The Oddity That Is Us

2011-10-17T17:38:00.000+08:00

Lunch with the Chief at Manhattan Fish Market one day:

Chief: Ok, I'd enough. The rest is all yours.

Janvier: No lah, you can eat some more one, you just say that because you think I don't eat enough...

Chief: No. It's all yours.

The Chief then pushes all the remaining rice, chips, prawns, squid and fish over to our side of the large square pan.

We push some of the rice and fish back over his side.

The Chief pushes some of it back to us.

We push the chips to form a line right in the middle of the pan.

The Chief gives us a look, and then proceeds to use the chips to make an arrow pointing directly at us.

We rearrange the chips to make the Chinese word, 'no'.

The Chief shoves all the chips back to us and say, "You eat."

And that was that.

So we did finish everything but given the amount of food we've been eating the last few days we had to take a quick siesta at the restaurant while the Chief played games on the iPhone.

Requiescat In Pace

2011-10-06T09:00:00.001+08:00

Crafter's Block

2011-09-24T03:41:00.001+08:00

We're having crafter's block. It's like writer's block except that this is in the context of our making birthday cards for the Chief's upcoming birthday celebrations.

Sidenote: attempts to plan the Chief's birthday party early has been met by uncertain RSVPs (ie "wah so early ask, I'm not sure free yet or not") so in the end it all ended up going back to the usual last minute emails, postponing and swapping of dates with different groups.

And now, we haven't a clue what to design for the Chief's birthday card. Well actually just as we started typing this we thought of something, but it's gonna need some thinking out how to get it done as we done have the proper resources to do it...

We've been doing this every year now but we're wondering if we can keep the card themes fresh without resembling something already done (except for certain recurring things like space for the group photo and an area for everyone to sign the card).

Actually, it's possible, just that we need to dump in more money getting more embellishments, and perhaps diversify into stamping or embossing, and more time to learn how to properly do so.

For now, we've got to finish this card tonight!

Buzz Buzz Buzz

2011-09-21T01:37:00.001+08:00

You know, if this was perhaps a few years back, we would have probably did a sort of timestamp post, e.g.:

1.27am: Welcome to our waiting room!
1.28am: Welcome to our waiting room!
1.30am: BUZZ BUZZ BUZZ
1.30am: Janvier: Fuck you.

But after going through this experience a couple of times, we're trying to be more patient about this. Also, we'll try to multitask to distract ourself from pulling out our hair when we finally get in only to be foiled halfway when something goes wrong even before we'd even filled in the flight guest details.

Sigh. Even as we're typing this we just lost some good tickets as the promotion price just disappeared due to some bloody error.

Patience.

So instead of just clinging onto the laptop waiting on AirAsia's bogged-down website, we just let it load on the iPad while we work on our other projects.

The experience is almost similar.

Probably the only difference is that we can't multitask on the iPad (ie surf other websites, YouTube) but we've more table space to work with now!

Final Final Destination?

2011-09-08T02:36:00.001+08:00

We guess we were expecting a fair bit from Final Destination 5.

S'been such a long time since the previous Final Destination aka "The Final Destination", which we recall was in 3D (and yes we watched that in 3D), and honestly the show is so formulaic that we never realized that this is the sixth Final Destination movie, actually (and we watched this in 2D).

Only the first movie actually made any impression on us - because of the sinister way everyone died (they actually highlighted that there was a sinister force at work leading to the deaths rather than it being totally coincidental!) and the way the cast tried to figure out who's the next victim etc. The other movies in the series...well, just before the end credits of Final Destination 5, they showed snippets from all the previous movies, and that helped jog our memory.

In Final Destination 5, it starts out the same: the main hero gets a vision of impending doom where everyone dies graphically, panics and creates a scene, then he and some others escape and cheats death, only to mysteriously die one by one later on.

The death of the first survivor, that was a treat. The way it focused on so many hazards really had us wondering just how the victim would die! The way the victim died, though, had us scratching our head as we can't really see it happening in real life - it was rather Happy Tree Friends. The second victim received similar treatment, focusing on different hazards that had us all guessing.

After that...everything seemed a blur as if the movie couldn't kill the victims fast enough.

Anyways, somewhere near the end of the movie we had an aha moment (let's not spoil it). What further made it an aha moment was when we realized something else that caught our attention just before the first survivor/victim died.

This aha moment was further reinforced at the end of the movie, but it's such that not everyone would realize why. So we felt like checking up to see if we were correct regarding our aha moment.

Hence when we got back home, the Chief and us started watching Final Destination 1. It turned out the Chief couldn't remember watching the movie so we watched the beginning till the point when the plane exploded, and onwards for a couple of creative deaths before calling it a night.

And yes, our aha moment turned out to be correct. And we're hoping this means that there will be no more Final Destination movies!

I WANNA GO SOMEWHERE FOR RAYA

2011-09-06T03:42:00.000+08:00

So says the subject of the email thread that was initiated by lad last month in preparation for the long weekend.

So in the email discussions throughout August it was planned for a hike to Chiling Falls (at least we think it was Chiling...we opted out off as we already went hiking with them a couple of months earlier and didn't feel like going hiking again so soon), a day for lunch at Coliseum and boardgaming, a barbeque and potluck dinner and a trip to Sunway Lagoon!

Gosh.

We didn't even need to pack or get stuck in any sort of traffic jam.

So for us the holidays started with a trip to Coliseum for their Chateaubriand Steak. It's been a while since we've been to Coliseum, and fortunately for us the place was opened on the first day of Raya itself! A good start to the day with steak and beer.

After that it was over to esteban's house for some boardgames - we tried this game called Wits And Wagers, where players try to answer American trivia and then bet on the answers they feel closest to the actual answer. All the answers were number based and you'd to bet on the nearest answer without going higher than the actual answer. Mechanic-wise the game was okay, being short with only 7 questions, but American trivia can be a tad limiting for us over here.

After Wits And Wagers, we moved on to That's Life! It's been quite a long time since we've played this game and somehow there wasn't that sense of analysis paralysis as we used to remember from our early games...

After That's Life!, lad decided to start his test-run cooking of siew yoke for the upcoming BBQ. Lad paid RM60 for two large chunks of raw pork from Tesco, and rightly so wanted to test out the recipe he found first. After an hour of roasting in the oven, with some airing now and then and lots of getting rid of the oil that seeped out, lad had a winner recipe! It was absolutely crunchy and yummy! So good, that before anyone thought to take a photo the entire piece was cut up and finished in minutes.

Barbeque night was another night of fun! This time it was decided that everyone had to make something for the potluck - no one was to bring along take outs. We suppose quite a number of people were adverse to KFC. Still, there was quite a lot to expect! There's the chicken wings, sausages and meatballs provided by otousan, the host, lemon provided a carton of beer, the Chief made soya cincau and a jelly dessert, NJAPF brought a salad with chicken in her special secret sauce, 'Vin brought borsch soup, Puddy made nanchos with melted cheese, Stewardess Sal and her Banker Boi supplied lemang with beef and chicken rendang, lad brought more siew yoke, esteban made ravioli, and Stewardess Sue and her friend made a banoffee pie. Us? We scrounged Tesco, MBG and Cold Storage for assorted fruits to go with some Tip Top ice cream.

The verdict by the end of the party?

1. Everyone bringing something tends to lead to a LOT of food. So much that some force feeding may be required.
2. 'Vin says NO MORE SOUP. This because the previous potluck saw a pot of spinach soup left untouched and this time because 'Vin inadvertedly made two big pots of rather sweet borsch soup.

By 10pm everyone was dead tired and the party ended.

And next morning, Sunway Lagoon!

It's actually our first time at Sunway Lagoon. To be exact, our first time visiting the theme parks in Sunway Lagoon as opposed to going there for some event (and Sunway does well when it comes to providing food and entertainment for their events!). Only 6 of us ended up going: lad, esteban, otousan, 'Vin, lemon and us - in this case six was the optimal number: 2 lockers can fit our belongings, the Congo Ride (a water slide where you slide down on a mat) had 6 lanes, allowing us all to race each other down, not to mention an even number meant we could share tubes to ride down the Phyton Ride.

We spent the day at the wet park and at the wildlife park after that (because it was the nearest, we suppose). We wouldn't have mind spending the entire day at the wet park if they had had more rides, rather than 3 main rides. Since we weren't around the wave pool at the right time to experience the wave (instead we caught sight of couples lined up along the wall face sucking like there wasn't anyone else there) we found ourselves at the wildlife park watching the interactive wildlife show (where a macaw did tricks, a wee German girl got to hold a phyton and kissed it, and everyone wanted to touch a rather fat civet cat, including us), walked about looking at all the animals and then spending half an hour hoping to see the arapaimas being fed (we left in the end after a no-show by the fish).

Left around 4ish as everyone only had breakfast and were starving by then. Will we go back again? Not too sure. The last time everyone else went there were years ago, we're thinking it'll be years again when we would go there again, and it would probably with everyone's children by then. Lunch/Dinner was at Hartz Chicken Buffet (again, this is another place that would be visited once in a few years somehow) before everyone left for home.

On the weekend the Chief and us visited the IT Fair at MidValley (for the auctions again, and once again left empty-handed), did some looking about at Low Yat and Sungei Wang and Pavilion, watched Final Destination 5 in the cinema followed by Final Destination 1 and 4Bia back home,

Come Sunday, the Chief and us celebrated the last day of the long weekend by heading down to Klang for a bah kut teh breakfast.

Reaching home we spent the morning eating John King egg tarts and eating soya cincau ice lollies (the Chief had an extra tin of cincau and carton of soya milk!) while finishing up Final Destination, which we initially only intended to watch the beginning (we had an aha moment watching Final Destination 5 and just wanted to check something) but ended up watching the entire show.

We'd suggested tapau-ing some pork home for lunch with Nissin noodles, but decided against OD-ing on pork and so ended up with herbal salted chicken from Damansara Uptown instead. The Chief deboned the chicken first while we cooked the noodles, the Chief was the lucky one with the wishbone, and yes, there was excess chicken so we packed the remaining chicken for breakfast the next day.

And now...after almost a week on holiday, the backlash is TERRIBLE.

Office Communications

2011-08-23T13:06:00.002+08:00

Colleague: Hello, [company].
Janvier (mechanical voice): [Colleague], zhao an!
Colleague: Shi me zhao an? Shi wan an!
Janvier (still mechanical voice): Ah! Dui bu qi! [Colleague], wan an!
Colleague: Wan an!
Janvier: Ni hao bu hao?!
Colleague: Wo hen hao? Ni le?
Janvier: Wo ye hen hao!
Colleague: Hen hao hen hao!
Janvier: Wo yao wen ta ni...
Colleague: Ah, shi me?
Janvier (normal voice): It's about the end of this year, when are the dates that we're supposed to be coming down...

Yes well we told our colleague we'd have to use Google Translate if we wanted to speak in Mandarin any further.

Road Rage

2011-08-10T01:19:00.002+08:00

Right this has to be jotted down before we procrastinate any further.

So yesterday we decided to break the routine and head to FF 1 Mont Kiara instead for Klevin's Pump instead of the usual cardio classes, and on our way there we had a rather unpleasant encounter with what would be a road bully. Unpleasant in that, after a day of nothing but good things and laughter thanks to Foxtrot and The Japanese Tradition YouTubes, this one bit soured up the rest of the day.

Start with us heading down Jalan Dato Abu Bakar towards the T-junction where one would turn left to Phileo Damansara or right towards Bangsar and Hartamas. Along the way, this white Mitsubishi on the right lane makes a good show of showing that he's the kind of driver that drives aggressively, cuts into other people's lane without signaling and cutting it real fine short of causing scraped bumpers and blares his horn at you for signaling to move into the left lane just because he's currently in said lane and speeding his arse off to beat the traffic lights.

Oh well since this is Malaysia, it's quite likely that many people may have started off as good, safe drivers, but given how aggressive the drivers are over here anyone who didn't learn to drive aggressively as a form of defense against other aggressive drivers would end up spending hours on the road due to giving way to callous drivers cutting into their lanes, forcing them to drive oh so very slowly, and waiting ages in a long queue as others instead choose to drive as close to the bottleneck before cutting back into the already congested lane...

So anyways this road bully started off at us by trying to cut into our lane when he drew level, or was perhaps just a couple of inches ahead of our car. You know, that kind of cutting-into-other-people's-lane-by-edging-in-slowly-and-forcing-the-other-car-to-slow-down-or-move-into-the-next-lane-or-else-get-into-an-accident method. Soon enough he realizes that he wouldn't be able to cut in that way and so he cuts in behind us.

That kind of overtaking could be expected on the road, really.

Then later on as we arrived at the traffic lights at said T-junction, we were on the leftmost lane, just slightly ahead of the left exit to Phileo Damansara. Said road bully so happens to be behind us and wants to take the exit.

Instead of waiting for a green light, so that we could move ahead and he could head his own way, he decided that he couldn't wait and honked for us to move forward and make space for him to squeeze into the exit lane.

(We understand that this description is not easy to picture unless one is rather familiar with said location.)

Anyways. Fellow honks us to move forward. We can't move forward unless we want to knock the bumper of the car in front of us, so we didn't budge. Fellow honks again and for longer.

And the next thing you know said road bully decides to go ahead and squeeze in, and somehow manages to squeeze between the curb and our car...

...And proceeds to wind down his window and hammer on our front passenger window, before driving off down Phileo Damansara.

Whoa. That's a first.

Since he had to squeeze his way through, we had enough time to whip out our iPhone and jot down his car plate number. We then proceeded on to 1 Mont Kiara, and after a quick chat with the Chief (via Whatsapp) and a gym friend, it was agreed upon that this would count as road bully behaviour. However, we weren't sure just what we could achieve by reporting this incident as we weren't hurt and Aidan wasn't damaged (save for the road bully's oily smudge of his knuckles on the window).

So after gym and dinner, we headed off to our nearby police station and made a report. We thought it best to give ourself a measure of protection - if we should cross paths with him again and things took a turn for the worse, we would have a report to back us up. Also it would be good to help others - we're thinking that if someone else falls victim to him then our report might confirm his behaviour.

Armed with his car plate number, we walked into the station to make our report. Sitting at the counter, the officer took our statement, we showed her using our iPhone Maps where the incident took place, and then proceeded to open Notes to show the information we took down.

Before she looked at the note, the officer wanted to see the location again (she probably wasn't too familiar with the area), hence we switched back to Maps. The iPhone was on the table facing her. Once she was done, we switched back to Notes - only we had accidentally touched the screen somehow and was about to send the note as an email - the draft screen appeared.

We wanted to cancel the draft, and at the pop-up asking us if we wanted to delete the draft we tapped the red 'Delete Draft' button...

...only...

...our note seemed to have disappeared as well. Somehow the note got deleted as well. And we couldn't remember the car plate number save for a couple of letters (which was why we wrote the note in the first place).

The disappointment, despair and embarrassment we suffered at such misfortune! To be let down at the last minute!

In the end the officer did continue on to finish the report, and then provided us with the station's telephone number in case of anything. So we guess, this is the best there is for now.

At least we're thankful that it didn't lead to any fights nor damage to our car!

Parents vs Grandparents

2011-07-26T18:24:00.001+08:00

We've heard it said that parents discipline their kids while grandparents spoil their grandchildren. Something like that.

And in the case of our niece, this is proving to be slightly true. Not that her parents are strict on her (goodness for parents to be strict disciplinarians to a wee toddler?) but with her grandparents the dotage is far more obvious (in addition to the usual attention babies get!).

For in addition to her usual meals, she's getting McDonald's soft serve ice cream to snack on while her dinner's cooking and Cupcake Chic cupcakes for tea time. Her grandmum even had us searching at three Starbucks branches for eclairs for her next day breakfast. When we told our sister about our hunting for eclairs, she commented that bread and butter would have sufficed for her breakfast.

Of course, the reason for our hunting for eclairs was because there wasn't any bread in the house...

Anyways it's probably a good thing that our niece is still too young to fully appreciate that she's being pampered loads by the grandparents, otherwise our niece's parents will have a heck of a time when they get their daughter back!

Spa-cation

2011-07-22T03:27:00.005+08:00

Now during the last MATTA Fair, the Chief and us spent a bit of time getting some vouchers. This inlcuded vouchers for Lavender Spa in Sri Petaling, which we decided to use on a day where we'd nothing planned.

Now, our expectations of the place were rather, frankly, that it was of the kind that you might see in the Hong Kong TV serials (of the rich family / business tycoon variety) where the actors would at some point be meeting at a spa and the scene would be at the jacuzzi area, only in our case we wouldn't expect the spa to be posh to the extent that there won't be anyone else.

No way would we expect a Balinese haven where the entire day would be spent in some flower scented hot tub or milk bath followed by a 2 hour aromatherapy massage, facials and other such delights.

Hence, we were rather impressed that Lavender Spa's setup was far more, well, modern and well-maintained than we gave it credit for (we're rather cynical of photographs - half the time they never turn out as shown). It did well to allay our concerns of spending the entire day in a run-down dingy spa.

The lockers were secured using not one but two keycards (one assigned to us and another by the locker supervisor), although the downside of it is that it's a bit more of a hassle to access the locker whenever we wanted to. We'd to change into some oversized robe and shorts that could definitely look better, comfortable as it may have been. It certainly put us in mind of hospitals and prisons in a way.

The entire place was clean, there were massage chairs each fitted with a tv screen and headphones, the cafeteria for free food (although they state that they would charge us for any excess food left unfinished), a sort of AV room for movies, a massage area, and even a hair salon. Oh and let's not forget the jacuzzi, steam room, sauna, and some sort of hydrotherapy pool where you can be blasted by jets of water far harder than the regular jacuzzi.

Occassionally the staff would come up and ask everyone if they were interested in getting their hair washed and blown, or for the massage.

Our vouchers included a massage and a hair wash, and well, we won't say our experience of the massage was good. Not because the Chinese lady didn't know how to give a good massage (meh) but because she spent most of the time lamenting the fact that we didn't understand Mandarin. Since we could still doze off and since we didn't need to pay anything extra, we tuned her out and left her to get on with it.

As for the rest of the day...

Eat (and watch Animal Planet).

Play Tiny Towers (the game was just released not long ago then and we'd just downloaded it befoe heading to the spa).

Watch Animal Planet while lounging on the massage chair.

Eat (and watch Animal Planet).

Watch Animal Planet while once more lounging on the massage chair.

Use the jacuzzi and hydrotherapy thingamabob (and watch Animal Planet).

Shower.

Eat and play Tiny Tower (while taking a break from Animal Planet).

Have our hair washed while our phone charges on one of the power points usually meant for the hairdryer (because Tiny Tower is one hell of a battery sink).

Overall, it was an ok experience that didn't have us raving to go back for more, and if we didn't have our iPhone and didn't bring any other form of entertainment we would have been stuck watching Animal Planet the entire day. Waitaminute, we almost did spend the entire day watching Animal Planet (not that that's a bad thing, AP's actually rather interesting).

In some way it was like taking a little break without having to go far or spending a lot, unlike our other trips. And we certainly did manage to just chill for the entire day. Chalk it up to having to spend the entire day cut off from the outside world.

Of course we could also almost experience the same thing (to a lesser degree) by spending the entire day at The Curve - we can chill at Starbucks at Borders in a sofa with any book we want, we could take a shower at the gym, and head to iKea and chill even more in the concept rooms. Only thing missing would be the free flow of food, though...

Buyer's Remorse

2011-06-24T01:16:00.000+08:00

'Tis a term we learnt only a couple of months back but something which we are familiar with.

And so it happened that when the iPad 2 was finally launched here we sort of found ourself arriving at MidValley at 9am to queue up together with NaanBleu.

Now, there are some things in life that we think we should experience at least once before we find ourself unable to do so. Bungee jumping is still someone on that list, we think that we'll only be able to experience such when our wallet is as elastic as the bungee rope.

Queueing up to get a hyped-up item is another. But we do draw the line at queueing up for over a day (we were tempted to start queueing up at 11pm the day before, though, as we were driving past MidValley around the time...) but we don't see how we can actually stay in a non-moving line for over half a day, really. What if you need to answer the call of nature? Will others in the queue be good-natured enough to let you keep your spot? What about meals?

Anyways we opted to try arriving at 9am - thankfully parking was still plentiful and the queue, well, the queue was only halfway around the corridor.

Joining the queue, we realized we made one mistake: while we pretty much reminded ourself to bring along a fan, we ended up leaving it in the car. And central air-conditioning in MidValley doesn't start till after 10am. Thankfully we arrived before NaanBleu so we texted her to bring a fan for us, else we'd be sweating like mad the entire morning.

Before the store opened, staff from Machines were walking down the queue, asking everyone in line how many iPad 2s were they looking to buy (a maximum of two) and for which model and colour. Overall, we think they did this quite well, it was well organized. They had cards corresponding to the number of iPads of each model and colour, so once they'd run out of cards for a particular type it meant that said type was sold out.

Well we admit throughout the entire time we were queueing and before the fellows from Machines got to us, we were still in two minds as to whether we wanted to get an iPad 2 or not. We could pretty much justify our purchase one way or another (the Chief had, in a moment of exasperation after trying to disassuade us from getting one during the days prior to the launch, accurately observed, "If you really want it you will find all sorts of reasons to get it.". Mind you, the Chief was probably using reverse psychology but it wouldn't have affected us, we were still undecided about it till launch day...)

Even when it was finally our turn to decide on a model (which was easy: white 16GB wifi-only), during the entire time queueing up till we reached the cashier we were already facing buyer's remorse.

It's interesting. Feeling buyer's remorse when we haven't even paid for the iPad 2 and could have asked anyone else in the line if they were interested in having ours.

But be damned if we would give away the iPad 2 after queueing up for it! So buyer's remorse it was.

The queue progressed fairly slowly, even once when we were at the entrance of Machines. It's a good thing we came with NaanBleu for this, we kept each other company and occasionally chatted with others in the queue, asking others if they were going to get casings as well, or data plans, etc. We even bumped into Caipifruta's Awesomeville Aaron who was there with his dad, the lucky bugger - his dad was getting him a white 64GB (can't recall if it was the 3G or wifi model)!

Once at the entrance they had staff acting as bouncers, slowly letting the line trickle through, and when we got in we realized why...

...there was another queue once inside Machines! By this time it was nearly 1pm and our feet and legs were letting us know that they've been holding our weight for some 4 hours now.

And soon it was all over. We paid up, got the iPad 2 in a big Machines plastic bag, made our way out and started window shopping for casings while NaanBleu bought screen protectors and had the staff fix it on for her. We had ours activated within the store, and after that we headed off to McDonalds for brunch and to get off our feet.

Now this, we found the experience to be slightly tiring but it wasn't all that bad. Machines had it pretty well organized, even though with 4 cashiers payment was still terriby slow but we'd say that there weren't any bad moments to the entire experience. Would we do it again? Probably not, haha, but you can never tell so far with Apple and their magical revolutionary marketing.

Now, the Bon Odori, the idea of having to head out to get all sweaty isn't putting smiles on our face (even though it was a fun experience) but the Chief has not been to the Bon Odori before, and, well, it's almost 5 years since our last Bon Odori...

Spring Cleaning 2011

2011-06-16T00:34:00.004+08:00

Perhaps more like Summer Cleaning by the time we write about this. Basically this was what got us thinking about how much of a hoarder we are.

And it all started with just one drawer.

From the beginning we had designated a drawer for electronics - old music players, chargers, cables. And in the beginning, the drawer managed to fit everything in with no problem. This was, of course, some 7 years ago. We could dump in everything and still have plenty of room.

Fast forward to the now, and that drawer is full to the brim. If we only kept cables and electronics that we rarely use in there, then we wouldn't bother about it so much. But as we keep our chargers in there too, we dip into the drawer almost every night (given just how often we Whatsapp and check our Facebook/email/feeds, we actually need to charge our iPhone 3GS twice a day).

So sometimes, things get tangled up in there. And there are cables that we're not too sure of their origins, whether they are mini-USB cables that came with our Canon iXus or with our Sony Minidisc player, that kind of thing.

So, we thought, it's time we tried to organize things.

We admit that we sometimes get rather lofty ambitions sometimes (like trying to get our bathroom to look like one of those rather posh hotel bathrooms, not possible but is something we kinda like to dream could be achieved without any sort of renovation...). We blame iKea for this.

But with just one single drawer we pretty much had a practical idea what to do about it: go get some plastic baggies to organize the stuff nicely.

Now this goal is rather straightforward and ought to take not more than an hour, really...
Step 1: Get a fair number of bags from Daiso.
Step 2: Empty out content of drawer.
Step 3: Organize stuff into bags.
Step 4: Neatly pack bags back into drawer.

Except in our case, we also had a few other stuff in said electronics drawer. Some of it, we are well aware of like our collection of playing cards, but we then came across a traveller's pouch that had some old stuff like a confirmation letter and receipt from a B&B that we stayed at in the Lake Gardens District, not to mention a receipt from the old Malaysian Embassy in London, and oddly enough, Sporeland coins. Also, we find a wee envelope of old passport photos.

So we basically emptied out almost everything from the drawer, and started sorting it all out...

And quite likely because of that traveller's pouch we started looking for where some of the contents of said pouch should go. Starting with the coins.

That got us looking in our wardrobe for a couple of camera film containers we know were somewhere in there, because we thought we kept some coins in them. We couldn't remember what currency, though.

And the search for that began our spring cleaning essentially - as certain things were left untouched for a long while now and have not only built up a layer of dust, but have also herded in a bunch of dust bunnies as pets too.

Generally most our spring cleaning tends to happen in the middle of the night - and at a time when we don't really expect to be doing spring cleaning. We'll pick up an object, note the heavy layer of dust, get a tissue and make it wet, wipe said object clean and trash the now-dirty tissue.

Then, we find that said object (in this case the film containers) we just cleaned isn't really what we were looking for, and now we try another object (this time, a large plastic container with more assorted coins in it).

Repeat cleaning process with a couple more tissues.

And find out now that we have souvenir pressed-penny coins from the US and UK in those containers, mixed together with coins from all over, and it should all be more organized.

Sigh. Now remove all Sporeland coins from both film and plastic containers, and try the coin pouch. Dump all Sporeland coins into coin pouch, and when that is full, the overflow to go into the Sporeland wallet as quick accessible change.

Once this is done, we notice that certain stuff we've not touched in ages have dust all over, hey, that Swatch iRony should go back into its box since we're not wearing it, rather than collecting dust...

More cleaning, more dusting, more taking out old stuff and rearranging things within the wardrobe.

Hey, we've sort of abandoned our organizing of the electronics drawer now.

OK, there's still those receipts et cetera from UK, those should go into the box of UK Memorabilia, bring that out, and then we're reminded of birthday cards over the last couple of years that we wanted to file away in the bigger box of General Memorabilia. Start on that, now...

And it's probably some 4 hours later when we've finally organizing the electronics drawer. Some things made it into the trash can all right but most would have survived for another day...

We didn't make more space, but then again the aim for the baggies was to make it easier to pull out the bag containing all our Apple cables and power adapters!

Hoarder's Horde

2011-05-25T17:37:00.000+08:00

Right.

We confess, we're pretty much a hoarder - stuff from our youth have followed us through the ages till now. A wallet from our school days, coins from all over still stacked inside those cylinder camera film containers, ATM receipts from Glasgow (of all things to consider as a souvenir), our student cards (and the lanyards too), and the boxes from all our gadgets and gizmos (even if said gadget is no longer with us!).

And stuff just keeps adding up!

We find cables that we're not sure goes with which device, mp3 players we don't use any more (alas, Sony, Apple's taken over...), old mobile phones (alas, Nokia, Apple's taken over...), card games, old VCDs and DVD games that we don't play any more (alas, Nintendo and Apple's taken over...).

And the thing is, the thing about all these old keepsakes, is that...

...it's so hard to let go of sometimes!

For some things, like old mobile phones and music players, it's more of because we paid quite a fair bit of money for it, hence we find it hard to accept that if we were to sell it, it would probably only fetch a meagre ten to twenty percent of the original price.

While we guess old electronics may be acceptable, the empty packaging boxes, empty glass honey bottles, 5.25" diskettes, old pens from drug companies, paper bags (kept, unused ever again), angpows from years past are a bit hard to explain...

We'll just have to wait till a cleaning fit comes over us and we start deciding what stays and what goes!

Touch Fighter

2011-05-12T10:39:00.000+08:00

Okay, we're pretty much a Street Fighter gamer and SF4 had us excited because it marked the return of the old roster of fighters in a rather pretty package. Great graphics, still great gameplay, new Ultra/Super/focus attack mechanics, and... bugger, still a blood cheap boss at the end.

Then SF4 came out for the iPhone, and even with the virtual joystick, the simplified controls worked extremely well. There wasn't the need to do the full motion of controls to perform a special move, now we just needed to push forward and press the SP button. Viola! Instant Dragon Punch.

Combos just got easier.

Only it wasn't really so fair, because for the fighters with charge moves like Chun-Li and Guile, as you'd still need to charge in one direction for a couple of seconds before you can execute the move.

Then came Super Street Fighter 4 for the 3DS, and boy, things got even more simpler (and much more impressive!). Now we have the entire roster of fighters available in Super Street Fighter 4, there's all that alternate costumes and colours, nothing's missing from the game, and they've made all the buttons customizable (and included four more buttons on the touch screen)!

With all the buttons being customizable, now it's even more easier to perform ridiculously difficult-to-pull-off combos!

But yet it all works for the mobile gaming platform. Quick simple fun, anywhere, anytime.

It's just that...we're so spoilt now with the simple controls that we're not sure we can play SF4 properly on the console or arcades any more...

It's Super Dynamic!

2011-04-14T00:55:00.001+08:00

Oh looky. Blogger has gone and made some new viewing modes called Dynamic View. So now instead of the usual style (which we had spend a fair bit of time years ago deciding on a theme, and switching twice so far to this current theme), we can go...

Flipcard

Mosaic

Sidebar

Snapshot

Timeslide

It's Super Dynamic Viewing Time!

Generally the new Dynamic View gave us that feeling like when Apple introduced Cover Flow for iTunes, and then for their iPods and iPhones: we need to post up at least one photo per post.

But here's the thing.

Us, we use the NewsRack app to download blog updates to read (the problem with NewsRack is that sometimes trying to comment isn't easy as using Safari itself).

Others use Google Reader. Or probably the sidebar of a blog where the latest posts show up.

And while we do have bookmarks to blogs we keep up with, it's bookmarked for the usual site. So we'll have to manually edit it to get the Dynamic View, but by then we would be too busy reading the post already.

So, uh, Dynamic View, anyone? We guess it'll look pretty if you use your favourite blog as an interactive desktop wallpaper, though.

To All The Girls We Loved Before I

2011-04-13T02:19:00.004+08:00

Dear M.

It's has been a long time since we've met. But we hear you're coming back to town! We're excited and can't wait, really.

We remember, we were only twelve when we first met the gang: you, your friends, not to mention your sister and father. A popular bunch, known by many. It wasn't long before we both hit it off, though. We were really taken with your grace, and your coyness at times as you like to hide your face like some shy kitten.

Oh, how we admired your bravery, challenging your father's decisions at times.

When we first met, well...those were good times. Most nights we spent together, time slowed down for us indeed.

Of course, we had our differences. Like your choice to wear magenta hued clothes, and the murderous glares you gave us when we suggested you try on green once in a while as it was our favourite colour. Hey, little did we know then that your sister's bodyguard (rich family that you are from) that you disliked wore green.

Then, a few years later, you disappeared. You and your sister. As you were always fighting with your dad, we knew better than to ask him. Your mum didn't have news about you, too.

We left the gang, not having any way to keep in touch with them as they moved on to further popularity.

Sad to say the few times we could meet up with the gang, you weren't around. Especially some 12 years ago now, when the gang fell in with the '3D graphics' hype, you weren't there to celebrate. We wondered if you were cut off by then, deemed not popular enough. In our heart we knew this could not be true, and the gang, well, the competitive bunch would never offer any answers. Well, once again, it was only much later when we found out you were still around but by then we never did get to see you...

But you came back! 7 years ago you came back!

And you looked gorgeous, M! It was the best we've ever seen you.

We even heard that you were featured in Playboy. Don't worry, we weren't jealous of you. We were honestly glad to have have you back with us.

Those were happy days again. We would come back from work and you would even demonstrate your new martial art skills to us, and while we prefered the speed you performed Ying Yeung stances, you chose to go with the more graceful and powerful Mian Chuan style.

Well...both of us had moved on since. We did meet up once in a while, but rarely.

But we hear you'll be coming back to visit us again. We can't wait.

We do hope this new Mortal Kombat won't be a bomb. Come back and entertain us once again, Mileena!

We still liked you best in Deception, followed by MKII.

Tea Snob

2011-04-04T17:49:00.001+08:00

Us. Admittedly.

All thanks to the Chief who graciously procured for us an electric kettle for our own use in the office.

And it's not as if we have no hot water in the office! There be one of those filter machines that dispense both hot and cold water, not to mention there are the coffee machines that we could just use to heat up water in case the filter machine is switched off. However, being a tea snob, we would prefer to use boiling water for our tea.

Yes! For tea is to be steeped for 3-5 minutes in boiling water! After which, the leaves are removed and we will add in honey and a lemon slice!

Well. We have ran out of tea leaves and will have to make do with tea bags of tea dust at the moment, and the lemons here do not look appealing, hence we currently only have our tea with leatherwood honey, which is delightfully flavourful.

Now if only the steam rising from the kettle will stop worrying us with setting off the fire alarm somehow (memories of how sensitive the fire alarms were in James Blyth Court come back to mind!).

Suspicious Manna

2011-03-29T19:35:00.002+08:00

...from heaven, so far. Causing us some confusion.

See, today as we were doing some online banking, we noticed that one account had a sudden noticiable increase in balance. Surprising and noticiable because we rarely do much with that account.

We called up the bank and was not able to trace the source of money - customer service informed us that it was their policy not to reveal the source. The best we got was a vague assumption that it was either some form of salary or dividends.

Not that we know of any of that sort going into that particular account, no. And the description on the transaction made no sense to us too.

The Chief denies having anything to do with it. We've yet to check with our parents, however, if it were from family we would have been informed of it earlier. Oh, not to mention for the family it's normally through a different bank. And we've not joined any contests from any banks or anywhere, and for those we should be getting some prior notification.

So here we are with a little bounty. And next thing you know, we get word on Facebook that the Nintendo 3DS has landed on our shores. Limited stocks and all that. Prices out and confirmed.

mmm. We're tempted. Confused and tempted. We could go on a spree, only to find out much later someone coming to lay claims about that cash, like our mum probably suddenly telling us that we should be expecting some paid dividends or interest in our account soon, that's actually belonging to our aunty, please help withdraw and pass it to her, or something to that extent.

Sigh. Admittedly if it was the announcement that the iPad 2 has launched and is available right now we would have probably gone and get one on impulse.

For all we know this could really be a little present to us for us to take and enjoy, and here we are doubting it!

Update: There's something wrong with the WYSIWYG on IE9, hence we'd to reedit everything via HTML!

Breakfast At Janvier's

2011-03-22T13:40:00.003+08:00

Last weekend. Woke up to the sound of someone playing Cooking Dash in our room. The sound alternates louder and softer, as the Chief brings the iPhone nearer to and further away from our ear.

Freshen up, head downstairs, halve scones, plop scone halves into the oven, take butter out from the fridge to warm, decided on Lipton tea instead of the lemon scented Twinings tea, drop in sugar cubes into two cups and pour in hot water, get the honey out as well as the honey server, get out the breakfast plates, remove buns from Bread Talk from their wrapping.

Wait for the oven to go ding! signalling that scones are now warm. Apply butter to warm scones, use honey server to apply a bit of honey at the center of each scone halves, press halves back together, place scones along with buns on breakfast plates, set on table mat on the kitchen dining table, remove tea bags from cups, clear clutter.

Simple breakfast is served.

Chief: So we will have breakfast like this when we stay together?
Janvier: Ya.
Chief: Yay!
Janvier: But only if you wake us up.
Chief: ...
Janvier: And only on weekends.
Chief: ...
Janvier: Well you'll definitely wake up before us what!

Dangerous Reads I: The Unsatiable Hunger

2011-03-16T18:19:00.000+08:00

Last year Junior gave us one rather dangerous book to read as a birthday present.

Julia Child's My Life In France.

Let us take an exerpt:

"The pièce de résistance for the evening was a mammoth galantine de volaille, which took me three days to creat and had been adopted from a recipe in Larousse Gastronomique. First you make a superb buillion - from veal leg, feet and bones - for poaching. Then you debone a nice plump four-pound chicken, and marinate the meat with finely ground pork and veal strips in Cognac and truffles. Then you reform the chicken, stuffing it with a nice row of truffles wrapped in farce and a fresh strip of pork fat, which you hope ends up in the center. You tie up this bundle and poach it in the delicious buillion. Once it is cooked, you let it cool and then decorate it - I used green swirls of blanched leeks, red dots of pimiento, brown-black accents of sliced truffle, and yellow splashes of butter. The whole wasthen covered with beautiful clarified-bouillion jelly."

Goodness!

When we first started reading the book we immediately had to stop after a few chapters, when Julia Child started talking about her arrival in France.

She has this passionate way of writing and describes food with such detail that, if we were not hungry or eating, we would be while reading her book; and if we were eating a meal and reading her book, we would still get hungry because her meals sounds so much better.

Either way, we lose.

Which is why, while we had this book since last year and Junior's waiting on us to finish the book so he can borrow it, we've yet to finish it (and us being able to finish a book relatively fast). It's like, um, having to lick envelopes to seal them, with the adhesive being salty that for every envelope you lick and seal, you have to stop to drink lots of water, and unable to continue for a while.

We really wonder how to finish this book.

Dispensing With Automatic Impulse Buy

2011-03-14T17:58:00.002+08:00

Just during the weekend we'd to rush into Tesco to grab some vanilla ice cream, ice cream cones, and a bag of ice for a potluck event, and we chanced upon this as we headed to the ice cream aisle.

Dettol now has an automatic handwash dispenser, that runs on batteries. We'd only time to snap a photo, check a bit of the details, then head on to get what we came for.

So during the potluck, we had the chance to tell the Chief about the handwash dispenser, and our interest in getting one.

The Chief was agreeable when we said that we were interested in getting one until we clarified that we wanted to get it for ourself, to be placed in our bathroom, rather than for use in the office.

The Chief then gave us this look that covered the entire range from Got So Much Money To Burn Ah?, You Very Itchy Fingers Ya, Whatever For?, Waste Of Money, and probably Like That Also Fun all in one, and had us bursting out laughing. We aggravated it some more by miming washing our hands.

But seriously we might just get one, depending on just how efficient it works!

Auction Awareness

2011-03-11T03:45:00.005+08:00

There's just somethng about the PC Expo auction that had us being slightly reckless and needing to consciously keep ourself in check. Thank goodness the Chief was with us, really, to help figure out a limit to how much we were willing to spend on the items we were interested in (it was either the Garmin Nuvi 1350 GPS, the desktop, the Samsung Galaxy Tab or the Panasonic 42" LED telly).

Of course, the emcee would first inform us of the normal retail price and the promotion prices of the item to be auctioned, to make sure we were level-headed enough to not bid over the normal retail price.

Initially we never did plan to buy anything from the PC Expo, and then we saw some things we were interested in. So we planned to just take part in the auction, with half a mind to bid just for fun.

Bearing in mind, of course, that unlike playing some boardgame with elements of bidding (where sometimes the idea is to hike up the price of some item to an unreasonable price just because you know another player desperately wants it), if we bid too high a price in this auction, we were going to have to pay for it if we end up winning the bid.

And then somehow the Chief thought that we should actually try and bid for the GPS - we might be able to get it for, perhaps, around RM350 (normally RM545), or at the most, RM450.

And so the bidding began!

Everyone took part in the fun because the emcee enforced a minimum RM1 and maximum RM50 bid, rather than let some bloke bid a price that would just shut everybody else up, turning it into a game of The Price Is Right instead. And we must say that for items not too expensive, having everyone participate can be rather fun.

Because everyone would bid initially, and the starting bid of RM1 would just go up, and at some point most people would drop out, leaving only those who were actually interested to continue.

This was what happened to us! At some point past RM350, it came down to only us and another bloke bidding for the GPS. It's quite a feeling, when you realize everyone's stopped bidding and are watching you and your opponent duke it out.

And with a competitive streak, it's hard to stop sometimes! There we were nicely suggesting a price we were comfortable with paying, and then this other feller starts bidding at RM10 higher! Indignantly we would then raise the bid by another RM10 (because raising it by RM50 would only bring it much closer to the actual price which isn't our intention), and this will go own until we nearly lose track of how much we were willing to bid the item for.

Imagine:
RM1.
RM50.
RM100.
RM150.
RM200.
RM250.
RM300.
RM310.
RM320.
RM330.
RM340.
RM350.
RM360.
RM370.
RM380.
RM390.
RM400.
RM405.
RM410.
RM420.
RM425.
RM430.
RM435.
RM440.
RM450.
RM455.
RM460.

And we let the other fellow have it at RM460. Or RM470. Towards the end when we were both bidding at RM5 increments there were longer and longer pauses as both of us were considering if we should keep raising the price (competitive as we were we managed to keep ourself in check), and while the both of us were at opposite ends we had a clear view of his anguished face every time we raised the price, forcing him to deliberate if he could afford to pay another RM5 more.

And no, we didn't stoop so low as to bid just RM1 higher. No patience for that!

Anyhow it's interesting because when we first entered the PC Expo, we never had the intention to get a GPS! See just how dangerous auctions can be? One minute we're walking in, figuring out a budget for a new desktop, next thing we know, we could have been happily forking out RM500 for a GPS!

Oh well. As for the rest of the items, we lost interest when the bid went higher than half the original price, and saved ourself from an impulse buy.

The Year Of The iSlow

2011-03-07T17:34:00.001+08:00

This weekend proved to be somewhat tiring, or perhaps we're slowing down, but it's certainly noticeable that the moment we reach home and head up to our bedroom, we can actually just lie in bed and fall immediately to sleep without changing or taking a bath.

Friday night saw us around Cheras after work, so we decided to head to Leisure Mall for our workout and dinner before heading to Old Town Kopitiam Cheras for some boardgaming. We'd no problem getting to Leisure Mall due to some handy directions on taking the back roads rather than going through the main highway, but it was our journey from Leisure Mall to OTK that was a navigating nightmare!

We left Leisure Mall at 9pm only to reach OTK at almost 10.30pm!

Got home around 2.30am, knocked out straightaway when we laid down in bed.

Saturday now, we had the Chief drop us off at Midvalley for a quick look-see at the PC Expo (the Chief already visited the Expo on Friday didn't join us as it was too crowded).

Less then an hour and we were out of there, having made a quick skim and taking catalogues of what we were interested in. Then we headed down to Subang for pork noodle at Pomander before mooching over to Subang Parade, where we managed to get a pouch for our iPhone and a present for our niece (a good shopping experience aided by a bargaining-savvy Chief!).

After that the Chief brought us for dinner at Betty's Midwest Kitchen at Aman Suria!

There's something about us eating at such porky establishments...prior to this we dined at Blue Cow Cafe at Plaza Damas, and now at Betty's Midwest Kitchen, we order as if we were never coming back to the establishment and wanted to try everything in one sitting.

Hence we had the Classic Meatloaf as recommended, the Pig-In-A-Blanket, Crispy Bacon, the Roasted Chicken and Onion Soup, and the 'Dog Food' (fries in cheese and gravy). While we had to wait some 10-15 minutes to get a seat, our order was taken while we waited and upon sitting at our table all the dishes came almost immediately! We suppose most of the dishes were already prepared and just needed some heating up - especially because of the bacon.

The bacon turned out dry and crispy and not really salty, while we were actually expecting fried oily bacon with the fatty bits still on it, the whole thing crispy and oily and salty enough to cause our arteries to panic as we enjoy the sinful bit of meat.

Stuffed ourselves silly and, once home, napped a while before summoning up the willpower to go shower and change and catch up on our Cityville before sleeping.

And on Sunday, we had two performances to attend! First up, the Tribute To John Williams by the MPO.

A great and lively performance! Theme music from Superman, Star Wars, Indiana Jones And The Raiders Of The Lost Ark, Memoirs Of A Geisa, Close Encounter Of The Third Kind, Hook, Jaws, Yes, Georgio and E.T., and for the encore, the march from 1941.

Then we'd to rush off to find St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church after that! Just earlier last week we came across a Facebook event for a performance of Faure's Requiem, and we were keen to watch the performance. Turns out that it wasn't just any performance, but a tribute to the late Armando Chin Yong too, performed by Cantus Musicus.

We had some issues, although we're not a professional singer or musician...small issues like certain Latin pronunciations and the little mishap during a repeat performance of Agnus Dei at the end of the performance, where the organist and the sopranos/altos got jumbled up due to a miscue. The biggest issue we had was with one of the tenors, whom we nicknamed Mr Expressive. His face! Goodness he had his eyes opened wide and focusing so hard on the conductor, and his mouth always forming an O either 2 beats before he's supposed to sing (so we know when he's going to sing if we didn't already know the requiem) or when he's pronouncing certain words. It's amazing, even when pronouncing the 'em' in 'requiem', his mouth forms an O.

His singing was good but it was very, very distracting watching him. It was better after we took off our glasses.

Immediately after the performance it was back to MidValley for the auctions at the PC Expo! Arrived just in time for the auction, and was only interested in the bidding for the Acer desktop, the Dell laptop, the Garmin Nuvi 1350, and the Samsung Galaxy Tab. In all cases we didn't win the bid, although we were close with the GPS as it was within reasonable limits (we stopped at, what, RM460 for the GPS, which we were told costs RM545?).

This time we weren't as tired as the past two days, but still we found ourself dozing off the moment we were horizotal!

This may be the year of the iPad 2, but it's also the year where we start slowing down!

iGaming

2011-03-01T01:36:00.002+08:00

It's a bit of a predicament.

With our Nintendo DS, our games were basically limited by, firstly, our wallet, as games here are not cheap (easily anywhere between RM150-RM200 each for a popular game, goodness we've sunk quite a fair bit into this), and secondly, there aren't too many games so we can basically just focus on what we want most (which would mainly be the Mario and Zelda games, can't go wrong with those, and we must say the Castlevania series on the NDS were entertaining enough with better replayability than the former in our case).

Since we've gotten our NDS (good gosh, when was this? Late 2004? Mid-2005?) it's earned the title of Most Valuable Gaming Asset - trumping PC gaming and all the consoles whatwith the ability to play games anywhere, anytime, even before going to sleep.

Then the iPod Touch came out, and the App Store in all its infancy never did have much games that would cause us to impulse buy. Yes, well, much later on as the App Store started growing and we started using the iPod Touch for more than just mobile surfing we deliberated lenghtily before buying anything on the App Store (because it's in USD and not RM!). The most expensive app we bought back then was probably ToDo, at USD4.99, after trying a few other free to-do apps. Motion-X's Poker Quest was probably one of the first few games we ever bought, too.

Then Tap Tap Coldplay came along and we didn't deliberate for very long. Tap Tap Coldplay's probably still one of the best Tap Tap apps, featuring their best songs from all their albums, unlike the disappointing Lady Gaga Revenge which only featured songs from her first album The Fame, hence there were lots of remixes that weren't to our fancy.

Anyways.

Time goes by and the App Store starts filling up with more and more games. There are ports of old games which hit our Nostalgia button and may probably hit our Impulse Buy button at the same time (ie The Secret Of Monkey Island Special Edition), there are boardgames converted over to the iOS that we will access before going for the Deliberate Buy (Carcassone being the poster boy of a game well done), and then there are games that, due to their popularity, we may just buy if we like the gameplay (like Angry Birds, which we would never had bought if we never did get to try out their Lite Version beforehand, and Robot Unicorn Attack, because of Erasure's 'Always' admittedly).

We've just counted 71 game apps currently on our iPhone (inclusive of the Inception app). There's more we left on our pc without syncing over to the iPhone, due to us not playing them ever (like the Rolando series) or because we have to play something else first (like Simon The Sorcerer 1 before we can play Simon The Sorcerer 2), or perhaps because we've finished the game (like Beneath A Steel Sky).

The point is, thanks to Touch Arcade (and their AppShopper app), we've been on the lookout for more games! More and more games!

So much so that we've no time to finish all our old games! Both remakes of Monkey Island sit unfinished, especially after we've inexplicably lost our save game files and have to replay from scratch, while we spend an absurd amount of time replaying Devil May Cry 4 Refrain, Street Fighter 4, Seventh Guest and Battleheart!

And the games keep on coming especially when they are either priced at USD0.99, or they go on sale from USD9.99 to USD0.99 (the very unexpected Street Fighter 4!)! App pricing? A topic for another time.

OH MY GAH!

And it's not as if we've stopped playing games on our NDS (asides from the fact that there aren't any new games that would cause a Near Impulse Buy), but The World Ends With You does keep track of when we last played, and suffice to say it's not three times a day. Or even once a day.

After all that rambling...

We're actually considering the Nintendo 3DS. Sold out on day one in Japan. Coming out in US next month. Wondering how much the price tag will be once it hits our shores. Should be higher than our NDS, but will it cost almost the same as our Wii? And asides from Super Street Fighter 4, what other games are there? Will it be worth it? Or shall we drown in more iOS games?

Berserk Button

2011-02-25T01:18:00.005+08:00

When it comes to cockroaches in our house, they hit our Berserk Button because we can't abide to think of what they may contaminate with their touch (especially when you have absolutely no idea where they have been). See us brandish rolled-up newspaper and bug spray in search for extermination.

Mice don't really trigger our Berserk Button, even though when you think about it they are terrible pests too: they're dirty, they nibble all over, they leave their droppings everywhere. Perhaps we will end up playing broom golf if ever we bump into one of them in our house.

As for lizards, they may leave the occasional dropping after ransacking our rubbish bag for leftovers, but they scurry away oh so fast. Oh, not to mention we don't fancy dealing with a wriggling tail left behind if we decide to do something to said lizard. And there's the fact that you can already see a lizard's insides, what with a lizard not having the decency to have opaque skin, we were not looking forward to see the insides on the outside.

So tonight, here we were, sitting in front of our desk facing the wall, we turned on the laptop and...

...this great big spider skitters along the wall and stops right in front of our sights.

We spent about 5 minutes just looking at the thing. And yes, even took the time to bloody photograph it. Even went up close and personal, and boy, it had large chelicerae (or fangs or mandibles or whatever thing is related to its mouth) too. The entire thing was huge when compared to the usual wee spiders we come across in our previous house. This kind of spiders we expect to find outdoors, not in our bedroom.

We're not sure where we heard it before that it's the smaller spiders that tend to be the poisonous ones, but hey, small or large, with no knowledge in identifying exactly what kind of spider we were dealing with, we do not cherish waking up the following morning only to be greeted by said spider on our face greeting us good morning.

Only after a while we steeled our nerve and attempted to crush it with a bunch of tissues. And as we moved to the tissue box, the spider sensed our killing intent and scurried behind our rack of boardgames, bags and boxes.

Tissues were no longer an option as we would need to sweep it out. Sticking our hand in would only lead to unfortunate accidents. So we went downstairs to get a newspaper and try to find the bug spray.

We couldn't find the bug spray.

We didn't dare leave the spider alone for too long, as it may scurry into some dark corner and hide till we give up, only to ambush us some days later when we decide to take out a board game or when we stuff clothes into our gym bag. Or if not us, our mum or the cleaner when they go about cleaning the house, or our Wee Wog when she potters about in our room.

Arachnophobia it may be but we weren't going to spend all night thinking of an elegant solution to transport the spider out of our house. Not to mention, we haven't really figured how the bloody thing came into our room in the first place. Open window? Toilet window? Ventilation windows somewhere? Attic?

Some swatting and the spider managed to evade us as we chased it from the corner of the windowsill where it lurked, jumping to our bag straps (boy can it jump!), to skittering about the legs of the rack till it went behind our desk (which was up against the wall).

We really needed that bug spray now. We still couldn't find that bug spray.

Back to our room and we decided we need to shift stuff away and get to that spider before it disappears. Shifted the rack away from the corner, pulled the curtains away to the centre, started shifting boxes from under our desk to out of our room, pulled the table away from against the wall (the table was heavy as we have mountains of books on it, and we weren't keen on scratching the parquet floor).

We jumped more than a couple of times when, for example, the carpet brushed against our leg as we were pulling out a box from under the table.

Oh wait, we think we know where the bug spray is!

Rushed down, found the bug spray, came back up, and started spraying places where we suspected the spider could be. Much to our surprise Shelltox doesn't smell as strong as it used to 15 years ago. Still, we were not going to indescriminately fumigate our room just to try and smoke out a spider we weren't sure would be susceptible to bug spray marketed for killing mosquitoes.

In the end, we found the spider behind our table, fallen to the floor, writhing.

Made us feel like a heel for not being able to give it a quick death, and so we swatted it to end the misery.

Now we wonder just how the fuck does Froggie put up with all the insects and lizards and all manners of creepy crawlies he photographs. Perhaps it's because they're not in his room.

CNY Recap, 2011

2011-02-17T18:06:00.000+08:00

And...

This year's Chinese New Year was spent being sick the entire time. Started before eve where we picked up the flu bug of the backdrip variety, which meant itchy throat, some difficult sniffling, and lots and lots of chesty chesty coughing.

We thought it was an okay time to fall sick, since all we had to do was rest and there isn't much one can do during the first couple of days of CNY, hence we thought no problem.

Until the reunion dinner.

Now we think best time to fall sick is after the family dinners is best. Especially since our reunion dinner was held in a restaurant this year - while waiting for each course we had to head to the restrooms to hawk up and all that. Very inconvenient.

But being sick on CNY isn't all that bad otherwise. Sleep, wake up, eat, play Starcraft, play Cityville, sleep again. Stay far away from baby. No need to go anywhere, drive anyone, do anything.

It was a good four days of rest, and then we were back to work on Monday, still sick. Which wasn't all bad because we were the only one at work on Monday, hence we needn't worry about spreading it about.

We got better in time for the TTDI visitations last Saturday - the day was spent gambling at lad's (blackjack), Puddy's (In Between) and TTP's (Texas Hold'em Poker) houses. Texas Hold'em Poker was interesting because Long Leaping actually owns a set, complete with chips, cards and even bought a felt poker table mat!

Unlike gambling at Blackjack or In Between, where we only left the dollar gambled out in plain sight while all other cash remained hidden in the wallet, for Texas Hold'em we swapped money for chips, hence there wasn't so much a fear of losing money. Perhaps because we've already considered the RM10 we've swapped for chips as lost already, and it was a fixed sum (unlike the other games where we can continue playing till our wallet was sapped dry).

Anyways.

It's Chap Goh Meh today and we're still sick with a mild dry cough that probably gets aggravated in cold dry air-conditioned rooms in the middle of the night.

And we've not eaten a single mandarin the entire CNY!!!

Countering Commercialism

2011-02-16T01:28:00.003+08:00

This is the season for florists, and we do remember asking before the prices and one particular florist did actually quote us different prices based on when we wanted to buy the flowers (naturally, with prices on V-day being anywhere up to twice the usual price!). Hence we'd only bought just one rose previously, balking at spending for an entire bouquet (and we think The Chief would have disapproved at the expenditure). No, it's not that we were being cheap, it's just that we thought it's possible to get a nice bunch of flowers at a decent price if we looked.

And then last year as we visited Petaling Street we came across stores and stores of florists! Selling bouquets in all sizes! Hence we made a mental note to come by this Valentine's Day to see if we could get a decent dozen or something.

Last we asked at a florist near home, we were told a dozen costs RM200 (on the day itself). As for our expectations for the prices at Petaling Street, we expected probably somewhere RM120.

Parked at Pasar Seni, crossed the road, arrived at the largest florist with the entrance filled with bouquets and such, and was pleasantly surprised to see that our estimation was actually higher.

We would have gone for the bouquet straightaway but decided to take a walk and see what the other stores had to offer. And asides from the ready-made bouquets, there were also roses, wrapped up in dozens, still with their leaves and thorns, for sale. Also in assorted colours! And as we were walking off, we heard someone ask the price of those roses. Turns out to be only a fraction of the bouquets!

And so in the end we bought a dozen pink roses, a few stalks of white daisies and a vase for only a fraction of a bouquet (although admittedly the bouquet looks nicer compared to our offering)! And the florist even helped us remove the thorns and excess leaves, trim it to a suitable height for the vase, and arrange it before tying it up and wrapping the flowers to prevent damage!

A covert method of delivery was required when it came to personally delivering the flowers, so our next stop was to iKea to grab a box. No need to buy one when there's plenty of used, empty boxes for free near their Customer Service counter.

And here romanticism went downhill as we didn't realise that while we chose a box larger tall enough to fit the vase, it wouldn't fit the vase with the flowers (we estimated too little on this). Hence we'd to carry a box and a plastic bag (opaque enough to hide the fact that there were flowers inside), call the Chief to come out and take the box and plastic bag, and told The Chief that water was needed urgently for the contents.

Hence The Chief had to arrange the flowers into the vase (well, basically undo the wrapping and place the entire thing as-is directly into vase) and water it instead of receiving an already prepared gift.

Sigh. Next year we'll do better.

Thirty Years, Birthday Cheers

2011-02-11T00:28:00.004+08:00

...because we're running out things to rhyme with 'years' that we could put in context with our birthday party at 42 East (yes well if we wanted to we could come up with something but it might be too sappy or cheesy for us to bear with sometimes).

For all the Chief keeps telling us how stressful it is to plan a birthday party, the Chief does plan well. We were left in the dark as to where the venue was, and quite surprised when we were told that it was actually nearby in TTDI itself. Better yet was when on the day itself we found out that it the Chief pulled some strings to get the entire place to ourselves (almost to ourselves, walk-in customers to the place were served too).

And just as we thought we knew where it was, we found ourself led to 42 East instead. Hey, goes to show how rarely we go that far up the pub street of Taman Tun.

This time, we had the tables set up with half of the chairs actually being wall sofas, so instead of a rather long table with eight people on one side, the proprieter of the place split it to two tables instead. Still meant we had to play Musical Chairs to get to chitchat with every one.

The food was good, although between the chicken and the pork ribs served for the set meals, we must say the pork ribs tasted better. The Chief thought that since we just had pork the night before, we might want a change of taste. Anyways, since most meals with The Chief are shared half-and-half (unless we've agreed not to swap), we got to enjoy the pork ribs too.

And so, Thaipusam lunch was a blast celebrated with our Chief, Alex, Bunny, carpe diem, Jaded Jeremy, Junior, Legolas, Lifebook, Little Prince, Luscious Leesh, nivlac, Ryan, Sinner, SK, and William! Many thanks for celebrating with us and welcoming us to Club 30!

We don't think anyone would appreciate us putting up their photos through the fish lens we got as a present though - but we're using it for our contacts list. And it's causes us a moment's hesitation every now and then when we get a Whatsapp text or a call and a blown-up face stares at us!

Thanks again to our dear Chief for going through the trouble for organizing this party, and to everyone for the effort in coming!

Now let's see the rest of this year through without feeling any older!

Thirty Years, Aging Fears

2011-01-25T01:05:00.002+08:00

The thing about aging is that you come to miss things when they disappear. Or change. And in our case, this year, as we hit the big three-oh, we noticed a rather obvious change.

Admittedly this change is not something never experienced by anyone else, and we should think it, well, normal, but we must say we rather dread what this may mean for us.

See, during our first birthday party this year, halfway through our fajitas we started feeling sleepy - a sign associated with eating till we were stuffed and ready to start sweating as our metabolism burns off the extra food, and sleep while we're at it.

Only, throughout dinner feeling slightly groggy and full, we never felt the burn. No spontaneous sweating, not until we were all in stuffy George And The Dragon.

Then sometime the following week we celebrated with our family at El Cerdo. There's the three of us, attempting to finish off a baked oyster with bacon bits each (good but we find we prefer raw oysters with lemon and salt), a platter of three large sausages and four mini-sausages (very tasty, mashed potatoes include bacon bits too, yummy!), a pan of seafood paella (the rice turned out a bit wet, disappointingly), and a plate of spare ribs (to die for).

Naturally being small eaters (ahem) the three of us couldn't finish everything and we ended up tapau-ing the rest of the spare ribs, and upon reaching home all of us ended up just sitting on the couch feeling slightly dazed. After which we proceeded to head upstairs, change into our sleeping togs, and hit the sack, sleeping heavily till next morning. Again, during the trip back home, no sign of metabolism burn.

Hence how people normally go, "Once you reach your thirties ah, your metabolism slows down, will get fat."

We is the sad.

Thirty Years, Birthday Peers

2011-01-21T00:02:00.005+08:00

And the birthday parties this year begins with the weekend out with the TTDIans, celebrating the birthdays for the January babies! This time we celebrated our birthday together with Puddy and Steward 'Suf, at Chilis BSC.

Now usually Chilis is a bit...difficult when it comes to group celebrations because of their reservation policy - from what we understand they have a no-booking policy and the entire party has to be there in order to be seated. And not everyone will arrive exactly on the same time (yours truly here is a prime example of not being able to arrive punctually, sad to say, even with the disciplined Chief who hates to keep others waiting trying to get us going!) because, say, some unforseen circumstances or other. But luckily for us Chilis BSC allowed us to be seated with just five people, half our party! Thumbs up for them for this.

It's been a while since we had dinner at Chilis, especially their fajitas were yummy - our only issue is that they only supplied three pieces of fajitas to eat our mushrooms and chicken with. Instead of being able to apply a sensible amount of chicken strips, mushroom, sour cream, diced tomatoes etc and eating it something similar to a popiah, we end up stuffing it to the point where it's more like we're eating a taco.

Cue Taco Neck Syndrome.

After dinner it was off to George And The Dragon for more drinks!

Unfortunately as some of the other tables were booked we had to make do with a couple of tables against the wall, where, while it could easily seat the twelve of us, was not well ventilated and the lot of us were feeling stuffy not before long, making it hard to chill and enjoy our drinks. Speaking of drinks, we'd the Soft Snake Bite Black, a mix of (if we're not wrong) cider, Tiger, Blackcurrent and Pernod and worked well for us after our meal.

Thus the card-and-present giving ceremony was brought up to speed, starting from the youngest: Puddy, followed by Steward 'Suf and then us (ah, so far we're destined to be the first to have his birthday in any group...).

What did we get?

A new home!

Gosh, we were so excited! Honestly, we just recently went to pay a visit to Setia Alam, and they've got a spanking new development coming up that looks very nice on 3D rendering as well as a rather attractive concept to said development, we're so tempted except for the RM1.6mil+ price tag which will put a crimp in our spending power. Scratch that. It'll put a total STOP to our spending. Period. Here's chicken rice for lunch every day.

Anyways, back to our new home!

It's much bigger than our current home indeed!

And it's twice our current home!

So big that we can actually fit our current home inside!

See since our last Sporeland trip recently we've been toying with the idea for a bigger Crumpler, one that will be able to fit in our iPods (Touch and Video) and a X-mini speaker. So that we don't have to rely on our earphones. Yes, it would be a tad obnoxious if we'd plugged in a X-mini to our iPod Touch, prop it up on the table and proceed to eat lunch while watching some noisy show at near-full volume without a care to what everyone else thinks. But it would be okay if we were in some quiet place or for some music to go with a spontaneous party! All right let's not try to justify carrying an X-mini around...

The birthday babies also got Sticky candies from Germ! Brill stuff.

We were seated in the corner dominated by iPhones, hence there were talk of what's new in apps and games. And the highlights?

Run Like Hell!

It was funny, but the slow response of the gameplay was a bit of a turn-off.

Then we moved on to watching Talking Carl fight with each other!

All in all, it was a great time spent and, well, to all the TTDIans (interestingly it's not as if everyone stays in TTDI), we're gonna be welcoming you all to Club 30!

Thank yous going out to our Chief for organizing this, and to lingo, NJAPF, lad, esteban, 'Vin, otousan, Germ, Stewardess Sal for being part of the celebration, and happy birthday to Steward 'Suf and puddy!

Thaipusam Trivia

2011-01-09T23:39:00.003+08:00

And so, there we were, surfing on the iPhone while mum was watching footie on telly, when we got into the conversation of where to have our birthday dinner. The date was decided easily, the venue, not so, and we mentioned about taking leave around the Thaipusam week, and the next thing you know we learn from mum that we were born on Thaipusam as well, there's a 30-year cycle to when it falls back on the same date, and that around that period there were three public holidays.

Ok. Let's see if 30 years from now, this still holds.

Bon Annee 2011!

2011-01-06T13:48:00.002+08:00

And we're well into January of the new year! And what better way to celebrate than to have a party! Lad had put out an email for a Christmas-cum-New Year's party, and although we were a bit beat from having to help out with Christmas parties our family had, we were looking forward to meeting up with friends for a potluck, banter and the likes.

From us, we brought ice cream and mini ice cream cones for the potluck, and our Wii and Jenga for entertainment.

Turnout was good, with everyone bringing food from 6 liters of sangria (and so much chopped fruit in it that it doubled as a fruit salad!), a dessert made from humongous pisang tanduk, chicken and beef satay, nachos with cheese, fruit salad, Jagermeister, and roasted chicken with potatoes!

Once everyone was stuffed, we turned to Jenga as yours truly here forgot (we went home to check, and shall now say, couldn't find) the step-down power converter for our Wii, hence we couldn't set it up to play.

It's interesting how the Jenga games vary from one group to another. With the bloggers we get Freeform Jenga, where instead of placing the pieces neatly on the top it could be placed any way, any how as we liked. And the game could start with someone building the tower any way he liked too rather than the default 3-by-3!

With Nut and gang, it became Orgy Jenga, with everyone taking out and replacing pieces at the same time (we didn't watch this too much as we were too busy enjoying Booker's lovely cocktails).

With the Taman Tun-ites, so far it's normal Jenga. Well we guess it's also because it's a rather big group, hence not everyone was keen to play only to find that when it's finally their turn, they're given this tottering structure destined to crumble upon touching. Maybe Freeform Jenga works better for groups under 10 people?

And we've yet to get people to try Shot Jenga, where when it's your turn, you take a shot, then remove and replace a piece.

Oh well. Twelve days of Christmas and it's time to take down the tree!

iPods, iPods Everywhere

2011-01-05T17:31:00.000+08:00

Last night when synchronizing music and videos and apps, we just found things getting to a ridiculous point.

For we had to sync music to the iPod Video 30GB (which is reaching full capacity, all of which is just music and no videos at all).

Then season 3 of Dexter as well as a couple of movies to be sync'ed to the iPod Touch 8GB (also at full capacity, but hey, it's only 8GB).

Then a bit of music, a bit of videos, and synchronize updated apps between our iPhone and desktop.

Goodness from cutting down to a single iPhone instead of carrying about a Nokia and the iPod Touch, it seems that we will be carrying all three if we wanted to be equipped with our media! Goodness knows how if and when the iPad (we'll wait to see what's new in the next generation!) comes into the picture.

And here's hoping the iPhone goes to 64GB with a battery that can play music, videos, surf etc and last two days.

2, 102, 400 Minutes

2010-12-31T13:21:00.003+08:00

Oh look. We've dropped to less than a hundred posts in total for this year! And we think of it as a good year overall.

To start, we took a break from the choir this year, after two years of joining and missing out on other activities like birthday parties and cybercafe sessions. And speaking of birthday parties, we celebrated ours by having all our friends meet up at Mage Cafe (and also had us hiding under the table out of sheer shyness). Birthday parties with others also saw us all dressing up as if it was Halloween or heading out of town to Fraser's Hill to celebrate, staying in a bungalow as if we were the Bennets in Meryton. And this year we took a break from trying to organize surprise parties for the Chief (otherwise where will the surprise be?), although we managed to surprise the Chief with a belated birthday dinner at what was thought to be Al-Rahji Bank.

As for trips, we've visited Sibu and Bali for the first time, revisited Bangkok (oh the thought of Bangkok makes us melancholy, how we miss the food!), Phuket (oh the thought of Phuket makes us melancholy, how we miss the carefreeness of it all!), and Sporeland, not once, but twice (oh the thought of Sporeland makes us melancholy, how we miss the spending power!).

Only in 2010 did we finally get to actively convert videos for the iPhone! Three years after getting our iPod Touch and five years after getting our iPod Video 30GB! Now we watch don't have to wait for our turn to use the telly, we can watch our movies or telly serials anytime, anywhere! And with the Chief having an iPhone too, we can easily share videos between us (although we must admit, as The Chief's taste runs more towards Chinese serials like Born Rich while ours stay English, although The Chief has started Dexter too!).

Other stuff this year includes only a single treasure hunt trip that took us to Kenyir, our first time waxing, and our return to our dentist (after years of absence) first to fix up our pearlies, then to remove one of them.

And it was this year that we became an Unker (and our sis has already been calling us and all her friends Uncle too)!

We'll say it was a good year. Time sort of flew by without us noticing, like how the TTDIans had a knockout drink session sometime in March, but we thought it to be sometime in the middle of the year!

Anyways, hello 2011!

Rowan Atkinson, Live

2010-12-29T02:51:00.004+08:00

Another Christmas and this time we're reminded of something we've not been able to watch for a long time, since VHS went obsolete.

Some of our favourite videos, which we have on videotape, but over the years they have fallen victim to either fungus, insect eggs, damage from wear and tear, and finally, when all our VHS players finally stopped working.

Some we've managed to get on DVD, much to our delight. This plus the fact that we have converters and the likes mean we also have digital backups asides the physical copy (although we don't cherish the thought of converting all 200 episodes of Sailormoon into a digital copy, what more we have to decide if we're going to just convert them in a resolution just enough for the iPhone, or for the iPad, or use the default settings at the cost of hard disk space). Not all our favourite videos manage to make the leap to VCD/DVD, though.

This is why we love YouTube.

For a few good souls have managed to scavange some of our favourites, and although it's been a good seven years or more since we've watched them, we find ourself still able to quote lines without fail! Let's start with one of them.

All the time we remember how it is to dance as if there's something up the bottom (and otherwise) but muscle memory kicked in when it came to dancing too little when our hands did the job what our brain didn't recall, ha ha!

And there's also the fact that we were old enough to understand all the jokes at the time, although there were only a few scenes that were of the M15+ rating.

We've always found his skits far more entertaining without growing old. But we're sure we'll one day decide to do a Mr Bean marathon! Now, if we do find the DVD of Rowan Atkinson Live we'll be sure to snap it up in a jiffy!

Blessed Christmas 2010!

2010-12-25T04:06:00.004+08:00

Right. As far as we remember, last year we stayed up late wrapping up the last few presents, all the way till (as we refer back to last year's post) past 3.30am before going for something to eat.

And we vowed, this year we shall make sure to begin shopping before December. And we did, then we stopped, because we sort of ran out of ideas for what to buy. Our attention was then distracted from presents to decorating as we were put in charge of getting the office tree and decor, much to our delight, as we've not really had a proper (albeit fake) Christmas tree for Christmas ever since mum decided against putting up the 4-foot tree as it was a hassle to put up and take down, or because it was coming to pieces.

Come to think of it we can't even remember how the tree decor looked like except for the lights, which were colourful and spiky. And we think there was a colourful tinsel that went around the tree. But asides from that we cannot remember what ornaments there were.

Anyways. We went about checking out the fake trees available in BSC and other places, and just as we've decided on a couple, we were told to go get a real tree instead.

To be honest we weren't keen on a real tree, despite the novelty of having a real tree for Christmas instead of a fake. Firstly because there were only two places we knew of offhand that sold real trees: iKea and BSC. iKea's trees costs RM99 for their 5ft to 6ft tree (member's price) while in BSC their 4ft to 5ft tree sold for RM799 (of course, the price dropped by half that as we progressed later in December).

This meant that we would most likely be getting the iKea tree, and based on what we saw in iKea, all we can say is that they never did bother to decorate it much nor upkeep it enough to make it appealing. And with all the trees wrapped up in netting, there was no way we could know if the tree we picked would be a great tree or one where all the leaves have dropped off and the top of the tree left bare.

And the amount of leaves shed! We wouldn't mind the shedding in the office as we would leave the cleaning duties to others, but Aidan really needed a wash and vacuum...

After we'd bought the tree, we went crazy shopping at BSC for ornaments and the likes (we never did see if Tangs at Pavilion had ornaments and decorations for sale, like Tangs in Sporeland's Orchard Road) as it was cheaper and better looking compared to iKea's ornaments.

Getting the tree into the stand wasn't so easy as we needed to make sure it was centered and steady so that the tree wouldn't topple while we were halfway decorating it.

And the first thing that went on? The lights. By far the easiest job. And to be honest, even with just the lights alone, the tree looked good. We suppose that was why iKea and BSC only decorated their real trees with lights. However, it wasn't enough for us.

Ornaments gave us a bit of a problem as we needed to put them on with a delicate hand to reduce the amount of leaves shedding! And some ornaments actually came with no string! Thank goodness we had ribbons with us, and we'd to spend some time cutting and tying loops of ribbons onto the ornaments before we could hang them up.

Still in the end we manage to get the baubles up all around just right, followed by the longer ornaments to help cover the gaps, then there was the problem of the stringed beads that would have made the tree looked horrifyingly gaudy if we just looped it around the tree like a giant rosary (solved by cutting it up and hanging it about like little candy cane ornaments)....

The wire ribbons we bought? Perhaps we didn't get enough. Our initial attempts looked as if we toilet-papered the tree. Only after much deliberation and readjusting and putting on the last of the decorations did the ribbons look passable. We still don't really get how others manage very pretty ribbonwork on their trees, unless the main reason why ribbons work so well with their trees is that it works well for fake trees.

End result? We like. We really like. Choice of red and silver for this year's theme was due to our Christmas gifts being wrapped in red this year with white ribbons. Ball lights were a last addition that required a readjustment of some baubles (we didn't have the energy to remove all the decorations and redo the entire thing), but it was a major improvement.

Throw in the presents we've wrapped in red and white for the family, we've got a nice set-up to put our neighbouring offices to shame. Of course, at one point our boss did ask our colleague if the presents were just empty boxes for decorative purposes...

Perhaps for next year we can spend a wee bit for a different colour. Maybe blue and silver.

Anyways, here's wishing all a very blessed Christmas! Enjoy the holidays!

Sporeland Shopping Slump

2010-12-22T13:54:00.000+08:00

The X-Mini generation 1 speakers for less than SGD30, Gamecube controllers for SGD15, and the Wii Classic Controller Pro for SGD38 at Funan DigitaLife Mall.

Branded (and not the fake kinds too, but unfortunately we couldn't remember what brand) iPhone 3GS casings for SGD10 at Harvey Norman Suntec City Mall.

Calligraphy pens and nibs around SGD18 onwards from Art Friend, Takashimaya.

iPhone 3GS casings of Battlestar Galactica, Jurassic Park and Revenge Of The Mummy going for SGD13.90, two for the price of one, at Universal Studios Singapore.

Reese's Peanut Butter Cups in a large mug for SGD35 at the Hershey's Store, Universal Studios Singapore.

The X-Mini generation 2 speakers for under SGD50 at Urban Write, Orchard Central.

Various Super Mario Bros soft toys to bring to make the nostalgic gamer in us go crazy, from Boos to 1-Up Mushrooms and the Starman, not to mention Civilization V for PC for about SGD48, at Funz Centre at Orchard Central.

THESE ARE A LIST OF THINGS WE DID NOT GET WHEN SHOPPING IN SPORELAND. Because we were not in the proper frame of mind when shopping ie was trying to prioritize getting Christmas presents for family instead of shopping for own self when all we wanted to do was shop for ourself, and had absolutely no idea what to get for family in the first place, hence, aimless wandering in stores.

In the end we only got a couple of Zig Calligraphy pens for ourself, and at least had a night of excited shopping going through the Christmas decorations at Tangs in preparation for Christmas parties over the weekend when we were in Sporeland.

Chronically Acute

2010-12-18T04:25:00.002+08:00

That is how we shall describe our situation since two Sundays ago. For that was when our first ulcer made itself known to us, somewhere far back in the deep recesses on the left side of our mouth. From being something normally bearable, after three to four days instead of improving our condition worsen to the point where we could only eat on the right side of our mouth and there were frequent sharp spikes of pain shooting through the left side of our jaw.

Two Tuesdays back, after a long karaoke session celebrating Sinner's birthday (where we stoned out after a few hours, when a slew of
Chinese songs dominated the playlist), it reached a point where we had to resort to anti-inflammatories to lessen the pain (the past few days before that had us applying Oral Aid every hour, if not more often!), not trusting paracetamol to suffice. At this point the ulcer was so large that a large drop of Oral Aid could fill it without even overflowing!

Still the pain continued that we decided to visit the doctor to have him have a look at our situation. The doc was sympathetic with our plight after one look, and diagnosed secondary infection, sending us off with a quick bout of antibiotics while telling us not continue with our painkillers and Oral Aid. In hindsight we realize we should have taken up his offer for more painkillers, extra spare stock is always handy.

By last weekend, brushing teeth was like brushing with fire, the pain had us exhausted, waking up from sleep wasn't any better as our mouth would be dry and the slight movement with a dry mouth sent fresh spikes of pain from all over, and in the aftermath of a getaway in Fraser's Hill we had the same ulcer-turned-flesh wound, an ulcer or pimple (we couldn't tell, but the pain level is the same regardless) on the bite line on the left side of our tongue, and another ulcer was beginning to form at the front of our lower gums.

Generally we're not one who can't withstand some levels of pain but this was like having a cilice continually gouging a hole in the flesh!

In the end last Wednesday, the day just before we left for Sporeland, we crawled to our dentist for his opinion. We thought perhaps he had something better, like lignocaine mouthwash, or better yet, he could just jab us with local anesthesia and offer us some temporary relief. But the first thing he uttered after taking a look?

"The upper molar is biting into your cheek, causing the ulcer and not letting it heal. You better remove it."

A rational part of us was wondering if it was necessary, were there any other options, hey, surely we didn't need to have a perfectly good tooth extracted? Rational bit momentarily thought to accuse our dentist of just wanting to extract the tooth for profit, but we trusted the dentist to be experienced enough to know what he's about, and not out just for the money.

The other parts of us were in pain, just do it and end our misery. The pain of extraction surely cannot be worse than our current situation, bloody molar no wonder we've been hurting so much and the ulcer has not been healing but getting bigger!

Half hour after he'd jabbed us twice with local anesthesia and an x-ray, the tug of war started.

The steady pressure as he clamped down and pulled. The comment that the roots were long. A switch to a different instrument where he screwed (we didn't see, it could be some sort of modified G-clamp for all we know) into the poor molar. A sort of crunch as said clamp took hold. Onwards with the steady pulling. So much for anesthesia, we could still feel the tingle of the nerves. The nurse arrives to hold our head steady. The tug of war intensifies for both parties.

Our dentist wins! A bloody molar with long roots lay beaten in his tray.

Us, relieved and feeling light-headed from the experience walked out of his room, laughing to the nurse as we paid. Partly because we were still under anesthesia (and therefore happy we couldn't feel any pain), partly from the knowledge that the source of pain was no more, and probably partly from shock (even though we knew what to expect, this wasn't our first extraction).

And it certainly did feel better! The ulcer, while still present, ceased to hurt as the tooth wasn't there to aggravate it further! It seems that we no longer need be miserable, what more just before heading to Sporeland!

So here we are in Sporeland and we're now feeling the dull pain in the gums as it's healing from the extraction (as well as from the mild shifting of the remaining teeth), and the other ulcers occasionally remind us that they are still around, but it's nothing we can't handle with a bit of Oral Aid and Nurofen!

Christmas Isn't Christmas...

2010-12-13T13:44:00.000+08:00

...till you've bought all your presents!

So last year we were rather late at shopping for presents for everyone, and vowed to begin early this year, preferably starting at the end of November. And we did begin shopping by the end of November!

Only...it's now the middle of December, our company Chirstmas meetup is looming close by, and we still have not bought any gifts for the Christmas gift exchange, nor have we bought anything for our colleagues.

Let's not even talk about presents for half our relatives. We're still stuck on what to give our baby niece asides from wee clothes and soft toys.

The best bit is that, after the initial scurry to shop for presents (and wrapping them), inertia has slowed and we've lost that sense of urgency to finish our Christmas shopping. And yet we've only about eight more presents to get! Eight! Why can't we just run down to The Body Shop and pick out their prepacked gifts or to a supermarket for a box of Ferraro Rocher immediately?

We guess it's just that we're not in the mood to shop just yet.

Bite The Apple

2010-11-30T13:33:00.001+08:00

We must say, we kind of suspect that our iPod Touch (first generation) is sort of a brainwasher. A brainwasher to make one get the iPhone. Not like it was a hard job getting us to want an iPhone, but we'll admit if we never did get the iPod Touch we wouldn't really know what was with the hoo-haa about the iPhone, especially since phone-functions-wise it wasn't really up to par with the hardware of other phones and apps only started appearing on the iPhone much much later.

However, after using the iPod Touch for a while, and once Apple moved on from the core apps to mobile web apps (we gave up using this when we found out you need an internet connection to keep using them) to the App Store and not to mention the software updates that makes the iPod Touch much more useful, it wasn't long before we wanted to get an iPhone instead.

We tried telling ourself that it was because we wanted the camera function. That we could still make do with using wifi spots for surfing and all that.

It was a good thing that the third generation iPod Touch didn't get cameras in time, hence we finally caved in and gotten the 3GS. Such a difference! True, it was only a 3mpx camera when everyone else was on 5mpx, no flash, no front facing camera (hence no video calls, Facetime? What?). But it had speakers! We had a data plan and could surf anywhere! We could record better videos as we

Here was the birth of MEALWHAT(tm).

Of course, as a result of our new purchase, the steadfastedly disciplined Chief, who made good effort to discourage us from buying an iPhone until they came out with 64GB models with hardware comparable to other models and a pricetag of less than RM2000 (without getting an exorbitant phone plan), inherited our iPod Touch.

Then, out of the blue, late last month to early this month, the Chief started hinting about getting the iPhone 4. We thought the Chief was joshing, based on the specifications mentioned above but it turns out that our iPod Touch has convinced the Chief to get an iPhone as well!

If we were sure about it earlier, we might have ended up heading to the roadshow at Midvalley at 5am on Saturday a fortnight back to queue up. But we weren't sure then, and did not want to be berated by a delighted Chief at our wanton spending.

We were sure about it when the Chief started going to the Maxis centres to ask about iPhone 4 availability. The Chief, of course, blamed our iPod Touch for the sudden urge to finally get the urge for an iPhone 4.

Come last Thursday we received a text from the Chief saying that the Sunway Maxis centre has stock, but they only sell 20 units a day and that people start queuing early for it.

Coincidentally we were on leave on Friday (clearing leave), which meant we could actually queue up for it!

Too bad by the time the Chief texted us, we couldn't get a reply as to what time the queue starts in case we needed to head to Sunway Pyramid at 5am with a foldable deckchair, a fully charged Nintendo DS and iPhone, and books.

In the end we slept and woke up at 9.15am on Friday, and saw the Chief's reply saying that the queue starts around 9am. Great! We had time! Sped off to Sunway Pyramid and arrived to see a few people milling about the entrance. Phew, we had a chance at getting the iPhone after all!

When the shutters rolled up a staff got people forming a queue for the iPhone and another for anything else. We ended up first in line for the iPhone queue, but offered our place to a Malay couple who actually arrived earlier (the Malay lady was about to start grumbling about us already, we were sure).

For a while we might have regretted letting the couple go first - when a Maxis staff asked them how many iPhones they wanted we thought they mentioned that they wanted 2 each. But luckily it turns out that they only wanted one each. Which meant we got the third iPhone 4. Still lucky, because it turns out that Sunway Maxis was only giving out FIVE iPhones that day. Good grief. And our trip down was not in vain!

The best bit is that we managed to keep it hush-hush from the Chief, who thought we would only go down on Saturday to try! We got to tumpang gembira when we bought the iPhone 4 too, it was as if we were buying it for ourself, haha. When the Chief left work we got the two of us to head to the Maxis Centre at TTDI where we presented the Chief with the iPhone 4 all nicely wrapped in Christmas wrapping and we got the SIM card cut. The weekend was then spent with us copying over all our paid apps to the Chief's laptop, syncing apps and movies, and shopping for a cover and screen protectors.

So soon we'll be getting our iPod Touch back, to be fully utilized for watching movies and tv shows!

Wire Less

2010-11-24T18:09:00.004+08:00

It never really occured to us about how old the computers we use (both our home desktop and our laptop) were. Well, that's not entirely true. We know the desktop and the laptop are both 7 years old, just how slow it can be to start it up Windows XP (we'll turn the thing on and then go do something else for about 10-15 minutes), how at times programs will hang up on us for no apparent reason, how we constantly turn on the Windows Task Manager to check on running programs and which ones we can safely terminate, and how it taught us patience.

So, let us rephrase our starting sentence. We have forgotten just how fast computers can be nowadays.

That is, until recently where we've gotten a new laptop. It partly reminded us of when we were getting our desktop 7 years ago, because of one thing: the graphics card. Not keeping in developments for graphics cards meant we have no idea of the difference between the bloody model numbers that they're named. Hence we resort to checking the hardware requirements for games for a rough idea.

Other than that, we know our own minimal requirements for the processor and memory etc, and we got ourself a little beauty that made us feel pretty suaku about technology!

Imagine, Windows 7 has been around for a year and we've only started experiencing it now, going, "Gosh it does this! OMG it does that!" Very undignified, but hey, we're enjoying our new toy and it wasn't even an Apple product. Yes, rather amazing, as normally it's Apple who's able to wow us with it's marketing hype and great aesthetics while with Windows we just go, oh, ok. This time what we feel with Windows 7 is more of like how we feel when the iPod Touch and iPhone gets an iOS update, say from iOS1 to iOS2.

Thankfully we'd Lifehacker to help out with the new features and keyboard shortcuts, as well as some other program suggestions to install other than those that we already use, like iTunes, Handbrake and Dropbox.

We almost digressed into the topics of Nokia vs Apple with regards to things like advertisements, software updates and the likes.

Anyways.

Since our new toy is a laptop, the next step towards making it more useful to us ~~for playing Starcraft 2~~ is to get ourself a mouse. And quite likely a keyboard too, as we felt the chiclet keyboard took some getting used to (plus not to mention we worry if it can handle the abuse). In our haste we dragged the Chief to Low Yat to see what was currently available. Only, after a couple of hours it was pretty obvious that we were only ever considering Logitech or Microsoft (no, we weren't keen on shelling out for Razer) while the Chief thought any brand would do so long as it met our specifications.

Our specifications? Well, near impossible to meet, probably.

Firstly we hadn't decided if we were going to get a wireless keyboard and mouse, or a USB cabled one. After some mulling we were leaning towards getting a wireless set as that would only use a single USB port rather than two (one for keyboard, one for the mouse). Also, we had some other project in mind that required the wireless keyboard and mouse.

We wanted a keyboard with the numeric keypad intact, after all, what's the point of a bigger keyboard if it's just similar to the current keyboard as on the laptop?

We were also looking for a keyboard that wasn't large and bulky. Yes, well, we were really pushing our luck with that demand. We actually even considered getting a laptop bag just slightly larger than the current one that came with the laptop, just so that it could accommodate such a keyboard.

Somehow that first day shopping we had an image of Nokia's wireless keyboard imprinted in our brain, a model of the sort of keyboard we were looking for. Well, nearly the sort of keyboard we were looking for. All that was missing was the numpad. Otherwise, it was ideal, being foldable for portability.

The Chief did point out some admittedly usable options for whatever we were looking for, by brands we've never heard of before this, but we always found some excuse why we weren't interested.

Yes, admittedly we're a brand whore.

But a poor brand whore. That puts Apple's wireless keyboard and Magic Mouse, both costing RM229 each, out of the picture. Not to mention the keyboard doesn't even have numpad. We could get a rather good wireless keyboard and mouse set from the others for less than that price. We haven't really a budget but we get rather hesitant when the price tag reads over RM100. That rules out keyboards akin to the Nokia one as those won't come cheap too.

Oh there were a few more bits and pieces to pick on when it came to deciding on the keyboard and mouse, and in the end we didn't get any and the Chief loaned us an old Logitech wireless mouse (not the birthday gift from the TTDI gang, though!), which so far serves us well.

We probably will skimp and save for the Logitech Unifying series when we can.

The project? We kinda fancy plugging up the laptop to the telly with a HDMI cable, followed by some serious sofa slouching with keyboard on lap and mouse beside us as we ~~play Starcraft 2~~ enjoy the big screen!

Team Layton And The Dam Trip

2010-11-19T01:26:00.007+08:00

You know, it being our first time going to the east coast and our first time to Lake Kenyir Resort And Spa, we admit to being a wee bit excited as to what the place held in store for us. Factor in a treasure hunt that would start around 7am in the morning (which meant everyone had to be up by late 5am to early 6am, meet for breakfast and then head down to the venue in Shah Alam) and take around 7 hours, followed by another 250km before we reached the hotel, well...

We knew that there would be the chance that we wouldn't be able to do much once we arrived at the hotel as it would be quite likely we all would take a nap before dinner. We remembered the Rasa-Rasa treasure hunt, where after the hunt around Klang Valley finished by 3pm, we went back and slept till near 7pm before heading down to 3K Inn at USJ for the dinner.

We never expected that we would only reach the resort at Lake Kenyir only at 8pm.

8pm!

The treasure hunt itself was rather adventurous, taking us all over the place out of Klang Valley, and while solving cryptic crosswords helped speed up our ability to solve certain puzzles, we were still lacking a bit in certain areas. Like in spotting rather small logos/signs that were the answers for some of the questions. Some of the times where we spent too long looking for answers were due to trying to spot that small sign which were still visible from the car. However, there were still some questions that stumped the lot of us, that can't be helped except to keep doing more puzzles we suppose.

Once we were done with the treasure hunt, it was onwards to Lake Kenyir Resort And Spa! As esteban was familiar with Kuantan, we all stopped at Hai Peng for a tea break (time management during the treasure hunt meant we never did had time for a lunch break!). The stopover at Kuantan turned out to be both a good and bad thing, good because it meant we got a quick rest, food and coffee before making our way onwards to the resort, but bad because we only reached the hotel at 8pm, just in time for the start of dinner.

You don't really want to be travelling on the roads to Lake Kenyir when it gets dark. There aren't many street lights and as we were reaching Lake Kenyir, we were greeted by a particularly treacherous road filled with lots of potholes.

If the travel time didn't already discourage us from going to Lake Kenyir again, the roads did. We kept worrying about the car suspension when we accidentally hit the potholes in the dark, and it only got easier when we caught up with a lorry, and used it to navigate the road. Another three cars caught up with us, and didn't try overtaking us too. We learned later that they decided it was much easier to tail us to the resort, thinking we knew our way as we had lad's Nokia N97's Garmin leading the way. They continued tailing us even after we made a wrong turn and led the entire party to a jetty instead of the resort at first.

Honestly, we don't think we'll ever make the trip to Lake Kenyir by car or coach from KL. If it's a flight to Kuala Terengganu first, then a transfer pickup from the resort, then maybe.

Reaching the resort at night meant we couldn't see any scenery, but not that it mattered much anyways because we were rather hungry by that point. Parked at the parking lot, got our room keys, and were ferried by buggy (buggied?) to our respective chalets to drop our stuff before we were taken to the dinner venue.

Had our fill and then it was time for the prize-giving. Prizes were given for the top 31 places (the odd number due to tied scores we surmise), and calculating based the score the 31st team scored, we suspected we were somewhere in the top 35 (so we would like to believe).

Anyways, when people ask if we won anything we would nicely say we won a one night stay at Lake Kenyir, complete with dinner and breakfast, and a nice goodie bag. Which we did, after all.

We didn't plan to do much the next day too, for judging from the time we took to reach the resort, we thought it best to check out early for the 7-hour journey back home. So all we did was have breakfast with a view...

Then headed down to the jetty within the resort grounds to take a closer look at the lake. No, we didn't decide to rent a boat to go rowing. We hate how we tend to compare lakes here with those in Glasgow or the Lake District or in Austria, where their lakes were like mirrors.

After 5 minutes at the jetty, we headed back into our air-conditioned chalets for a quick game of Kill Dr Lucky and some rest before we packed up.

Then it was time to check out and leave!

Stopped by Kuantan again, this time at Kemaman Kopitiam (because all other places were closed when we arrived around 3pm). Three of us had the Nasi Lemak Special while esteban had the Nasi Dagang, we all had coffee and such, and then lad went to pay. When the cashier rang up a total of RM72.80, lad thought the cashier was joking. Turns out the cashier wasn't, and then we discovered that the Nasi Lemak Special we had, with the chicken chop sized lemongrass chicken, was about RM12. Our drinks were RM5.50 each. Only esteban's Nasi Dagang was the cheapest, being RM3.50. Good thing the food was good, otherwise we'd all be griping all the way home.

It was somewhere around 7pm when we arrived home, even though we left at 11am!

It was a shame that we didn't extend our stay at the resort, since the difficulty in getting there itself means we aren't going back there any time soon. So we can't say if Lake Kenyir would be a great place for a vacation. But it certainly is a large place to explore, and if you're the adventurous, nature-loving type then there would probably be enough things to keep you occupied what with the many waterfalls to visit. Otherwise, lazing a couple of days in the resort chalet would be a great way to destress (provided you don't mind your chalet running the risk of being invaded by insects that may find their way in).

Another unfair comparison we have to make here. After Nusa Dua, Lake Kenyir can't really compare. And dammit we never did get to explore the spa facilities!

Team Layton And The Top Gear Treasure

2010-11-12T19:00:00.003+08:00

And the weekend is finally here! Team Layton, once again, into the foray of treasure hunting! This time Team Layton will be taking on Top Gear's treasure hunt, which starts from Shah Alam and goes all the way to Lake Kenyir!

Well there was a treasure hunt organized by GSC, but the entry fee was a bomb while this one costed only RM600 and included a one night stay at the Lake Kenyir Resort & Spa with meals included, and each member got a generous goodie bag! Definitely quite worth it, even if we don't do as well as we could. In fact, lad has already mentioned that if we cannot answer half the questions that will come out we'll just head straight to the hotel instead.

Now if only we knew just what to expect of Lake Kenyir! Will we swim? Visit the waterfalls? Laze at the resort playing Jenga and other boardgames? Will the shutterbugs with their fancy DSLRs (and us with our iXus and iPhone) go trigger happy?

Or will we all be knocked out in bed from an exhausting morning (because treasure hunts do start at unimaginable hours of 6am!) and miss out on all Lake Kenyir has to offer? What more we should only be reaching the resort after the treasure hunt late afternoon to early evening, and on Sunday we'll be heading back home!

Here's to us snagging top prizes!

Use It, Use It Some More

2010-11-11T13:42:00.002+08:00

Hi everyone. Our name is Janvier.

So why are we here, now? We guess it's from taking the initiative after watching Heroes Season 4 (it just gets more and more painful every season) where Matt decides that he doesn't want to use his ability and attends a support group and talks about how he has not 'used' for so long (the way he says it sounds so fake).

Then after Heroes we got to start on Dexter Season 2! Dexter attends Narcotics Anonymous, and starts sharing about his need to kill (without directly referring to what it is that he's addicted to, of course). Which sort of led us to admit that, we, too, have a...

A...

A... something we use.

We've never been aware that it's a problem. Honestly. All the time we've always figured that it was something natural, something everyone does when the thought to do it arises.

Only after watching those episodes and being aware that, if we don't get it at least once a day we get restless, we knew we had something. We could try putting names to it, but it doesn't stop it from being something that we must have.

Laytonitis.

Castlemania.

One more turn.

iPhone videos.

Creep Itch.

Oh, there be lots more.

Dammit, we need our entertainment.

Chief Celebrations 2010: Belated Dinners

2010-11-06T08:10:00.001+08:00

Admittedly this year celebrations for the Chief's birthday wasn't as well-planned out as before. Firstly the (sort of) last minute plannings to celebrate with friends, and we had not taken the Chief out to celebrate alone yet.

Our bad was in always wanting to make stuff like the Chief's birthday celebrations a surprise and all that, and although this year we'd thought not to make the celebrations with other known, we'd sort of neglected to inform the Chief about plans for birthday celebrations with just the two of us.

It goes to show, if one is to plan a surprise dinner for two to celebrate an important occasion like the other half's birthday, one really should not leave it for far too long. Like, three weeks too long.

The topic did arise at one point, and we admitted that we meant for a surprise dinner for when after the Chief's allergies got better (no, we didn't forget!). And the Chief mentioned that there was no need for the dinner already since it's already so long after the actual birth date.

If we were dense we would have nicely just left it at that an incur future wrath, we suppose. But we were actually thinking of where we could bring the Chief, someplace the Chief's not been before and serves pork (for now, that's one of the safe dishes which wouldn't knowingly aggravate the Chief's condition as we know it).

And then we had it.

And so before October ended we casually mention to the Chief that we haven't been to Sri Hartamas in a while, and wanted to eat someplace there, and no, it wasn't Souled Out. The Chief could have suspected that this was the long-overdued birthday dinner, or not, but it got the Chief thinking as to what is there to eat in Sri Hartamas.

A shot in the dark: "I don't like Korean food ah."
A non-committal reply: "No, it's not Korean."

And given the restaurant's location, the Chief never knew where we were going. Initially the Chief thought we really were going for Korean after all, although the only thing Korean at the block of shops we were on was a Korean supermarket, and what stumped the Chief most was when we reached Al-Rajhi Bank.

Riblees, nicely situated upstairs from the bank is quite a good place to surprise someone for dinner, provided that someone doesn't know about the place. A change from Checkers, also full of porky dishes, and a darker, cosier setting.

We sort of refrained from asking the establishment to prepare our table with candles and flowers and all that. Helium balloons and confetti included.

It was just too bad that, considering that we've not been there for the last couple of years, we couldn't recall what was recommended. We think the Classic American Babyback Ribs and the Roast Wild Boar Ribs were among those we thumbs up years ago, and after asking the waitress to give us a recommendation we ordered the Classic American Babyback Ribs and their special of the month, the Jamaican Jerk Style Roast Pork.

Both were good but we think we've been spoiled by Checker's Pork Chop. The barbeque sauce for the babyback ribs reminded us of Tony Roma's, but better.

And just to make sure the Chief knew it was a belated birthday dinner rather than just some random inclination to eat out, we had the waiter bring out a slice of their Oreos Ice Cream Cake with a candle. The cake, now, that was splendid. And a generous slice to boot!

We certainly saved our own hide in the end, but next year we've got to buck up! Candlelight dinner!

Chief Celebrations 2010: Party With The Gangs

2010-10-28T00:50:00.003+08:00

Last year, we told ourself that we would plan this a month in advance, meaning by August we would be planning what we wanted to do for the Chief's birthday celebrations for this year much earlier compared to last year where we got slightly worried that we were late in preparations.

However, come August we were caught up in relocation works and the lack of connectivity, we sort of didn't realize how late we were in planning until SK sent out emails in preparation for William's birthday. By then we got internet up and running, and the Chief had already clued us in regarding the selection of food when it came to venue selection (we thought to take a rest from surprise parties, doing it every year would mean it wouldn't be much of a surprise already, no?).

So much more rushed this year compared to last year, that, on the Chief's actual birthday, we were running around looking for stuff to get in preparation for the parties rather than spending it together (and worse yet, we'd made it sound as if we were only going about our usual routine of going to the gym, getting a haircut, which we did in addition so that we didn't lie)!

We admit, the reason why we harried ourself over preparations were due to last year's Project Blue party where we had helium balloons and all that. It's quite possible that if we never planned for decorations last year we would have just booked a venue, gotten a cake, end of story. Or perhaps not. There's something about planning a party with all the little extras (to the point where it may almost resemble a kid's lawn party) that we like.

Due to a flare-up of allergy attacks, the Chief thought it prudent to avoid certain foods so that it didn't worsen the condition. This meant our choices leaned heavily towards porky places, hence celebration with the bloggers was at Checkers!

Bookings were made in a single phone call for a Saturday, attendance was confirmed, and on Friday we called up to ask if we could bring over the cake a day earlier. A waiter (whose first language wasn't English) answered our call and we sort of gathered that he misunderstood our request, we repeated our request and got a, "Yes, yes, no problem, ok," kind of response, so...ok. That evening we brought over the Secret Recipe White Chocolate Macadamia cake over to Checkers, and...yes, the waiter did misunderstood, thinking we wanted to have the party on Friday instead 'cos we saw the tables set out for 10 upon our arrival.

Thankfully that problem was settled without a fuss, and come Saturday went well!

Then came the following weekend (this is the first year where the Chief's birthday parties were celebrated on different weeks rather than the previous years where it was done on different days on the same weekend), where we hoped the Chief's allergies were subsiding, as the venue was at Oriental Banquet, Section 17 with the TTDI gang. The possibility of shellfish was worrying. The venue was kept a surprise from the Chief, who kept asking if we could change the venue to somewhere like Chan Char Teng at SS2 (where we could also order the giant milk tea meant for birthdays!). We kept mum and just drove.

The only concern we had with Oriental Banquet was that when we went over to make our reservations, we were informed that there would be a wedding celebration going on at the same time. We also had a couple of phone calls from them and a fax of their menu specials, advising that if we could, we should preorder our meals first. Since it involved a number of people, we didn't preorder and hoped for the best.

Turns out that Oriental Banquet had plenty of pleasant surprises for us! We got ourselves a room with a waitress to tend to our every need; instead of going for their set menus, we ordered ala carte dishes, and those were served at impressive speeds (we think we didn't wait more than 15 minutes before the food started coming in!) especially since a wedding dinner was going on outside; and the room was equipped with a karaoke machine and mikes!

Cor. Admittedly we didn't expect more than a round table on the first floor, and we were impressed with what we got! Oriental Banquet would be a nice place to go to again for celebrations.

After dinner at the Oriental Banquet, it was off to...Chan Char Teng at SS2 after all. Heh. Because not a single one of us had ever tried the giant birthday Milk Tea before! To qualify we needed to order it three days before or after the birth date (or on the actual day itself) and we needed to order at least RM30 of food and/or drinks. There was over 10 of us, but there was more than enough milk tea to go around as some were lactose intolerant (like yours truly) or had too many drinks already.

Big thank you to everyone who could make it for the parties! Here's to more to come, and that we plan them much earlier! With balloons! And confetti! Probably a pinata!

Selamat Datang Di Nusa Dua Bali

2010-10-22T23:56:00.001+08:00

Because we've never been to Bali before, and prior to this trip we were quite busy and so did not have the time to look up what Bali has to offer, our only plans for this trip were to get daily massages, the Hard Rock Cafe Hurricane Glass for the Chief, and then see what else is there to be bought in Bali. We've already two wooden puzzles from Bali courtesy of the Taman Tun-ites when they went to Bali not too long ago, plus we already have the Bali Starbucks City Mug thanks to our sis and otousan.
What else is there to do in Bali? From what we heard, surf (hence there's a beach if we want to tan and swim), and look for babi guling to eat.

Sad to say, Nusa Dua is more of a place for us once we are bored of exploring about Bali, or tired of bargaining when we shop, and just rather stay in whichever hotel we checked in. The only avenue for shopping and dining within Nusa Dua was Bali Collection, while it may be a nice place for shopping for boutique stuff, we don't really think we'd get souvenirs there when you can bargain elsewhere.

Nevertheless, Nusa Dua is pretty with lots of greenery and the hotels were enough to make us think we were there on holiday instead of attending some congress - really, we needn't drool over the Hanging Gardens in Ubud. No dodgy streets or dark alleyways.

As we weren't in Bali for a vacation, our only free time when in Bali was after 6pm - and by 6.30pm, it's dark, similar to 7.30pm back here in Bolehland. Thus we'd only got to spend most of our time at Bali Collection for dinner before heading back to the hotel to soak in the tub (we bought bath salts the very first night!) while watching Dexter on our iPhone.

Quick aside: just when we thought 9 episodes of Dexter was more than enough to keep us occupied for the three nights we were in Bali, we finished everything in two nights. Thank goodness we had the pilot episode of Stargate: Atlantis as well for our final night in Bali. Must work faster in converting telly shows for our iPhone!

So...Bali Collection. Only on the final day before leaving Bali did we get to explore the rest of the place, and only then did we realize our three nights there we only explored about one third of it...shy. Luckily our flight was late in the evening, giving us plenty of time to explore the rest of Bali Collection. We found a Sogo in there, which got us something unexpected!

Somehow or other we never could bring ourself to spend more than a hundred on sports shoes, the last time we bought sports shoes was in...August 2007. And because we don't remember how much those pair of Reeboks costed us then, we did remember that there was a very good discount on them (checking back and it's 60%!) and somehow thought that we paid less than a hundred for them (who knows, maybe we did). Hence we've not gotten any new shoes before this even when the Chief took us shopping in Sporeland where shoes were going cheap too (but still above a hundred after conversion).

And in the end, we didn't even get our daily massages because we balked at paying Nusa Dua rates. Sigh. Nor did we get any babi guling.

Next time, we'll go specifically for a vacation and get our daily massages!

Dhoby Ghaut

2010-10-05T01:37:00.003+08:00

Now this happened when we were in Sporeland. We've noticed at some point that at certain MRT stations, the name of the station would be written in either just English, English and Chinese, or even in Tamil (or Hindi, we're not too sure).

Given the multilingual aspect of Sporeland and Bolehland (although we hear mainly English and Mandarin in Sporeland), this bit of what would otherwise be background noise during our commute caught our interest:

"Dhoby Ghaut."
Fine.
"多美歌."
Oh, so they announce it in Chinese too.
"Please mind the platform gap."
Reminds us of the Tube's deep voice, "Miiind, the gap!"
"下车时请注意缝隙."
Right. So they alternate between Chinese and English!
"The happy-happy warm platform."
What the hey?
"(Some mutterings we could not make out.)"
Was that the Chinese equivalent?

Now initially when we started paying attention to the announcement we somehow fancied that instead of just the one lady saying it in different languages, there were two announcers, one English and one Chinese. And with that in mind, we had this image that the English announcer would speak first, then the Chinese one would translate, then back to the English announcer, etc. And then the English one would suddenly throw a curveball by uttering a totally random sentence to be translated, and the results couldn't be made out.

We mentioned it to the Chief, and while initially critical about our assessment (of course), the Chief couldn't make out what was exactly being said too what with being slightly affected by our 'happy-happy' idea. This bugged the both of us a while until one point, the Chief got it:

"Berhati-hati di ruang platform."

And the last one was in Tamil (or Hindi).

Mobile Supplements

2010-09-30T17:48:00.000+08:00

So the other day Maxis calls and offers us something for being a loyal customer: we were offered a supplementary line, with free texts and calls between the principal and supplementary line at no extra charge, so long as our monthly bill is above RM100 - which is no problem since we have a data plan in addition to our monthly plan. So we agreed to them sending us the supplementary line sim card.

Of course, the reason for the supplementary line should be obvious.

The Chief now holds the supp line, along with our L'amour. We're not sure if we ever sent a thousand texts (each) to each other in a month, but we're not so bothered keeping an eye on the character count now for texts!

Unlike our Belkin, we're not so sure if this ends with some happy ending or not. So far, we're texting and calling as normal (although using the supp line now unless we're out), but we're gonna have to keep an eye on our next couple of phone bills first before we write this off as a pleasant treat for being a loyal customer.

There goes the notion of switching over to Digi. Why doesn't Digi have single-year contracts anyway?

Sometimes, It Pays

2010-09-29T01:13:00.003+08:00

...to pay a little more.

When our modem got fried we were left with no wireless solution, we were grateful that we'd gotten ourself the Belkin with the lifetime warranty. Honestly, we'd only used it for about four months only and it got zapped! Imagine if we'd opted for a slightly cheaper one and it didn't get zapped till after the warranty expired!

It took us some three weeks before we got word that they've replaced our modem (then again, factor in the Raya hols and the brand-new Malaysia Day too), and were we in for a pleasant surprise:

We'd expected them to replace our fried modem with an exact same model, but hey! They've given us one of the newer models! To think we were slightly sore over that fact since they released the newer models about a month after we bought the modem!

Once again, Belkin's packaging showed who their target market was. Honestly's quite a pleasure to unbox as they made everything easy to understand.

And even provide a card where you can jot down the network name and password and slot it underneath the Belkin, just in case you forget!

But the joy of being connected wirelessly again! Everything is good once more!

Cover Story

2010-09-23T17:59:00.000+08:00

Let's take a look between this:

And this:

And finally, this:

Photos are credited to gamebooks.org. We prefer our cover to be number two, where you can see Lone Wolf standing on the pedestal (and not looking scary, waif-thin and unheroic...come on, he's trained for battle, why is he looking so fragile?!).

We can't say we like the cover art for the Lone Wolf books that were distributed in Bolehland (which is cover art three), but we didn't know that there were alternate cover art until we saw the books at an old schoolmate's house. Compared to the ones we've got, we were impressed with the artwork and the fact that they actually drew out the character of Lone Wolf. Turns out, those nice artwork covers were the American release edition (with grayscale map instead of colour maps and, in some cases, abridged) while the ones we got were by the UK publisher showing some artsy perspective of a monster.

It was only after some 15 books that the UK version came out with art depicting Lone Wolf...but a faceless Lone Wolf it was. Perhaps it was so you can stick a photo of your own face in place, since you'd actually be playing the role of Lone Wolf.

While the US cover art were drawn by different illustrators so Lone Wolf looks different from cover to cover (yes, yes even after factoring in age as he goes on to becoming Kai Grand Master).

Recently we were just in Mage Cafe and came across the Legends Of Lone Wolf Omnibus, covering the first two novels based on the gamebooks (hmmm we should check if 'Ward still has most of the novels) and that brought on the nostalgia for the gamebooks. Our collection of the Lone Wolf gamebooks (and the Fighting Fantasy gamebooks) were all given away when we shifted, and we've not gotten back to buying those books because, honestly, who actually honestly plays those gamebooks?

We've tried. But at some point or other, we lost track of which section we were supposed to turn to, or died in combat, or died out of nowhere, we went, "Ahfuggedaboutit!" and just read our way through the books.

And now, since we're feeling nostalgic, we feel like playing reading them through again. But we're lazy to do it at Project Aon (which is a cheaper and easier way to play the Lone Wolf gamebooks) and we're rather not keen on buying the books again yet (for collecting purposes).

For Summerlund and the Kai!

The Legend Of The Chinese Movie Formula

2010-09-22T01:49:00.004+08:00

We just came back from watching Legend Of The Fist: The Return Of Chen Zhen and boy, the show seemed a tad too ambitious in what they were trying to do. There was Chen Zhen acting as the Prince of Persia at the start of the show, then moonlighting as a masked crusader, there were Brits and Japanese forces in China, there were resistance fighters, plenty of gratuitous kungfu violence, and Donnie Yen making those high-pitched yowls and taking off his shirt for added strength.

We were thinking that the focus was going to be more on Donnie Yen pulling off a secret superhero identity while dressed like Kato from the Green Hornet (we think it's some kind of nod to Bruce Lee, since this show was suppose to be the sequel to Fist Of Fury), but somehow there were too many things going on when they have to add in the somehow-required Chinese Movie Formula script.

Oh yes. The CMF. Something we've been noticing in the kungfu films. For that, throw in the following:

One. A historical time of oppression, when China is under the iron fist of some other country.

Two. Some form of resistance, probably led by a newspaper editor. Said newspaper editor, and his office may at some point in the show be attacked by the oppressors and they may beat him up and probably say, "Write nasty stuff about us, eh? Let's see you write like this!" while crushing his hand.

Three. A Chinese police officer forced to work under the oppressive government. Probably able to speak their language too, but most of time is able to speak in rapidfire Cantonese or Mandarin and still be understood. And Chinese officer will be accused of being ineffectual and the oppressor's lackey.

Four. Chinese propaganda about how the Chinese will never give up and become slaves to the oppressor, and people saying about how it's okay to die as long as it's for something honourable.

Five. Oppressors are always shown to be violent, heartless and cunning, resorting to underhanded measures especially for point six. Unlike the honourable and compassionate Chinese.

Six. There will be a showdown finale between the martial arts savvy protagonist and a martial arts savvy oppressor. The oppressors, even though confident that they will crush the protagonist with ease, will either drug or poison, overwhelm to weaken with underlings, or cheat one way or another. Protagonist will still win in the end.

Seven. The show ends with text telling slightly more of what happens to the protagonist, and that the war is far from over...

Perhaps we're exaggerating but there's a familiarity that bores a bit after a while. The best thing we can do to enjoy the film?

Switch off brain. Enjoy gratuitous violent kungfu battle scenes. Applaud that Donnie Yen's allowed to go even more freestyle compared to his affable and reserved Ip Man role where he doesn't kill everyone. After that, remember only the fighting scenes and don't question the script.

Casinos & Universal Studios, Sporeland Style

2010-09-20T00:16:00.008+08:00

So during the end of last month we made a trip down south to Sporeland with a few things in mind, and among the planned activities were paying a visit to the two new casinos and Universal Studios! Even though we'd planned for a nice long weekend there, the days were packed with walking and commuting and games from morning till late night, that we were quite grateful that we'd arranged our trip to leave on Monday night (by the overnight train, of course) and arrive back on Merdeka Day, giving us a day of rest before starting work again.

Imagine. By Monday our legs and feet were aching even after a leisurely stroll and by noontime we were considering heading back to our sis' place to rest instead of going about shopping. If we stayed till Tuesday, and headed back on the overnight train and arrived home on Wednesday, we would be in no condition to do anything productive.

So anyways Thursday night we made our way down, arrived in Sporeland on Friday morning, headed to settle our luggage and freshen up and our sis' place before heading out to have lunch at Kuishin-Bo. We were starving when we left our sis' place that we would have stopped for lunch at Suntec's Food Republic, where we did stop for a while to take photos of the decor.

If we recall this is not the first time we'd noticed the library-like decor at the Food Republic, but it's the first time we're paying attention to it. The Chief hurried ahead to leave us alone to suaku take photos like some awestruck tourist.

Propaganda attack: Dollar for dollar, you can enjoy a nice Japanese buffet lunch for $20-something, unlike back here where you have to break a fifty, or two.

Kuishin-Bo Suntec had this lunch offer where if you're done eating in under an hour, you pay only SGD21.90++, otherwise it's SGD28.90++ (we think we got the prices right). Certainly had our fill as we were already starving! A lesson learned here is to avoid the little chocolate desserts if we plan to make full use of the buffet spread in under an hour.

A leisurely walk around Suntec City (and our first hands-on on a working, jailbroken iPad) and Raffles after that, and by night we were back at our sis' for boardgames with the bro-in-law and his group of friends.

Till...3am.

Saturday noon was off to Marina Bay Sands! Only, we forgot to bring our passport along, and so wasn't allowed entry into the casino. So we walked about the shops, took photos of the rain oculus, and like many other people, threw coins. Except we weren't throwing it at the eye, but trying to roll the coin in a spiral towards it. Fail.

Then later inside we saw the rain oculus from below. There were boat rides going on, and we wondered if anyone in the boats got hit by coins (honestly we keep picturing rich tai-tais screaming in pain as a coin pierced through one eye). The Epicentre there was full of people so we didn't get another chance at the iPad, and so we made our way to Orchard before heading back to get our passports. The night before's gaming session told on us as every time we commuted or whenever we sat down to eat, we would go into standby mode now and then. The Chief, patient martyr, let us rest and either played Mega Jump on the iPod Touch or looked out for when to get off the MRT/bus.

The Marina Bay Sands Casino was nice, and quite modern in some ways too - like for Baccarat Punto Banco, the croupiers at Genting Resorts World had to key in the results, while in Marina Bay Sands the system somehow catches the results (we're not sure how, the Chief suggests via CCTV) and displays it automatically without the croupier doing anything. After about nearly an hour on the main floor, we explored the upper floor and discovered the non-smoking section. Bah.

As we had to make our way back to get our passports, we ended up at Marina Bay Sands rather late, and so left rather late too (no, we missed out on heading up to see the infinity pool on the rooftop) and had to catch a cab (fairly quick and easy from the hotel) back. Where we found our bro-in-law and friends having another night of boardgaming.

We showered, played Starcraft a while on the bro-in-law's pc, joined them for a round of Agricola when they started a new round, and ended up sleeping at 4am.

Sunday was to Universal Studios! Initially we planned to go Universal Studios on Saturday but they were sold out for then, so Sunday it was. And since we were going to head on to the Resorts World Casino after Universal Studios, we packed along an extra shirt, predicting our time at Universal Studios to be rather sweaty.

The Universal Studios Globe.

And the Store, where we spend a long time inside but ended up with not much.

We'll say that Universal Studios Singapore is actually not that large if compared (rather hazily due to poor memory) Universal Studios LA, but it worked to our favour as we could cover everything in one trip. We arrived at noon (thanks to yours truly who stayed up late gaming) after brunch, and managed to go for all the rides, save the kiddy ones found at the Madagascar and Lost World bit and the Battlestar Galactica rollercoaster as it was under maintenance. If we arrived when the gates opened, we could probably fit in extras like taking photos with characters (we'd only managed to get photos with Beetlejuice and some Egyptian guard as it was) and seeing a few other shows.

What we really liked about Universal Studios was how thematic it was, down to the small details! Umbrella stands were made to look like a barrel to hold weapons in the Far Far Away, in the walls of the Lost World you see amber with mosquitos in them. Of course, if you never watched the shows, you might not appreciate some of the details, but there's lots of other stuff like how toilet signs and decor differ depending whether you were in Madagascar, Far Far Away or in Ancient Egypt, that help make you feel like you're in some fantasy land and more importantly, feeling like a kid again.

We went trigger happy with the camera taking photos when in Far Far Away!

And the stuff we came across the Lost World were a tickle, from their clothes shop...

To the refreshment counter!

When we arrived at Ancient Egypt, we were quite taken in with the effort in making monuments and impressively large statues. And then we came across guards on stilts that reminded us of fauns and satyrs.

We'd no idea who he was suppose to portray, since he was off duty and was heading elsewhere ignoring a gaggle of girls who chased after him.

We didn't find anything we'd buy from the souvenir shop, and we wonder who will actually buy this throne for SGD2,800.

We went crazy at Sci-Fi City's souvenir shop buying a few Battlestar Galactica themed souvenirs. Didn't get anything that read What The Frak, though. There's more souvenirs we're keeping track off that we didn't get this time, well, because we thought the Universal Studios Store near the entrance would have all the stuff we might come across in the other stores at their respective areas (obviously not). Good thing we decided to get the BSG souvenirs when we did, otherwise we'd have to run all the way back to Sci-Fi City to get them!

After Universal Studios, our legs needed a rest and we headed for dinner, and then we were off to the casino! A quick stop at Bread Story just outside the casino showed that thematic settings didn't just stop at Universal Studios...

Resorts World Casino doesn't have that posh feel that Marina Bay Sands has, as seen by the less formal way the gamblers dress, but at least upon entry we were in the non-smoking section. And we came across the Star Wars: Light Side slots machine there! Genting has the Star Wars: Dark Side slots, and we weren't sure if there was a Light Side version till then! And we won SGD50 playing it!

That night, once home, we played Street Fighter 4 with the bro-in-law until somewhere 2am, we think. After that, we helped him get his iPad up and running, which he bought that day and left to charge till night. There was the installing of iTunes and setting up and account which took a fair bit of time, and after that we left him to play with his new toy while we went to bed.

Come Monday, it was supposed to be a rather free-and-easy day and the Chief took us around town. First up, to Sporeland's Ikea for a look-see. We haven't been there for some four years now since our sis took us there once, and remembered it differently (perhaps because our sis brought us there at night), but we found it smaller compared to the Ikea here.

After that, we crossed the street for the Katong Laksa, ate using only a spoon. Even though our legs were hurting by the afternoon we still managed to cover Queensway Mall and Chinatown before heading back to pack up our luggages!

Sis and bro-in-law then brought us to Oasis for Taiwanese porridge dinner. The place is situated at a rather nice park, and would make for rather scenic walks if not for the humid weather.

After dinner it was time to rush to the train station! It was a close call as we arrived on time with only a few minutes to spare, and we were held up by our own customs people until another officer hollered to them to let us go and stop holding up the train.

Can't remember. Think we slept throughout Tuesday. Heh. We'll be heading back to Universal Studios probably in a couple of years, when the Battlestar Galactica and Transformers rides are up and running!

Casing Conundrums

2010-09-17T02:48:00.003+08:00

As in, just how many iPhone 3GS casings will we buy before we stop? 'Cos right now, we're at number three:

Meet the Battlestar Galactica iPhone 3GS casing, which we picked up while at Universal Studios Sporeland for some SGD14 (honestly we can't remember if it was SGD13.90 or SGD16.90 but it's cheaper than any original covers found here). The BSG cover differs totally from the Watermelon and the Chocolate, not only in colour scheme but also in terms of size and feel.

With the Chocolate, it's big and rubbery, offering a good grip when we're playing games in landscape mode (especially with Robot Unicorn Attack and Minigore) and we can hear sound clearly because our hand won't cover the speakers. However, it does cover the camera lens slightly, so we'd have to remove the cover (very easy) if we want to snap a shot. Also, the rubbery texture worries us - will dust and dirt end up sticking and forming a rather difficult-to-remove layer in the future?

The Watermelon? Sturdy. Covers every part of the iPhone except the screen, preventing scratches, offering a fair amount of protection against drops (we've experienced that a couple of times already, and each time after our heart resumes beating at a normal pace, we found our iPhone unharmed). The only issue with the Watermelon cover is that it's the hardest to remove, and occasionally we want to remove the cover to give the iPhone and the covers a wipe.

The BSG case, now, makes the iPhone feel small! There's some sort of texture to the cover which belies its plasticky look which makes it nice to hold. When we were at Universal Studios Sporeland the first cover we noticed was a yellow Jurassic Park one. We thought, "Okay, so Universal Studios is also selling iPhone 3GS covers. No need lah." Then we arrived at the Sci-Fi area and upon entering the gift shop totally geeked out at the BSG stuff there and picked up a few souvenirs, including the iPhone cover. Too bad the cover doesn't cover up the bezel, so that might get scratched, and for landscape gaming we're not too happy with the grip. More than half the time we end up covering the speakers and we can't maintain a good steady grip as our thumbs will be busy tapping the screen rather than holding the bottom of the iPhone.

So. Three covers for different occasions and needs. We've been rotating them to suit our fancy.

We're wondering if we will end up getting a few more if the price drops drastically when the iPhone 4 gets in. Especially the Watermelon (Switcheasy Capsule Rebel) covers in different colours to mix and match, if they fit. Or maybe we'll go take a look at prices in Sporeland, see if it's cheaper there.

Wifi Withdrawal

2010-09-13T01:37:00.002+08:00

And minor Internet dependancy.

With the wifi down and the modem a minor hassle when it comes to connecting to the Internet (unplug splitter from main phone line, fix phone line directly to modem, turn on PC, click on 'Connect To...' to connect to the Internet), we've been keeping to the occasional Facebook and email check via our iPhone.

And there were times when we switched on the PC, fired up iTunes, tried to get onto the iTunes Store or check for app updates only to be told we couldn't connect to the server, only to discover after a while that we forgot to connect to the internet. Using a wireless modem router has really spoiled us, but it's the way to go, is it not? What more when we have iDevices (admittedly we are looking at the iPad too regardless of the limitations we've mentioned but we're giving ourself the excuse that it's more for the parents to easily check emails at home) that does well with wifi (think iPad without 3G or wifi access, what for?).

We had considered getting a second wireless modem router while waiting for our Belkin, which has already been sent back to the store thanks to a lifetime warranty and will take about 2-3 weeks before we get a replacement. Our Chief read our mind on that idea and veto'ed us before the idea managed to lodge itself to some serious extent in our head, heh.

As for using Maxis' data plan for getting online? Honestly, sometimes it's a pain when all we see is the loading sign and no progress. But it suffices for getting all our emails in, a bit of Facebooking and checking the blogs, Googling stuff up and checking Maps when it works. Otherwise we seem to do well without being connected. We suppose the Chief may beg to differ as we always seem to peek onto our iPhone whenever we're together.

And yes, we're blaming our lack of wifi for our tardiness in sorting out the photos taken at Universal Studios Singapore or doing anything on the PC!

Backlog Overwhelming

2010-09-05T04:08:00.002+08:00

Ok. Need to breathe.

Since we've relocated we've yet to get internet connectivity up and running, and as of a couple of days back we've already received a text from our telco telling us we've just reached 400mb out of our 500mb data plan (propaganda hard at work here: Sporeland gives 12gb data every month!).

We were away to Sporeland to see our niece and to merrily play about at their two new casinos as well as Universal Studios, and upon our return home we found out that we'd left our Belkin on throughout the long weekend. Throw in the fact that we were informed on our way back that our home's electric gate wasn't working due to some thunderstorm, we feared the worst. And when our iPhone didn't seem to be loading any content on Safari on wifi, we decided to try surfing from the desktop.

The desktop wouldn't start. Suspicion? Power supply and Belkin is now zapped in said thunderstorm that took out the gates.

Sigh.

Checking Bloglines (which we somehow prefer over Google Reader, since we started using Bloglines first) now and then and we see the number of new posts rising. Not keen on using NewsRack to download the blogposts/articles since who knows if some posts may turn out chock-full of photos, so it's reading certain posts and articles on Bloglines based on interest. Thankfully there's an Engadget app which gives us the headlines, and we suppose quite a fair bit of our data plan was sapped following the liveblog where Steve announced what was new for the iPods (along with the magic to make us go, "Ooo we want!"), especially since the liveblog has this auto-refresh option which refreshes the page every couple of minutes or so.

Thankfully there weren't many emails pouring in, but with sites like Engadget and Lifehacker having articles every day (and with limited internet connectivity we're not going to go through everything in our blogroll every day) we decided to be more productive offline instead, throwing away really old stuff, refiling other stuff and trying out a new layout for our workstation.

Just gotten a new power supply from Low Yat today, and now that our pc's up and running once more using the modem TMNet provided us when we signed up for Streamyx, we're slowly clearing out that backlog. Admittedly there'll be a fair bit that we'll just skim over so that we'll stay sane.

Sporeland Blues

2010-09-01T01:17:00.002+08:00

It's probably the case of the holiday blues, as with most trips back from Sporeland, but this trip we're feeling something more than just the blues from a holiday ending. Not to mention, the Chief was with us pointing out advantages about Sporeland just like how our sister tried to get us to migrate over before, but the Chief has an easier job due to knowing our likes and all that.

While we won't day that the Chief's spiel succeeded, it certainly is making us wonder and thinking unpatriotic thoughts today. Especially when on the issue of currency, and dollar-to-dollar comparisons, and how with us being an Apple fanboi we'll be able to satiate our Apple product needs much easier (an argument our sis never did use as we haven't started looking so much into iMacs then, and was already satisfied with our iPod Video, and there were no such things as the iPhone or iPad.

Speaking of the iPad, our brother-in-law got his during our stay there last weekend. How did it feel? It definitely reminds us about the first time we surfed online using webchitect's iPhone or the first time using our iPod Touch: surfing the web was wow. Typing's a breeze so long as we put it on a surface in landscape mode, and everything's fleshed out even more that it doesn't look like we're looking on a magnified version of the iPhone. Too bad surfing the App Store only leads to iPad-only versions. But we'll still wait and see what's new coming for the next generation iPad.

Anyways we're in the case of grass being greener (and honestly cannot find any reason why not prepare for changes asides from our friends being here), and we're wondering if it's all for not really correct reasons too.

wePadding

2010-08-27T15:30:00.002+08:00

Right.

So here we are in Suntec City blogging from an iPad. A display set in Epicenter jailbroken and running Cydia with the fonts replaced with horrible Times New Roman, but goodness it's a pleasure to type on this heavy baby when it's resting on a surface in landscape mode.

Also, the screen on the iPhone 4! Gorgeous. We had a side-by-side comparison with our 3GS and it was like comparing a plasma telly to a LED telly.

The things we do to walk off a heavy Japanese buffet lunch at Kuishin-Bo!

Collector's Curse

2010-08-25T00:35:00.002+08:00

If there's a bane about collecting anything, it's the amount of space available for whatever there is to collect. From the usual stuff like books and pens to caps and cups and playing cards (okay we sorta described the stuff we've collected in our lifetime), we've reached a point where we can't really just buy whatever we want on a whim.

All covered by a single phrase: "There is no shelf space left!"

Which holds true when it comes to books, caps, and cups. As for pens, well, the pharmaceutical industry is one with multinational companies generous enough to hand out gimmicks so pens are ever plenty to the point where we've stopped collecting, unless we come across a nice unique pen that's worth keeping (like the bone-shaped Fosamax pen, or this large pen filled with numbered balls for a quick game of bingo or lotto, or souvenir pens). We've some three venti-sized Starbucks cups now filled with pens that most of them have dried up without even being used much (or at all).

Sigh.

Our Starbucks City Mug collection has reached its limit now that Kepong Biceps has brought back the Scotland City Mug (with the new design) for us (seeing how our old Scotland City Mug got chipped and mum immediately trashed it for us before we could stow it away, chip or no), and we may be expecting a London or Amsterdam City Mug from another friend too. There's also other coffee mugs we've gotten stowed together with our City Mugs, waiting for the day when they finally have a showcase/shelf where they can be displayed individually.

Books? We actually now blame BookXcess for considerably filling up the bookshelf we had installed under our cubicle, and am now considering a second bookshelf if we can find that particular model again. We actually find ourself walking into the store almost every single day of the week just to have a peek at what's new on the shelf (even if there hasn't been any new arrivals!) just in case we spot something that would be snapped up quickly, like Calvin & Hobbes treasury comics or The Art Of Discworld, and we don't care we're going to blame them for the fact that we have two copies of The Hounds Of The Baskervilles.

But we love them anyways. Where else can you find the complete set of Little Miss series (we'll wait until the complete Mr Men series are out before we buy 'em!) or audiobooks at the cheap? We'll be drowning our little niece with books from here!

Anyways. We sort of find that we need to cut down on the collecting especially after we've relocated and find that to our shame we have ten cups/mugs/glasses in the office, out of which we only use three - our KL City Mug for our drinks, a glass that looks like the A&W Root Beer stein from Chatuchak, and the third one technically a cafetier but take off the cover/plunger/filter bit and we can use it to drink water. As for the rest, well, they've just got to be stacked nicely into bags and stowed under the cubicle desk...

Filing Fail

2010-08-18T19:02:00.001+08:00

We're in the midst of relocating, and it's at this time where all the old stuff comes out into the open. Stuff that we've sort of shoved into a cabinet and left till times like spring cleaning or relocating when we have to take it out and organize it into boxes, files and folders, or the rubbish bin.

And to our shame we'd come across a large bag (the largest plastic bag you'd get from the supermarket), filled chock-full with letters, letters, more letters, claim forms, product inserts, pay advice, magazines, and even something far more intimidating than enlarged lips pasted on a mask...

In those stacks of letters, we find our missing phone and credit card bills from 2006. Statements, blank envelopes for cheques, brochures and rewards booklets still in the envelopes. An archeological find indeed, of an era when Janvier had yet to develop the technology of filing! Much discovered today helped to fill in the missing gap of missing bills and statements, and now our archiving is far more complete than it ever was before!

Everything else, like old Guardian punch cards and claim forms, magazines, product inserts, credit card reward booklets and envelopes were either shredded or binned. Finally. Clearing up space and giving us some ease of mind.

Now that Technology: Filing has been discovered for over a couple of years, next in line is Technology: Digital Filing. This once we've relocated, gotten ourself a new PC and a second external hard disk and set up the scanner with paper feeder. Then we'll start transferring all our work dossiers and documents into digital copies, even though admittedly we prefer actual hardcopies.

Onerous Onlineness

2010-08-12T17:36:00.002+08:00

The current method of anti-piracy prevention where you need an internet connection to play games irk us terribly. Not that there's a lot of games that do this, really, so far it's only with Steam that we have our gripes against but with games like Assassin's Creed 2, C&C4 and now even Starcraft 2 requiring an internet connection to play, we get a serious case of the irritables.

You're paying some RM250 for an original copy and there's still more hassle? In order to install, you need to connect once and create a Battle.net account and link your CD Key to your account, then you're able to play? In order to save your achievements in the campaign, you need to be connected. In order to play multiplayer, you need to be connected because there is no more LAN multiplayer.

Well. At least it's a mite improvement compared to C&C4, where in order to play even the single player campaign you need to be connected.

We have this notion that if we buy Starcraft 2, we're buying a game that we can play as we like at any time we like provided we have a PC that can support the hardware requirements. We kinda see Starcraft 2 as a single-player strategy game with additional multiplayer options, hence we think of it as a game where you can play offline and only connect online should you want to play with/against other players. Not, as it partly looks like, a multiplayer online game with a single player campaign story mode thrown in. Perhaps if we think of Starcraft 2 as a multiplayer online game then we wouldn't gripe over the internet requirement for gaming. But it's hard to think of it that way when Blizzard is releasing Starcraft 2 over three campaigns for the story!

So what happens if internet connectivity goes down again? No multiplayer then, yeah?

It's interesting how Starcraft 2 gets our goat while C&C4 doesn't. Sadly after Red Alert 2 we haven't really had any of the Command & Conquer games make us feel like how Starcraft 2 does - like we're back in college or university and off to visit the cyber cafe after lectures almost every day. We put this down to nostalgia and the love for Zergs.

You can label us as being 10 years in the past where 'connecting online' was an option limited by the speed of the modem and data charges, nowadays everyone is on broadband. But we don't like to take our internet connection for granted as being 'always there'.

Wax / Wane

2010-08-10T15:11:00.002+08:00

Right. It's been a month now since we've waxed, and convenience-wise waxing definitely tops shaving. While we may like the feel of short prickly stubble, chafing stubble is no fun at all (especially when they're prickly enough to prick through clothes!) and we can only take a week at most before having to shave again. While post-waxing hair is soft and does not itch as it is not prickly! Also only need upkeep after 3 weeks! And we're told that after a few sessions the regrowth rate will slow down even more!

The only problem is, waxing will wax our wallet free of cash too if we keep at it every three weeks, compared to shaving. And we could just let hair grow back again, that would be even more wallet-friendly.

Oh well. If we didn't like it we would have stopped shaving a year back, heh.

Wax On... Wax Off

2010-08-03T21:05:00.001+08:00

...don't forget to breath. Very important.

So. Stewerdess Sal opens her own aesthetics shop, and she needed help from her friends. Specifically, she needed volunteer models so that her staff could practise their techniques when it came to brow treading, manicures, pedicures and waxing. Volunteer male and female models.

Everyone was apprehensive about the waxing thing, whether it was the axillae, the legs, nose hair, and most balked at the idea of going brazilian. The private bits, open for viewing, subjected to scrutiny, and soon shorned of shrubbery.

The thing is, everyone has this idea that waxing brings about an entire world of pain never felt before. The closest we think waxing may feel like, is like having a Handyplast plastered to the leg where there is hair, and yanking it off. Already as it is, peeling the bloody plaster off slowly may sting, what more will waxing feel like!

Since it's for a friend, most of us agreed to lend a helping hand, or in this case, helping arms and legs. We had the impression that it would be just us and the trainee after all. A trainee that we didn't know.

We were ok with volunteering, so our only question we needed to ask Stewardess Sal was, "What's the minimal hair length required for waxing?"

'Cos it's no point us volunteering when the hair length isn't long enough to wax off, isn't it? We've been shaving for close to a year now and it's been taking a toll in razor blades, as we have to shave every other day. If we leave it, at the most after a week it'll start getting prickly and we'll have to do something about it. And we were curious about two things about waxing: just how painful waxing really is, and how long does it take before hair grows again.

And so we made an appointment, and as the day drew closer we received and email from Sal saying that we're the first male model for waxing and that she would be the one to attend to us as the other trainees are working on other volunteers. If we weren't comfortable with that, we can come in later that day after she's done with another volunteer.

Naturally we hesitated. It's one thing having a complete stranger wax you, it's another when it's a friend that you aren't that, er, close with.

It's also a good thing Sal told us this earlier and not on the day we arrived, 'cos we had time to think it over and in the end we thought, what the heck, let's get this over with. If she told us upon arrival we might just have chickened out for good, or else gone through with the thing but felt as if we were doing it against our will.

So when we arrived we got a quick tour of the place, and when it was time we were shown into a room where we changed and waited for Sal. Sal then tried a brand of hot wax on our right axilla. Smelled of rose, and while we couldn't see her applying it we could definitely feel something warm there. Not searing hot, but comfortably warm.

Then we felt a slight pinching feeling.

Then she yanked. And immediately after that, using a gloved hand, pressed on the area waxed.

And in our opinion, it's not that bad. Certainly nothing to scream about!

Then she informed us she was trying a different brand of hot wax on our left axilla (the, well, advantage of being the first volunteer, you get to try a few different stuff!). This time we felt it sting a bit more, so for the rest of the session Sal used the rose-smelling wax.

It was all professionally done. And the pain nothing that would cause us to take pause and breathe or whimper. All the while the two of us chitchatted about this and that. And in under an hour we were finished! With, admittedly, bits of beeswax stuck here and there on our skin, as there was no shower room to clean up after a session.

So our take on waxing? Not the horrifying scream-inducing painful experience that you hear about, probably because hot wax was used and not wax strips. And we're now three weeks past without feeling prickly!

And we gather we had an easier time after all - Rambunctious Ron was the next to be waxed, and in his session he had Stewardess Sal overseeing two trainees waxing him! Turns out he was ticklish during his session, and his laughter could be heard outside the room! Would have made anyone wonder just what was going on in there. Well at least it wasn't the three girls who were laughing!

A Mouse In The House Redux

2010-07-30T02:28:00.003+08:00

Back when we stayed in our old house, there was a time when we also had some problems with pests (can't remember if it was a mouse or a rat) and we had a mouse cage set up to catch it. Can't remember if we did caught it, but we guess we did in the end, because of this: somehow or other we heard that you'd to kill said pest by means of boiling water, this will discourage further pests from infesting the house.

We're not sure just how true this is. The idea that its death squeaks will frighten its ilk far away had some appeal, though. But we must have caught it, because if we didn't this form of ridding said pest wouldn't have been a topic, and we wouldn't have heard of such a thing.

In fact, we'd actually forgotten about the whole thing, until we mentioned about our mouse problem to a friend. We told her that we were not sure of the mouse's fate once it was caught but we did consider releasing it somewhere far from home rather than killing it. She then told us to make sure to wash the cage with hot water so that the mouse can't smell its way back to our home. When she mentioned hot water, that reminded us of the hot water killing method and we suppose that that was the fate meant for the little tyke once it was caught.

Yes well the prospect of actually killing it didn't really appeal to us, not when it's in a helpless state, but we'd rather that than it infesting our house, piddling and pooping all over the place. Ted already showed us the methods he took to combat his rodents, and we were considering what to do with the mouse depending on what was used...

With the mouse cage, there was the option of releasing it somewhere far away once we've caught it, keeping it as a pet, giving it to someone else as a pet, killing it via boiling water, letting it die of exposure and starvation by leaving the cage out in the back lane, typing up the mouse in a bag once caught and dumping it into the garbage truck, taking it to a vet to be put to sleep, or by attempting to stab it with a sharp and pointy metal stick.

Then there's rat glue. Once stuck we thought of leaving the trapped mouse out in the back lane for the cats to play with it, releasing it in the nearby park for the snake to go for it (and probably get stuck in glue too!), or to swiftly hammer its skull in for an instant death, or set fire to the thing, or stab it with a sharp and pointy metal stick.

Then again, we don't have a sharp and pointy metal stick...discussing the merits of life or death and a few methods of death with the Chief, the Chief too was against releasing it and rather the boiling water. In the Chief's opinion, it's an instant death. We don't think so - we sort of likened scalding to boiling tar poured on soldiers sieging a castle. It scalds, the eyes pop, the skin peels, the heart rate shoots up and the body goes into shock, and somewhere along the way it dies. The Chief reacted far worse to our suggestion of rat glue and leaving trapped mouse in the back lane, though. And thought that our releasing it elsewhere would just make it someone else's problem, and delay its inevitable death, heh.

So when the mouse was caught the other day, we left its fate to be decided by our parents. We could have taken the initiative to take the cage, drive all the way to Klang or somewhere far enough to necessitate paying toll, then setting it free to scavange and survive, but thought against doing so because our parents may assume that the mouse remained uncaught or there was the possibility it will return (you never know). Plus our car might smell in the end. So all we did that night when we saw the mouse in the cage?

Asked (in English) if it understood us. And if it knew how to cook. Nod its head or shake its head if it understood.

It did neither.

So, instead of leaving it in the kitchen where it would continue piddling all over the newspaper laid underneath the cage, we took it out to the back yard and left it to the parents. And jiggled the siew yoke bait off the hook for it to enjoy its last meal.

Surprisingly mum actually thought to release it somewhere far away! Seeing how the pest has been causing mum to go into a furor cleaning the entire kitchen and areas affected by mouse droppings we thought mum would rather end her troubles there and then. But dad commanded for the water treatment, and so the pest was scalded to death.

Mum later on found the mouse's nest somewhere in the store room, by the look of it the mouse was running a solo gig and there was no family of mice to worry about.

So we came home after a rather heavy dinner today, and as we walked into the kitchen we see the mouse cage set out once again, this time with a piece of char siew as bait! Mon Dieu! Pourquoi? Pourquoi??? Merde!!!

Campfire Story: Iron Cave

2010-07-27T00:58:00.005+08:00

The troop sat in a circle, ears pricked as they paid attention to the scoutmaster.

"There is a story long ago that involved another scout troop when they were out in the wilderness, foraging supplies for their camp. It was getting dark, and they were in foreign territory that looked unfriendly and rather scarce on readily available food. But the troop perservered and managed to find water, and survived on their remaining rations, and managed to gather a few fruits. For three days they camped out in the wilderness, waiting to earn their badge after a week's camping out."

The scouts ooohed their admiration.

"Then on the fourth day, a scout brought back meat. Part of a cooked chicken. This worried the scoutmaster, although the rest of the troop cheered because four days of dry rations and fruits left a lot to be desired in their diet. A few things worried the scoutmaster, where did the cooked chicken come from, who else was staying in the wilderness for the scoutmaster saw no sign of any other life around, and if there were others out here did the trooper steal from them."

"So the scoutmaster questioned the little one, and the scout reported that he found it in a metal cave."

"A metal cave?" asked Frank.

"Yes. Specifically, an iron cave."

"Did he mean a mining cave where there's iron, scoutmaster?" asked Nancy.

"Very sharp of you, Nancy, but no. What the scout meant was a cave made of iron. As it was late already, the scoutmaster told the little one to bring him to the cave the following day."

"On the fifth day, while the rest of the scouting party went on with their duties at camp, the scoutmaster and the scout headed to the place where the cave was to be found. Instead of having to go through the woods, the scout led the scoutmaster through the grasslands further away from the camping site, until they reached the stone grounds that lie past the edge of the grasslands."

"And lo and behold, there stood the iron cave."

The scouts aaahed their amazement.

"Now, here's what happened...the reason why this story is told around campfires."

All the little scouts leaned forward, as the scoutmaster's voice dropped to a whisper.

"The scout had already told the scoutmaster that he found the chicken hooked up on a wall near the back of the cave. There was nobody else in the cave, and the cave did not have an inhabited feel, so the scout assumed that someone else must have brought the chicken to the cave to eat, and not being able to finish it, left the rest in the cave."

"Left it hooked up on a wall?" blurted Joe incredulously, eyes wide.

"The very same question the scoutmaster asked! However, standing outside of the cave, the two of them could smell roast pork coming from inside the cave. Very mysterious. The scoutmaster looked in and, would you know it, he saw a slab of pork hanging on a hook at the far wall of the cave! He told the little one to wait outside while he went in to investigate."

"He inspected each wall near the mouth of the cave, then moved deeper into the cave tunnel. There was no sign of anyone staying in the cave, no tracks at all, no scent...the scoutmaster arrived at the slab of pork. He touched the pork..."

The scoutmaster's voice here was barely a whisper.

"When BANG!"

Some scouts squeaked in surprise.

"The cave mouth started falling in! The little one got a shock of his life as the scoutmaster was trapped! "Go get the others! Don't try to do this yourself, in case you get hurt!" ordered the trapped scoutmaster. The frightened scout rushed off to gather the rest of the troop, and assembled outside the iron cave. Tried as they might, they did not have equipment that could pry an opening big enough for the scoutmaster to escape."

"The troop stayed by the iron cave all night, sharing the pork and thinking of ways to rescue their trapped leader. But the scouts were not strong enough and soon they were all tired out, and slept."

"They did not sleep for long, however, because all of them were woken up by the sound of something approaching. Something large. The earth shook and there was a loud whistling heard in the air. The scoutmaster, concerned for his troop's safety, ordered them to hide. The troop did so quickly, but it was too dark to see what it was. All they could see was the iron cave suddenly rising up and floating in midair, the blocked entrance angled upwards."

"And then, as the whistling sound stopped, a waterfall of boiling hot water rained down into the cave, billowing steam rising from the entrance."

The eyes of the scouts listening grew wide and some gasped in shock.

"The little scouts ran in fear, the sound of their scoutmaster's dying shrieks following them as they fled the grasslands, back to their camp to gather their belongings, then running for their lives."

"Scoutmaster, is it true?"

"This was a long time ago. The story has been told from generation to generation, as a lesson to be learned: when foraging for food, use the knowledge you've learn and do not simply pick food where it does not naturally belong. As for the troop members, all of them emerged from that incident with hair as white as snow. Their families believed their story, for apparently even from their homes they could hear the final screams of the poor scoutmaster. None dare return to that place, and all were warned against going there."

---

Too late, a forager remembered this story told in his younger scouting days...

A Mouse In The House

2010-07-23T17:36:00.000+08:00

A mouse! A mouse!
There's a mouse in the house!

It scarpers up and down the stair,
We have no idea where's its lair,
It's got us all pulling at our hair,
We've got to learn to fight unfair!

'Cos now we have to watch out for our food,
Leaving things as they were's no good!
For this mouse can be hygienically rude,
It doesn't care for where it's poo'ed!

A mouse! A mouse!
There's a mouse in the house!

We saw it last night in the hall,
It came and stood, a mouse-height tall!
On two feet it looked at us with gall,
This mouse, it really has some balls!

A mouse! A mouse!
There's a mouse in the house!

We're wondering how to rid this pest,
Which way, we wonder, is the best?
Cage, trap, glue, or poison; lest,
It brings it's family and all the rest!

A mouse! A mouse!
A frickin' mouse is in the house!

Video Killed The Radio (In Our) Car

2010-07-22T00:50:00.004+08:00

Well, actually CDRs did. Our original CDs, once converted to MP3s to fill our iPod, sits safely on our shelf while we burn our own selection of songs onto CDRs to keep in our car. To be honest why we opt for CDRs is because we don't have a radio with an auxilary cable port, otherwise we would be lugging our iPod Video along with all our music.

And the FM transmitter that we got? Best used during our road trips. Otherwise, we get interference sometimes from other stations sharing the same frequency occasionally and that irks us, although by the time we'd gotten a mobile windscreen mount and fixed up our iPod Touch to play BBC's Pride And Prejudice on it via the transmitter, we haven't been experiencing intereference any more.

Ayup. Happiness was finally being able to watch videos on the iPod Touch, instead of being limited to Happy Tree Friends and Dilbert video podcasts and whatever free videos the iTunes Store had for us. The availability of good DVD to video converters were rare (or we just didn't know where to find them, or we had to buy them) and we didn't have much video files to convert, too, the only videos we had were some funny ads our friends sent us a long time ago and videos we'd recorded using our iXus.

Then YouTube Downloader came along and gave us more videos to store on our iPhone! And otousan suggested Format Factory, which did the same thing but with two additional features: the ability to convert certain files that YouTube Downloader couldn't, and mass conversion!

And so, our iPhone's finding less and less space for music, to make way for more videos to keep us company during red traffic lights at peak hours, during our meals when we don't have a book to read, or even in bed before we call it a night.

From book juggling, we now add on video juggling, on the go! From episodes of the Sailormoon anime to YouTubes of the Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, to episodes of series we're helping the Chief to obtain, and in the future we'll be thinking of using Handbrake to convert Sailormoon S and Super S into video format, not to mention what other shows we've yet to watch, and the free episodes of old sci-fi tv series currently available on the iTunes Store, we've considered removing more music from our iPhone to make way for the videos...

...then again, that's what our 30GB iPod's for! And it's far better than what we hear on the radio some times!

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon

2010-07-18T23:59:00.001+08:00

You know, it's rather a fortunate thing that we have YouTube now, because we can see what we're missing. And it's a good thing too, because what we see on YouTube so far really, really, helps us hesitate when it comes to buying the DVDs of the live action version of Sailormoon, otherwise known as Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon.

Perhaps we were looking for a lot more realism, where their sailor suits don't look so bright and their bows aren't so big, or for Sailor Mercury to have a much darker wig in blue...or the four Shitennou to actually keep the costume design they had in the manga or anime, rather than have totally new radical costumes...or their poses. And we haven't seen enough to decide if Luna is supposed to be an animated doll, or that, not being able to use a real life cat as Luna, substituted a doll instead but everyone has to act as if it's a real life cat...And Tuxedo Mask's tuxedo, instead of looking refined, was spoilt by a cheap mask and shiny costume cloak.

Perhaps it's because we want the live action series to be a serious, realistic and rather yau yeng kind of live action series, rather than a more playful show...

We remember the first time we saw the transformation scene on YouTube. We almost died of embarrassment and almost went blind, figuring that Usagi was going to perform some ecchi scene but thankfully she was clothed, and instead horrified us with a less-than-elegant transformation scene with a far too bright background. Tuxedo Kamen's transformation, however, was so bad it should have just been done away with!

Took some gnashing of teeth and a change of perspective of what we expected from this live action series, but we sorta braved our way through the transformation scenes and snippets from the show and we must say, it probably isn't too bad.

Some plus points (based on what we've seen on YouTube, that is):

The characters don't have the hairstyles as in the original design (Usagi with blonde hair or Ami's blue hair etc) but only after they transform (it's funny watching Ami transform, she looks so serious until she waves her arm past her head, and then there is this suddenly bubbly cheerful face with blue hair), hence it's not like the manga/anime where it's odd wondering why people don't recognize that Usagi is Sailormoon in costume;

Luna does have some funny expressions (we think there's a few dolls with different eye expressions!);

There're more different attacks, like in the manga! Jupiter's Flower Hurricane, Venus's Rolling Heart Vibration, which never made it in the anime, get screen time here! Plus, we're not treated to stock footage of their attacks every time;

The script is rather different from the manga/anime, so there's something new to watch here! There's a Dark Mercury for one thing, although dressed far too weirdly!

Well, from reacting rather badly the first time we watched it, we're getting even more curious as to how the series really is.

It may be that the show could be bad enough to tear our soul apart and absorb it, turning the series into a Horcrux for us. It may turn out to be quite ok (but honestly, we kinda liked how the anime portrayed Zoisite and this new white, slit-eyed piano playing Zoisite isn't doing it for us just yet...). First, we gotta do some more teeth-gnashing and part with a pretty hundred or more to buy the DVD set.

An Artful Attack

2010-07-14T02:25:00.003+08:00

There's something about the Sailormoon anime that bugged us: the different art styles found in different episodes. Initially we didn't bother much, as we continued watching, there would be episodes we would happily rewatch and enjoy and some that we wouldn't bother with unless we were going to rewatch all the episodes in a season, like what we're doing with season 1 on our iPhone now.

All because of the artwork: how the characters look, how they move, expressions, and sometimes even the jokes.

So for four seasons, from Sailormoon till Sailormoon Super S, there are four art styles that we commonly see.

The 'Smooth'. Because of the way there are no sharp edges and everything is slightly rounded. More obvious is when a character is facing off-center to one side but not totally sideways, the face looks absolutely flat. Rei's hair seemed extraordinarily large for her head! When we first saw this artwork we weren't too affected by it, we had not built up high standards for anime artwork for Sailormoon then (not like how we expect the Dragon Ball anime to really mimic the manga!). But when the other, far more aesthetically pleasing art styles became more frequent, we began to dislike this style.

The 'Stocky'. This was another style frequently seen from season 1, although there's been quite a fair bit of refinement in Sailorstars (by then they'd actually come up with an artist's guidebook we think). Thick lines, and everyone seemed shorter. While rather different compared to the other art styles, the movements in these episodes were rather fluid, and some of their expressions were enjoyable (meaning funny) too.

The 'Svelte'. The faces had a certain shape to them, legs were longer somehow, the details stood out, everyone had perfect pose and posture! These episodes were a pleasure to view! We don't recall which episode this artwork appeared, we were only aware of it from the second half of season one (also because the two comic books we had featuring anime stills featured a number of episodes with this art style!).

The 'Sharp'. We think this art style only appeared from Sailormoon S? We'd bought the anime stills comic books for this season when Popular sold them at one point, it didn't matter that the books were translated into Chinese (whether Chinese or Japanese we wouldn't have understood it anyway), and happily enjoyed looking at the pictures to see what we were missing because due to the lack of merchandise the only two seasons we never got to watch were Sailormoon S and Sailorstars.

Anyways, reading (figuratively) the comics we noticed quite a lot of good artwork, which made us even more keen to watch it. Now that we've watched them all, we think this art style appeared most only in S, and less so in Super S and Sailorstars...we think. Will need to rewatch them all!

Still, the question is why?! Why are there so many styles when other anime had one standard art style? Wait, we think the Naruto anime also had a couple of art styles. It was because of the differing styles that, when it comes to recording episodes onto VHS tapes, we were rather selective, often overwriting 'Smooth' art style episodes for other episodes (because we couldn't afford to buy VHS tapes by the dozen).

Then in Sailorstars we noticed that there's some sort of standardization: character faces followed the 'Svelte' style, and legs sometimes were ridiculously long...

...but overall Sailorstars were much more aesthetically pleasing to watch!

As with all the transformations and attacks! We think Moon Princess Halation was done in a refined Stocky style, and Moon Healing Escalation is in Svelte, but the rest could be Sharp or Someother for all we know. What we're thankful is that they're not Smooth.

Yes, well, there were some other art styles seen in the series (like that one-off style in episode 29 where Zoisite attacks Motoki's girlfriend for her Rainbow Crystal) but those four are the common ones seen. And we appreciate it's no easy task to draw and produce the cartoons. But why couldn't there be some standardization much earlier, to have, say, every episode look more Sharp or Svelte?

And we're not sure which one Hyperion means when he refers to 'bloated, bun face'.

A Moon Star Is Born!

2010-07-13T02:05:00.000+08:00

Welcome to Sailormoon Week!

We were wondering, if Sailormoon was a recent manga/anime instead of appearing in 1992, whether we would have been interested. We suppose, if the artwork never changed, we would have given it a miss. 'Cos, currently we're rewatching the episodes of the first season and we're thinking Usagi is rather difficult to like sometimes in the early episodes because of her immaturity, and with the storyline progressing slowly every episode we might have just stopped altogether.

But we started when Sailormoon was aired on...goodness, what was that tv channel called?! It wasn't Metrovision, that was the Justice Bao period. TV8? TV4? Maybe it is Metrovision!

We could check it up, since we've recorded episodes of Sailormoon, but they're on VHS tapes and we don't have a VHS tape player any more, and we honestly don't want to look at the tapes just in case they are now overgrown with fungus. Sigh. All that hard work we did recording, copying from tape to tape, the money we've spent buying more VHS tapes to record most of the episodes, the one or two VHS tapes we bought from the comics store...

Oh well. At least they were well watched during its time.

So we got hooked onto Sailormoon, mainly because of the anime. If we just read the mangaka, we might have stopped halfway. Ever seen the artwork? Honestly, not the kind of artwork we appreciate, especially when at the same time we were hooked on Dragon Ball. Reasons why we got hooked?

Introductory exposure to animes. Asides from Doraemon, we haven't watched any Japanese anime before this. Ultraman and Mask Black Rider doesn't count as they weren't cartoons (we don't think when some ridiculous situation comes up characters will fall down or lose their footing!) and the high-pitched Malay dubbed Doraemon was a bit trying even for our young patient selves. We survived on a healthy serving of American cartoons during our youth, and when Sailormoon and Dragon Ball started airing on tv we lapped it up readily. And the Japanese humour was a novelty to us then! Expressive actions! Falling down at odd situations! Tears streaming down eyes like rivers!

Faithful Cantonese dub. Unlike Doraemon which had high-pitched Malay dubbing (shudder) Sailormoon (and Dragon Ball) were done in Cantonese! Now it turns out that there were two Cantonese versions, one by TVB and another that isn't (what we find on YouTube tends to call it the 'VCD' dub) - we were lucky to watch the 'VCD' dub as the characters there were very much similar to the original characters.

Usagi is loud and expressive, Zoisite was very effeminate (you'd expect limp wrists as well), senshi attacks were shouted rather appropriately. You should hear the English dubs, we get goosebumps and often enough cannot watch an entire episode in English because the dubbing and script was terrible. Outer senshi attacks always sounded like an echo from far away...

Translated manga. BM-translated mangas were on the raise, and we were buying the Sailormoon and Dragon Ball mangas when they came out (at RM3.50 per book then!). Of course, the Chinese translated mangas were probably out much earlier but then again we don't understand a single thing so why bother, eh? The fact that the manga was so different from the anime kept us interested in both ie Jadeite would send his youmas aka Monster-Of-The-Day again and again rather than fight Sailormoon head on, while in the manga he dies straight away. That, and that the other sailors had more attacks in the manga compared to the anime...

Censorship caused curiosity. Fairly obvious when Sailor Mercury and Sailor Mars made their appearance. They'd raise their transformation pens, shout out their transformation phrases, and -pop- we'd suddenly see the final tranformation bits along with a skip in the background music. And then in one episode, they'd forgotten to snip off those bits and we went, "Oooh so that's how it looks like!" And of course, we wondered how Jupiter's and Venus' transformation scenes look like. Oh not to mention what we missed in the episode where Zoisite dies.

Lack of merchandise. No such thing as the internet then, and there weren't many Japanese comics stores selling posters, DVDs and soundtrack CDs then as you can find nowadays (not counting the Chinese comic stores). Then, whenever we came across any Sailormoon merchandise we would have pounced on it, whether it be Japanese comic books using stills from the anime (which we bought during our stopover flight to LA!), or a soundtrack CD with all the songs used in the opening and closing scenes, or even the Cantonese-dubbed VHS tapes of Sailormoon episodes. We never did get to buy any VHS tapes (until Form 5, when the Chinese comic store near one tuition centre suddenly brought in Cantonese Sailormoon Sailorstars episodes and we bought a couple), but we did get to borrow tapes from a friend who had a fair number of Sailormoon Super S episodes!

Knowledge about future seasons. When Sailormoon was on telly, we were wondering if they would continue airing Sailormoon R, or they'd just stop there. Then Speedy Video had VHS tapes and VCDs of Sailormoon R in Cantonese, but the dubbing was by TVB which unfortunately made Usagi less livelier and the entire thing sounded muffled. And then there was Sailormoon S, Super S and Stars to think about too! What if they didn't air those seasons? We'd read the manga and wanted to see how different those seasons were from the manga! How does Uranus's and Neptune's attack look like?

The transformation scenes and attacks. The one thing that made Sailormoon (the anime), well, Sailormoon was the transformation scenes and the attack scenes. Almost every episode, they'd transform, Sailormoon will give her speech (in some episodes this was made fun of!) and they'd do their signature attacks and the Monster-Of-The-Day will die. On YouTube we've come across some kids trying to do transformations scenes and Sailormoon's Moon Spiral Heart Attack using ribbons and honestly we felt embarrassed for these kids even if they do not feel it themselves - they were asking to be ridiculed in our opinion.

At times we do wonder about how long she actually takes to perform her attacks - her Moon Princess Halation takes ages!

Anyways, we think what really helped keep us watching Sailormoon was that we were young and had all the time in the world!

Wedding, Subak Style

2010-07-09T01:20:00.005+08:00

Dengarlah kisah persekutuan si nona Pengembara Dunia dan jejakanya Penginap Laut. Dalam perjalananya untuk menyelamatkan dunia sebelum masa tidur, dia pun menemui temannya, dan ~~selepas beribu-ribu lemon~~ ~~kini bila bulan menjelang~~ ~~di akhir pengembaraannya~~

Frak that shyte. This is why we stick to writing factual BM essays for school exams, our vocabulary and flair was limited. We still remember our Form 5 BM tuition teacher giving an example of how fictional BM essays need to be written to really score well: "the leaves danced in the currents of air under the ceiling fan" or something along those lines, it sounded much fancier in BM.

So anyways, HL and JT tied the knot last month (yes, late posting...), and while invites were handed out a couple of months before, due to forgetfulness on our part we've only received the invite (via Lad Express, the impressions were still fresh on the card when we got it cos he sat on it, haha) after the wedding dinner. Thankfully HL texted us a reminder and we could check with the others regarding dress code and dinner venue, so we weren't to worried.

A quick check online as to where Subak was and we were initially quite confident we could get there easily - it was a straight road from TTDI into Kampung Sungai Penchala. We knew we were checking up the correct place too because the website informed that they were closed for a private function in the evening!

It was only when we were on said straight road that we had a slight niggling doubt that we might be missing some bit of direction. Puddy even made a U-turn back at first!

Finally we arrived at Subak! Could tell we were at the right place when there were rows of cars parked on both sides of the road.

The setting was certainly a different one! One thing we knew beforehand was that we were to expect a outdoor garden dinner setting, so there was no need (for us guests) to come in black tie. Which was fine, Subak made sure that there were plenty of fans fixed up and the drinks were all chilled. What we didn't expect was them handing out insect repellant patches. Not that we got bitten any time at all during the night!

We were unfortunately late and missed out the speech that had HL with damp eyes...

But in time to appreciate the effort put into the venue and celebration.

We're not too sure how Subak is on normal occasions, and am a bit afraid it doesn't live up to this anymore.

The food, however, was enjoyable. And colourful! Of note is their Balinese Chicken Soto soup, because...because it's the only photo we took with a label and we remember it as being good.

There was the band, who slowly made their way from table to table to serenade us all with songs (and have the more tipsy guests sing along with them).

And after dinner and speeches and the toastings, it was time to dance.

Certainly it was something different. If we concentrated we could probably convince ourself that the dinner was held in Bali and we were all invited guests each with their own private villa, where at the end of the party we could head back and ease ourself into the outdoor jacuzzi pool that comes with each villa, surrounded with scented candles and nothing but a scenic view and undisturbed by other guests...

Ok, maybe not. And the Chief and us didn't dance.

But as wedding dinner goes, HL and JT's goes to show that you don't really have to go to the end of the world to have a beautiful wedding.

Congratulations on finishing one journey, and on beginning another longer one!

Phuket Revisited 2010: An Incubus Of Viral Plague

2010-07-06T01:27:00.005+08:00

Now before we left for our trip, everyone seemed to be sick or getting sick. People in the office were hacking away. Updates on Facebook detailed how friends were getting sick. In fact, a day or two just before the trip we started feeling a little trickly at the back of our throat - not a good sign.

However, once in Phuket and with lots of sleep, we'd not felt sick in the slightest!

Not until our last day in Phuket. We woke up then with a bad case of backdrip that kept us coughing nonstop.

We figure that we never got better before the trip, and that it was the R&R throughout the trip that kept it at bay. After all, we slept at the beach twice in our trip...

...had facials at the different competitive stores. We're talking some pampering facials (of course, not with Leonard Drake cosmetics and the likes, but still we were in good hands literally and dozed off now and then...) at a price of around 300 baht! 'Course, here in Bolehland we've never been for a facial before, we consider it a luxury where we'd rather spend our money on something else.

Asides from two facials, we also had two massages at the C&N Hotel within the five days. During our Bangkok trip we had a traditional Thai massage and an oil massage, both cases we told the masseurs we wanted a strong massage, resulting in us sometimes being unable to breathe due to extreme pressure and pain. This time, we opted for relaxing massages instead.

Maybe make that three massages. First was the oil massage. Then on our fourth day, just as we arrived at the beach we were approached by this rather aggressive Thai woman who'd offered to do an aloe vera massage for the two of us, saying that it protect from sunburn, very cold, good for us. We weren't keen on it, especially since we've got our own sunblock and aloe vera lotion, but the woman offered to slather on a bit of aloe vera on the Chief as a sampler.

After a bit of haggling, we had the woman slather aloe vera on the both of us. She takes a piece out from her bucket, where it's all soaked in iced water, scrapes the aloe with a comb, and proceeds to butter us with it.

It's cooling because it's been in iced water. Best described is that it's slimy. Whether or not it did help with sunburn, we cannot say, although true enough we didn't get sunburnt at all this trip. We did regret getting that aloe vera massage just as we arrived on the beach, though - it's all washed off after we went to swim a bit in the sea.

Oh and we did help with her business, as soon after we saw her applying aloe vera for a couple of girls nearby.

And that night, after the 'authentic' aloe vera massage, we went for another aloe vera massage. This time it was aloe vera lotion (we suppose) replacing massage oil, and it was roughly the same as an oil massage.

After all that, on our final day, we started getting sick again. Sigh. And once we touched down on Bolehland soil, it was two weeks of nonstop sniffling, guzzling lozenges of all sorts, and progressing from irritating backdrip with unproductive coughs to chesty phlegm and sore throats.

But at least we're grateful for the fact that we weren't sick for our holidays!

Phuket Revisited 2010: Take Me To My Beach

2010-06-30T23:08:00.001+08:00

And we were reminded of All Saint's 'Pure Shores'. One of our favourite songs, even though we've never watched 'The Beach'.

Our first trip to Phuket could be considered as an introduction to the things to do on Patong, and this time around we decided to add on something else so that we didn't just do the same old, same old. And since we were staying in Phuket for a longer period this time, we slotted a day in for island hopping around the Phi Phi Islands.

Details of the island hopping package wasn't clear, and at a cost of 1000 baht we weren't too sure if we were getting much out of it when we started checking out websites on touring Phi Phi Islands. Still, pricewise we actually thought 1000 baht to be fair, and when we arrived at the hotel we asked for more details (since we got the hotel to book the package for us).

In the end, we vaguely knew that we were going to go around the island, we'd to bring a towel, sunglasses, swimwear, probably a spare change of clothes, sunblock. And that, we did. Along with our iPhone as our camera (sadly we did not pack our iXus battery charger for this trip) and some cash as well.

This, you got to take note: the tour has been paid for, which includes the transfers to and from Rassada Harbour, the boat ride, our lunch, which technically means if we're not interested in buying souvenirs we don't need to bring any money. Somehow we thought it better to bring a bit of cash along, just in case. The Chief brought some too in case there were souvenirs worth buying on Phi Phi Island. In the end, we only paid for an entry fee of 20 baht to Phi Phi Island (we weren't told of this at all), which is used for upkeep.

Imagine if we didn't bring any cash along with us. What to do then?

So anyways our day started rather early, where we'd to be up around 6am, have our buffet breakfast, then wait for our transport which was scheduled to leave at 7am. Our transport arrives, we've gotten towels from the concierge, hop onto the van along with a Singaporean Malay family and two Malaysian Chinese couples, and...

...had to wait for some more passangers who were late. 20 minutes late. By the time four Indian guys climbed up the van, they were soundly scolded by the Malay mother: "Look at the time! We were suppose to leave at 7! What happens if we're late? If the boat leaves without us and my children cannot go, what are you going to do?" The Indians muttered their apologies only to be told, "Sorry no cure!" Garangnya mak ni... The Chinese guys also voiced loudly in Cantonese that even the latecomers knew the gist of displeasure everyone had against them (in our case we sent out a strong silent wave of displeasure).

Not halfway through the ride to the harbour, one of the latecomers opened a window, letting in a drought that brought in dust and smoke. These latecomers were getting less and less popular. One of the Chinese guys asked them to close the window, and that's where we all learned that one of the latecomers was feeling nauseous, not that we could see it.

Being very late in the first place, plus the fact that it wasn't apparent why they wound down the window in the first place, it was hard to be sympathetic to the nauseous fellow. If he'd actually thrown up we think everyone would have kicked out the four and head on our way.

Interestingly, the four Indians came dressed quite proper in shirts and jeans. Without any bags, without any towels, without any change of clothes. And throughout the entire trip they never changed out of those clothes either.

Luckily we arrived on time to board the cruise boat (our package was with the Sea Angel Tours), were given our tour stickers, and we were on our way! On our way there we somehow found ourself on the top deck as the inner decks (with proper seats and air-conditioning) were full with a large tour group. The top deck was still empty so we managed to set up chairs at the front of the deck, prime spots for the trip.

Here then poses another choice: start suntanning on our way to Phi Phi Island, or not? The angmohs were already in their swimwear and/or shorts and slapping on the sunblock. In the end we decided to suntan too, since we were on the top deck and it was bright and sunny and we weren't too keen on sweating our tanktop into a wet rag. And a good idea it was to begin tanning, too! It was bright and windy so we didn't feel hot and sweaty after all, and it took about an hour before we reached the Island.

Our first stop, Tonsai Pier, where another tour group got off. Here we went down to the inside decks to enjoy the air-conditioning (when the boat isn't moving, the upper deck heats up fast!) and soon we were on our way sightseeing around the Phi Phi Lay islands. Admittedly once sitting inside we couldn't pay much attention to what the guide was saying over the loudspeakers.

After the sightseeing bits we were stopped at Monkey Beach, given lifejackets and snorkels and allowed to go swim! We were worried that the lifejackets might have some smell, but thankfully not. The snorkels, however, we decided best not to think so much about who has used them before. Then it was time to dive!

Last time we did this was end of 2001, if we're not wrong, during our Redang trip with university coursemates. We snorkled then and even did a bout of scuba diving, where we donned on the snorkel, had a gas tank, and was dragged by a professional diver while we took snapshots of the sea bed and fishes with a disposable underwater camera that gave us...proof that we did go scuba diving, at least.

Anyways it was good to get to snorkel again, and we even swam all the way from the deepwater where the boat was anchored to the beach area, where there were loads of monkeys on the trees.

We just wonder how safe our belongings are when we go snorkelling, since not everyone will want to swim. But since everything was still in place when we got back, so we dropped the issue.

Arrival at the Phi Phi Pier...

...and we're informed that we need to pay a fee. Somebody did complain that this should have been informed early on the brochure, or that it should already have been inclusive with the package.

Directions were given by signboard...

...and where to go for lunch!

The PP Princess.

They've got these nice big pavilions set up but we're surprised at the lack of fans. Surely, some form of ventilation could have been fixed up?

After lunch, it was time to roam the island! The Thais show their sense of humour not only via their advertisements, but also their signages...

So reminded of Portal in a way looking at this photo.

Unlike Patong beach where the waves are consistent (but very relaxing as white noise), here the waters were calm. And if you want a deckchair it'll cost you 100 baht. We decided to walk about the shops instead.

Soon it was time to board the boat once more, and we didn't find anything to buy so we decided to head back to snag some good seats. Climbing up the boat we were initially shocked to see this.

Not wearing our glasses and whatwith the sedate nature of this trip, instead of immediately identifying them for what they were we thought they were memorial photographs of victims.

Another incident on our trip back to Rassada Harbour. Seats were getting full as the boat picked up more passangers for the return trip, and soon enough there was this Indian chap who came up to us, tapped our shoulder and asked if anyone was sitting on the seat next to us (where we had our towel draping to dry after wiping down from snorkelling).

Now to be fair, we do think that this Indian chap was self-consciously polite. When he flagged over a staff with a rubbish bag to take his trash, the chap wanted to take away our disposable cup that we've left in the netting on the back of the chair in front of us. When he wanted to go somewhere for a while and come back, he'll tap our shoulder and tell us in broken English his intentions.

Only...we left that cup there on purpose should we have any rubbish to throw, so we weren't happy and stopped him. And when he sat beside us, he had totally no concept of personal space, and so both of us had our elbows and arms pressed against each other as we fought for armrest space and his knee tried to make friends with our hip (oh chappy was slightly chubby). Plus he tapped our shoulder rather hard, which we considered as not polite. Not to mention, we already had a bad encounter with the latecomers this morning.

And he's really pressing onto us as if we were Siamese twins. We tried sleeping. Not too much luck.

Nearing Rassada Harbour we couldn't take it anymore and abruptly sat up straight, knocking his left arm out of our personal territory (also way way past the armrest and separating line that divides our seat from his).

Back at Rassada Harbour we were greeted by more souvenir photographs! But we've decided that, if we were to have people take photos of us, we'd like the background to show more of where we've been (ie Phi Phi Island) rather than of the harbour.

Plus the Chief had already bought us the souvenir aka memorial photographs earlier on, heh.

Phuket Revisited 2010: When We Shop, The World Gets Better

2010-06-28T02:24:00.004+08:00

...At least, for us.

And what's there to shop in Phuket? The souvenir t-shirts? The beer branded tank tops?

One reason to shop overseas is to get stuff we can't find back here in Bolehland. And off-hand, two things comes to mind when it's Thailand: foodstuff, and Boots (it's amazing, there isn't a Boots in Sporeland too!).

During this trip we'd two malls to cover: Jungceylon at Patong and Central Festival in town.

It's a bit odd to see this on the chairs around Central Festival. Makes us wonder if kids go missing...

Jungceylon being the nearest, it was our first stop after lunch on the day we arrived. The main reason? To stock up on drinks and snacks that you don't find back here. This included a brand of mixed fruit yoghurt drinks, packets of soya milk mixed with honey and bottled water (the two bottles the hotel provide daily sometimes just isn't enough). Oddly enough this time we weren't interested in buying junk food to snack on when in the hotel, though...normally we'd jump at the sight of those little packets of Twisties or some other flavours you can't find back here.

Guess we were rather focused more on the eateries, then.

And Boots (and Watsons), also for stuff you can't find here. Both have their range of products, like Boots with their Body Wash with a watermelon and mango scent, or Watsons with their Classic Pooh creams and lotions, packaged very nicely (only recently has Guardian's packaging taken a turn for the better with their own stuff). Also not to mention we get Decolgen there cheap, and we still tend to get shocked to find contraceptives available off the shelf, along with other stuff that's considered Pharmacy Only or Prescription Only back here.

Anyways seeing how we've not used the stuff we've gotten from Boots since last year we refrained from buying more, even if they were on offer.

However, we did get this from Carrefour in Jungceylon.

Assorted pork-flavoured instant noodles and crispy pork slices snacks. Because you don't find pork flavoured instant noodles here, and the crispy pork slices go oh-so-well with the instant noodles! Supper takes a whole new turn of satisfaction.

And in Central Festival, we'd not find much in Tops but we did come across this.

Hersheys in a tin box. The Hersheys were good, and it wasn't long before we'd finished one box. Now, if only we have any idea what to do with the box...

Our best buy considered from Central Festival and for this trip, was this iPhone cover.

The Q-Pot Loves iPhone chocolate case.

We'll blame a YKLS member for our looking around at iPhone cases. While we may not be singing with them this year, we still drop by once in a while to say hello. And one day when we were visiting, we'd recently bought the SwitchEasy Capsule Rebel case (aka 'The Watermelon' as it was in two tones of green) and we were dressed in a green t-shirt and in green shorts.

So this fellow, he asks us, did we buy the case to match what we wore? No, we answered, we just like the colour green. But that got us thinking along the lines of getting more iPhone covers, although probably not the ones you can get from Machines or Mac City as those can easily cost over RM100. But even those sold outside tend to be somewhere RM35 or more, and we've not come across any other casing we'd fancy.

Until the Q-Pot. Left upside down and in the box that comes with it, it could really pass off as a box of chocolates. And while this casing is much more bulkier, we can actually stand it upright without needing a stand! Makes it easy watching Sailormoon sometimes!

And as far as we know, there's no such cover here in Bolehland yet! We've a totally unique cover! We're chuffed up over that, haha. To our shame, otousan has also asked if we could get him a Q-Pot cover too, but we're declining to do so for now (well not to mention that we aren't going back to Thailand anytime soon).

As for the Chief's best buy, it would be when we walked into McThai. With football fever going on at the moment and McDonald's having this Coke Footbal Glass collection going on, the Chief has so far three of the glasses. And when we walked into McThai, we saw this.

All the glasses, in a special collector's box, at a rather attractive price of 199 baht. It's at times like these that we feel justified in bringing a rather large and sturdy luggage even for a trip that doesn't require much in terms of clothes or shopping. So naturally we bought the entire thing!

Oh, and since the Chief's already halfway through collecting a set of glasses, the Chief's still going to finish that set. Which means we've got at least three days of large McValue meals with sundaes as we've to help complete that set. We'll get the glasses when we have a craving for fried chicken, then.

Next up, island hopping!

Phuket Revisited 2010: MEALWHAT(tm) Phuket Picks

2010-06-22T00:56:00.000+08:00

MEALWHAT(tm) interrupts the Bangkok Photolog series to present you this special edition!

We begin with LUNCHWHAT(tm) on the first day at Phuket! After checking in and resting at the hotel, we head to a favourite spot for lunch: Restaurant No 6!

This place serves decent meals that doesn't cost a bomb and most of their drinks are either served in tall glasses with lots of ice, or in bottles with a foam cosy to keep the beer icy-cold.

After some mulling for where to go next, we decided to splurge a bit for DINNERWHAT(tm)!

Two people.

Four dishes.

All of them, mouthwateringly delicious.

Although we must admit, the butter and garlic sauce may be just a little bit too much for two people...

Every morning, for BREAKFASTWHAT(tm) we would indulge in a heavy buffet breakfast consisting of porridge, pastry buns, toast, pancakes, pork sausages, ham, scrambled eggs, juice, and tea or coffee.

On our second day in Phuket, whatwith a heavy dinner the night before and a heavy breakfast in the morning, LUNCHWHAT(tm) saw us taking it easy and sharing just one dish once we arrived at Central Festival!

After some shopping what better way to rest than to indulge in some ice cream?

And after even more shopping later, it was time for DINNERWHAT(tm)!

We decided to walk into Yayoi after seeing a poster of the yakisoba with omelet.

And while we're able, most of our dishes will feature pork!

Day three in Phuket had us going island hopping to Phi Phi Island for most of the day! LUNCHWHAT(tm) was a simple buffet lunch setup that filled the stomach after our snorkeling session.

For DINNERWHAT(tm) we were introduced to MK Gold by the Chief! However, the branch at Jungceylon was a steamboat setup and not the barbeque setup that the Chief intended to introduce to us. Nevertheless the food was still good!

Everything was poured into the bowl and it all came to a boil quickly.

What we're really reminded of with the sauce is the sweet sauce you get when eating dim sum. What else is in that sauce, we've no idea. But it's tasty!

Day four saw us having our meals at Restaurant No 6 again! A very convenient place for food indeed.

Day five was our last day in Phuket! Yes, somehow we either have been having Thai food or Japanese food when dining in Phuket.

Fuji's food was still good, although must make note for Chief to not order the Fuji Green Tea Fit in the future.

The pork rolls were a delight, mixing pork and cheese!

In future trips to Phuket, we will explore Deutsche Kneipe if they still have their All-You-Can-Eat offer, and Hard Rock Cafe (to get the Phuket Hurricane glass!), and perhaps one of the other recommended seafood restaurants!

Phuket Revisited 2010: We Love It When A Plan Comes Together

2010-06-17T23:32:00.003+08:00

It was only last year when we first visited Phuket, and now we've gone for a second trip! Better yet, this time we had a longer stay of 5 days and made the most of it!

Interestingly, by "making the most of it", we actually mean "spending time sleeping at the beach".

Our plans were kept simple. Within the 5 days we were there, we would do 2 facials, 2 massages, tan at the beach, swim at the hotel pool, walk about at Jungceylon when Thailand's Sale starts, go island hopping to Phi Phi Island, stock up on food and drinks found only in Thailand, gorge ourselves out on the food at Patong and catch a movie at the SFX Cinema in Jungceylon on our final day.

And by the end of our trip we managed all that (save watching a movie - we would have watched Sex And The City 2 for only 800 baht instead of 1200 baht but timing was rather tight), and more! There was shopping at Jungceylon and at Central Festival, there were aloe vera massages as well, we bought things we never expected, and we slept off all our sleep debt!

This trip was also planned to fully maximize our time in Phuket, hence our departure flights were 7.25am to Phuket and 9.05pm back to KL. Which meant that we'd to leave to KL Sentral at 4am, take the AirAsia Skybus shuttle by 5am so that we could reach LCCT by 6am. Slept throughout the journey on the bus, checked in and then headed on to the Plaza Premium Lounge for some breakfast. Once aboard the plane we didn't get to sleep as we had our pre-booked meals to dig into, although we must admit the quality has diminished from what we hand previously (yes we also had the Asian Fried Rice that williamnyk had!)...

Upon arrival at Phuket International Airport we soon got a cab and slept the entire journey to the Royal Paradise Hotel.

After checking into the hotel at about 9am, we unpacked our stuff and slept.

Even on the following day, while tanning at the beach, we slept soundly for a couple of hours.

The drawback about leaving so early to head to Phuket, especially with only a couple of hour's sleep the night before. But no matter, as it all falls into the plan! This trip was meant to be a relaxing getaway!

Next up, MEALWHAT(tm): Phuket Picks!

Alpha Mike Foxtrot!

2010-06-09T02:45:00.005+08:00

So let's see. This year there's been a fair number of shows that we had expectations from, but so far we've been let down now and again. On the upside the Chief has been winning lots of free tickets so we've both been enjoying a fair number of movies too! Let's do a recap on some of the shows...

Book Of Eli. Didn't expect much although from the trailer the first impression we had was, "Fallout!" No expectations, so no disappointments but not really that interesting for us. Miss.

Edge Of Darkness. Mel Gibson still puts on a good show, and the show makes sense in the end, but also not really memorable. OK.

From Paris With Love. We'd no idea what this show was about when we went in to watch it! John Travolta shocked us with a different look and Jonathan Rhys Meyers is still King Henry to us but this comedy was ok.

Percy Jackson And The Lightning Thief. We suppose since we never read the books it wasn't as good as the Harry Potter series. But we were fine with them taking liberties with Greek mythology as it was a modern setting, and Uma Thurman really, really make an awesome Medusa. Watchable.

Valentine's Day. Somewhere at the start of the show we thought, "Love Actually!" We need to watch that show again. What really impressed us about the show wasn't how everyone was connected in some way in the show but the house that Ashton Kutcher stayed in, and Anne Hathaway as a phone sex worker! Watchable.

Shutter Island. We actually saw the ending while browsing at the DVD store. Then went to watch the movie to appreciate the beginning. Not a horror show as we thought it was in the trailers, but nevertheless a good movie. Good movie.

Alice In Wonderland. Most people told us that they were rather disappointed with this movie. We could not see why. It's a slight deviation from the story book (oh our goodness we tried reading the book and wanted to kill Alice) but Helena Bonham Carter made the Queen of Hearts the star of the show! Oh and Anne Hathaway amazes us by showing she can act slightly weird (unfortunately we've locked her as the sweet Andrea of Devil Wears Prada)! Watchable.

Clash Of The Titans 2010. Can we cry? The trailer, especially with the minus one of The Used's 'The Bird And The Worm' giving the action an edgy but great feel, gave us quite high hopes for this show. Major letdown as the 3D version had nothing but 3D Chinese subtitles, while the show, dark to begin with, was darker when wearing the 3D glasses. A visual feast but somehow that was all.

Ip Man 2. Great martial arts show that does as well as the first, although the storyline seems similar. Of course the scene to watch for is Donny Yen fighting Sammo Hung. Must watch.

Iron Man 2. No expectations except a reminder to stay till after the credits. Overall the show was good, Robert Downey Jr entertained, and thankfully there was no need to be a Marvel fanboy to enjoy the show (we wonder how many found the Captain America's shield bit funny). Good movie.

Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time. Another show that we hoped would do well. It did...formulaic. Those who didn't know what Prince Of Persia was all about would be wondering what was with all the athletic jumping and swinging. The conversations between the Prince Dastan and Princess Tamina was entertaining, but somewhere in the show it suddenly felt like Pirates Of The Carribean.

Honestly we had even more memorable shows coming from Lady Gaga's music videos. Speaking of which Alejandro is out!

So we had to pick up our jaws at the bed scenes. But our gripe is, "Why can't BodyJam have choreography like that any more?!"

And tonight we got to watch A-Team!

Also another show with no expectations since we've never seen any trailers, only the poster. Only, this movie is so far in our opinion, the best show we've watched so far for this year. There's a lot of budget for the action scenes like Iron Man 2 has but the humour in A-Team outshines Iron Man 2. This is one show not to miss! Even from the second front row in Cathay we had no difficulty enjoying the movie (thumbs up to Cathay for having seats near the front that doesn't need one to crane up and look left and right just to watch the show)!

Oh and honestly Bradley Cooper in the movie. We want his genes. That wavy hair. That five o'clock shadow. Those eyes. That smile. And disturbingly, as we're not a fan off this, the chest fuzz. We want them genes!

Sigh we guess we'll have to resolve to boiled chicken breast meat for two weeks, more cardio and longer workouts. And make do without the hair.

Glasgow (7 Years After)

2010-06-07T17:35:00.000+08:00

So an ex-coursemate names his photo album of pictures taken around Glasgow over the weekend, 7 years after we've all left the place. And everyone who'd probably only write a wall post to each other when it's their birthdays or the occasional comment here and there, who you've not heard via email or text nor seen in ages, gets drawn to the photos (us included). It's not as if we've all forgotten each other entirely, there're coursemates already married and living overseas and working all hours and the likes...

Sometimes all it takes is for someone to put up photos, probably tag a few people, and next thing you know it becomes a sort of university fun project.

Like when we posted up our batch graduation photo from Strathclyde with most of everyone in it. Since ours was a developed photo from film, we'd to scan it in before uploading, and the resolution once uploaded was iffy at best when it came to detecting faces. Since we had the actual photo we tagged those we could, then it was up to everyone else to try and make out who's who. That photo had a fair number of ex-coursemates tagging people!

We liked how our friend captioned this photo, 'Hate/miss the staircase'.

And now our ex-coursemates, us included, are going through Kepong Bicep's photos as he's currently there, taking photos of landmarks as they now are and everyone's reliving memories - from prices of meals at China Express to the temperature of the swimming pool at the U of Strathclyde's Centre for Sport and Recreation and all other landmarks...

Nothing like nudging the ol' personal nostalgia to bring people together a short while.

Like A Drug, Like A Drug

2010-06-04T17:33:00.001+08:00

This probably started with everyone on Facebook raving about Kylie's upcoming song 'All The Lovers', and the YouTube links posted along with it. Only we'd not the opportunity to check it out earlier so it was only this week in the midst of all the hectic goings-on that we somehow decided to destress by looking for the music video.

And we must say that it grows on us, once we got over our initial shock at how the music video started and started listening to the song.

Funny, Madonna's music videos never shocked us. Pet Shop Boys' videos never shocked us. Lady Gaga...well, even Telephone wasn't shocking because Kylie shocked us nine years ago with the music video for 'Can't Get You Out Of My Head'. After that video what's some tape over the nipples? Although admittedly if we never watched 'Bad Romance' first and jumped straight to 'Telephone' perhaps we might have been shocked at the near-nudity scenes.

So anyways we'll wait for Kylie's new song, hopefully we'll appreciate most of the songs in her new album (unfortunately since we enjoyed the dancefloor album that was Fever, Body Language and X didn't have too many songs that caught our fancy as they were more pop than dancefloor...). And while we wait, we'll busy ourselves by watching back her old music videos, especially those from Fever. Those were great music videos!

We've got to thank Parlophone for putting up her videos in HD.

Only...why isn't there a music video for 'Like A Drug'? That's our favourite from X!

And for a while now we've had Lady Gaga thematically on our iPhone, with the startup screen from Tapulous' Lady Gaga Revenge as our wallpaper and all ringtones from her songs. We're thinking of making a Kylie theme, but we'll wait a while as Lady Gaga's 'Alejandro' music video will be out soon...

The Moonlight Carries The Message Of Love

2010-05-27T17:41:00.001+08:00

We've been rather late in discovering YouTube Downloader. Prior to YouTube Downloader we've been kickyoutubing any videos we were interested in (not a lot), but when we found ourself occasionally heading to watch Lady Gaga's whacky Telephone music video, we thought it best if we kept a copy handy on our iPhone instead.

Beyonce's 'bad girl' line never fails to crack us up.

Then there were the parody videos, our favourites being Sherry Vine's take on Bad Romance...

...and the Key Of Awesome's Telephone.

YouTube Downloader made us a very happy man by making it hassle-free downloading the vids! Then, of course, iTunes had to inform us that some of the videos that we downloaded weren't able to be copied over to our iPhone. It happens. No biggie. We'd just use iTunes to convert it to an iPhone compatible format.

Leaving it overnight to convert as it was rather late and the file wasn't small, we sync'ed it the next day and what do you know, when we watched it the resolution was compromised. Bloody disappointing. Then we recalled reading the review on YouTube Downloader (we think this was a review on Download.com) about YouTube Downloader being able to convert files as well, so we thought, what the heck, might as well give it a go.

Not only was the conversion much faster, but it kept the original resolution!

Finally, something that made putting videos on our iPhone much easier. Then there were the Gag Che videos that, while in Cantonese which meant we understood less than one third of what is talked about, were still funny (thanks Little Prince for introducing!) and so we snagged everything.

That led us to editing all the information so that it doesn't just clog up our video's section on the iPhone, but is categorized under TV Shows etc. Our iPhone videos section now looks much neater!

After all that, we decided to try using the YouTube Downloader for one more experiment: converting Real Media files to Quicktime format.

And so, we now have the entire Sailormoon Sailorstars season on our iPhone! Happiness is us! No more waiting to use the telly, making supper, then proceeding to slot in a DVD to watch an episode! Now all the episodes can follow us wherever we go! Joy! The moonlight carries the message of love!

Too bad we only managed to convert the Sailorstars season. The first season of Sailormoon were in a slightly different Real Media format, .ram, while the Sailorstars season were in .rm format. YouTube Downloader couldn't convert .ram to .mov as far as we tried, hopefully in the future this will be improved on!

This Is A Triumph

2010-05-24T17:47:00.001+08:00

Recently we've actually picked up a slight interest in Portal (after listening to Still Alive and watching some of the Portal YouTube clips admittedly) but never did get around to borrowing the game from someone - for one thing first-person shooters give us vertigo, although alakazen tells us that since Portal's very much a thinking game rather than running and gunning the vertigo shouldn't be so bad, and for another we wondered if our PC could support the game.

What really got us intrigued about the game was GLaDOS. Not the thinking using portals and definitely not because it was a FPS.

Then just last week, we got word that Steam was releasing Portal for free!

Hence no need to wait to borrow from anyone. And we'll be owning an original copy.

So far, we've only found time to play the game twice, and both times we could still feel the vertigo come on (although not as fast as, say, when playing CounterStrike or Left 4 Dead!) and we're quite happy that Portal runs smoothly on our PC...when the video settings are set at the bare minimum. That's fine, since GLaDOS kept us entertained with her exclaimations and the game doesn't really need to be played in high-end graphics to be enjoyed.

Our only gripe? Playing via Steam meant we at first spent the entire night and following morning downloading the 5GB game, and then finding out after that that we need to be connected online to play! We're not sure if we need to maintain the internet connection while we play, like for Command & Conquer 4 or Assassin's Creed 2, but we don't like the internet dependency as set by Steam.

What happens if something happens to our connection, like our modem getting fried?

At least with Good Old Games we can download and play anywhere anytime. At least Steam chose a good game to lure us in. Otherwise we might just forgo the download (and getting games from Steam in the future) and just borrow Portal from a friend. For now, we'll be busy exploring the depths of Aperture looking for cake.

Ad-verse Reactions

2010-05-21T01:49:00.000+08:00

Now we pretty much could have made do with using our old modem, but there was one particular thing that had us got us looking for a new wireless modem router.

See, it all started when William mentioned about playing Scrabble with SK, now that they've joined the ranks of iPhoners. That caught our attention, we never paid much attention to that app in the iTunes Store as we never fancied playing with AI, whatmore needing to pay USD4.99 for it. Asked him and it turns out to be a free app, so we jumped onto the bandwagon for some gametime.

And this pretty much happens.

Prior to playing Words With Friends Free, our data usage mid-April was some 250MB. We'd never really hit 500MB with our Maxis data plan and thought 500MB was a comfortable limit for us, we could Facebook, email, surf, navigate via Maps and not really worry about hitting 500MB. So when we started Words With Friends Free, every time it was our turn and we were free to play we would be looking for word placements. And it being the free version instead of the paid version, advertisements featured heavily in the game, especially after every move we made, an ad will pop up.

Now, come May we checked our usage and saw we were close to the 500MB mark. We weren't really sure how much but thought we were safely within the limit. But our Maxis bill told us otherwise - from the RM100 average to RM150ish! Overshot.

That got us to slow down playing Words With Friends Free unless we're in a wifi area, and so no playing at home.

Until now, that is! Currently we're on par with William, derek, carpe diem, poor SK keeps opening up opportunities for triple word and double word scoring, and Legolas is absolutely trashing us!

Wireless Belkin Breeze

2010-05-20T00:45:00.004+08:00

Now sometime late last year to the start of this year our Level One ADSL2+ Modem Router sort of gave up on us. Couldn't figure out why we couldn't connect online with it. All the light lit up and all, but we couldn't connect to the web-based manager. Thankfully we still have the old modem supplied by Streamyx, so we switched to that.

Trust us not to realise the simplest solution available, not until we brought it to Computer War for a diagnosis: "kena thunder".

Anyways, there wasn't any urgency for us to get our wireless modem router fixed, since we've not been playing our Wii for quite a while (sadly), neither do we go online with our DS, and we've a mobile data plan for 500MB now.

We were hoping that it was somehow salvageable but we expected it to be otherwise. Better yet was when the guy at Computer War told us that our model only had a 1-year warranty, and that since last year Level One started a lifetime warranty policy on their newer products. Had to start looking at a new wireless modem router, then.

And when we started looking around, we were a bit confused. Prior to our visit to Computer War we had a look at a few other stores, and generally wondered at the difference in prices. The way the products were named didn't help. And yes, while we're fairly capable in techy things we've never been able to follow every bit of techy stuff there is. Like, we're able to fix up our wireless modem router, but get slightly lost when they ask us if we're using PPPoE or PPPoA and what is our encapsulation etc...

And shopping for a new wireless modem router wasn't any easier at first. You see why we're calling it in full? Because all this time we just thought 'router', thinking that all routers would have the functionality of a modem, a router, and wireless networking. The first router we saw was priced about RM60ish, and that led us to think that prices for routers have gone down. Then we saw another router that went for twice that price.

So we started paying a little more attention to what the words said on the box, and got lost reading about G Wireless, N Wireless, N+ Wireless etc. After asking around it was clear that the cheaper ones were just routers without a modem, our previous wireless modem router was a G standard and that N standard meant stronger wireless signal strength. And most brands don't call it a wireless modem router, they term it ADSL/ADSL2+ Wireless Router.

Now we know.

Back to when we had ours diagnosed at Computer War.

Technician says ours is fried, we think, okay, it's time for a new one. The only two brands that offer lifetime warranty are Level One and Belkin. We ask the technician if he has a Level One current model that is similar to what we have. He checks and tell us that there's no more stock at the moment, and offers us the next best thing, a model with the N Wireless standard at around RM250ish. How about the Belkin? There's a G Wireless standard at RM200ish.

The Belkin looked aesthetically much more pleasing compared to the Level One. And based on our experience with the G Wireless standard, we didn't think we needed something faster. Plus, we're not connecting wirelessly to our pc, that's still via network cable so the wireless standards don't apply. And it actually says G Wireless Modem Router on the box! Nearly plain English!

You can pretty much tell which we chose, heh.

And to cap it off, even installation was much easier! The installation CD definitely had the laymen in mind as everything was asked in plain English. And now we're wireless once again!

It's 4am...

2010-05-19T07:07:00.000+08:00

...when we woke up. After coming home and falling asleep on the couch last night when we got back from our movie. Then we showered and set our iPhone up to sync. After that, we couldn't go back to sleep, try as may. It couldn't be because of the movie we watched, The Descent 2, because we never thought about the movie again after we'd watched it.

There we were, lying in bed thinking about how we missed Glasgow and partly our school days, and how we wouldn't mind reliving some of those times but with present knowledge. Then we remember about homework and projects and assignments and then we give a shudder at how it probably wouldn't be as enjoyable reliving those days.

It's also not because we found out that Glee's third soundtrack, Showstoppers, is out on iTunes and we were tempted to get the Lady Gaga songs.

Perhaps it was because we decided to leave the table lamp on for once, but we never had trouble sleeping with the lights on as we tend to fall asleep with our bedroom lights on before.

By 6.50am we gave up trying to catch forty winks and got up, got shocked at our slightly-haggard appearance and sunken eyes, watered the plants, wiped off the morning dew off Aidan, had our breakfast, showered, and prepped for work.

And am now subsisting on coffee to get us through the day.

iMightn't?

2010-05-14T01:26:00.003+08:00

So there was this time three years ago when we actually voiced out our thoughts about the iPhone, and wasn't too keen over it because of how it lacked quite a fair bit compared to other phones (yes we will say it still lacks quite a fair bit even now).

Then we played around with a friend's iPhone and what woo'ed us was Safari. Surfing was a bliss. That sold us onto the iPod Touch, being a tad more affordable (compared to the iPhone, that is).

Then from being just a mobile surfing and email device with only web apps you could bookmark on Safari (which required a wifi connection to access), Apple introduced apps for the iPhone and iPod Touch, the ability to rearrange icons, cut-copy-paste, and a fair bit of updates, our iPod Touch became more of a PDA than our phones ever were.

The main reason? The speed and the fast response rate. For example, the time we take to mark an appointment on our iPod Touch calender, we'd only be halfway through typing it on our Nokias.

We've been a loyal fan of Nokia but over the years it's been losing out when it came to the smartphone market...after our Nok7710 there weren't any other touchscreen models, and when everyone was on to capacitive Nokia was still on resistive...and we'd played around with the Nokia X6, and sadly it didn't seem a joy to use at all. Not to mention, program loading times were still bad when you're used to instant loading speeds. Nokia's OS no longer does it for us, unless we're opting for a simple phone just for calls and messaging (but even then we love the threaded messaging that iPhone has!).

Anyways, we were thinking about the iPad.

Would you be getting one?

Our initial reaction? Nope.

There's no camera, or a port for a keyboard, and the price of the iPad or apps for the iPad won't be cheap, all this don't really make the iPad much different from an iPod Touch except for the size and the interface (Mail reminds us of Outlook now).

What would really have made the iPad much more appealing to us would be the ability to play DVD movies and audio music. Rather than having to convert our DVD movies and tv shows to a compatible format, all we'd need to do is to pop in a DVD into the drive and watch our shows on the go anywhere we want. Now that would certainly make it much more worthwhile!

Hmmm we've ripped off a few DVDs to watch on our iPod Touch, but those videos take up anywhere from 500mb to 1gb, limited to how much space we have available (our best moments was having all episodes of BBC's Pride & Prejudice ripped and copied onto our iPod Touch, then having the iPod Touch hooked up to a mobile stand and FM transmitter, so we could watch the series when stuck in heavy traffic). If they included an optical drive in the iPad we could enjoy watching Spartacus: Blood & Sand while lazing in bed without even having to first synchronize the files from pc to iPad!

Never mind. Save money and wait for future generations of iPad to get better. Or perhaps by then we would get a MacBook to do the job instead.

We Know We've Been Going Less To The Gym...

2010-05-11T17:37:00.000+08:00

...when we find ourselves totally doing easy options in both BodyCombat and BodyJam when it comes to moves pertaining to jumping (except sometimes for old BodyJam tracks and for the jump knees in BodyCombat's Muay Thai track) because we kinda feel the twinge in our knees;

...when into the second track of Jam/Combat and we feel a stitch in our sides and our stamina is shot;

...when we don't seem to be hanging out so much sweaty dri-fit clothes to dry before washing;

...when, and most obvious, our shampoo and body soap runs out far more faster when compared to three years back when we used to go to the gym about three times a week and shower there.

Castles & Towers

2010-05-07T17:35:00.003+08:00

First we had Angry Birds to occupy much of our time. Not only did the game had many green pigs to kill and birds to launch, they do a pretty good job getting us to come back to the game again and again, first to finish all the stages, then to score three stars for each stage, and with the recent update, a new episode with more stages and a new type of bird.

Now that that's over with, we're waiting for more episodes from Angry Birds to occupy our time. In the mealwhile, we've found two other games that tickle our fancy:

First up was Babel Rising. Was free for a while back, looked simple yet interesting for a god game, and so we figured no harm trying and downloaded the app. We had a good laugh with this, as we visited all sorts of divine retribution against the heathens building the Tower of Babel. Very addictive app, and after a few games we gave in and bought the (in-app purchase) Campaign and Fury Modes.

The Campaign Mode allowed for slight variations in gameplay (ie, the tower begins half built, a level is added to the tower at the following stages) and allows abilities to be upgraded, while the Fury Mode has the workers being invulnerable to certain abilities (blue workers cannot be electrocuted, for instance). In fact the longest we'd played on a single stage was in Fury Mode (normally somewhere within 10 minutes the workers would have overwhelmed us) was just over 30 minutes! The battery drain we faced!

Then we were introduced to Crush The Castle. Admittedly when we first saw this app on the iTunes Store we weren't impressed. Only recently we got around to trying the Flash version online, and it's sort of a mix between Angry Birds and Babel Rising. Instead of birds on a catapult attacking pigs, it's a trebuchet launching stones at castles with people in them. Kings, knights, maidens, all must be killed to clear the stage. Blood splatters everywhere as they scream when rocks fly, walls shatter and everything plunges and crumbles.

Using the trebuchet isn't as easy as the catapult but that doesn't stop us from now trying to score gold for every castle!

Now, if only there was a free version of Canabalt for the iPhone. We find ourselves singing Erasure's 'Always' when we play that. Oh yes, and there's also Canabalt Typing Tutor to try as well...

Unker 'Vier

2010-05-04T13:29:00.002+08:00

And it's official.

We have a niece!

You can start calling us Unker Janvier now, while we start thinking of stuff to do and get, like a craft album for our sis for photos of Little Kay. Or baby stuff. Or toys. Or clothes.

Ask Nicely, Can?

2010-04-29T01:23:00.003+08:00

Recently we just got this text message from a friend (that has a way of, well, irritating people with his attitude) that goes:

Janvier i got fren moving to KJ. Plz show him around, esp food spots. Name [Friend 1's name] n [Friend 2's name], tel [Friend's tel no]

Right. We still remember the last time he asked us for a favour, which include asking us to bring our collection of boardgames to introduce to some of his friends...which turned out to be the majority of his church friends in one of his friend's house. Awkward? Yes. It sort of felt like we were the entertainment he was suppose to bring for the event, sans balloons, monkey-playing accordian and the likes.

Now this. We think he overestimates our friendliness and ease at mixing with people. Just because we can get along with some people doesn't mean we're immediately able to talk to anyone.

The overestimation of our friendliness (if indeed that's what it is) we can take but we're irked at the way we were asked to do this. No phone call or text message to ask if we we could do him a favour, he's got some friends coming down to stay in KJ, if we were free could we show them around, especially when it comes to food areas (the emphasis for food spots here we gather is due to our numerous MEALWHAT(tm) updates on Facebook we suppose)?

But nooooo...just a, "Janvier, I've friends going over. Please show them around." Like we are only too please to do your bidding as and when you want it.

We're not saying that we don't do favours, or that we want people to bend over and grovel, but, ask nicely, can?

The style of the text somehow reminds us of womenfolk in church, who will ask other churchmembers or their children to do these kind of favours (and will do them if asked by others). The only difference here is that we aren't related to this friend nor does his attitude cause one to feel ready to help.

So anyways we're actually incline to refuse, because our normal eating hours will be some 3 hours later than everyone else (say, 10.30pm for dinner?) and we don't think his friends would appreciate waiting till then to discover food spots.

And we're tempted to just reply:

Hi we got horny gay fren moving near your place. Plz douche before meeting him, don't worry he likes it tight and is gentle. Name [fictitious name] tel [fictitious mobile number]

The Curve, Disconnected

2010-04-23T01:08:00.002+08:00

Sunday came along and we found ourself at the Curve for lunch without our acPhone nor a book to keep us company. Double ouch especially since there's free wifi at Winter Warmers. Thankfully there were magazine to help occupy us even though they seem to be dated 2008, and after lunch while waiting for mum we decided to walk about the outdoor bazaar rather than wait in Winter Warmers.

Walking about with nothing much to see and buy, we paid attention to the singers (we can't really think of them as buskers now, can we?) entertaining the shoppers with golden oldies. The selection of songs actually reminds us of the singers that sing in the Klang Club restaurant, songs you'd hear on Light And Easy.

We spotted an old man happily singing along to 'Stand By Your Man', a smile on his face without a whit to what others may think of him. Seeing him enjoying himself put a smile on our face as well, as we caught ourself also singing along to the chorus (or, at least, to the line 'Stand By Your Man' since that's the only lyrics we know to that song).

We wonder: in the future will we end up like that old man, sitting about singing old songs to singers at a mall, and better still, if they would be performing Lady Gaga's Bad Romance for us to sing to?