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It feels like it was only yesterday when I got all nervous going for my first job interview. Determined to impress, I wore a full set of business attire, complete with a fancy tie and shinny cuff links, only to find that my future boss who was doing the interview wearing a polo shirt and jeans. Nevertheless, I’m pretty sure they hired me because I dressed pretty. I sure the hell ain’t a smooth talker at the time. I was stuttering through most of the interview so I was surprised that two weeks later, I got offered the job.

5 years on, I am still here. Stuck with a job with no challenge and a paycheck that would induce hysterical laughter from my peers. But at least they have the decency to give me a cheap watch to recognize my unwavering loyalty for the company. I wonder why they chose to give out watches though. Maybe they are hinting me to be on time for work for once. Well, message received, loud and clear.

 This inmate has served for “5 YRS @ SSCI”

I still thought I could sell off the watch to earn a few bucks but upon closer inspection, I found that they have gone through the trouble of engraving the darn thing. Very thoughtful. Oh well, I guess I do need this ‘timepiece of loyalty’. I need to stare at it often so to remind me to go home on time, every time.

The nerve center of my home network

My wireless router/modem was fried by a lightning strike a couple of weeks ago, just as I was about to set off for my vacation in Siem Reap. What a bummer that was, it definitely put a downer in my holiday mood . Since I got back from the trip, I had been surviving on a modem/router borrowed from a friend.

The wireless router/modem I had was a all-in-one device. Basically a modem, router, switch and wireless AP combo. I was thinking of replacing it with a similar device. But when I was doing some research through the internet forums, I keep seeing this specific model of wireless router being recommended, the Linksys WRT54GL. Wanting to try something new, I went ahead and got myself a WRT54GL and an ADSL modem to go with it.

What’s so special about the WRT54GL? Well, it is one of a few wireless router out there that is running on open-source firmware. With the firmware being open-source, this also means that there are 3rd party firmwares being developed for it. Most notably DD-WRT and Tomato. I chose to flashed mine with the Tomato firmware. It’s much more user friendly than DD-WRT and besides, Tomato sounds funkier, hehe.

One of the feature of the Tomato firmware is it’s QoS (Quality of Service) capability. It really works as advertised. I have configured the QoS to give priority to web surfing so although I’m doing some heavy downloading in the background (downloading some “good stuff”, of course), I have no lag when surfing the web or watching videos on Youtube.

I’m glad my home network is back to it’s original state. In fact, it’s even better now with the WRT54GL. Maybe the lightning strike is a hidden blessing after all.

I had almost forgotten about the Genographics test I did a few months back. So I logged into the website to check and sure enough, my test result is out.

The result shows that I belonged to Haplogroup-O, carrying the M175 marker. What does that mean? I’ll let some technical mumbo-jumbo explain it for you.

Your Y-chromosome results identify you as a member of haplogroup O.

The genetic markers that define your ancestral history reach back roughly 60,000 years to the first common marker of all non-African men, M168, and follow your lineage to present day, ending with M175, the defining marker of haplogroup O.

If you look at the map highlighting your ancestors’ route, you will see that members of haplogroup O carry the following Y-chromosome markers:

M168 > M89 > M9 > M175

Today, more than half of all Chinese males carry the genetic marker M175, which is also widespread throughout East Asia and found in lower frequencies in Tahiti and Indonesia.

M175: The East Asian Clan
Fast Facts
Time of Emergence: 35,000 years ago
Place of Origin: Central or East Asia
Climate: Ice Age
Estimated Number of Homo sapiens: Approximately 100,000
Tools and Skills: Upper Paleolithic

Your genetic trail ends with an ancestor carrying marker M175 who was born around 35,000 years ago in Central or East Asia. This ancestor was part of the M9 Eurasian clan that, encountering impassable mountain ranges, migrated to the north and east.

These early Siberian hunters continued to travel east along the great steppes, gradually crossing southern Siberia. Some of them, perhaps taking advantage of the Dzhungarian Gap used thousands of years later by Genghis Khan to invade Central Asia, made it into present-day China.

East Asia had been home to Homo erectus for nearly a million years, but traces of occupation disappear from the archaeological record around 100,000 years ago. The earlier hominids may have abandoned the region or died off due to a steadily deteriorating climate.

By the time your ancestors arrived in China and East Asia, the Ice Age was once again advancing toward glacial maximum. Encroaching ice sheets and Central Asia’s enormous mountain ranges effectively corralled them in East Asia. There they evolved in isolation over the millennia.

Today, some 80 to 90 percent of all people living east of Central Asia’s great mountain ranges are members of haplogroup O, the East Asian Clan. The marker M175 is nearly non-existent in western Asia and Europe.

There were actually two waves of migration into this region. While your ancestors populated the region from the north, another group approached from the south. Descendants of the Coastal Clan—people who left Africa perhaps 60,000 years ago and headed along the coastline toward Australia—may have reached East Asia by 50,000 years ago.

The Coastal lineage is found at a frequency of 50 percent in Mongolia, and is common throughout northeast Asia.

The present composition of East Asia still shows evidence of this ancient north-south divide, showing a clear distinction in genetic heritage between northern and southern Chinese.

Well, well, looks like I’m of Chinese descent. No big surprise there. The test confirms that my paternal lineage is of northern Chinese origins. I will need to run a separate test if I want to trace my maternal lineage. But I don’t think I’ll bother.

We are all related to each other it seems. Blood relatives in a sense. It still amazes me how everybody alive on Earth now, all of us, more than 6 billion of us, are descendants of a single individual living some 70,000 years ago. The human race is basically one humongous family. How cool is that? So all this talk of ‘racial identity’ and the idea of ‘my race is better yours’ are basically poppycocks and utter bullshit.

Remember the X-Files? It used to be one of my favourite TV shows. But it kind of turned crap in the last few seasons. I guess one could only take so much of the never-ending conspiracy theories, paranormal phenomena and fake aliens. The protagonist of the show was Agent Mulder. He was of course played by the actor, David Duchovny. I have not seen much of him after the end of the series. And I thought he had retired from showbiz.

Well, to my surprise, Duchovny is back. And he comes back in a very controversial show indeed. He now stars in the new Showtime series called Californication. No, there’s no aliens in this show but bear with me. Duchovny plays a troubled writer named Hank Moody (what a fantastic name) who has just moved from New York to L.A. where he tries to sort out his life and work, as well as his relations with his ex-girlfriend and daughter. I know it sounds soapy and boring but it really is not. The show is brash and unapologetic with its content. And as it is with most of Showtime’s series, it is not a show you want to watch with kids around. Plenty of scenes with sex, drugs and booze. Duchovny infused tons of personality to his character and managed to be funny as hell in this show. Who would have thought that Agent Mulder had a funny bone.

If you like your shows explicit and funny, give Californation a try. It’s hilarious, I promised.

You think the fuel price hike on Wednesday was crazy? You ain’t seen nothing yet.

The post-peak era has begun. Strap yourself in and get ready for a long and bumpy ride.