bitter, to be whining and complaining all the time, to be negative, to boast about my *cough* overrated *cough* self-righteousness, to be grudgeous -- is that even a word? -- basically, to be human.

Yes some people have mistreated me in the past, but it is not an excuse to lie around doing nothing, play victim. I will rise again, I will overcome. Like the angel said to Mary, Immanuel: God is with us.

Why? What is the danger of playing victim?

I wonder.

... If Saul took what Samuel said in 1 Sam 12 personally.

I mean like the theory I've read somewhere, that children of divorced couples often blame themselves for what happened.

So what's with Samuel and Saul?

Let me give you a glimpse of what had happened. Saul, the first anointed king, just won a war against the Ammonites. Before him, no one had ever been anointed king. Israel, until shortly before, had been ruled by judges. One of the last judges was bidding goodbye to the nation. He was going to retire and leave things to be taken care by the new, young king.

Not before making a fuss first, Israeli-style.

"Then Samuel called on the Lord, and that same day Lord sent thunder and rain. So all the people stood in awe of the Lord and Samuel."

Samuel's got to say something. "Now then, stand still and see this great thing the Lord is about to do before your eyes! ... realize what an evil thing you did in the eyes of the Lord when you asked for a king."

I feel for Saul! I can see his eyes grew larger and larger listening to every words.

Now he got two choices. One is to be truly offended - "You talked me into agreeing all this coronation bulls... thing, yet now you're telling people they've committed a great sin by asking for a king?" Another is to humble oneself in front of God whose right mind he couldn't fathom.

He could play victim or he could play along.

So what did he choose?

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How I wish to see this story ends differently! How Samuel wished to see this story ends differently! "You have done a foolish thing... He would have established your kingdom over Israel for all time."

...

Btw this crossed my mind just now, but perhaps the writer of Star Wars had this biblical story in mind when creating the scene in Mustafar. You know, just before the duel, Obi Wan Kenobi told Anakin Skywalker: "You were the chosen one!"

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the way we dance

This review maybe partially biased, since I really love the genre of the movie.

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Okay, not maybe. This review is certainly partially biased. On the second thought, not even only partially. It is fully biased. :D

The Way We Dance is a Hong Kong film following Fleur, daughter of tofu seller who loved dancing. She attended university and comedic scenes appear. When I read reviews online, people even were comparing one actor in this movie with Stephen Chow. But soon I learned that this movie is not only about funny scenes. Oh how I love the way Tommy 'Guns' Ly convey this message: "How far will you go for dancing?" Love it tons!

I also love Fleur's answer: "From the moment I get up, I think about dance. On a bus or the subway, I think about dance. While slicing tofu, I think about dance. While taking a shower, I think about dance. When I see my reflection on a mirror, I think about dance."

For the first 20 minutes I must admit I am bored, though. I even stopped watching to chat with my lover. But since the scene with Rooftoppers I couldn't avert my eyes!

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where did the nose go?

In the first Harry Potter movie series, Voldemort that grew behind Professor Quirrel's head had a nose, but he had none in later installments.

Anyone know why?

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december flower

When I was a kid I used to be very happy when December came. Cloudy afternoons that dragged lazily into drizzly evenings, then going out at night when the rain had stopped completely, leaving wet, dark sands that reflected a thousand tiny stars under street lamp shine.

I used to stomp on them, amused by the fact that I couldn't erase those stars and by the rustling sound they made against the bottom of my shoes. Until a parent or both called me, that is.

Oh and don't let get me started on midnight wind that found its way through the window sills into my bedroom, and the sound of thunder someplace afar! In rainy seasons I managed to wake up a lot at night, sometime near midnight is the best time to listen to nature's sound.

Mornings were kind of hazy. Not always rain-free, but most of the time my classmates and I got into the classroom dry. Learning is a hundred times more fun when sunlight wasn't too hard on our juvenile eyes. Even the teachers seemed kinder and smiled a lot more.

In one of those days a flower called December flower bloomed in our garden. Nobody admitted of planting it, but it couldn't just grew by itself, like the tuber had been carried from some other place by a rat, right? Right?

I don't remember much about the flower, but I remember that it had the color red. It's not the bold red like the roses had, in fact the color was so common, so everyday-ish. We happily welcomed the flower not because of its astounding beauty, but because everything around us was staged to make us do so. Happy people tend to be more accepting and less judgmental, I guess.

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I am now very judgmental. I have been hawking my talents like snack on the street — Do you need a ghostwriter? A translator? How about a typewriter?— and thinking that any guy who doesn't work as hard as I do yet managed to get richer than me must be a corrupt official, while any girl who works less hard than I do yet managed to get richer than me must be a... you know what it is I wanted to say.

This December I don't notice the rain, I do not observe sweet winds caressing my arms. I spent half my time writing, half my time looking for new clients. It seems like writers are spawning faster and faster while writing jobs are getting sparser and sparser. I will consider myself lucky if I can put on a new robe and go to a nice dinner with some friends for one time in this month. For one time after a few months, actually.

你在干嘛？今天快乐吗？

*No, 'typewriter' is not a product of any mistyping by me. Do you need typewriter(s)? Give me email address(es) to send price quotations to!

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