HOT, SEXY pizza advertisement

I opened my mailbox this morning, hoping to find something interesting. Perhaps a free FHM magazine this time? :) And then there was this red piece of leaflet lying at the bottom of my mailbox. First impression of the leaflet was that someone was promoting those sex chats again. And i was starting to doubt the hostel's security. But turn it back, and i found out how creative and ORIGINAL the guy (or gal) who designed the leaflet must be.













Think big... think further!!


Sorry mate, i know what you're thinking. But when it comes to pizza, it's gotta be real HOT!










Last page of the leaflet



Never heard of this pizza outlet before. But i'd like to try it one day.
I wonder if the free delivery comes with other GOODIES...

I had lunch with my cousin Aaron at this ChinaBar near his CMC hostel. I've walked past this chinese restaurant a few times, and business seems really good. It was quite cosy inside, except that there was too much smoke when the chinese dude with his assistant tries cooking. The waitresses were nice, but when it comes to ordering... try conversing in Chinese or Cantonese with them- i had to check my order three times!! I didn't know that CMC tenants get 10% off by flashing their keys at the waitress. And the key (this grey piece of thing used to activate a signal) looks exactly the same as the one i have in A`Beckett. Hmm... i think i should try flashing it next time. The food wasn't really cheap though. Ok here's a thought. How would you like a dish of Penang Acar that cost AU$6? Or forking out $5++ for a plate of roti canai? Heh.. i think i'd rather wait and go back to Sibu for this big plate of Lakian Mee..
So i ordered this double roast rice (with bbq pork and roasted duck) which cost $7.90
















Looks ok, and it goes well with the condiments provided. One thing i notice about eating in Chinese and Vietnamese restaurants, they always have this chilli in oil condiment. But for Chinabar, they added deep fried onions for the extra err.. crunch?










Looked scary the first time i had in a Vietnamese restaurant. Imagine the oil coming out together with your sh*t!!! Urrgghhh!!!


Nothing much today except for sleeping, eating, going to St. Francis church , eating, and i'd eat again soon. I went to this Japanese restaurant called Yoshi.... something with my sister. And the chefs were crying out orders in Cantonese? And there weren't anyone greeting us in Japanese when we entered. Damn... Sushi King could do better! Anyway, i ordered this Eel rice and hmm.. not bad at all.










The meal was worth my bucks (cost like $6.80 i think), but it was really filling. Without needing drinks. The miso soup(not in the photo) was rich and refreshing.



Oh yeah, and since i went for a walk near uni, i might as well just show the pics i took.











One of the buildings opposite Melbourn Uni's Parkville campus













Parkville's view from the roadside. Err... that should be Graatan street i think. Or Elizabeth street. Still not familiar with the streets












This' how the sky looked like at 5.30pm. Cold, dark and moody. Perfect weather for sleepos!!

Reading is good-if it's FHM

I love lectures in uni. Stress free, and nag free. Since there's no tutorials today, lecture on Quantitative Methods 1 started at 11am and finished at noon. That gives me all the time of the day to.... read? For two weeks i've been in Melbourne, i haven't touched the newspaper at all, not to mention reading it. But i have this two CSI DVDs Discs 3 and 4 in my bag which i just got from the ERC. I walked for like 15 minutes, which was the total time taken to reach my hostel but i decided to hop into 7-11. Nice, Aussie 7-11.(Home of the Slurpee? NAHH!!!!-literally) Not a single one i've seen that's operated by an Aussie. I mean a REAL Aussie. I grabbed a few stuff like cookies, low fat high in Vitamin D & calcium milk ,some chips-with-gluten, this Herald newspaper which cost $1.20 (when you convert to ringgit, that's like RM2.80. Heck, The Star costs like Rm1.80?!!) And i got myself a copy of FHM. *Grins* Yes, Aussie FHM. ( Ok, i know i got my edition late) And it's kinda enlarged, i think that's the large version. With Kelly Brook on the cover *Slurpsss*

I took a photo of it using my phone, but duno why i can't read it in the laptop. But Aussie FHM is... interesting. And it costs $8++ (That's almost RM24!) compared to the Malaysian FHM(borrinnnggg!!!) which costs only err.. RM10? But the Aussie FHM is twice as thick and twice as informative :) And twice the size of course. It showcases a lot of stupid photos,girls in bikini, crude humour and jokes, babes in bikinis, a lot of beer advertisement, chicks in bikini, fashion, and Kelly Brook of course. I'd show you wat's on the Aussie FHM that you definitely can't get on the Malaysian FHM. I remember Adam's (Imran house's Adam) FHM bought in Dubai with thick black marker highlighted over the girls' erhem.. upper body assets. Nice board of censorship they have. Oh yeah, for those of you who'r still lost, FHM is For Him Magazine.














For example, they're highlighting a lot of this month's BIG STUFF. Like this guy with this err.. overgrown ass. Can't see the cavity tho :)
















or this big ass frog trying to chew up a.. bat? Who's next? Robin?

Oh wait.. i've got the FHM cover. And it says.. BIG EDITION. So it figures













Yay.. everything is BIG!!


Or.. how bout the guy with the largest nuts? Look closer















Wow pal.. sure is heavy!!

And this is definitely not your typical Malaysian FHM advertisement. Hmm.. i wonder if Adsense's going to come out with one of these
















Any comment about Aussie newspaper? Well yeah, the sports section sucks! It's only got rugby, rugby, and more rugby. I won't complain bout that but not even a single article bout the All Blacks? Arrrgh!! I'd be wearing my All Blacks jersey out to city tomorrow.

I guess today rotates around books and magazine. Surprise surprise when i got back to the hostel. My mail box was stuffed with this Time magazine. Hmm strange, i thought i suscribed to The Economist and it takes a few weeks for first copy to arrive? Turned out that it belonged to one of the ex-tenants in my room, under this Wijaya guy or some Indon name. But all's good.
But nah.. i didn't spend my afternoon reading. I indulged in CSI and it was really good- although i was catching up on earlier episodes. Proves why it's my favourite series. CSI fans, you have to agree with me why Grissom is DA MAN!! But Catherine Willows does look hotter in later seasons. So does Sara :) But err.. no comments on Brown and Nick though heh. Hmm.. i wonder what that bug crawling up my leg is called.. in Latin. If you know what i'm talking about, then you know your CSI well.

Quote of the day from my statistics lecture:

There are three types of lies- lies, damned lies, and statistics.

Figure it out yourself

Fishy dinner that rot

Everything started beautifully today. The sun was nice, despite having frequent freeze jams (that's what i call the cold winds slamming at me); lecture was pretty boring and nice to sleep in; and the CSI DVDs were pretty good except that i had to change the region setting to 2- arrggh!! Aussie dvds.. damn!

Then it came to dinner. What to eat ler? Turned my fridge upside down, and i found fish. Yes, the big ass fish fillet with tiny bones sticking out of the side which i bought at the Victoria Market last Saturday at a bargain price of $5 i think. Hmm... let's have fish soup with onions and capsicum and lots of fish chunks? Yeah, good idea- the old KTJ way. Except that i was missing spring onions to go together with it.

Ok, first you thaw the fish and run it under hot water in the sink. And that stinks! Then, rub salt and ginger paste all over to hopefully lose the fishiness. Slice it, but don't bother to take out the bones. They'd end up in the soup anyway. Dump them all in a pot, shake some salt in, pour water, and boil. Add lots of onions, capsicum, diced potatoes, carrots, and voila! Fish soup!!

But it turned out that the fish soup stank too much. I tasted the fish, and *yucks* it tasted like fish that have been bred in those Christmas stockings!!? No choice but to pour them all away. Luckily i've got some chicken breast meat , broccoli, and tomatoes left. Easy, chop them up, dump them into the frying pan. Fry for like 2 minutes, add teriyyaki sauce and sweet soy sauce. And eat them with fragrant jasmine rice. Yumm.. not bad for someone cooking in this hostel and living 2 hours ahead in Malaysia.

And now i'm typing out my blog, my hand still stink of this fish. I think it's back for revenge that i dump them all into the rubbish chute. Can't blame me, i still have one lecture tomorrow mate!

Checked my mail, but no reply from Curl yet. I just BPayed them close to AU$300 for my line reconnection, new ADSL line, and new ADSL modem. No reply? Well, the website says 1-3 days for ADSL modem shipping before the line reconnection. Telephone line reconnection and ADSL line activation may take up to 1-2 weeks. How the hell m i goin to do my uni assignment and revision when the lecturer posts everyday's notes and answers in the uni website? Heck no i'm not going to depend on my sister's internet line. It sucks coz it's WHome (WreckedHome?), and it's capped at 4Gb a month-meaning maximum download of 4Gb a month. More downloads after that are shaped to dial-up speed. And it affects all internet activities. Talking about Aussie business people man...

I've only got one lecture tomorrow, but i've got a lot of things to sort out tomorrow. I've only got 1 out of my 4 textbooks, since i'm getting 2nd hand because new textbooks are VERY expensive. For those uni students reading my blog, check out this website : www.textbookexchange.com.au They have a wide variety of textbooks there, at great discount prices (Not all). I couldn't find the workbook for accounting, so i had to buy one in the uni bookshop. And the cashier lady really scared me off! It's not that it was too early in the morning (heck it was 10am) or that i just ate too much breakfast- but this lady was 'scary' in a friendly manner if you get what i mean. She's a big blonde with braided hair i think, but she was really big and she wore this white blouse with a black leather bra over it. And she was wearing something else on the hair but i couldn't remember. *Gulp* But she has a nice Hello though.

Alright, enough blabbering for today. Just feeling blue coz i still can't get my broadband in my OWN room. Then i can start downloading stuff.. yeah REAL STUFF. Gonna wait for my mum's call, and hopefully Grandpa's waking up to fnd everyone beside him real soon. No, i'm not going to tell you what happened to him, but just pray for my Grandpa's health, and God bless him. Amen.

First blog in Melbourne

Imagine that... no internet for like almost 2 weeks?! Melbourne's fairly cold now, especially when there's this sudden gust of wind slamming into your face (or your whole body). My hostel's quite nice, on A`Beckett. Met these few KTJ ex-pals who'r living in the same hostel- different floors of course. University of Melbourne is like what... 15 to 20 mins walk from my hostel and since it's not really hot, so i don't sweat that much :) And thanx to Bick Seng and Aaron (my cousin) for wasting their precious time showing me around Melbourne, like how to get to DIMIA office and the shortest route to the Econ and Commerce building.

Talking bout uni... the books are expensive!! Especially when you times 3 to ringgit. *whistles* It takes time to get used to walking in the uni, especially when you're new and everything seems so... 'foreign' to you. NOT THE PEOPLE. The buildings and the trees and the roads i mean.

Melbourne is cool and nice generally, except for that bitch who honked me when she was speeding out through this alley. And there'r a lot of jobless people here. Literally. And on Sundays (though it was only my first Sunday here), there were this group of students running around with signboards saying "Honk if you're Horny". Hmm.. not bad for a start. Not really of a culture shock though.

I'm still waiting for my Internet provider to clear my payment and then get my ADSL installed. That's the most reasonable provider i could find, Curl. The bundled package of telephone and ADSL(512K) with 25gb monthly quota is only $34.95 . Installation fee's a bit expensive, but this provider runs on a monthly contract unlike other companies like Telstra and Bigpond which require you to sign up for 6 ,12 or 24 months contract. And the thing that suck about broadband here? They've got limited download quota. Yes.. don't get misleaded by the word 'UNLIMITED BROADBAND DOWNLOAD'. Even if they are, they'd be very expensive.

I'm yet to explore Melbourne at it's whole, but nah.. 2nd week only lar! I'm just glad to see a lot of Asian students here. Gotta dump my clothes into the washing maching now.. hell everything here's about money. Even when i operate the washing machine, it needs $1. So as you can see.. i'd only wash my clothes once a week :) Don't smell ok? Will blog again when i get the chance to do so.

Suddenly....

Wow, all of a sudden, i'm goin to uni?! Hmm.. it was a rather last minute decision. I applied for University of Melbourne to do commerce last Wednesday. And the faxed the letter of acceptance on Friday. I was in a dilemma, to go to Aussie or UK? Choosing to go to uk'd be a gamble, in case i screw up my A-level, i can't get into a good uni!

Ah... so i'd be stopping my blog for a few days since i'm leaving tomorrow. Australia here i come! I'd miss the food in Sibu.. damn!

Why'd i always get free MONEY?

Just days after receiving that email from the director of some bank in South Africa, today i got another one. This time, from Senegal.

Check out this email.

Ahmad Bello12 Avenue CentenatreDakar Senegal
E-mail:ahmadbello@myway.com

Attention: The President/CEO.

I am Alhaji Ahmad Bello, the Director of Bill and Exchange, Foreign Remittance Department of one of the leading banks here in Dakar Senegal. I have an urgent and very confidential business proposition for you. A contract employers- Teaser Petroleum Corporation made a numbered time Deposit for twelve calendar months, valued at US$12,500,000.00 (Twelve Million Five Hundred United States Dollars) in my bank. Upon maturity, I sent a routine notification to his forwarding address but got no reply. After a month, we sent a reminder and finally discovered from his contract employers, Teaser Petroleum Corporation that MR. ANDREAS SCHRANNER from Munich Germany died in a plane crash along with his entire family in July 2000.

PLEASE TAKE A CAREFULL LOOK AT THE BBC PUBLISHED Monday, 31 July, 2000, 13:22 GMT 14:22UK: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/859479.stm Since we got this information about his death and on further investigation, I found out that he died without making a WILL, and all attempts to trace his next of kin was fruitless. I therefore made further investigated and discovered that Mr. Andreas Schranner did not declare any kin or relations in all his official documents, including his Bank Deposit paperwork in my Bank. This sum of US$12,500,000.00 is still sitting in my Bank and the interest is being rolled over with the principal sum at the end of each year. No one will ever come forward to claim it.

According to Laws of Senegal, at the expiration of 5(five) years, the money will revert to the ownership of the Senegalese Government if nobody applies to claim the fund. Consequently, my proposal is that I will like you as a foreigner to stand in as the next of kin to Mr. Andreas Schranner so that the fruits of this old man's labour will not get into the hands of some corrupt government officials.

A bank account in any part of the world that you will provide will then facilitate the transfer of this money to you as the beneficiary/next of kin. The money will be paid into your account for us to share in the ratio of 50% for me and 30% for you. The remaining 20% will be for any expenses we might incurred during the course of the transaction. There is no risk at all as it will be handled in such a way that no law of any country will be violated and my position in the bank,the successful execution of this transaction is guaranteed. If you are interested, please reply immediately via the private email address above. Upon your response, I shall then provide you with more details on how we should proceed. Please send me your confidential telephone and fax numbers for easy communication.Please observe utmost confidentiality, and be rest assured that this transaction will be most profitable for both of us because I shall require your assistance to invest my share in your country.Awaiting your urgent reply.Regards,

Ahmad Bello.
002215230013

*These people need to attend PROPER ENGLISH CLASSES before trying to convince people through email that they're about to cash in some dead guy's US$12,500,000.00 .They never specify their banks, just vaguely saying that they're 'one of the leading banks
I haven't gone to the website that he provided, and i don't think i will. If you want to take a look at that website, do it at your own risk.

I did a search on Teaser Petroleum Corporation in Google, and it came out with searches on more scam letters.
One of the letters can be found here.
Coincidentally, most of the Teaser Petroleum Corporation's employees die in air crashes. Now i wonder what airlines they travel in..

Intel's UK HQ raided

Intel's offices across Europe was raided by investigators yesterday, including the company's British headquarters in Swindon. Officials also visited Intel premises in other countries across Europe including Germany, Italy and Spain.

Reason? The raids are said to be connected to the recent allegations of business malpractice and monopoly activity alleged by rival AMD. European Union (EU) officials are conducting inspections of several premises of Intel Corporation in Europe as well as a number of IT firms manufacturing or selling computers. The investigations are being carried out within the framework of an ongoing competition case.

Just last month, month AMD filed a lawsuit against Intel The methods used are alleged to involve predatory pricing, marketing subsidies and cash payments. Intel denies all the accusations. However, the company was found guilty of antitrust behaviour in Japan earlier this year. alleging that the company had used improper methods to persuade manufacturers not to buy processors from AMD.

'The European Commission dawn raids show that Intel cannot and should not escape the scrutiny of antitrust officials around the world - nor can Intel escape the consequences of its anti-competitive actions, which raise prices, threaten innovation and harm consumers'

Perhaps it's time that Intel removes much of its unnecessary advertisement. The advertisement at the beginning of Medal Of Honour: Pacific Assault that i played months ago was rather annoying. It suggests that Intel chips deliver the best graphics... etc. Bah.. the computer was running on AMD then, and everything was smooth sailing. Intel inside.. idiot outside?

Meanwhile, users please note that Microsoft has just released a security patch last night where two of the recipients involved are the Microsoft OS and Words.

Part of July's bulletin, two of the patches fix holes in the Windows platform, including server editions and also the Internet Explorer browser component of the desktop.

The first shores up a problem with Microsoft Color Management Module where an error can occur in validating some formats. Windows 2000 to Windows Server 2003 are affected, including Windows XP with Service Pack 2.
The second addresses a much publicized flaw in Internet Explorer which was only reported at the beginning of the month. Exploit code had already been made available on the Internet, and assembling a robust patch at such short notice is a good test of Microsoft's muscle.

The patch fixes an error handling the javaprxy.dll COM object, which if successfully exploited can cause a memory corruption. Both the Windows patches can lead to an attacker gaining remote control of the target computer if successful. Note that Internet Explorer 5.01 and above are affected.
The Word patch fixes versions of Word in Works Suite 2000 and Office 2000 and newer. Microsoft is specifically not giving details about the nature of the flaw, but warns that successful attacks would again lead to a remote attacker gaining control of the target system.

Please visit the Microsoft's security website for more details about updates and downloads.

Coming up: The new Internet Explorer 7

Internet Explorer? Bahh.. who gives a sh*t. We've got Firefox man... it's firefox! Aiy.. Microsoft has to push away its rivals as far as possible ok.. if they're not coming up with a new browser, users would be switching to new more improved browsers( Firefox just released its version 1.0.5) . The Internet Explorer (IE) 7 was scheduled to be released in 2007, but Microsoft announced that the beta version would be available later this summer. According to one of the developers in his blog, the IE7 is targeted to "go further to defend users from phishing as well as deceptive or malicious software". Meantime, they're also working hard to deliver the 64-bit Windows client. Microsoft has also promised a tabbed interface (meaning, you can open multiple webpages to be opened in one browser window, rather than a separate browser window) in its new IE 7.

Want tabbed interface on IE 6? Upgrade it by downloading an add-on called Maxthon. It's not a browser by itself, but it enhances the IE6 browser's with many long-waited features that should have been incorporated into Microsoft's IE. Its built-in privacy options also allow you to automatically delete your browsing history, cookies, and other traces of what you have done in the internet :) It also has the ability to even block image ads, floating advertisementss and other annoyances that can slip through IE's rudimentary ad-blocking ability. It can also support third-party softwares, such as the Google's toolbar Virtually every website today is optimised for IE use, so you can be assured that compatibility is not a problem.

Palm Xplore VS Innostream

Searching for a new handphone after seeing my N6681? Hold on.. why the rush? Here are two good phones that you might want to consider, if you insist that "Nokia too many people have lar"

Hong Kong based XPlore just launched the new m98 model, running on PalmOS. The good thing about it? The size is only of a regular clamshell style handphone.

The triband GSM m98 boast a 1.3 inch touch-screen(still smaller than me N6681) with 260,000 colors, besides being able to support WAP 2.0 and mp3 ringtones. It also has an integrated 1.3 megapixel digital camera. However, it lacks of Bluetooth and EDGE. (not really smart IMHO) On the PDA side, the phone is running on a 168MHz ARM processor with 64 Mb flash memory and 32 Mb SDRam( you can expand the memory- the phone supports the TransFlash media), and comes with PalmOS version 5.4 . The interesting thing about the phone is that it has two different graphical user interfaces- one that works like a normal phone with simple icons and the other one with the full PalmOS interface.



The phone comes with all the usual PalmOS applications including all versions of the QuickOffice suite ( this one allows you to view and edit documents) besides being able to access emails and view the attachments. It supports both English and Chinese character input and even comes with a 70,000-word English- Chinese /Chinese-English dictionary!

The Xplore m98 is available at a promotional price of RM1,688 which includes a free 64MB TransFlash (obsolete if you're a hardcore mp3 lover). While stocks last! The normal price is Rm1,988 but i'm sure you can get a better price at Sungei Wang :)

Check out some shots taken using the XPlore m98















The new Innostream Inno P10 meanwhile has an uncanny resemblance to the Samsung D500 model (eh.. same lar!) This slider phone has an integrated mp3 player (seems like phones nowadays must come with mp3 player) and 3D sound that is provided by the stereo speakers at the back of the phone( oi.. copy Motorola E398 ar?)

The phone also comes with an integrated 1.3 megapixel camera, and it allows users to record up to 90 minutes(or up to 60Mb) of video in .3Gp format . The phone has expandable memory supporting rs-mmc ( not sure if it's the dual voltage one). It has an "inflight mode" which allows users to switch off the phone when on a plane, but can still continue to watch videos, listen to music, and play games. (pretty cool eh).

There is also an integrated digital answering machine which can record voice messages (up to 30 seconds per call) to be stored on the phone for playback. Unfortunately, the phone doesn't come with bluetooth either, but it supports infra red connectivity. Users can also transfer audio, video,etc using the USB cable that comes with the phone. Price? Rm1388, but make sure you shop around Sungei Wang first eh!

Grand Theft Auto : San Andreas contains sex graphics?

Notice the big M on the rating when you purchase(in our case, most probably from Low Yatt Plaza or Bittorrent lar!) your GTA: San Andreas? Well, that means for mature audience/players only, but i never expected it to contain sexual graphics? M is widely accepted as a much more sensible rating for general game content than the AO rating, which is designed largely for explicitly pornographic products.

Apparently, the sex scenes can be unlocked with a free Internet download mod. When defending himself, mod author Patrick Wildenborg said that the mod merely unlocks the sex scenes which are already included in the code of each off-the-shelf game.

"My mod does not introduce anything to the game. All the content that is
shown was already present on the DVD," he said. The National Institute on the
Media and the Family issued a "nationwide parental alert" on the game.

The Entertainment Software Rating Board(ESRB) was badly blasted for failing to protect children from explicit sexual scenes. While the game was known to include extremely graphic acts of violence, the uncovering of the explicit sexual scenes found in the unlocked 'sex mini-game' further triggered a furore among parents. An investigation has been launched to determine whether the mod actually unlocks hidden existing code in the game, or if it was a third party creation .

The reason there is so much fuss over this rumour is simple; an ESRB requirement for full disclosure of pertinent content may have been violated by Take-Two if the game does in fact have hidden X-rated content.

So to prove whether or not it contains sexual graphics.. try it out for yourself.

Click the following link to download a copy of the mod. Make sure you have GTA:SA installed in your computer. And no kids.. i'm not trying to teach you bad. Learning is through experience.

WARNING: THE GRAPHICS MAY CONTAIN VERY EXPLICIT IMAGES AND ARE NOT SUITABLE FOR CHILDREN. DOWNLOAD AT YOUR OWN RISK

• PC
• XBox

Or check out the video and a screenshot (CONTAINS ADULT THEMES) after the game's been mod with 'hotcoffee'.

I've tested the programs, and they contain no virus. My point of view of this whole issue? Even though i don't play this game... hmm what's violence and killings without sex? :)

Why so Google one?

This might be old news for some.. but heck i'd write about it anyway. Following the release of Google's video search, then comes along Google's Personalised Search. (Don't you think that a lot of stuff that Google provides are personalised?)











Personalized Search is meant to be an improvement on Google's standard search in that it orders results based on what you've searched for before.

According to Google, by learning from your history of searches and search results you've clicked on, Personalized Search brings certain results closer to the top when it believes that they're most relevant to you. You need a Google account to be able to use it, but not necessarily a Gmail account. Lol who still doesn't have a Gmail? You can email me and i'd be most glad to give it out.

This Google service is in 'beta' form - just like all its other services - which is fast becoming a meaningless term where Google is concerned.( Every Google product also beta.. how come beta for so long? years ar?) There was a time when companies avoided version 1.0 software by quickly moving to version 1.1, but Google, it seems prefers to avoid it by staying in beta.

My Nokia 6681

Eh.. why your phone one eye only?

"Huh? Lady, wat u toking about?" i asked the lady in the pc shop.

"Neh.. this model got one eye in front one. why urs dun haf? Made in china ar?"

Translation: What happened to the camera on the top right of the screen?

Chew... mine is nokia6681 lar taukenio, not nokia 6680. And i proceeded to buy my 256mb rs-mmc which cost like Rm180. Yeap,that's my new Nokia6681 (not really new though, got it 3 weeks ago) and decided i really liked it, so i'd write bout it.

Ok, i'd just summarise what i like and what i don't like.

Likes:

• 1.3 megapixel camera(1.23 effective pixels) with integrated flash(actually LED la!) operating up to 1.5 metres in range. Camera has 6x digital zoom and to activate the camera, you have to slide that cover down (doubles as camera protection and style) *most of the pics taken in my blogs are from my phone*
• Active matrix 262,144-color display (176 x 208 pixels). Nice colors when i watch my videos :)
• Easy uploading of pics , mp3s, and any files into my pc (even though the driver is screwed up sometimes. hmm.. might be the pc's fault) via USB 2.0 full speed via Pop-Port™ interface using Nokia PC Suite
• easy-to-use photo and video editing programs
• built in real-player supports most of the known formats: 3gp and .mp4 file formats, MPEG-4 video, H.263 video and AMR audio, RealMedia (Real Video and Real Audio), MP3, and AAC
• expandable memory. Make sure you get the (1.8/3V) MultiMedia Card (RS-MMC)
• has Bluetooth, so i can try bluejacking for once :)
• WAP 2.0 XHTML/HTML multimode browser
• Support for a subset of JavaScript 1.5, which includes the most commonly used functions found on the Internet
• File upload over HTTP using standard HTML forms
• Full-screen mode, download progress bar, and adaptive history list
• 3GPP video streaming
• EGPRS: class B, multislot class 10 (UL/DL = 118.4/236.8 kbps)
• GPRS: class B, multislot class 10
• Speech codecs: FR, EFR, and GSM AMR
• Transfer data from one Series 60 phone to another
• Java™ MIDP 2.0, CLDC 1.1 (Connected Limited Device
• QuickOffice document viewer( you can view Words, Excel, and Powerpoint but you can't edit them, unless you BUY the QuickOffice Premier).

*If you want the erhem.. free QuickOffice Premier, email me.

• supports mp3 as ringtones, my default is Come Get Some by Rooster
• Series 60 2nd edition phone and running on Symbian OS 8.0a platform , so you can try installing applications (some are free, some are not. Be careful when you install cracked apps, they might just crack up the whole phone!)

DISLIKES:

• keypad a tad too small, ( hard to sms lar.. especially when i'm lying down)
• only 8Mb of internal memory (but luckily there's the hot-swappable rs-mmc slot)
• I think the slider's causing the side of the camera to be scratched! %&#$
• quite bulky

I tried out a few applications and liked the Pocket Dictionary, SmartMovie (version 2.73 for n6681 and n6680 i think, other versions won't work),BlueJackX (find out urself !), and of course, the QuickOffice Premier where i can view the cheats while I play Symbian OS 8.0a, Series 60 2nd Edition

my PS2. There are some pretty cool themes too, especially by Mango Themes, but they cost $$$. So i you want them, just email me and i'd see what i can do( of course will send to you la!) Or you can just download them over p2p networks. Oi.. i'm not encouraging piracy.

If you have a lot of time to waste, then go download buy one of your favorite movies, and resize them using the program that comes with smartmovie but make sure you download the codecs pack. (Great way of watching Eddie Murphy's standout comedy)

I got mine for RM1000 only.. haha. Not some pirated / underwater set ok? Don't believe? ask me lor... I chose N6681 over the N6680 because... Sibu no 3G lar! Afterall, why'd i want to surf/download through my phone when i can do it through a 15 inch LCD monitor?If you can wait, you might want to try out the Nokia N70 which's coming out soon and it looks like the N6680 and has almost same functions, just that the N70 has a 2 Megapixel camera (So uncreative lar Nokia!)

Oh yeah, i mentioned about the PC shop where i bought the 256mb rs-mmc right? What lar the lady, calling me 'pirate' indirectly. This is what i found in her shop:














Damn, it looks like an iPod designed and made in China?!

Post-BCF mortem

Ai.. bored lar... bored with my PS2 also.. so i'd just write something that i was supposed to write a few days ago (notice the blank dates?) . The BCF just ended last Sunday. For those of you who don't have a clue, BCF stands for Borneo Cultural Festival, though i don't understand why it's held in Sibu? Kuching also got lar.. Rainforest Festival (totally different story ok).

The BCF was held for a week, and it's the err... 4th annual BCF if i'm not mistaken. I didn't go for the closing, even though Misha Omar was there , duno if she sang Bunga-bunga Cinta or not.. but eh.. TOOOOOO MANNNYY people lar.. serious. As if all Sibuans are there that night.. to witness the closing ceremony and fireworks?! (The fireworks suck.. worse than those that the neighbourhood kids play with during Chinese New Year).

I did visit the BCF on Friday night with Kelvin... and yes.. many people lar! The atmosphere was.. hot and sticky.Dont't believe?

We couldn't find any parking lot so we just parked behind this Waja XXX 168 beside the road. (Nope no police summons, instead when we came back to the car, there were lots of leaflets promoting this restaurant in Jalan Pedada, some curry fish head dish. Yucks!)

Don't say Sibu is a kampung lar.. those of you out there. Sarawak's not that uncivilised ok? Compare it to Mantin :)

The BCF was held at the town square where Sibu's only 'proper' shopping mall is situated. This' Sanyan tower, still tallest building in Sarawak i think.

Some ethnic game it is. Look carefully and you can actually see a man swinging to and fro. Tarzan reborn. YEAH!

I won't get a plasma TV next time. I'd just get one of these big-ass screens and have it sealed on my TV room wall. I can have GREAT view of ALL SCENES in EVERY movie :)

Unlike minishorts, nope the police didn't stop to check IC. Just to make sure i wasn't one of the dancers from China LOL! Tip of survival in Sibu. Take a pic with police when you have a chance to. When they stop you for no obvious reason while drive (to check IC, most of the times), show them this pic to show that you're a good citizen. Eh polis, dun everytime ask me belanja u drink ok? One cup of coffee 80 cents u know?

Doctors nowadays are just that damn good at making money (private hospitals in this case). What does this gotta do with BORNEO CULTURAL FESTIVAL? I'm quite sure medicine didn't originate from Borneo .

Fat screening for one ringgit anyone? Cheap cheap! I remember last year, they had this free blod test too. My grandma took the test for free. There's this guy beside her who got the shock of his life when his blood pressure rocketed (180 or somethin like tat, can't remember). Cheh.. turned out that he just ate some kompia!

Not only are doctors good money-makers (opportunity takers i'd say), they've got very DRY sense of humour. No Yew Kuan, you're not the worst! Free blood pressure? How many doctors does it take to give my BP a jolt?

Right opposite the private hospital booth is this traditional treatment thing. I think they spray some red slimy stuff (looks like blood) and start sucking 'air' from your skin. What the heck? Blood suckers?

Wa.. teh tarik competition also got? Must call some guy from the mamak stall lar! Hmm.. that gives me an idea. Maybe next year's BCF, i can open a mamak stall there!

Well.. the post-mortem shows that there is money to be made out of the BCF. Hey.. that's the whole idea! Anyone wants to join me in setting up a mamak stall next year?

Is my time and urs too

Eh.. if you were to be presented a couple of million dollars (American dollars).. you want or not? Sure want lar! This is one of those scam letters offering you cash in exchange of a bank account that many people fell victim to. Read this email that i received:

Dear sir,

I am mr Kenneth nguluh, The Director Of Foreign Remittance
Department with the {FIRST NATIONAL BANK(FNB)SOUTH
AFRICA}.I have a transaction which I think will be of
mutual benefit to both of us, In my desire for a
foreign partner with whom to do this transaction, I
stumbled on your contact from your countrys chamber of
commerce.

As the head of Foreign Remittance/Accounts Departments
of FNB, I discovered some amount of money while I was
auditing accounts for the 2003 financial year which
has been lying there for four years.

On further enquiry, I discovered that this money
totally about US$15million (Fifteen Million United
States Dollars Only) including accumulated interest
belonged to one Mr.Dario Gaski, a Portugees citizen
who lived and died without any beneficiary, I have
successfully secured the money and with the assistance
of my colleagues, the money has been packaged as
photographic materials ready for shipment abroad. It
will be lodge in a security company in oversea of which
I want you to stand as the beneficiary or next of kin
to the fund.

I will need your particulars to enable me prepare
documents on your favour which will authenticate that
the consignment belongs to you and to enable you claim
the money, I want to be assured of a safe account
where the money will be deposited pending my arrival.

This transaction is risk free with no legal
complications. I have made all necessary arrangement
for a successful transaction.

You can reach me on this Email:gurukentoday@hotmail.com
for now and i will direct you on where the money is
deposited when i hear from you,Please i need Your
telephone/fax number for easy communication,Your full
contact address, and personal profile.

Your urgent response is needed.

Best regards

MR Ken Nguluh {FNB}

P/s : He can't spell Portuguese and he's the Director Of Foreign Remittance
Department with the {FIRST NATIONAL BANK(FNB)SOUTH
AFRICA? Haha. Hmm.. now i wonder if i should reply him and have him deliver the 'cash'.

Anyone out there fell to these kinda scam? Leave a comment. I never believed that i'd get an email like this haha.

New skin

Though the Google template was really cool, i had to change it since i'm putting AdSense in my site. I emailed Adsense support team, and after reviewing my site, they found it violating the Adsense policy(Thanx Justin for the advice). I thought they weren't serious about it, until they sent me another email to 'kindly ask me to replace my template'. No problem. This' what the email looks like:

I have reviewed okaycafe.blogspot.com and confirmed that the template
violates our AdSense policy. Google policy does not allow publishers to
use Google Brand Features, including Google trademarks, logos, web
pages, screen shots, or other distinctive features, to be displayed on
your site without prior consent from Google. We therefore kindly ask
that you discontinue your improper framing of Google search results or
your use of Google Brand Features.

Sincerely,

Trinh
The Google AdSense Team


Then, a second one follows :
Our specialists have found that your account continues to violate these
policies.

We've included a copy of our previous notice at the bottom of this
email. We strongly advise that you review our earlier email and our
posted policies and Terms and Conditions to ensure that your account
remains in compliance with our guidelines. After you've made these
changes, please respond to this email so we can review your account
again. If you violate our program policies in the future, we may
discontinue your participation in Google AdSense.

Sincerely,

The Google AdSense Team



So for those of you eagerly going to have a trophy google skin put up in your site, make sure you're not having Adsense in your site. Check the following links:

(https://www.google.com/adsense/policies?hl=en_US) and Terms and
Conditions (https://www.google.com/adsense/localized-terms?hl=en_US).

Arggh! This Dell computer running Windows2000 in MPI, sux. I can't even enter a link! And the librarian even net-msg me "Did you sign in at the counter"? Lol, they're holding back my card now.

Why like that one...

Walau, 3 days computer down.. can u believe that? Can't even post the photos i took at the BCF or write some 'interesting' about it. Now, have to use the coms in Pilley. At least pc coming back home from repair today, hmm.. i think i'd just get rid of it and get a new shuttle instead. Any ideas? :)

Fleshy advertisement

I read with interest about this lady from Utah, Karolyne Smith who recently decided to use her forehead as an advertising space for online casino, Golden Palace. She put her forehead up for bid in eBay before Golden Palace paid US$10,000 to permanently tatoo the words GoldenPalace.Com on her forehead.


The reason? She would like to provide her 11-year old son with private schooling after feeling that he was lacking greatly behind. To her, the 10000 dollars is like 1 million dollars and it was the least she can do for her son but she considered it as a small sacrifice. Golden Palace has even reportedly given her additional $5,000 on top of the $10,000 spent on the auction.

This sure is a great way to advertise your company, especially when you deal in buying Mother Mary's face-on-a-toast and used pregnancy kits (yes, Britney Spears). Now with GoldenPalace.com on her forehed, Karolyne, who loves herself being the center of media attention can clearly promote that Golden Palace is your number one online casino site! Hmm.. maybe i should sign up with their affiliate programs and earn some revenues, instead of depending on AdSense. Arrghh.. Google's so greedy now!













Just submitted my Star Crossword puzzle challenge today. Deadline is today (8th July, by noon time) and i only finished pasting them on the manila card at midnight. So had to courier it this morning. The crossword puzzle promises the grand prize RM30000, 2nd price Rm20000, and third price Rm10000. Waa.... if only i can win lar! Then i'd use part of this money for my university funds and maybe i can allocate some to host my own domain. (wishful thinking again...)

Maxis 3G services

MAXIS has recently launched its 3G mobile service called Maxis3G. The service is available to both Maxis' postpaid and prepaid users. The service was finally launched after two years of planning and hard work.

What is offered by 3G?

• video calling (to and from Singapore, Hong Kong, Britain, Germany, Poland. Australia and France are to follow shortly
• video-conferencing
• streaming media clips
• Internet access
• ringtone and wallpaper downloads
• Mobile TV

Maxis is currently in talks with Celcom (M) Bhd, which launced its 3G service on May 17, to offer an inter-video call service. With this service, Maxis users will be able to communicate via video calls with Celcom users and vice-versa.

Charges:

• Voice calls are offered at rates from 15sen per minute(period of one year)
• Video content packages are being offered for free this month upon sign-up. After that period, it will be priced between Rm8 to Rm15.
• To check e-mails, Maxis is charging Rm10 for peak hours (between 7am to 12am) and RM5 during off-peak hours, for every 1Mb of data downloaded.
• Intensive users can have the choice of unlimited Internet browsing package priced at Rm120 per month.

You get to keep your existing phone number and rate plans when you switch to 3G. You only need to buy a 3G phone (some may not be available in Malaysia yet) and SIM card to start using 3G. Currently, the 3G handsets are a bit pricey, they all cost RM2000 and above. The price of the handsets is expected to fall below Rm1000 in the year 2006. (Few months only lar!) But if you really can't wait, Maxis is currently offering discounted 3G phones up to Rm400 and airtime rebates up to Rm210 respectively for the first 5000 3G postpaid and prepaid customers who sign up.

Well, since this service is only available in Klang Valley, us here in the Land of the Hornbills will have to wait perhaps for a few months before it is made available in Sarawak and Sabah (no market for such users yet). So i'd just stick to my Nokia 6681 first.

London rocked by explosion

London closed its subway system and evacuated all stations after emergency services were called to explosions in and around the financial district.
Police said blasts occurred in ``multiple locations.'' A bus exploded near Russell Square, causing ``numerous casualties,'' a police statement said. A policeman on the scene at Liverpool Street said fatalities had occurred. All of London's underground train network was suspended. This has further caused the pounds sterling to slump (According to Bank Negara's latest forex, the exchange rate is now 6.5)

Police has yet confirmed the cause of the explosion but there have been speculations that it may be closely linked to London's victory in hosting the 2012 Olympics.

How to release stress

Stress is a pretty common word that everybody will say. Homework a lot, stress lar! Too much work, stress lar! Money not enough, stress also! Ok lah.. you stress? Here's a good way how to release your stress in an explosive way! But be warned, this stress releasing manner is VERY DANGEROUS. Kids, do not try this at home. Please do it outside!

It's called the LN² Bomb (Short for Liquid Nitrogen Bomb).

Ingredients:
· 1 Plastic Two Liter Bottle
· Enough Liquid Nitrogen To Fill The Bottle

Instructions:
Fill the bottle with liquid nitrogen. Then cap as tightly as possible. The vaporization of the nitrogen will create enough pressure in the bottle (within 5-15 minutes) to break it with a quite strong explosive force. Very easy right?Make sure you aim properly and make sure your target is a live one!
That's for taking 6 years of Chemistry. Now i hope i get an A for my A-level Chemistry lor...

London to host Olympics 2012

London has won the right to host the 2012 Olympics. International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge made the announcement after London earned a majority over Paris in the fourth and final round of balloting in a meeting among members in Singapore. Crowds in London's Trafalgar Square went wild, shouting and waving flags in celebration.

As predicted by Rogge earlier in the week, it came down to the wire. London beat Paris by four votes, 54 to 50, in the final round. The race eventually came down to a choice between Paris or London after Moscow was eliminated in the first round and then New York and Madrid in subsequent ballots.This is the third time London will be hosting the world's biggest sporting event, but the first since 1948. The 2012 Summer Games follow the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver and Whistler, B.C.

Unlike Paris, London however doesn't have many Olympic-ready facilities. One of the strongest components of Paris' bid was most of the infrastructure and sporting venues is already in place. Its main venue – the Stade de France – is already built and hosted the 1998 World Cup of Soccer. Aiming for the Olympics for the third time in 20 years, Paris was considered one of the safest and best bets heading into Wednesday's voting. Tony Parker, the French basketball star who plays for the newly crowned NBA champions the San Antonio Spurs could not hide his disappointment. "It's been three times now that Paris has been refused – 1992, 2008 and 2012. I find that bizarre," said Parker. "We did everything we had to do. I don't know what more we could have done. "It proves that the committee is Anglo-Saxon. They prefer the English."

*What does being host to the 2012 Olympics mean to London?Money, more money, and lots of money! Think of airtime, broadcasting rights, and the most important of all, tourists! *

Sheraton

Ahh.. food in Sibu , who can resist ? Cheap and simply delicioouus!! Went to eat at this well-known Sheraton restaurant which is just a few minutes walk away from my house. Went with my parents, siblings, and grandma. Dinner's for my sister who's leaving for Aussie this Friday.
Let's see what good stuff the restaurant has to offer. It'd definitely make your taste-buds tickle.

Sheraton Restaurant

Condiments served before the dishes

Mama says that good boys drink chinese tea :)


First dish : The hot dish, comprising salad lobsters, century eggs, assortment of fruits, fish slices, scallops,and soft-shell crab .This is how to soft shell crab looks like(on the right). Has this tender taste of err... crab? But too bad i'm allergic to crabs. Tasted just one and my tongue started swelling.. argh!


One of my favorite dishes, spare ribs. It has this honey taste and is spreaded with sesame seeds on top.


Up next, deep-fried cod fish dipped in the restaurant's own spicy sauce. Absolutely fishy! :)


Butter prawns, but i don't take prawns. Allergic to it. Lil sister loves it!


This dish may look weird but it's really tasty. A mixture of beef tendon, sea cucumber(zero cholestrol) and fish maw(the air bladder of the fish)


Veggies delight! Stir-fried kailan with garlic





Peking duck, but it's not stuffed in one of those thin wafer like rolls. Instead, they used the bun(mantou) but it still tastes great. The duck is really lean and i didn't taste any fat at all, and every bite was just.. heavenly! I had four of those buns stuffed with the duck!

*Burp* Waiter.. mai tan! It was really a great dinner so those who'r considering of coming to Sibu, make sure you stop by this restaurant. A very cosy, fully air-conditioned restaurant with very efficient staff.

Dog meat cuisine

Following a few cases of 'lost' dogs in the neighbourhood, i suspected that these dogs have ended up on either 'unethical' restaurant tables or become one of the dognappers' meals. In Korea, this is how you cook a dog, even though it does not say how a dog is being slaughtered. It's too graphic, so you've been fore-warned. Unless you haven't had your lunch or isn't going to have dinner, you can see how a dog is being slaughtered.)

*Warning* Please don't try this at home!

1. Duruchigi (mixture with seasonings)
It is a dish made by mixing dog meat with seasonings and vegetables, andboiling and roasting them. When eating Duruchigi, Soju(liquor) is usuallyaccompanied for its taste.
The standard amount of ingredients for one portion.
(1) Ingredients
200g of boiled dog meat, 20ml of gravy, 50g of green onion, 50g of leek, 40gof dropwort, 20g of perilla leave, a little pepper, 5g of perilla oil, 1g of salt, 2g ofmashed garlic, 2g of mashed ginger, 2g of red pepper
(2) Cooking instructions
Put gravy and vegetables into heated pan and roast them, and after vegetables become softened, put dog meat and ingredients into the pan and mix them. If itis not salty enough, dip in the sauce.

But if it's a hassle to prepare all these ingredients, you can a from the market (i'm not sure if they have it in Malaysia). Fancy a doggy-burger? Call them, they might have special delivery via Fedex.

Address: Renoir Restaurant, 143-5 Songpa-dong, Songpa-gu, Seoul.
Tel: (02) 421-6345
Menu: dog meat hamburger, dogmeat cutlet, dogmeat meatball, dogmeat soup.

Blogzophrenia

For the past few nights, the dogs have been howling when the clock strikes 11.30 pm. They stop for an interval of 10-15 minutes. I checked the calendar, hmm.. NOPE, it's not the Hungry Ghosts Festival yet. And it's not just my dogs, i can actually hear puppies yelping away and a few other dogs running berserk. Why dogs why.. i cannot sleep lar! Got classes in the morning somemore! And that's why i felt so blank for the whole day, finally got to sleep only at 3am and had to wake up at 7. I know i was feeling sleepy already but i just couldn't shut my eyes and doze off, instead images of my Googled blog came flickering and i was thinking what to write next. I think i've been infected with the Blogzophrenia© disease-it starts spreading when you assign too much of your grey matters to focus on blogging. Severe Tension Acute Blogzophrenia(STAB), as i call it, becomes worse when you start becoming too paranoid of not being able to get at least 6 hours of sleep. I was lying in my bed at 2 am when the dogs howling again, and this time, i heard something being dragged on the ground. You know... one of those 'hantus' (ghosts) that drags its head on the ground when it walks. I peeked out of the windows but saw nothing, just a black cat with incredibly shimmering eyes running across the road. Hmm.... i think i have to stand-by some Prozac tonight.
There's this construction for a new house going on just across the road, and there are these workers that've built squatter houses at the site. From what i heard, these workers have a very high affinity towards dogs *grins* They scout around the neighbourhood late at night, looking for stray dogs(even puppies) There was one sighting at 5 am one morning where one of my neighbours saw them herding a puppy into their squatter house and it gave one final yelp before the night was silent again. My guess, nah.. these people don't have that many kids who'd love to pet different puppies everyday. Perhaps they got tired of chicken (and longkang fish), and when they see so many stray dogs around, they just could not resist. (They say dog meat goes really well with liquor) . They say that if you butcher a dog ,other dogs can sense it and will start howling, some sort of mourning for their 'brother'. But well.. i shall see again tonight if there really have been some series of dognapping around the neighbourhood.

9 Habits of Highly Effective Staff

New Office Procedures
Updated Employee Handbook -- Effective Immediately

DRESS CODE:It is advised that you come to work dressed according to your salary. If we see you wearing £ 350 Prada sneakers & carrying a £600 Gucci bag we assume you are doing well financially and therefore you do not need a raise. If you dress poorly, you need to learn to manage your money better, so that you may buy nicer clothes and therefore you do not need a raise. If you dress in- between, you are right where you need to be and therefore you do not need a raise.

SICK DAYS:We will no longer accept a doctor statement as proof of sickness. If you are able to go to the doctor, you are able to come to work.

SURGERY:Operations are now banned. As long as you are an employee here, you need all your organs. You should not consider removing anything. We hired you intact. To have something removed constitutes a breach of employment.

PERSONAL DAYS:Each employee will receive 104 personal days a year. They are called Saturday & Sunday.

VACATION DAYS:All employees will take their vacation at the same time every year. The vacation days are as follows: Dec. 25 & Jan 1st

BEREAVEMENT LEAVE:This is no excuse for missing work. There is nothing you can do for dead friends, relatives or coworkers. Every effort should be made to have non-employees attend to the arrangements. In rare cases where employee involvement is necessary, the funeral should be scheduled in the late afternoon. We will be glad to allow you to work through your lunch hour and subsequently leave one hour early, provided your share of the work is done.

ABSENCE DUE TO YOUR OWN DEATH:This will be accepted as an excuse. However, we require at least a two weeks notice, as it is your duty to train your own replacement.

RESTROOM USE:Entirely too much time is being spent in the restroom. In the future, we will follow the practice of going in alphabetical Order. For instance, all employees whose names begin with 'A' will go from 8:00 to 8:20; employees whose names begin with 'B' will go from 8:20 to 8:40 and so on. If you're unable to go at your allotted time, it will be necessary to wait until the next day when your turn comes again. In extreme emergencies, employees may swap their time with a coworker. Both employees' supervisors must approve this exchange in writing. In addition, there is now a strict 3-minute time limit in the stalls. At the end of three minutes, an alarm will sound, the toilet paper roll will retract, the stall door will open and a picture will be taken. After your second offense, your picture will be posted on messanger under the "Chronic Offenders" category.

LUNCH BREAK:Skinny people get 30 minutes for lunch as they need to eat more so that they can look healthy. Normal size people get 15 minutes for lunch to get a balanced meal to maintain their average figure. Fat people get 5 minutes for lunch, because that's all the time needed to drink a Slim Fast and take a diet pill.Thank you for your loyalty to our company. We are here to provide a positive employment experience. Therefore, all questions, comments, concerns, complaints, frustrations, irritations, aggravations, insinuations, allegations, accusations , contemplations, consternation and input should be directed elsewhere.

Idaho suspect's blog details 'demons'

"Right now the only thing I'm sure about is that I'm sure about nothing. It is not a good position to be in considering my circumstances (being a felony fugitive and all)."
Those are the last words Joe Duncan wrote on his Web log, or blog, posted late in the afternoon on May 13. That was three days before a triple homicide in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, and seven weeks before Duncan was charged with kidnapping 8-year-old Shasta Groene, who along with her 9-year-old brother, Dylan, had vanished by the time authorities arrived at the scene May 16.

Joseph Edward Duncan III, 42, was found with Shasta early Saturday at a restaurant in Coeur d'Alene -- just a few miles from the Groene home where the killings took place and nearly 1,000 miles from Duncan's last listed address in Fargo, North Dakota. Dylan is still missing and feared dead.

From his first entry, on January 4, 2004, to his last, on May 13, 2005, Duncan's writings reveal a conflicted man battling personal "demons" and the stigma of a teenage rape conviction.
In 1980, at age 16, Duncan received a 20-year sentence for raping a 14-year-old boy at gunpoint in Washington state.
When he was released from prison in 2000, he enrolled at North Dakota State University in Fargo, where he was registered as a sex offender. He also was registered in Washington
He was charged in March with child molestation for an incident the previous July in Detroit Lakes, Minnesota --- about 45 miles east of Fargo.
'I actually thought it was normal'
Throughout the 17 months he kept his blog, Duncan displays intense concern for himself whenever a child is reported missing, fearing police will automatically come calling because he is on the offender registry. In fact, his first entry finds him trying to reconstruct what he did on a particular day in the past because he just learned a 5-year-old girl had gone missing 200 miles away on that day.
On the following day, he wrote a lengthy piece about his experience in an experimental treatment program in which he spent the first two years of his sentence in Washington. It was a failure, he wrote. The post also introduced a theme common in his writings: that offenders "are victims, too" and that they often don't understand that they've hurt someone. In his own history, he wrote, "I was molested so often and by so many different people that, up until the time of my offense, I actually thought it was normal and that everybody did it."
Although he denied he is a pedophile, Duncan defended pedophilia.

"I learned that most people who prey on children have discovered that adult-child sexual relations are not in and of itself a bad thing, and does not in and of itself cause harm to the child (assuming no physical injury has been inflicted)," he wrote.

"You may scoff at this saying of course they think that, that is what makes them sick. But, by scoffing, you are only perpetuating the problem by rejecting a rational [sic] that is based on solid fact."
Duncan was a suspect early on in the Detroit Lakes case, and police raided his apartment in late August, although he wasn't charged until the following March. The search bothered him, and he began to lose sleep.

"A sex offender driving a red car committed a crime, I'm a sex offender and I drive a red car, it does not matter I live about 60 miles from the crime and even in a different state," he wrote.
In September, Duncan's posts shrunk to only one, a cryptic paragraph in which he wrote he was home with "nothing to do, everything being undone."

"Nobody to remind me. Life is about giving your choices over to God. Chicken pot pie in the oven. Why can others not see the unity of the universe. Why are they so blind in their dungeons."

Duncan wrote three posts in October, but none in November. The posts increased in December, with most about justice, personal responsibility and criminals as victims of corrupt morals in society. He also railed against capital punishment. On April 5, Duncan appeared in court in Detroit Lakes and was released on bond. But there were no more posts until April 10 -- and none at all about the court appearance. Five days later, he wrote: "So, I've been accused of molesting a little boy. Those close to me know I didn't do it of course, how could I, I'm not even a pedophile."
"Well, I'm not a psychopath either, I feel the full force and pain of everyone I have ever hurt, but that doesn't stop me from doing what I need to do," he continued. "Ultimately my feelings don't matter, I learned that in prison. I have to carry out my orders or a lot worse than just me dying could happen."
In another nine days, Duncan appears even more unhinged.
"I am still alive," he wrote. "I honestly wish not."
In this post, he disclosed a battle "of epic proportions ... between me and my demons," adding that only two other people "have a clue as to the power and nature of my demons" and that he is afraid and praying for strength to battle them.
'The Demons Have Taken Over'
Duncan posted to his blog only two more times, on May 11 and May 13. In the first, titled "The Demons Have Taken Over," he wrote that the demons had forced him to question his religion, leading to his undoing.
"I am scared, alone, and confused, and my reaction is to strike out toward the perceived source of my misery, society. My intent is to harm society as much as I can, then die."
He then wrote that the "Happy Joe" of the past was just a dream and that he'd been pretending all along.
"I was in prison for over 18 years, since the age of 17. As an adult all I knew was the oppression of incarceration," he wrote.
"All those years I dreamed of getting out ... And getting even. Instead, I got out and I got even, but did not get caught. So, I got even again, and again did not get caught. So, I figured, well, I got even twice (actually more, but that's here nor there), even if I'm the only one who knows, so now what?"
In the last post, Duncan wrote that he's no longer sure what's right and what's wrong, and wonders if it matters. His mother, he wrote, "is crying because her son is in trouble again."
He wrote that he is composing an encrypted journal that may someday be unencrypted "and then the world will know who I really was."
"Maybe then they will understand that despite my actions, I'm not a bad person, I just have a disease contracted from society, and it hurts a lot.
"I hope to complete this journal before I die (soon) or turn myself in (I still might do that, I think it is the right thing, but of course, I'm not sure)."
Joe Duncan didn't turn himself in, but he did go quietly when police arrived about 2 a.m. Saturday at a Coeur d'Alene Denny's after getting calls from the manager and a patron, both of whom had recognized the girl sitting with him as Shasta Groene.

Google video viewer cracked

Google Inc launched its Google Video Viewer, a free software download that lets users watch some of the video clips on its new video search service, just to have it cracked. Norwegian hacker, Jon Lech Johansen, also known as DVD Jon, said he needed only one day to crack the Google Inc's new video viewer and has posted the software on his "So Sue Me" website that enables the video viewer to play videos hosted on any server. The company's Google Video Viewer in turn, was modified from the free VLC media player to restrict it to playing video hosted on Google's own servers. Jon's modification wasn't really difficult-Google has already posted its code on its website. The change will only let users vide non-Google content, not breaking any video encryption.
Jon became famous at the age of 15 after developing software called DeCSS to unlock the Content Scrambling System, or CSS, the film industry used on DVD movies to prevent illegal copying. But after the film industry complained, Norwegian authorities charged him with data break-in, but he was acquitted at trial and on appeal. Jon, an advocate on the open-source philosophy of making software code freely available for inspection and sharing, has also posted programs that circumvent the copy-protection technologies on Apple Computer Inc's iTunes.

Google meanwhile, was sued over 'click fraud' where a seller of online marketing tools accused Google of failing to protect users of its advertising program from "click fraud", costing them at least US$5million. Google has said that it intended to one day sell its content from its video search site. I think this' one of Google's strategy to be less dependent on revenues from advertising, further moving on to 'instant cash reaping'. Perhaps one day Google will write-off all its free services (like providing 2GB of Gmail?) and stopping AdSense? Aiyo, that means no more extra income for webmasters! Afterall, nothing in the world comes free, especially when it comes to the world of bits and bytes.

Rainforest World Music Festival

The eighth Rainforest World Music Festival (RWMF) will be held at the Sarwak Cultural Village at the foot of Mount Santubong, near Kuching,Sarawak. From an attendance of barely 200 in its first year, the speedy rist to peak 20000 last year shows that the festival is definitely something not to be missed for. The Sarawak Cultural Village is only45 minutes drive from Kuching. Organisers, the Sarawak Tourism Board have put an attendance limit this year : only 7000 adults and 1000 children per day for this 3-day event (8 July-10July).
Tickets are still available and are now priced at RM60 for adults and RM30 for children aged 12 and below. They can be obtained at the Sarawak Tourism Board in Kuching, Visitors' Information Centres in Kuching, Sibu and Miri, and also at the Sarawak Cultural Village.

This year, there are a few notable artistes who have gained fame in the World Music circuit with accolades of havingappeared at Womads festivals or being nominees for the Latin Grammy Awards and World Music Awards who are confirming their presence. Seventeen acts from five continents will play music ranging from purely traditional to fusion. There will also be music workshops and jamming sessions.Among the big names to appear are:
Africa
-Yelemba D'abidjan(Cote d'Ivoire)
-Djamel Laroussi(Algeria) but based in Germany

Americas
-Petrona Martinez(Colombia):Latin Grammy Award nominee
-Florencio MEss and the Maya K'ekchi' Strings(Belize)
-The Foghorn String Band(USA)

Asia and Australia
-Faiz Ali Faiz(Pakistan)
-Chulalongkorn University Ensemble(Thailand)
-Namgar(Mongolia)Sarawan(Iran and Kurdestan)
-The Old Spice Boys (Australia)

Europe
-Shannon(Poland)
-Acquaragia Drom(Italy)

Malaysia
-Tuku Kame(Sarawak)
-Jerry Kamit(Sarawak)
-Taboh Pak Ainal(Sarawak)
-Baun Lenjau(Sarawak)
-Paya Kajan and Balu Bungan(Sarawak)
For more information, call 082-423600 or visit the festival website at their website.

As for accomodation, i suggest Santubong Kuching Resort, Holiday Inn Resort Damai Beach,Holiday Inn Resort Damai Lagoon

Reskinned, renewed

I got so frustrated searching for a nice and clean skin (template) for my blog. (Eh.. other people got, why i dun haf?!!) Finally found this one that resembles a Google search engine and it looks quite neat actually.(Need some polishing though.) *Yawns* Too much for today, too many hours in front of the screen and my eyes are drooping already. And i have got accounts homework regarding bad debts which i don't really understand. *HELP!!!* I'm thinking of putting a special category where i can cater to people's need regarding Series 60 platform(For nokia phones) applications ; that is full, 100% working ones of course. Hmm.... Hope to get some comments on this.

BattleField 2 Review

BattleField 2 is an upgrade from its first version, BattleField:Vietnam but i personally think it's not a great update at all. It had plenty of rough edges and was not as 'hot' as the first one. Basically, the Battlefield game is still the same: it's a first-person shooter with land, sea, and air vehicles where two teams compete over key points on the map. The action is fast-paced, featuring realistic weapons and maps.

New stuff: Battlefield 2 features an all-new graphics engine allowing for huge maps riddled with details to near perfection. It emphasizes more on a modern warfare, rather that WW2 or Vietnam, where you can see all the insane hardware you'd see on a contemporary battlefield. (There are three factions: the U.S., the fictional "Middle East Coalition," and the People's Liberation Army of China.) BattleField 2 also brings to the table a complete integrated stats package, tracking your individual profile persistently online. Teamplay option has been improved , with integrated tools to divide players into squads with their own missions, and a scoring system that provides big rewards for players who support teammates with medical aid, ammo, or repairs.
The maps in Battlefield 2 are huge, depicting detailed environments and there are 12 maps in total, but each one comes in three sizes, suitable for 16, 32, or 64 players. Gameplay can be radically different in each (especially in the small 16-player versions), so the 12 maps feel like a lot more. For example: the 16-player version of the FuShe Pass map (see our overview of all the maps) has three bases in question, with furious fighting over a base in the middle of a river. The 32-player version has the same location, but it opens up the action to fight along both coasts of the river valley.
Unlike Battlefield 1942, the maps can get quite complicated(the annoying part especially when you got lost). Roads will wind up steep ridges, or networks of rivers will be criss-crossed by bridges and fords.It's not always a straight shot to get to the flag: so make sure you learn the ins and outs of that particular map.
Battlefield 2 is pretty demanding from a technical standpoint, insisting on hardcore hardware (more on that shortly), but the game puts it to good use. What's stunning is the level of detail no matter where you are on the battlefield. If you're soaring high above in a chopper, you'll see a complex network of valleys and bridges and city streets. As you stand on the front lines you can see every detail of an individual vehicle, every little antenna and tread.
So, the new graphics look great, and the new teamplay functions really make this a next-generation game. But at its heart this is still a Battlefield title, so the real action is in the interplay between the infantry and vehicles across the map. Unlike Battlefield Vietnam, where one American soldier class could carry both a heavy machine gun and a rocket launcher,(not realistic lar!!) Battlefield 2 has a much better balance between the different classes. Infantry gets to carry around some pretty sweet weapons regardless of class (even the Engineer has a pretty lethal shotgun for close-range action). Targeting feels more solid than in previous Battlefield games, so infantry combat is a little more satisfying.
The one possible exception is the Sniper. Although the maps have tons of great sniper nests, and the zoom on the sniper rifle is powerful, it doesn't seem to hit when it should. Another addition would be the ability of the infantry to sprint for a short distance, for example, dashing across a dangerous street or rush for a vehicle. It's offset by the fact that you can't fire or strafe while sprinting, which is a nice addition. Similarly, when using a parachute you can use your strafe keys to lean left and right, giving you a slight ability to steer. It's difficult to land where you want, but a lot of fun to try. While the steep technical requirements might be an issue for some, what ultimately matters is the game itself and how it plays, and Battlefield 2 sets a new high watermark for online play.

System Requirements:
Operating SystemWindows XP (32 Bit Version)
- CPUBattlefield 2 supports the following processors:
Intel Pentium 4 ,Intel Xeon, Intel Pentium Extreme Edition, Intel Celeron D, AMD Athlon XP, AMD Athlon 64, AMD Athlon 64-FX, AMD Sempron processor

- Minimum Specification:
CPU: 1.7 Ghz
RAM: 512 Mb
Video Card: NVidia GeForce FX 5700, ATI Radeon 8500 or ATI Radeon 9500with 128 Mb of RAM
- Recommended Specification:
CPU: 2.4 Ghz
RAM: 1 Gb
Video Card with at least 256 Mb of RAM
- Video Cards
Battlefield 2 only supports the following video cards:
Radeon X700 (PCIe), Radeon X600 (PCIe), GeForce 6600 (PCIe), GeForce PCX 5900 (PCIe), GeForce 5800 Series (AGP), ATI Radeon X800, XT Platinum Edition, ATI Radeon X800 PRO, ATI Radeon 9800 Series, ATI Radeon 9600 Series, ATI Radeon 9550 (RV350LX), ATI Radeon 9500 / 9700 Series, ATI Radeon 8500 Series, ATI Radeon X300 Series, NVidia GeForce 6800 Ultra, NVidia GeForce 6800 GT, NVidia GeForce 6800, NVidia GeForce FX 5950 Series, NVidia GeForce FX 5900 Series, NVidia GeForce FX 5700 Series

INTERNET / NETWORK PERFORMANCE
- JOINING MULTIPLAYER GAMES:
To get the best performance on your computer we recommend you follow these guidelines:
HARDWARE:
Minimum system - Join servers that have up to 16 players
Recommended systems - Join servers that have up to 32 players
High end systems - Join servers that have up to 64 players
BANDWIDTHISDN users - Join games with a maximum of 16 players.
ADSL/Cable users - Join games with a maximum of 32 players.
T1/LAN users - Join games with a maximum of 64 players.

You can download a demo version of BattleField 2 at download.com .If you like it, you can get it for $49.99 at EA Games. As for me, hehe I got my version in a shop selling good DVDs and CDs for Rm15 when i was taking a walk at Sanyan tower.














And now i understand why parents are so distressed about their kids spending too much time in front of the computer screen. This kid's barely 3 years old so since he's too young to understand BattleField 2, he's enjoying a game of Counter Strike.
-Counter Terrorists Win-

Live8 concert

The Live8 concert held to Make Poverty History was dubbed as The Eight Wonder of The Word as billions of fans around the world tuned in to watch or listen the concert, held in cities like Philadelphia, London, and Tokyo. Sir Bob Geldof and friends try to get the Make Poverty History message across to the leaders of the world's eight top industrialised nations.It is 20 years since Geldof staged the last concert to help Africa

Performers such as Coldplay, Sir Paul McCartney, REM, Robbie Williams and Pink Floyd took to the stage at Hyde Park, London, while dozens of other bands performed in nine further cities across four continents.(The concert in Hyde Park,London was ended with Hey Jude while Bill Gates also made a surprise visit to Hyde Park). The concert will indeed rake in lots and lots of money, enough to stop 30,000 children from dying from poverty but can it be guaranteed that the money will end up in good use? Not automatically transferred to the bank accounts of the African despots and tyrants as it always does? The Live 8 website printed in bold We don't want your money - we want you! but in the end, it's still money that counts. I like what one guy from Ivory Coast said about the Live 8 concert :

The cancellation of debt and improved fair trade will not eradicate poverty. In
order for this to happen, Africa will need to improve education and create
unity, to improve relationships not only across the continent but internally
within each country itself. Religious and racial differences (which plague
nearly all African countires) create some of the most appalling forms of poverty
and these cannot be mended or soothed by mass concerts and increased aid - it is
more complex and long term than that.

You know what I think Geldof and friends should do? Fly to Africa themselves, and stay there for like half a year or so. They can start giving free education (with good music of course), and they themselves presenting the money directly to the needy instead of through a 'charitable fund'. After all, what's a few million bucks to them?

Back to the orchestra

It's been almost half a year that i picked up my violin and play a note. At Ktj mar... busy lar. Yeah until i called up Thomas on Saturday. "Oh you back in Sibu ar? Good, come join the orchestra this Sunday, concert on the 10th". I was like ...what? All of a sudden, my memories flashed back to a few years ago when I was playing for the ODSS(Orkestra Dewan Suarah Sibu) under the batonship of my former mentor, Yap Ling. Playing in an orchestra has always been part of my life, having started playing the violin since I was hmm..4? The orchestra members have always been a cheerful lot, though we didn't get much support from the Dewan Suarah's committe itself. (I think that's the main reason that Yap Ling decided to move to KK. For good). Booo.. there goes another great talent.
Okay now tonight, clad in black, I went into the hall and was aghasted to find around 20 people there. That's it? Ready to form an orchestra and play The Phantom of The Opera? O Opera Ghost wherever you are, send some more musicians... violinists especially. I was playing first violin and there were only 5 of us, half the number there used to be. I don't mean bad but the way it's going, the orchestra's standard has indeed dropped drastically but actually, Thomas Ling should be thanked for not disbanding the orchestra totally. It didn't sound that bad when we played(I got stuck at a few point, you think Phantom of the opera so easy meh?), but it could have been better. Ai.. just play lar, and more practice until the concert this coming Sunday.
Ok, exhausted now. Have been playing non-stop for 2 hours except for that 3.5 minutes of break to take a group photo. I'd go make myself a nice cup of coffee so till next time...

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

Just 13 days to go, until the children and wonky-eyed drama teachers of the world can rush out and buy a copy of Harry Potter And The Half Blood Prince. And Bloomsbury, the book's publisher, is expecting a blooming sale this time :) Bloomsbury will cover 2,000 buses around the country with all kinds of wizardy crap and the words "All Aboard For Harry". In addition to this, bookstores are starting to install clocks resembling the Weasley's clock that count down the minutes until the book goes on sale. J K Rowling herself is set to give a special reading in front of various children at Edinburgh Castle to be broadcast around the world as the book is released.

But while the hassle when they know that the book is probably going to top the charts for months? People have been putting reservations on this book months before its publishing. Maybe Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince suck so bad that Bloomsbury is trying to push as many early sales as they can so people spend their money before they realise how bad the book really is.

Here are some of the major bookstores that have been giving early discounts as a bid to push the book sales over the targeted 1.7 million copies :

• Amazon will sell the book for $17.99, making
  a 40 per cent discount from the initial price of $29.99, for the pre-orders.
• WH Smith also sells the Harry Potter book with 9.85 pounds and is giving customers vouchers worth up to £75.
• Borders is selling for $17.99 instead of the list price $29.99

Oh yeah, and the book's even for sale in eBay. Well just in case the link's broken, here's the description the seller (from Kuantan, Pahang,Malaysia) gave on his item:

What I have here is the actual Harry Potter: The Half Blood Prince E-Book.
Trust me, it is the real book. If you are a true Harry Potter fan, you should
purchase it from me as it is going to be released only somewhere in July. You
can also proudly say that you are on of the first in the world to read it. I
will send it through your e-mail.

I wonder if he meant e-book...

Luther Vandross : 1951-2005

The music world was rocked by the announcement of the passing of deep, lush voiced R & B singer Luther Vandross. The Grammy award winner died today at the Kennedy Medical Center in Edison, New Jersey. He was 54. The hospital didn't release the cause of death. The singer "had a peaceful passing under the watchful eye of friends, family and the medical support team," said hospital spokesman Robert Cavanaugh. His publicist, Jeff O'Conner, said his death was "a huge loss in the R&B industry". His whole family has a medical background of severe diabetes, where two of his brothers preceeded him in death.

He was unafraid to express his insecurities, and his legions of female fans adored him for his honesty. But he was also sensitive about being perceived as someone who sang only about love.
"I don't want to be this great prophet of love," the lifelong bachelor told Britain's Q magazine in 1991. Vandross was born in a housing project in New York City and started playing piano at the age of three. His singing jingles started when he was working as a backup singer for Bowie, Bette Midler and Carly Simon.

Vandross' hits include "Here and Now" and "Any Love." He has sold more than 25 million albums worldwide. He won four Grammy awards last year as a sentimental favorite, including best song for the bittersweet "Dance With My Father."(which happens to by one of my favourites) .Vandross, who was still in a wheelchair at the time, delivered a videotaped thank you. In it, he said: "Remember, when I say goodbye it's never for long.'

Mamak.. I Like

When we say Mamak, Malaysians will generally think of Indian Muslim. But to me, my mamak experience started when i was studying in KTJ. It was one afternoon in Sri Hartamas that Praveen suggested that we go eat something at a mamak stall. I was thinking "What.. mamak? Images of a dilapidated stall with its workers wrapped in sarongs wallking around taking orders started running in my mind". But hey, u can't blame me... having lived in Sarawak for my whole life, I've only heard of a mamak stall from my cousin in Klang but have never stepped my foot into one. So it began. Praveen ordered a small dish of a 'cake' that looks like a mini doughnut called err.. vadel? or vade? I still can't pronounce it while Phillip See ordered a maggi goreng with an egg. Ohh.. so the mamak is actually a small shop, with Indians serving simple food. Now let's shift gear into a few months time into the future. Mr Jackman says "Come on gang, let's go to mamak in Nilai". It did not interest me very much, to eat at a 'small mamak' at 11pm but i thought it's the company that matters. So we arrived at the 'small mamak' in Nilai. It turned out to be a colorfully lit corner shop building with many of those small cute ceiling fans, marble tables, 2 projection TV with Astro and yeah.. lots of FOOD. I like every bit of the mamak stall; the nasi goreng ayam, ROTI BOM, maggi goreng with egg, sirap bandung, and the teh tarik. I know i'd miss it because you just can't find any mamak stall in Sarawak. I like mamak food because it's not just Indian food as you can see Malay influence in its food.

The word "mamak" generally refers to the Muslims from Tamil Nadu. They first arrived in Malaysia (or Malaya) as sepoys , the native section of the East India Company troops stationed in colonial Penang. And no, the term 'mamak' is not derogatory because it actually means uncle.
To me, the mamak means one thing-good food equals to good business. Strategically placed mamak stalls are money churner ( I know there's this one mamak stall in Seremban which can earn like Rm5000 a day!) . But in my opinion, to most of the people, mamak stalls mean a humble version of Starbucks or Coffeebean. Why pay more than Rm9 for an iced cafe latte and posh 'lepaking' at Starbucks when you can get a nice 'tariked' kopi as for just Rm1.50? Andwho needs to nibble on those calories packed cheese cakes or muffins or whatever 'fins' these expensive Starbucks outlets have to offer when you can have Roti Bom(sweet puffed up version) of roti canai , Roti Pisang, Roti John, Roti Ice-cream, Roti Anaconda, Roti Missile.... ahh all Roti also got lar! And don't forget, there are many mamak stalls that have undergone a complete major surgery on the decor to present you comfy chairs, marble tables, 42-inch TVs blaring for 24 hours and the synchronous 'Teh tarik satu!' (Perhaps they just lack of Wi-Fi that's all). Some even proudly advertise that they are ISO 9002 certified but frankly, i don't give a damn as long as i get my Roti bom and a nice sirap bandung. But what disturbed me was a quote from one of the Datuks from Malaysia regarding the usage of kas kas seeds in mamak cooking.

..they use some kind of ganja. For the Malays, kas kas (poppy seeds) are
addictive. Singapore has banned it... that's why our people are crazy about
mamak restaurants.<-----(why just the Malays? Do drugs have a selective advantage towards Malays to be addicted? ) ...they have competed against bumiputera stalls and caused them to fold up----> How bout McDonalds vs Ramlee burgers?


Now i just wonder, what would the scenario be if Starbucks was to be a local chain? Would more MPs be voicing that people are crazy over mamak because they use too high quality coffee beans that cause addiction among youngsters hanging out in Starbucks?
Here's just a photo of my experience in a really good mamak stall in Nilai (the one i mentioned above)














The upper six gang with Mr and Mrs Jackman. (Mrs. Jackman being photo-shy)
The sixth person from the left is Damien and he's a Sri Lankan. This photo was taken before the tsunami incident.

Puff puff

The British government launched a series of tough anti-cigarette adverts yesterday with a strong message :

Smoking is bad for your sex life because it makes men impotend and women ugly

The campaign is designed to target young Briton's fears about their sexual attractiveness-an area the government says is more effective than highlighting general health concerns. One ad uses a burning cigarette end between two 'fingerlegs' as a metaphor for a penis with the strap-line 'Does smoking make you hard? No if it means you don't get it up'.
Another targets women saying cigarettes lead to premature skin ageing and warns that smoking causes 'cat's bum mouth'. The government says smoking increases the risk of erectile dysfunction by around 50% for men in their 30s and 40s and that up to 120,000 British men in this age group were impotent as a result of smoking.















Just recently two Muslim brothers Mohd Nizam Ibrahim, 32, and Mohd Nasha, 30, of Kelantan were convicted of drinking alcohol in public. They have been sentenced to receive the maximum six strokes of the rotan and fined RM5,000 each by the Syariah High Court. While the government has been emphasizing a lot on curbing drug addiction, they should seriously reconsider the publicizing of 'misleading' ads, especially big and loud ones!













Okaylah, back to some serious stuff. Effective today, (it was yesterday actually, 1st July 2005) civil servants would be working only 5 days a week; that is from 8 to 5, Monday to Sunday. An additional 30 minutes would be added to each of the five weekdays for the State Government offices to make up for the half-day off every Saturday. (Lol, that sounds like what i told Mr Briggs in my interview when he asked me if i had any opinions on how to improve boarding provisions. So i told him that KTJ should actually scrape school on Saturdays. Then, an additional 40 minutes is added to each of the five weekdays to compensate for Saturday. In this way, KTJ students can spend more time on ECA and sports on Saturdays. His replies? "You must be the most god-damn lazy student in this school" *Shrugs* :) )
The (new) working hours from Monday to Thursday are from 8am to 1pm, then lunch break from 1pm to 2pm before resuming work until 5pm. On Fridays, it would be from 8am to 11.30am, lunch break from 11.30am to 2pm and work again until 5pm," he said. Presently, the civil servants work until 4.30pm
Quoting from the Sabah Chief Minister, Datuk Seri Musa Aman :"We hope the (extra day) weekend off will give more (quality) time for the government officers to spend with their families apart from encouraging the national tourism sector."

Now i wonder if the idea of everyone crowding the Sepilok Orang Utan Sactuary in the name of tourism and 'Malaysia Boleh!' is a good idea. Well you see, orang utans need their time off to rest too, not just doing some jungle dance for you all the day long.

A Sushi affair

For all of you out there from Sibu but haven't been keeping in touch with the latest development in Sibu, well i can tell you this. There are now err.. 4 sushi restaurants. I think. I went to this one called Nippon Ichi Sushi Restaurant located at Jalan Queensway, opposite the newest Sesco payment counter. (You won't miss it, it's on the first floor with a bright red signboard; and is visible from outside)
Having dined at some good sushi restaurants for a few times, i must say that my standard for sushi can be quite high. This Nippon Ichi Restaurant has a rather cosy atmosphere and i would give it credit for the lay-out and the stone-cups especially. The people are friendly, except for that silly automated recorder that'd welcome you; even when you're leaving :)
Okay now, just to comment the food. I'd give it a rating of 5/10 for the variety of food. There's just too little choice to choose from. One thing i'd like to comment is the availability of food, even when they're listed on the menu such as the baby octupus and cream custard. Authencity of food? I'd give that hmm... 7/10 as i feel they've tried really hard to be on par with at least Sushi King. I had the beef terriyaki set and it tasted quite good actually. The unagi tasted a bit off, with sesame on it and the wasabi wasn't really hot. (maybe it was local horseradish.. hehe) .
And, if you like dessert after your meal, don't bother. There are only two types of dessert to choose from the menu ; the cream custard and the green-tea ice-cream with red beans on it which tasted really queer. I thought the red beans actually tasted bitter. But you can always choose the teppanyaki set since it comes with 3 slices of water-melons.
The pricing? Definitely a 6/10 rating. My opinion would be, the food is over-priced. Heck, we paid like RM180 for 5 people and the food wasn't even excellent. To have an idea of what i had, here are some shots i took from my Nokia 6681 :)














That's a lobster inside that case














Part of my meal















Fancy a mixture of wasabi and japanese soy sauce?


Alrite, enough blogging for today. Gotta sleep now, so i'd sign off here.

The first one

Okeylah, my first blog here.this is like my what.. third blog in a month's time? After spending countless hours searching for the correct blog (that suits my taste), guess i've found one which'd probably be worth my time updating everyday. I've been thinking how to make my blog more interesting, since i'm still a newbie to this blogging thing. And must thank Faiz also for helping me out with the HTML stuff. Won't start with an intro page.. no no .But just a brief intro, i'm a 19 year-old Asian,and you can derive my name from my blog address; and is currently waiting for my A-level results. Deciding not to be a slacker for two months, i decided to sign up for an accounting course in Methodist Pilley Institution. I guess it's a good choice, considering the fact that i've spent 6 years(including 1 and a half years in Kolej Tuanku Ja`afar) , learning how to dismember hamsters(live ones) and coming up with a concoction of the elixir of life?
To follow a strict daily routine is so... difficult. It requires much self-discipline and definitel a lot of mental strength. How'd you like sleeping at 3am every morning, waking up just 5 minutes before noon, take a shower, go for lunch, and come back to find the computer sitting there waiting for you? Yup, i've been doing that ever since i finished my A-level and stayed back in school(the main reason i didn't want to go home earlier). But now, i have to sleep early and wake up before seven, to make it to my new school at 7.45 am. This sux! Yea.. it does. But i liked what Mdm Judy(my current principal)said; sometimes there are things in life that we can choose to do or not to do. But there are some things in life that are troublesome and difficult, and yet we have to do it. But by doing it, we will make our lives easier" Hmm.. that applies to me now.
When i started my accounting course, i was like.. Damn i don't know sh*t bout accounting, how'm i supposed to give a sh*t bout it? Well, learn! Come to think about it, it's not really that complicated and i'm lucky i don't have any phobia with figures. But then.. there's this bad debts account thing that i have yet to master. MPI is so different from KTJ; the people, the place.. everything. Here you get a better taste of freedom like being able to have your hair dyed and there's no Mr Suresh riding in his buggy chasing you with a "You have drill next Wednesday"! After spending one and a half years mingling with some of the richest kids in Malaysia, it's time for me to slowly get in touch with reality once again. Truthfully, in my humble opinion, some kids in KTJ are just too spoilt and they take things too much for granted. First of all, money. I still fail to understand how a 15 year old kid can spend a few thousand bucks within a 3 day exeat? *shrugs* Students in MPI are indeed(most of them) struggling very hard to earn a degree; some coming from financially inadequate families but yet, they'r proving their point here-to secure a job no matter how difficult it is. I finally get to watch Kingdom of Heaven today(on DVD of course) and i must say it's quite a spectacular movie. I like the movie's plot, the sayings especially as they carry a lot of meanings regarding struggling in life.And more about a man's courage to defend what is in him, what is right and wrong, and the greatest of all, defend what you love. I shall not comment more about the war since it might cause some religious sentiments. But here are a few quotes that i find very meaningful from the movie:

Godfrey of Ibelin: You are not what you were born, but what you have it in yourself to be.

Godfrey of Ibelin: Be without fear in the face of your enemies. Be brave and upright that God may love thee. Speak the truth, always, even if it leads to your death. Safeguard the helpless and do no wrong. That is your oath.

And here is one, for us all- regardless Christians or Jews or Muslims to ponder upon :

Balian of Ibelin: It has fallen too us, to defend Jerusalem, and we have made our preparations as well as they can be made. None of us took this city from Muslims. No Muslim of the great army now coming against us was born when this city was lost. We fight over an offence we did not give, against those who were not alive to be offended. What is Jerusalem? Your holy palaces lie over the Jewish temple that the Romans pulled down. The Muslim places of worship lie over yours. Which is more holy?So, for those of you out there who've missed this movie, go watch it (hmm.. perhaps it's too late) so go rent a DVD or you can always download from bittorrent :) This' a very long entry for a first page, so i'd just stop here and try watching more movies to have something to write in my blog . So before i sign off, here's another quote from the movie:

You are not what you were born, but what you have it in yourself to be

-Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for their's is the kingdom of heaven.- Matt. 5:10

[RC:c1556c5e]

Not your typical Malaysian day

This is not the kind of day a typical person would wake up to because it only happens in blogspots :) Just to share some of my experience. Caution : Some materials may be inappropriate to young kids

So one morning, i woke one glorious morning to the gentle sun basking on my face. I dragged myself down to the kitchen and found out that breakfast has been served. Alrite! It looked funny, not the typical mee goreng with teh susu. Instead, there's this huge bowl of cereal-like 'things' immersed in tomato sauce. Just to give it a try. I spooned it up and was about to taste it when the 'things' started wriggling and they formed words. It turned out to be a protest, clearly screaming..

Alright then, no breakfast. So i showered and put on some casual wear, deciding to go out of the house instead of staying put and play with my light sabre (I've been watching the Star Wars; all 6 episodes of them for the 6th time). I knew my day was screwed, thanks to too much Star Wars because when i walked out of my house, it was merely 2km when i thought i saw Darth Vader on the bench?!!

But i ignored him, because giving him money would only make him stronger and i do not want the Deth Star(his very new version) to destroy Earth. So i went to the nearest 7-11 to buy a drink but i still wasn't hungry. The pretty cashier greeted me, and told me i was lucky because they just restocked their drinks. And she gave me a grin. I thought what she meant until I opened the fridge and found this!

Wow! I never knew that scientists have been that smart, as to transform drinks into tablet form? But i decided not to buy it, because i've seen my neighbor take one of those and his wife had to tie him to a post outside the house, only to be fed with dry grass and water.I looked into the sky, and there wasnt' any clouds today. I could see.. ahh.. yes.. clear my path is.
But then, just as if Darth Vader has regained all his power, the clouds gathered and it started raining! Luckily i wasn't far away from home so i had to make a run for it. Darn, there goes my day! So i switched on the computer and decided to surf the internet for a while. I went to http://www.google.com/ and made a search for 'Funny Blogs'. After one minute, my fax machine started ringing and i received something from Google.

Clearly, i go annoyed so i turned off the computer with a slam and wanted to read a book titled 'The Curious Incident of The Dog in The Night Time'. I got fascinated with the book and started picturing myself as Christopher, the autistic but highly intelligent boy. Then i closed my eyes for a while, and i dreamt of him coming to me and we travelled to another world. He taught me Maths and Physics ( Damn i still hate physics) and we went to London. We cruised around in a bus that was custom made:

In the end, we got bored of looking at the Big Ben and we went off to find the killer of Wellington (that's the dog that died in the book). We went back to Christopher's house but we were surprised to see Wellington well alive, and she (I thought it was a bitch?) came back with more puppies.

I think i just ran out of space to finish my rest of the journey so i'd just tell you what happened in the end. I took out my red light sabre, put on Darth Vader's mask (like the one a few thought of buying to KTJ's 2005 Prom) and activated the voice control : Now, you shall all die!! I stabbed the five puppies but they were not bleeding. Hey, i thought, they were supposed to die! Like how Wellington was supposed to die when Christopher's father stabbed 'her' with a garden fork. Oh hell, i just forgot, i was just trying to fill up my blog. This isn't for real, coz people (or dogs) die, only in reality. :) Till the next time! Btw, can anyone tell me how to get rid of this icon? It pops out everytime i'm trying to write my blog. I wonder why...