//Life Ver.15

Free Physics Tuition

2009-08-08T00:12:00.002+08:00

Now every Thursday, my class has a free Physics tuition class after school. It appears that the inhabitants of my class suck at Physics, including me. On Thursdays school ends at 1.10pm and the class starts at 2.30pm. That's 1 hour and 20 minutes of free time! For some people it's total bore because they're too scared to leave school and walk around malls for abit before returning back for class. All they have to do is eat lumpy school canteen food :(

As for me, my trusted bicycle store is right nearby! After school me, Brian and Adrian headed of the bike shop. I brought my Commencal on that day. The brake cable clips on the top tube appears to have dropped/picked off, so the cables are really loose and hanging with no support. Johnny, the bike store owner gladly gave me a few zip ties to save my bike. Now it's El Neato!

Also, I got Brian his birthday present.. a bicycle repair/parking stand. He's getting a new expensive bike this weekend so it's only appropriate that I got him something to add with. As you can see, mountain bikes don't use a tongkat.

Hari Koko 2009

2009-08-02T11:42:00.002+08:00

On Friday our school had a Hari Koko, in which uniformed organizations take part in to showcase their skills. There are the Pengakap, KRS, PBSM, Pandu Puteri, Kadet Polis, Taekwondo, Karate, Silat, Wushu and that's about as much as I can remember unless that's all.

KRS bagged the top spot, obviously. I personally like the Silat performance. That's all I have to say.

+ photos on Facebook album link would be updated another time.

Sonic Gear Evo 3nity

2009-07-30T21:52:00.002+08:00

Today I followed my mom to Tesco because she wanted to buy a washing machine to use while our current one is rosak, and also to buy a Nokia N70 Music Edition. Not being fair to me, I grabbed a speaker set and placed it in the trolley. Hey, what could I do - it was too frickin' cheap! It was only RM50 (after Tesco discounts it). Hmm RM50 AFTER discount.. that is the normal LowYat price! But who cares, you'd probably spend more money on petrol than any savings.

It's a Sonic Gear Evo 3nity! I felt like trying out a stupidly cheap surround sound system, but Tesco doesn't have any long audio extension cables (which I need to place some speakers behind me) and the speaker set is already inside the basket. Too much energy will be wasted to carry the thing back to the shelf. Anyway, it's a 2.1 channel audio rating and comes with a standard subwoofer and two satellite speakers. The 'woofer is now under my desk (with my legs resting on it) and the two satellites are wedged beside the monitor.

The sound isn't as good as my Logitech X-240, but when combined just pushes it up to 'Okay'. Perhaps I should have gotten an RM500 set like Altec Lansings, or if I double up the ante I'd get Razer Mako!

Rating: 5/10

Gotong Royong

2009-07-30T21:36:00.002+08:00

Today my school had gotong royong (cleaning up day) because tomorrow there is Hari Koko and there'll probably be some important guests expected. Each class has a max of 6 people cleaning it. Me, Jian Ming, Brian, Chuan Yew, Belle and Najwa stayed in class to clean it up.. first the rusty fans, then the very dusty windows, an effortful attempt to remove marken pen shit drawn on desks, the transporting of broken chairs and tables to the Dump Site, the filling up of wall holes with newspaper and covering it up with sugar paper, the pasting of newspaper cutouts and articles on the boards surrounding, the sweeping of the floor, the rubbing off paint spots that some asshats spilt on the floor, and heat we endured when the block's electricity failed. Yeah, that many things happened.

How very tiring! But still had fun to slide across hallways. Eh? Pour some turpentine on cement floors and slide your way across. People walking about the school. And the last thing I have to say about this topic is..

.. there's a headless wooden giraffe laid to rest at the dump site. RIP.

Update for the past week?

2009-07-25T11:49:00.002+08:00

I have only done so much to update my nearly dead blog. I'm too busy doing other things such as online gaming, online window browsing, online nose-picking, spending my money and learning C++ programming language.

Instead of waiting a bit more to buy a Razer gaming mouse I blew off my money on a pair of Philips headphones and CyberClean, a sort of gel that absorbs dirt and kills germs. Example: My keyboard is full of biscuit crumbs, dead ants that I accidentally squished while in an intense gaming session, and dust. I slap the CyberClean gel between the keys and voila! All the crap are gone!

CyberClean is on sale now at ThinkGeek, the world's leading geek item online store. I now use my CyberClean on my phone, my PSP, my camera, almost anywhere my CyberClean slime ball can fit. It reminds me of the Thinking Putty.

I came across this wonderful cleaning substance when I read an article in The Star reviewing this. Then I went on ThinkGeek and it was on sale there too. Feeling beat, I went to All IT Hypermart and saw it for sale for about RM19.90.. what to do, just buy lah! Grabbed a pair of headphones I needed too.

Reen's Outing

2009-07-16T19:55:00.003+08:00

Last Sunday, Reen made an outing for her old SKBUD(4) friends (with the exception of Belle). She's going back to Australia soon, so yeah. AS USUAL, pics would be on my Facebook. I am not one for slow upload processes.

CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL ALBUM OF REEN'S OUTING

SMKBUD4 Malam Bakat / Talent Night

2009-07-12T03:26:00.003+08:00

10th July: 7pm-10:30pm

I'm too lazy to say anything. If you want a full review, go read someone else's blog.. not in the mood to give a damn about blogging full-length.

Anyway, I must say that all the Michael Jackson dances, the Chinese diabolo players, the shufflers, the hip-hoppers certainly rock my socks. Hope to see them again at next year's Malam Bakat!

Club Day is Fun Day

2009-07-08T21:25:00.003+08:00

School today was rather uneventful on the morning half when we were supposed to be learning.. but after school was filled with good old-fashioned fun that doesn't involve online games, for once. Science club seems inexistent today, so I wandered around school and stumbled upon Marwan who wanted to take a picture of a group on the ground floor. It was rather interesting how they (the people below) make something simple so hard LOL.. all they need to do is assemble themselves in the P shape. P for Photography club.

Daryl, Brandon, Timothy and Ah Yang said that they are gonna play football, but they lied! We ended up going to Chess Club (which is generally, a board games club). I requested that we play Monopoly, but the school only had Saidina sets.. these are Malaysian-made real estate board game. The game was really fun. I also saw many people playing Chinese checkers. They seem interesting, I might wanna try them soon.

Our group soon dispersed and I walked around again. Our ground floor foyer is always a busy area. A place where dance groups practice, those black hoodie wearing Malays shuffle to hardcore trance, and also where cheerleaders can be seen warming up. But today is a club day, and there is Fitness Club going on. This fella named Raymond from Celebrity Fitness, One Utama will come with sporting equipment like weightlifting stuff. Then the members of the club would exercise and lift weights to some energetic music.

I went home, and at 7.00pm I went to the local field to have a game of football. Daryl was already there, and soon people poured in to play. Yeah, we play that late.

Cheer '09 - It's Over, And We Won

2009-07-08T20:58:00.004+08:00

Dayumm, I'm a bit late on reporting this due to procrastination. I can say is that I took well over 2500 shots during both days, most of the cheerleaders look real fine, the hosts were funny and entertaining and the imported judges such as Santwon and Tye never failed to keep the crowd on their toes everytime they approached us.

Aaaaaand;

BLITZERZ WON. WE WON.

Blitzerz took home the overall cheer champion, best makeup, and best supporters category. Check this, yo!

As for pictures, I've uploaded them onto my Facebook instead as all blogs make uploading photos a bitch. Don't worry, Facebook albums are public so you are free to browse through. And at the time of writing, not all pictures have been uploaded yet. FYI, most of the pics aren't so high standards because I had to sacrifice quality in order to snap a photo at the *cough*perfect moment*cough*

CLICK HERE FOR CHEER '09 PHOTO ALBUM BY AFIQ FEISAL

Cheer '09 - Are You Going?

2009-07-03T19:31:00.002+08:00

Tomorrow and the day after will be the days Cheer '09 are held on. Basically, most of us would be there to support our own school's cheerleading team. Mine is Blitzerz - don't mess with the wrong blue!

So, are you going? :D

R.I.P. Michael Jackson

2009-06-27T13:17:00.008+08:00

Everyone now knows that Michael Jackson a.k.a. The King Of Pop has now left the world early morning yesterday. His death is an ultimate shock, as revolting as Princess Diana's. I'm a bit late to post here though, and as a tribute to him and to spread the MJ lovin' I am going to insert a video of the coolest thing he has done - the moonwalk in Billie Jean.

Just for the record, my top three fave MJ songs are Bad, Billie Jean and Smooth Criminal.

Make sure you don't forget to leave a message/tribute to him on his website here.

The Invisible Car

2009-06-24T23:50:00.003+08:00

I haven't posted something that's not related to me for a while, so here's one. University of Central Lancashire student Sara Watson did one hell of a good job on an 'invisible' car. Have a look. It's really just paint at correct angles, but no doubt impressive.

The Really English Vacation

2009-06-16T00:33:00.004+08:00

To commemorate my arrival in Malaysia back from London, to do something special but not special for this 80th blog post, and also to purposely invoke jealousy (admit it, I didn't even write anything about my trip yet and you're already planning to wage war against me).

Disneyland Paris and Walt Disney Studios - very fun.
Legoland Windsor - nice!(not to mention Britney Spears sighting there!)
Eiffel Tower - it's really tall!
Oxford Street - Shopping artery of central London.
The London Dungeon - scary attraction with live actors and props!
Buckingham Palace - boring guards.
Hyde Park - peaceful area in the middle of the city.. really nice!
EuroStar - fast train that takes you to Paris via Channel Tunnels
Fish n Chips - certainly unbeatable! It's soo.. nice :P
Candy - just how many Jelly Babies did I consume?
Tube - Try not to stray into wrong network lines!
Stamford Bridge - Chelsea's Home Stadium! I took the tour there :D

So that's the main points of my 2 week trip there.. in case I'd want to elaborate more, I might as well write a damn book and make money out of it.

Life Snippets #30: Nikon-ized

2009-05-21T21:32:00.007+08:00

Hey guys sorry (again) for lack of updates. I'm having my exams now, which basically means that I ain't studying and I'm still here in front of the computer every day for hours at length and too lazy to update.

So, as per title. Gonna get a D60 soon.

Did I just say, Nikon D60? Yes, it's a DSLR cam. I like photography but my current compact camera isn't very.. versatile. It runs on two AA batteries and each pair lasts only minutes of use. It's a black Olympus FE-310, by the way.

On Friday the 29th of May, I am leaving for London with my family and also drop by Paris via Eurostar train that runs in the Channel Tunnels, connecting the British Isles and mainland Europe (France). We'll be there for about 2 weeks. I am gonna get to eat some real British fish 'n chips! Also, a perfect chance to fool around with the D60!

A happy British family enjoying fish 'n chips on the pier.

Your Britishness,

Afiq Feisal

-------
British Family Eating Fish 'n Chips photo taken from Devon-Holiday.

I'm A Bookworm

2009-05-15T21:48:00.005+08:00

You know what, before I get carried on with today's post about my book obsession, I think I'll slip in a tiny section here about sunglasses. I've seen T-Pain wear this pair of white sunnies (the older version) and I was like "Dayummm! That is da bomb!". After some Googling I found out it was a pair of Oakley Gascans. The ones you see him wear now is Oakley Oil Rig. Here's a picture of the Gascans.

As many of you know, I am a huge fan of books. I don't know why most of you find books are boring, but boy don't you guys know what you're missing!

So yesterday, me and my mom went to the Big Bad Wolf Books warehouse sale. It has like a kajillion books, and a whole crowd of book-fans like me. I wound up taking a whole box of books (when you feel that your arms can't carry anymore, you may take a box to fill up books with). Alot of books, and that was just ME. I know it sounds geeky, but I'm really a geek of all sorts so here goes a list of the books that I chose for myself.

1) Real World by Natsuo Kirino (Novel)
2) Memoirs of an Exorcist by David Devereux (Novel)
3) London and The South-East by David Szalay (Novel)
4) The Joy of Swearing by M. Hunt (Leisure Reading)
5) Avalon High Coronation Vol.1 by Meg Cabot (Manga)
6) Avalon High Coronation Vol.2 by Meg Cabot (Manga)
7) Princess Ai: Ultimate Edition by Misaho Kujiradou, Courtney Love & DJ Milky (Manga)
8) Carrie by Stephen King (Novel)
9) Snakebite by Robert Swindells (Light Novel)
10) Java in a Nutshell by David Flanagan (Reference Encyclopedia)
11) The Game Maker's Apprentice by Jacob Habgood & Mark Overmars (Guidebook)
12) C++ Programming In Easy Steps by Mike McGrath (Guidebook)
13) The Complete Bike Book by Mel Allwood (Reference/Guidebook)
14) Kaiser Chiefs - A Record of Empoyment (Band Scrapbook)

Other than that, I also bought a Spanish Starter Kit from Teach Yourself for only RM20. Not to forget, a Spanish language accompaniment book to go with it. For some reason I love learning new languages if it doesn't involve 2000 symbols and characters (I don't mind Japanese!).

Pic from the Oakley Gascan site.

Broken Collarbone

2009-05-08T21:15:00.004+08:00

I'm back, fellas. With a broken clavicle (or collarbone), or should I just say, shoulder. No, not the right one. The left one. OUCH! Get your dirty hands off my shoulder! Nuff' said.

I'm too lazy to write bedtime stories about how I ended up with a broken collarbone, so let's keep it short and sweet. It involves a 15 year old Malay boy, a red Commencal Normal Disc mountain bike, a kapchai motor, an Indian man, a sweaty Indonesian tractor driver, a Bobcat tractor, a stretch of long downhill tarmac, and a speed bump. To top it off, a 10-metre Superman fly off. Use your damn imagination, kiddos.

The two pieces of bones are overlapping by 1.5 cm. I could opt for surgery though, where they'll use a scalpel to slice open my shoulder skin, drill in holes on the clavicle, put on a titanium plate and secure it with matching titanium screws, and sew back my shoulder skin. Sweet, no? Oh, I'll have a bitchin' good time walking through airport metal detectors too! But my injury's not that bad, and since my growth stage is growing into an adult, I won't have to worry much as the bone will widen into an adult bone anyway instead of leaving a huge irregularity when compared with the other shoulder.

Your Crippledness,
Afiq Feisal

Le Boring School

2009-04-22T22:23:00.004+08:00

Man.. anyone notice how school has just gotten a whole lot boringer lately. Our new pengetua has recently posted some revised or original school rules on each class noticeboard. There are so many unnecessary rules spotted there and the whole class were having their own say on each rule. The weather isn't helping either - it's gettin' real hot and just the perfect weather to induce students into a short nap in class.

Today, I've changed my Commencal's pedals to a pair of platform pedals by the name of Kona Jackshit. I wanted to get a pair with sealed bearings (more safe/last longer) but those platforms cost like RM200++ per pair. The Jackshit was only RM80 (after discount) but I only had RM50 so I managed to persuade the boss to let me pay RM30 later in the week. C'mon, I'm a regular customer xD.

Recently, I've found out that I was on a slowpoke on discovering this music group called The Lonely Island. They're the brains behind the songs called Jizz In My Pants and Dick In A Box. I know - it sounds weird at first (the song name) or either gross to you, but hit up the music videos on YouTube and you'll find it funny. Justin Timberlake is featured heavily in Dick In A Box, and this'll probably be your first time seeing JT on a lighter side.

Kona Jack Shit pedals picture courtesy of PinkBike

Life Snippets #28: Die, Frog, Die!

2009-04-16T21:53:00.004+08:00

I'm late to post this by a day, but what the heck. Yesterday I decided to go to Science Club meeting 'cos I heard last week we gonna dissect frogs. I mean, it's sort of cool. Better than adding chemicals into a boiling beaker and watched it wonderfully change color.

I entered the science lab which was abuzz with kids eager to watch frogs die at their fingertips. True, I was there for the same intention. Here's a secret: I have FROGOPHOBIA, or whatever phobia it is. Go figure.

Anyways, here are the pictures of Operation Leapfrog.

The tools necessary to perform a surgery on a frog.

Frogs awaiting their turn outside the Emergency Ward.

Two young doctors practice castrating a frog.

A thoroughly dismembered frog up for shipment to a Thai roadside snack stall.

Life Snippets #27: Cyclo-Crash, Cacat Club

2009-04-14T22:17:00.005+08:00

Last Friday, at around 7:45 pm I was cycling back in the rain from Saiful's new house. As I cornered a junction, my bike tyres slipped on a sand spill on the road. It was WET and before I knew it I was faceplanted on the ground. Groaning and slightly confused at the split-second fall, I mustered up the strength to push my body up and sat in the middle of the road, groaning. What to do after a fall?

Inspect your injuries. Yeah? Okay so I was looking at my right knee.. there is a strangely large WHITE spot on the knee.. also noticed two white spots on my feet. Suddenly the white spot on the knee turned pinkish-red and blood finally emerged and started flowing down my thighs into my pants. (I was sitting down). Skin tore right off, gone. As expected. My arms are scraped all around. My right palm had a small spot that has been skinned just like my knee. Double groan. Must there be so many spots?

**You were here for the pics, weren't you? Not for the pregnant ladies. Scroll down.**

I was rubbing my chin due to some gatal feeling and saw blood.. triple groan! My chin too?! What I did next was to scream. I was screaming "ARGH!" and no one heard me. Except some bangla labor workers in a under-construction house nearby. They waved at me and shouted a shrill ""WUUUI! at me. Then they waved at me some more and went back into the shady darkness of the construction site. Annoyed at them, I raised a middle finger towards the construction site.

Suddenly.. I saw a bright light. Could this be.. salvation? Nah, it was a Proton Perdana. The vehicle stopped before me and a middle-aged lady came out of the car with an umbrella saying "Are you okay?!", yeah you get it. She called my mom after successfully extorting my house number from me. Within 1 minute the familiar engine roar of a Toyota Land Cruiser Prado came within earshot. The Land Cruiser pulled up beside me and the windows rolled down.. my parents were there. Blablabla, I went to the nearby clinic, got an injection to prevent infections and had my wounds cleaned and all those stuff.

Anyway, pictures.

Skinned wrist/palm. Hard to write now.

Free shaving?

The one near the ankle looks like a bulletshot wound!

You haven't seen it after I took off the plaster.. dayumm.

Guess what? I'm in the Cacat Club now. If anyone has noticed, both me and Nabilah (the cheerleader) is limping in school now. We both have injured legs haha. So we're like temporary OKU's (Orang Kurang Upaya).

Kindness

2009-04-07T23:34:00.004+08:00

This is the kindness survey for blogs. Have you done anything kind lately?

1) Name one or some of your kind acts that you have done today.
I gave Rez a MicroSD card + adapter F.O.C. I gave Rez his early b'day present [Sum 41 album Underclass Heroes]. I lent my bike to a restaurant owner and a French guy because they wanted to test it out?

2) How about unkind stuff?
Intention of prank calling the arse of a Streamyx call center to piss off their monotonous workers.

3) Why did you do the kind stuff stated in 1?
I had too many tech stuff that I already have a few of or don't need, Rez spotted the CD and asked me about it, and because I knew these people (hanging out at the BU bike shop).

4) Why on earth would you do that as stated in 2?!
Because 1 - Streamyx sucks, 2 - Their workers sucks, 3 - Their service sucks, 4 - Frekkin' slow connection, 5 - It was a con-job, 6 - Streamyx sucks, 7 - Streamyx sucks

5) So did you think you pulled it off as a kind person today?
Well to say something here I think I am a generally kind person; it's just that you guys always think I make jokes here and there - open your eyes and see, fool! Me is a good person (:

EXTRA TIT-BITS :D

That is the album that I bought for Rez. Underclass Hero, performed by Sum 41.

--
Picture courtesy of Slovakian Sum 41 Fangroup

Selangor Mountain Bike Race & Mattel Warehouse Sale

2009-03-27T00:47:00.005+08:00

This Sunday at Sungai Buloh, there will be an event called Selangor Mountain Bike Race. Don't expect any big-air stunts, as this is a cross-country race and not a freeriding contest a la Crankworx Slopestyle. My dad is joining, so by default I will be there too, joining the event for the Open Category.

My race is 25KM long through Sungai Buloh/parts of Kepong and will probably be very tiring. Better check on my own bike to see that everything is in tip-top condition.

Check out the website here.

Mattel Warehouse Sale. Probably the hottest warehouse sale of the month. I did not manage to go to school yesterday (it is 12:55 at time of blogging, and I had to be correct) so I went with my mom to the warehouse sale at Atria, Damansara Jaya. Today is the first day, and it opens at 10am. I went in at about 10:40am and already MOST of the good Hot Wheels are gone!

I grabbed a large empty box and started stuffing. Over a course of 2 hours of squeezing and body contact with at least a thousand other shoppers (not joking!), I managed to come up with a nicely filled cardboard box. Got around to getting most of the good stuff such as nearly the whole series of Volkswagen California Cruisin', a G-Machine '67 Chevy Nova, several Since 68 cars, two Monster Jam trucks, two Racing Rigs, two Speed Racer cars, a Speed Racer R/C car, six Matchbox playsets, and 3 Hot Wheels racing track sets. I'm stocking up on my toys (I am a collector). I chose some Cars themed toys for my bro, and my mom chose some Barbies and Polly Pockets for my sis.

The baby (Fisher Price brand) section was hilarious. The products are strewn on plastic card tables like in mamak shops, and the products I am talking about are almost gone. Every single mother there was shouting to the workers to open up another crate. It's as if Mattel is giving away free stuff! All the noise like you've never heard it before. A woman was standing on a table to get attention from the workers. The rest were shouting and pointing at crates in which they think that they can find the desired item.

Mom 1: "Bang, tolong ambilkan My First Steps baby walker tu!"
Mom 2: "Hello, hello, can open up that box and see if got the Pop-On Blox or Jr. Baseball set?"
Worker: "Sabar, sabar, jangan rebut, ada lagi 2 kotak kat belakang!"

Things really went out of hand went several impatient mothers managed to collapse some card tables on the floor, thus a whole crowd of greedy baby-toy hunting moms stampeded into the 'workers only' area and started to rip open boxes. Some of the workers even videotaped those 'hungry' customers!

Next, time to wait in line to the payment counter. The line was snaking and there were 2 u-turn bends in the line I lined up in. It took 2 hours to reach the counter, no kidding! In between the wait time I went to buy a drink while my mom jaga the stuff, then go check if got any other stuff turn up.. it was a seriously long wait. In the end, we managed to reach the cashier and we heaved several heavy plastic bags to the car park.

Life Snippets #26: Kiara Group Ride with LYN Members

2009-03-22T23:53:00.003+08:00

Today had been a really fun day. Last night Maxguy had alerted everyone in LowYat.Net's Mountain Biking Heaven thread for a ride in Kiara today at 8am. I woke up at 7:48am, and I was hesitating - should I go? Am I too late to get prepared and reach there?

I quickly got into my preferred clothes for cycling, put in a spare shirt, granola bars and iPod in a small backpack, fixed a bottle cage on my bike, had a quick breakfast, grabbed my gloves and helmet and hit the road at 8.12am. I pedalled fast out of the 'hood, Cineleisure, IKEA, my school, One Utama, those big Taman Tun bungalows, through a neighborhood, out on another main road, pedalled faster uphill, past a more bungalows, past Devi's Corner, and reached the meeting point - in front of KSH Taman Tun.

While I approached the group already hanging out in front of KSH I could see NS - riding his Da Bomb Sputnik. He introduced me to everyone and each other. BTW, we call each other by our online forum names. Maxguy brought this Giant Glory, Scotty had his Jamis Dakar, Snapshots brought his new BH Expert. Then we pedalled all the way up the long, arduous tarmac climb to the crossroads on the jogger's hill.

We rested for a while at the pondok, and rolled into 2k. The trail was smooth and flowy. Soon we came back out, rested for about 15 mins while watching about 30 or so other bikers already hanging out on the crossroads. Here, I can see many downhill riders with their dual-crown forks and full-face helmets, etc. Its like a freakin' convention.

Went back into 2k loop in reverse order, entered the Apollo trail, negotiated a drop, and after some time back out onto the jogger's tarmac. Another uphill tarmac climb, then back to the crossroads, and into Carnival we go. Initially I wanted to go to Twin's Peak to check out what's all the downhiller's fuss about, but we went straight into Carnival instead and joined the downhill descent track used in Kiara Downhill Domination races.

Life Snippets #25: New Mountain Bike

2009-03-22T02:25:00.004+08:00

Finally, I've got my new bike. It's a Commencal, by the way. Decisions were hard. Should I get a Scott Voltage YZ 0, a Da Bomb Tora-Bora Dirt, or what? Until I went to KSH Cycles.

Today is my paternal grandma's birthday, so my family headed to a cake shop in Taman Tun to get, well, a cake. If you read my second last post, I mentioned about getting a new bike, but that was my dad's. Conviniently we went into KSH to take a look at the bike frames and complete built-up bikes. Dad wanted a trailbike but was instantly eye-glued to the Norco Atomik, a full-suspension downhill bike complete with a RockShox Boxxer World Cup dual-crown fork, at a relatively cheap price of RM7,000. Cheap, considering it came with a champ's dual-crown fork, a Manitou shock, and other whatnots such as a pair of Kenda Nevegals 2.35 and other crap which would cost well more than RM10,000 if bought separately.

In the past few days I had noted my parents that I'd like to buy a dirtjump bike, or the frame at least. Weren't interested in buying any dirtjump from KSH (there were only 3-4 models), until suddenly I spotted a salsa red colored bike with an unmistakable dirtjump frame. It was only RM2,990, tolak RM300 jadi RM2,690. Because it was so cheap, it has good parts, and my whole family likes it (red colored bikes are nice). It comes complete with bombproof (they meant UNDESTRUCTIBLE) frame and rims, SRAM/Deore groupset, Avid Juicy 3 hydraulic disc brakes, and dayumm! They set off to servicing and properly checking the bike before use by the new owner (me).

Then I realized, that dirtjumpers need either a bowl/skate helmet or a full-face helmet. I can't wear skate helmets because I am wearing glasses and it's not very reliable for us four-eyed. The cheapest full face helmet was the SixSixOne Strike, and it came in a red/black color combination. This one costs RM400, but heck - safety first!

--------------

A few guys from my favorite thread in Lowyat.Net which is Mountain Biking Heaven decided to get together tomorrow (in 5 1/2 hours, to be precise) at 8am to go and hit Kiara trails. They invited me and I was anxious anyway to try out my new bike in it's proper environment.

Just now I called up Irfan who just came back from Singapore last night, and I told him that I got a new bike and a full-face helmet. He was like, "YOU LIAR! DON'T TRY TO FOOL ME, DUDE" and I can't help but laugh, which made him think I was joking even more. So I said "You come see lah". And in 5 minutes he arrived at my house at around 12:50am, driving his dad's Toyota Hilux (with permission).

He kept on chanting "LIAR, LIAR" all the way to the door until I opened the door and he saw the bike and his reaction was *mouth gapes open*. He went "Holy crap, this is such a sweet bike! Hydraulic brakes! Great fork! Oh man.. is that your new helmet? What the hell.."

Disappearance? I'm back!

2009-03-20T23:49:00.005+08:00

Again, I was gone for a few days. *smackhead* This time it was because of my metal rig. The computer received a BSOD while loading Windows Vista Home Premium. Unable to get past loading since that. So until now I am using my mom's MacBook to achieve my daily dosage of Internet.

Today I sent the rig to a reliable shop/service centre in Digital Mall. Tempted to buy and install a Nvidia GeForce 9800GT, but I'm not heavy into computer games anymore and a GeForce 8600GS is better than most.

Browsed a few phone shops with my dad, since he wants a new phone. He's eyeing the iPhone 3G, Blackberry Storm, T-Mobile G1 w/Google, and a few cheap Sony Ericsson 3G phones. I can't help but drool at the phones.. especially LG Cookie. What? I already have a LG Cookie! No, mine is anodized silver and the Vandyke brown and black colour is just so.. sexy. The colours - it redefines the revolution of touchscreen phones!

We wanted to buy a new mountain bike (trailbike, to be specific) so we headed to Bikepro after that. There are tons of Scotts in the store, and the frames are nice too. Banshee Pyre has got to be the best frame in there. We didn't get any layanan because of the huge number of bikers in the store, so we headed to Joo Ngan in Uptown.

Getting either a Trek Fuel Ex 6.5 or Gary Fisher Hi-Fi Pro. They cost RM7,500 and RM6,500 (+/-) respectively. I'm still keeping my GT Backwoods as a cross-country bike and my Giant XtC Team as a dirtjump bike, but I might get a Scott Voltage YZ frame. It's really cheap, only RM500 second-hand provided I sapu the deal first!

The Trek Fuel EX 6.5

Tagged & Shuffle Mode On

2009-03-12T21:27:00.003+08:00

Rules

1. Put your iTunes/Winamp/Media Player on shuffle
2. For each question, press the next button to get your answer
3. You must write down the name of the song no matter how silly it sounds!
4. Put any comments in brackets after the song name
5. Tag at least 10 friends

6. Anyone tagged has to do the same, because fun pointlessness spreads like a virus.

If someone says "Is this okay?" you say?
Live at The Barbeque - Main Source ft. Nas [BBQ's are sizzlin' hot, so of course it's okay!]

How would you describe yourself?
Absolutely Wasted - Sporting Riff-Raff [Not sure if I'm a wasted youth *rushes to check*]

What do you like in a guy/girl?
Juicy - The Notorious B.I.G. [What on earth.. juicy girls.. then again.. mmm]

How do you feel today?
Synchronicity II - The Police. [Not synchronized to the school timetable]

What is your life’s purpose?
Mad - Ne-Yo [Mad, mad, watch more MadTV]

What is your motto?
Everyday I Love You Less and Less - Kaiser Chiefs. ['Cos you left me for Afiq! WTF!]

What do your friends think of you?
Teenagers - My Chemical Romance. [Duh, I'm a teen at the time of writing]

What do you think of your parents?
Holidae In - Chingy ft. Ludacris & Snoop Dogg [Yes they've have been to several Holiday Inns]

What do you think about very often?
Makes Me Wonder - Maroon 5 [Yeah, I wonder..]

What is 2 + 2?
La La La Kerjalah - Meet Uncle Hussain [Lalalala~ buat kerja sendiri~]

What do you think of your best friend?
Laid - Matt Nathanson. [You got laid and didn't even tell me.. WTH!]

What do you think of the person you like?
Cinta - Kris Dayanti ft. Melly Goeslaw. [Memanglah cinta, bodoh!]

What is your life story?
Kiss Me - New Found Glory [Kiss me and I tell you!]

What do you want to be when you grow up?
Seize The Day - Avenged Sevenfold [More like seize whatever chance I get]

What do you think of when you see the person you like?
Life - Des'ree. [Life, oh life - oooh life~]

What will you dance to at your wedding?
Alhamdulillah - Too Phat ft. Yassin. [Thank God 'cos you're not Too Phat for me!]

What will they play at your funeral?
Gonny Fly Now - Bill Conti. [Gonna Die Now~ *cue orchestra symphony*]

What is your hobby/interest?

Fuel - Metallica [Pour fuel around your house and throw in a match]

What is your biggest fear?
I Predict A Riot - Kaiser Chiefs [The end is near!]

What is your biggest secret?
Can't Get You Out Of My Head - Kylie Minogue [Thanks to the secret, it's stuck in my head ever since]

What do you think of your friends?
Born To Be Wild - Steppenwolf [Tsk.. tsk.. locomania!]

What will you post this as?
Ridin' - Classic & 86 [Will not post this song, makes a stupid title!]

Life Snippets #24: Kiara 2k

2009-03-09T22:29:00.005+08:00

Today I invited Irfan to go to Kiara for a mountain biking session. We reached Kiara park at 4:30pm and pushed our bikes up Rock Garden, and went uphill through the short Carnival shortcut towards the jogging road beside KLGCC. Pedalled uphill on tarmac for a minute or so, reached the first pump house, and entered the famed 4k trail. Here, is a fork. Taking a left turn would take us to the downhill wooden ramp, which we already conquered previously. To the right, is a trail which takes us past a small lake, a smaller wooden bridge, and God knows where because we didn't go pass the bridge before. The trail hasn't been used for some time due to most of the cyclists who are adults are busy working I suppose, so the overgrowth are quite annoying and it made the trail feel rather narrow.

There are alot of parts where pushing the bikes are required (slope too slippery). After some time, we reached a tall slope which led to a tarmac road. Went up the tarmac road to the famous T-junction where there is a pondok. Saw some mountain bikers there, about 8 of them. Half of them are using BH bikes while the rest has a Santa Cruz, a few GT and one or two Giants. The BH's and Santa Cruz went into the 2k trail first and we followed suit. The trail was quite easy to navigate through. The only drawbacks are a few gnarly roots, and some uphill switchbacks which are rather slippery thanks to the rainy season.

Today there are quite alot of joggers around, and bikers love joggers because we get to go faster than them. And also they act as obstacles to train on. Going downhill down a tarmac road at top gear, top speed, joggers are good for training on - they're like the orange cones in a driving academy. But unfortunately most of them know today is also the day alot of bikers come down so they like to go to the road shoulders instead. Bah, cowards! Eheh, I was just kidding on these part. But seriously, train going around people - try not to hit them!

Went down the Carnival and Rock Garden back to the Kiara park parking lot, where the BH's and Santa Cruz are cleaning their bikes at the bike wash. The Santa Cruz guy chit-chatted with us for a while. Then we left for Devi's Corner to quench our thirst. It started drizzling a little and we gave up our table to the BH riders - we're done drinking our Milo Ais, anyway.

Stopped by KSH, the mother of all bike shops in Taman Tun. Which is, coincidentally, the only bike shop in Taman Tun. Love those THE full-face helmets. Especially those One Composite series. Then we hit the roads again and back home. Reached my house at about 7:14pm.

I Say, You Say, YouthSays!

2009-03-06T22:49:00.005+08:00

Hey guys, I was wondering if you knew of the most happening Malaysian website (next to LowYat.Net of course). It's a website where youths can discuss everyday life, issues, brands, pretty much whatever that you're concerned of with other Malaysian youths. Also, you can complete surveys and earn money for it. What's this website, you say? I say it's YouthSays! Now click on the picture below to sign up for it!

Life Snippets #23: Bad Hair Day

2009-03-06T00:00:00.003+08:00

Today was sort of a bad hair day. I can't really say if it's bad or good. My fringe was swept aside and held in place with hair gel to mask the lenght of it at school. And it just so happened that today the tips of it were curved like the Ripcurl logo. Some say it's bad, some say it's really cute and nice.

Finally I converted my Giant XtC Team into a hybrid dirtjump/semi-downhill bike. It can also become cross-country like it was before conversion, because it still has its shifters, derailleurs and other whatnots, while pure dirtjumpers are single-speed with only one (front) or no brakes at all, but most dirtjumpers are not purists due to the hassle.

I exchanged my light industrial steel pedals for a pair of yellow platform pedals with Adrian, a regular at Johnny's bike store. Those yellow platform pedals sure do match my black/yellow bike theme. A new pair of Wellgo colored platform pedals would cost me RM180 per pair and I got mine free (although a bit scratched, but all pedals get old fast!) for next to nothing, seeing that my previous pedals aren't much to behold.

Obama Sushi? Rant?

2009-03-04T22:31:00.006+08:00

I've read online recently that a Japanese restauranteur has created a sushi in the form of Barack Obama's face. It's really creative, but I really don't care and I just want to show you guys that there is a sushi in the form of Barack Obama's face. Did I say that it looks like Obama's face?

One more thing - please no 'I love Obama' replies, especially for Malaysians. You're all so hyped up and joining Obama fanclubs everywhere you could - why bother? You think you know him, but if I ask you wether you knew that he plays Pong and has a Blackberry (which he dropped) and he is half Indonesian. So why bother? Does it bring change to Malaysia? Will it let us reach the 'Wawasan 2020'? Yeah probably the Americans could do that but our Malaysia is still stinkin' Malaysia, and that's that.

Article found HERE (MSN-Japan)

White Skyline Spotted!

2009-03-03T21:31:00.004+08:00

In an effort to update my blog more often, I'll find anything to post up here if I can. Today I spotted a pearl white Nissan Skyline GT-R V-Spec II parked in my 'hood. If you're doubting me, I have peektures too. Back-side only sorry, the owner was at the garden and I was too shy. Click on image for larger pic.

Pickup Pimp-Out

2009-03-02T23:05:00.004+08:00

I was doing laps around my neighborhood when I spotted this black Nissan Frontier which apparently has been modified with the owner thinking big, and I mean big. It has tyres that has been widened out from its axles. It has an undergrille that's looking shiny. It's got at least a 4" jack-up. Snorkels, reinforced roll-bars, half-steps, a Thule open roof rack, isn't it the ultimate 4x4? Feel free to click on the image for a larger version.

Life Snippets #22: Rain, Rain, Go Away

2009-02-28T23:06:00.003+08:00

My second last post I've been complaining that it's hot. Right after that it started raining almost everyday (perhaps God heard my plight). I wish it'll rain in the mornings instead. Can't go biking at Kiara or the local dualtracks. Wish the weather would be cloudy and skies as blue as ever.

So, today my mom invited me to go swim at The Club at Bandar Utama, but I said I wanted to go to Johnny's bike shop to change the chain of my new bike. Oh yea, did I tell you I got a new bike? It's not exactly new, it's my dad's GT Backwoods. It's slightly older than my own bike, a Giant XtC Team. And this GT Backwoods is older AND better than my bike. Like all good GT frames, it incorporates the Triple Triangle technology making it look good. Also it has full XT groupset/derailleurs and also XT Hollowtech II cranks. Mavic wheels with Panaracer tires and LX hubs, Titec Hell-Bent XC handle, Avid Rim Wrangler V-Brakes and a RockShox SID XC fork.

Couldn't be happier. My dad doesn't use the bike anymore because he's busy at work overseas and rarely comes home, maybe once every 1-2 months. He's rather active on it years ago, but now he prefers to ride my mom's Santa Cruz Superlight.. perhaps because it has hydraulic brakes, dual-suspension and a really light frame (hence the name). I'm happy with hardtails because even dirtjump bikes are hardtails, and hardtails are always good for XC. The chain was rusty though.

So I went to Johnny's store at about 4pm with Irfan, who's just shifted to a house just a street away from mine (yay!). Went there and hanged around and this female roadie came along after some Gombak cycling. I had to wait until Ah Keong the mechanic arrives back to the shop, and wait longer because he's working on Ustaz Suhaimi's roadbike conversion because our T-Bolt MD group is going to Port Dickson, my kampung, tonight and tomorrow to check out the roads there. If it's good, (it'll be, I'm an expert there) then we'll have an en masse event like the Sungai Dua one previously.

Then finally it was my bike's turn and I bought a RM60 chain with missing link included. Not gonna buy those crap-ass RM15 chains because good bikes deserves good parts. Ah Keong installed it and walla - smoother rides and there goes away the fear of the old rusty chain snapping off. Then there's this white guy with a Carlsberg Green Label can who came along and talked to us about bikes. Then this brader from SMKBU came with his Tank roadbike and we all laughed at Johnny's failed English - spelled hub as 'Hup', hydration packs as 'water bag' and jersey as 'jerses'. Damn funny I tell you.

Then it started raining - oh no! Pak Ajis, Aidit and Ustaz Suhaimi came along to change Aidit's tires and check out the Ustaz's bike. They gave us money to buy drinks for everyone and guess what? The Binjai restaurant owner gave us discount RM10 become RM9 because both me and Irfan wearing Nike shirts.. plus mine is Ronaldinho some more - Nike all the way! So guys, if you go to Restoran Binjai wear Nike shirt.. and hope that the owner comes along.. if not, touch luck, suckers!

Rain stopped at 7:30pm and we cycled back home.. what a good day. Can't wait to test the GT out at Kiara - it's been there before with my dad but not with me!

Life Snippets #21: Facing Form 4 Test

2009-02-24T22:53:00.007+08:00

Yeah, we're having a test now. I'm slightly nervous because I'm facing subject papers that I haven't done yet. What if there's no objective part? How to tembak?

Tuesday, 24 February

Chemistry
Today's Chemistry paper is actually rather easy. I did the questions without any hesitations. A bit of counting, a bit of Guess Who? with some old geezers that drew some rough sketches of an atomic model.

Sejarah
Sejarah (History) just got more interesting this year. I find world history more interesting ever since my dad subscribed me National Geographic some years ago, and I remember always gawking whenever Zahi Hawass covers another article on some on-going excavation at Valley of the Kings. That's Ancient Egypt for you. Anyway this paper isn't too hard but there seem to be a few facts that I must have left out of my studies.

Wednesday, 25 February

English
English was super duper easy. Well, considering the Form 4 paper is the American equivalent of their what, 5th grade paper? Pfft. Question formats like usual, with a new twist. Some advertisments that we have to 'decipher' it's meaning, and we have a new subjective part too. All you gotta do is copy and paste the answers from the text paragraph.

Mathematics
If you read my PMR post, you'll know that I loathe Maths. Alot. No matter how easy I'll still freak out over it. Anyway it wasn't that hard except that I failed to find the roots of the subjective part. Who cares?

Biology
The study of life. Not to say very hard but it was certainly mind-racking. My brain's Search function failed to retrieve much information regarding the questions asked. Left a question blank on the subjective part.

Thursday, 26 February

Additional Mathematics
Wait, first there's Maths, now there is an Add. Maths too?! Cray-zee. All the questions are on a single sheet of A4 paper yet almost every single Form 4 kid including the Mataharians are probably constipating while doing quadratic equations. Ain't seen nothing till it's vector calculus! It was hard, nevertheless. Many people left a few questions blank or did it anyway eventhough they knew they were wrong.

Bahasa Melayu
This one's easy. Not sure if I met the criteria for finding the correct 'Isi Tersirat' but ah I had alot of fun doing the 'bina ayat' part. Super duper easy, and it reminds me of when I was Standard 3 or so where these kinds of questions were aplenty.

Physics
Not exactly rocket science, but it was enough to make me go dizzy and hallucinate. After racking my brain due to being stumped on a subjective question, I started seeing tiny, bright, white balls float around my desk and paper like it's the Brownian Motion. It's motion, not movement. We've been fooled, kids. Seriously, I've never been this mental before. Although I've preferred this to happen in Add. Maths instead.

Friday, 27 February

Bahasa Cina (Chinese)
I don't take this paper, so all I can tell you about it is I played and talked to people around me.

Pendidikan Islam (Islamic Studies)
It wasn't really that hard, quite some of the questions are repeated variations of the last. Although the facts had to be right, I've been using my almost dead brain Search function. Oh boy, the exams are over after this!

Life Snippets #20: Hot Weather, Not Green Enough

2009-02-17T19:20:00.009+08:00

Urgh, the weather has been unpleasantly hot this whole year. Fxck you to anyone that is contributing to global warming. Please be more green.. think about it. Think about your offspring - they'll think their parents and grandparents and ancestors are suck big time just because a small mistake each person does to the environment. Don't you feel sorry? Weather's been hot, hot, hot.

Our school had the spring-cleaning day on Valentine's Day. Love isn't really in the air, I smell lots of sweat instead. The teachers are forever instructing students to hop into a drain (or lower a friend inside) and pick up a leaf. Then there's this gang of Malay guys that walk around and playing around with student's bicycles and motorbikes, like trying to pick them up together and chanting "Kutip! Kutip!" (Pick it up!). Speaking about Valentine's Day, I think it is total bullshit. You don't have to give someone extra love and attention just on Valentine's Day. Shouldn't those days be every day? Back to cleaning the drains. Alot of our school students are a bunch of pussies who can't step in a clean, dry drain only belittered by leaves and the occasional ice-cream wrapper. Didn't you guys ever know those poor Indians in Delhi have to SWIM in glob to clean up their city?

Whoops - back on being green. Singapore has been fortunate to have been rather green and clean on their small patch of land. I was there only last week and no matter how bright the sun is, the weather can't get hotter - it's rather cool. I'd say the temperature outside is about 25 or 26 celcius - better than the daily Malaysian average outdoor temperature of 31 celcius. Oh yeah, Singapore. Didn't remember to blog about it, so I'll tell you what I did - shopping!

Bought a Wii Zapper + Link's Crossbow Training for Nintendo Wii, a Thrustmaster Universal Challenge (a steering wheel compatible with all consoles) for my PS3, a Sony 4GB Memory Stick Pro Duo for my PSP, and a Rainbow Six Vegas for my PS3. Spend quite some money there. The leftover of the money I converted back to RM and spent it on a Venzo Grey full-finger cycling gloves, and a pair of Ritchey WCS bar ends. Thinking of buying some PowerGel as well.

PS3 Games Review #1

2009-02-10T00:23:00.005+08:00

Suddenly I have a strong urge to review my PS3 games. Please not that the reviews are non-biased and I only review something that I OWN or tested vigorously.

Lost: Via Domus

I got this game purely because I was a die-hard Lost junkie. It is well produced for a Lost fan; the art direction is superb, just like the way Naughty Dog did with their game Uncharted: Drake's Fortune. You play as Elliot Maslow, a photographer, and you're also a survivor of the Oceanic Flight 815 crash halfway from Sydney to LA. The game is pretty much linear - you'll hardly get 'lost', and even if you do, you can always restart your path. They even tell you if you're going off track. Throughout the game, you'll have to solve alot of puzzles (Hint: Fuses & Voltages), string back your memory pieces through cool flashbacks, and also interact with other survivors such as Kate, Jack, Sawyer, Jin, Hurley, Sayid, and more.

The best thing about this games are references to the TV series - like the Dharma Volkswagen van, you'll find it in the Dark Territory. Also, you might remember the Monster - the black smoke that moves around making loud machine-like noises, the Monster that killed Mr. Eko. You'll be having a few run-ins with the Monster, you can hide in banyan trees until the Monster is gone or you can go crazy and run through the forest. Another thing are the Others - yes, the other people that live on the island. If you watched the series you'll remember Ben Linus and Juliet Burke, two important Others. You can even explore the Hydra station, but how you'll get there I won't tell for it's a spoiler!

The Verdict: 7.0/10

Grand Theft Auto IV

Being a fan of the GTA franchise, I naturally bought a PS3 just for this game - and never regretted so. Anyway you play as Niko Bellic, a war veteran from Eastern Europe - migrating to Liberty City to escape his cruel past, and to pursue the man who framed him. I liked the storyline of the game - a poor man's struggle to bring justice to his dark past, illegally of course, with guns DUH. It ain't fun if the whole game is about going to court and rounding up several suspects for testimony. That is like, sooo Nintendo DS (Ace Attorney!). Niko was greeted by his cousin Roman, and was soon dragged into the crime underworld thanks to Roman who owed loan sharks and mobsters alot of money due to gambling it off. In this game Niko makes many useful allies and also enemies - also at certain parts you get to choose to let your victim die or let him go loose. The game environment is closely and 99% accurate to New York City, up to the derelict tenements of Bohan (Bronx), the lush greenery of Middle Park (Central Park), and many others. You know what - just play the game, you'll know why everyone is giving it the 10/10.

The Verdict: 10/10

Guitar Hero: World Tour

This game incorporates the use of drum sets as well, just like in Rock Band 2, but I couldn't afford the full band set nor do I have anyone to play it with, so I only own the Solo Guitar set. This game rocks to the max. It's better than any Guitar Hero I've ever played. A large number of the tracks in the game are my personal faves - Paramore's Misery Business, Linkin Park's What I've Done, Bon Jovi's Livin' on a Prayer, Lost Prophet's Standing on the Rooftops, Michael Jackson's Beat It, The Eagle's Hotel California, and many more. This game (and guitar) is well worth the RM340 I bought it for at launch. This game also helps you get together with friends. Whenever I have a few friends come over to my house it's almost always to rock out on my GH:WT. So keep rockin'!

The Verdict: 9.1/10

Haze

This game was heavily commercialized before it's launching in South-East Asia, so I was rather anticipating for the release. So I finally got the game (read my last post) and it's really nothing to go "wow" for. The game is not half bad - it's pretty decent. I like their art direction, and the concept of the game, the use of biochemistry and human DNA alteration to boost our physical capabilities, and such. The sad part is the gameplay is too linear and predictable - if you've played other shooter games that is. One thing that makes it relevant is that if you've ever watched any WW2 movies such as Flags of Our Fathers, Battle of Iwo Jima or Pearl Harbor, you'll find the way the Mantel troopers talk pretty much like the US Army. Loads of over-exaggeration, extreme sarcasm, and profanity - not that it bothered me, I liked it! The game setting is in near future in which Mantel troopers were hired to fight of the South American guerilla gang called the Promise Hand. What happens next is a spoiler: You'll be joining the Promise Hand once they explain to you their reason to fight. So - you'll be more interested in Call of Duty than this one. OH yeah - please note that this game lacks HD 1080i output support.

The Verdict: 6.8/10

Uncharted: Drake's Fortune

If you've played Tomb Raider you'll find this game similar in style but with a much deeper storyline. You play as Nathan Drake, who claims that he is a descendant of the late English seafarer, explorer and voyager by the name or Sir Francis Drake (He's a real person!). A rather nosy but cute journalist, Elena, will tag along at the deed that her production company helped fund the trip to uncover the supposed treasure described by Sir Francis Drake in his past notes. But an evil and merciless treasure connosieur is set to race Nathan to find the treasure, which is a large golden idol. The evil guy hires an Indonesian man, Eddy Raja and his other Indon workers as mercenaries to help ward off the good guys (us). Funny thing is there are scenes where they talk Indonesian and it's totally broken - out of slang! Apparently the voicings are done by people who probably directly translated it from Babelfish or something. Anyway long story cut short this game is absolutely sweet.

The Verdict: 9.5/10

Rainbow Six Vegas

The Rainbow Six are a team of elite SWAT-like tactical combat team, and you are the leader of it. You are to stop this merciless Mexican guy from taking over USA with their nacho stall workers. You start at a town near the American boarder where the gang influence is high. Your search for him brings you to Las Vegas, the Sin City, hence the name of the game. Can't say too much yet - still rather new into the game, but so far things are working out a-OK.

The Verdict: 8.3/10

Midnight Club: Los Angeles

Okay I do not know much of this game, only my brother plays it, using the Thrustmaster steering wheel and foot controls I bought for him. I intend to start playing this soon, but I've played too much street racing games already. But many a time I watched him play, so here's a based-on-looks verdict.

The Verdict: 8.5/10

Life Snippets #18: Poslaju

2009-02-05T22:41:00.005+08:00

Guess what.. I made my first online purchase! Well it isn't actually that online, you might be thinking I used a PayPal account on Amazon.com to buy some gardening equipment. All that happened is that I was browsing at the Garage Sale's Games corner in LowYat.Net forums, and this guy was selling tons of used PS3 games at low prices. I can't afford to buy NEW original games anymore.

I immediately had him to hold on to the game 'Haze', the item I wanted to buy. He was selling it for RM70 including Poslaju. All I had to do is just bank in RM70 into his Maybank account, give him my address and telephone number, and the next day (today) the item arrived at 11:00 a.m. while I was still in school.

Poslaju Package

*shines*

Contents

In-game screenshot.

Hundred Questions

2009-02-03T21:55:00.003+08:00

No I haven't been tagged nor do I intend to be, but I'm going to do this for fun anyway - good way to pass time.

1) Are you in a relationship with somebody?
Isn't everyone?

2) Do you hate more than 3 people?
Maybe.

3) How many houses have you lived in?
5, turning 6.

4) Favorite candy bar?
Milo Chocolate Bars.

5) Favorite shoes?
Any shoes that I have bought.

6) Have you ever tripped someone?
Many times, and usually on purpose.

7) Least favorite school subject?
Additional Mathematics and Physics.

9) Do you own a Britney Spears CD?
No, but I have Kelly Clarkson, The Police..

10) Have you ever thrown up in public?
Nope! Throwing up should be kept discreet.

11) Name one thing that is always on your mind.
Thoughts. Okay - whatever I like.

12) Favorite genre of music?
All genres except black metal & grindcore.

13) What is your zodiac sign?
Scorpio.

14) What time were you born?
Early in the morning.

15) Do you like beer?
No.

16) Ever made a prank phone call?
Yes, and I was trying to be a confused Pizza Hut delivery boy asking for directions.

17) What is the most embarrassing CD you own?
Why should I be embarassed about a CD that I own? I am proud of what I listen to.

18) Are you sarcastic?
Don't you think Paris Hilton is too anorexic?

19) What are your favorite colors?
Black, Graphite, Azure, Burnt Sienna, Khaki, Mint Green, and White.

20) How many watches do you own?
6 wristwatches.

21) Summer or winter?
Summer because I'm used to it, and Spring, may the flowers blossom.

23) Favorite color to wear?
Black/white.

24) Pepsi or Sprite?
Mineral water.

25) What color is your cell phone?
Silver.

26) Where is your second home?
Inside my computer.

27) Have you ever slapped someone?
Duh.

28) Have you ever had a cavity?
Yes, and so do you.

29) How many lamps are in your bedroom?
Three lamps.

30) How many video games do you own?
Me? More than you, obviously. I'm a total gaming geek.

31) What was your first pet?
Some lame-ass turtles that did nothing but shit.

32) Ever had braces?
Yeah, and did I tell you I was a trendsetter on it..

33) Do looks matter?
More or less.

34) Do you use chap stick?
Occasionally.

35) Name 3 teachers from High School.
They're stalking our blogs, dumbass.

36) American Eagle or Abercombie?
Volcom Stone.

37) Are you too forgiving?
Maybe.

38) How many children do you want?
How about none to fund my geekiness, or two to keep the tree growing?

39) Do you own something from Hot Topic?
Had one of their rubber wristbands once, but lost them.

40) Favorite breakfast meal?
The Great American Breakfast.

41) Do you own a gun?
A single-barrel Nerf gun.

42) Ever thought you were in love?
Are you being nosy?

43) When was the last time you cried?
2 years ago.

44) What did you do 3 nights ago?
Eating some fishes I had reeled in earlier.

45) Olive Garden?
Raju's Corner.

46) Have you ever called your teacher mommy?
Eww.

47) Have you ever been in a castle?
Duh.

48) Nicknames?
Fiq Fiq, Ah Geek, Feek, whatever that rhymes.

49) Do you know anyone named Bertha?
In an Indonesian serialized drama on TV, yes.

50) Ever been to Kentucky?
Fried Chicken? Yes.

51) Do you own something from Banana Republic?
No because I don't monkey around.

52) Are you thinking about somebody right now?
Yeah, it was about who the hell that made up these hundred questions.

53) Have you ever called someone Boo?
No, but I had screamed Boo at them.

55) Do you own a diamond ring?
Why on earth would I need a friggin' diamond ring?

56) Are you happy with your life right now?
More or less, more to the yes.

57) Do you dye your hair?
Nope.

58) Does anyone like you?
There's a few.

59) What year were you born?
1993

60) What were you doing in May of 1994?
Probably playing with a Mickey Mouse plushie in a wooden babycot.

61) Do you own a Backstreet Boys CD?
Are they even legal?

62) McDonalds or Wendys?
TGIF, Chili's and Tony Roma's.

63) Do you like yourself?
Mm, yes.

64) Are you closer to your mother or father?
Does it matter?

65) Favorite physical feature of the preferred sex?
Awesome hairstyle, alluring eyes, whatever.

66) Are you afraid of the dark?
Depends.

67) Have you ever eaten paste?
Toothpaste, yeah. Used to eat those Pokemon gel toothpaste.

68) Do you own a webcam?
Duh, and so do you, and yours is on. *stares at you*

69) Have you ever stripped?
Yeah, and I took a shower after that.

70) Ever broke a bone?
A chicken bone, almost decomposed. Cycled over it and comes the crunching noise.

72) Do you chat on AIM often?
If there are anyone worth talking to.

73) Pringles or Lays?
Frito Lay's Original.

74) Have you ever broken someone's heart?
Don't know.

75) Rugrats or Doug?
Hey Arnold!

76) Full House or The Brady Bunch?
My Wife and Kids.

77) Did you like your high school guidance counselor?
She's okay I guess, but she seems to be reading what she speaks off Wikipedia.

78) Has anyone ever called you fat?
No, and I don't see a reason to.

79) Do you have a birth mark?
Yeah.

80) Do you own a car?
I own about 500 Hot Wheels die cast cars.

81) Can you cook?
Duh.

82) 3 things that annoy you:
1. People who say 'I love Obama' without knowing anything about Obama.
2. People who like to FFK.
3. Whatever that annoys me, dammit!

83) Do you text message often?
When necessary.

84) Money or love?
No money no honey.

85) Do you have any scars?
Plenty to show off.

86) What do you want more than anything right now?
Go into a cool international boarding school.

87) Do you enjoy scary movies?
I enjoy all types of movies.

88) Relationships or one night stands?
Single's Night Out.

89) Big Red or Juicy Fruit?
Florida's Natural.

90) Do you enjoy greasy food?
Most of the time.

91) Have you seen all the Rocky movies?
No, but I like Bill Conti's score for Rocky.

92) Do you own a box of crayons?
Boxes of crayons - Crayola, Faber-Castell, you name it.

94) Who was the last person that said they loved you?
An actor in a movie. Well, she was looking directly at me - I mean, the camera.

95) Who was the last person that made you mad?
My lil' brother.

96) Who was the last person that made you cry?
You know who you are..

97) Who was the last person that made you laugh?
Su Wee.

98) Who was the last person that you fell for?
I fell for a person named Joke.

99) Who was the last person that instant messaged you?
Well, I got three simultaneous IM's, and they were from Ebony Lee, Myra Hanes, and Irfan Rosli.

100) Who was the last person that called you?
Hazim.

Life Snippets #17: Angpaos

2009-01-30T23:58:00.005+08:00

I hope you guys haven't forgotten that 20% of your ang pao goes into the fund that enables me to buy more PS3 games and Blu-Ray movies. It's the Asian time of giving.. as you are probably still in high school Uncle Afiq thinks that we should implement the habit of giving right now.. let's start by giving some $ to me. Deal? Deal. Agreed. You read this already, so it's a deal.

Okay time wasted officially. Anyway today Irfan, Zafri and me went to explore some 'backyard' trails. Well actually they're those tiny dirt paths that the foreign labourers make as they rush to the construction site where they work. From Mutiara Damansara, beside the construction site where my new house is currently being built, is a small road that eventually cuts off to a dirty, muddy trail.

We went along it, and the right fork took us to Damansara Perdana, near the small Pondok Polis. Shortcut! The left fork took us to an area near the electric power lines tower. Many sandpiles, good for dirtbikes. But unfortunately for us, it's been raining alot lately so all of our tyres get moshed into the sand.

Before reaching D-P on the right trail, you can opt to detour. There are two tiny rivers to cross. Both the rivers stank and is glossy over oil spillage. Even the twigs that fell into the small stream got contaminated and is now covered in orange moss, making it look like fish fingers. The first crossing are two wooden poles, each pole being the width of an average thick mountain bike tyre. The second bridge is a concrete pillar, thank god. The end of this particular path is a wooden ladder laid across a 2-metre wide, 5-metre deep storm drain. We turned back to the main path.

Before hitting the tar road up the hill that takes us to D-P, to our left is a river. Quite big. And the upstream part is completely covered with white bubbles, giving it the jacuzzi/bubble bath impression. Actually its those shit that dirty people sooo like to throw in drains, look what's happened. Damn you litterers.

To our right is a mudtrack. We thought that it was a quicksand or something, but I went ahead anyway. It's just cracked industrial mud. But like all muds and puddles in this area, it's pretty deep. My thick VueltaUSA tyres left a two-inch fission on the mud. Then there was mud banks and a large hill full of red sand. Blergh.

Went to D-P, got a drink then went back using a new route. It's a small road which has apparently been used by lorries at some time, due to two different paths running alongside each other with a grass patch in the middle. It looks like the dual slalom course at the Sea Otter Classic in America.

We took a left fork and exited at those unsightly Pelangi government housing flats. Then we went back to Mutiara through another hole in the fence in the Pelangi flats area. It's a singletrack path that we frequently use. It got us back to the Zone B guardhouse in no time.

Picture sources: Pekanawah, Lee Likes Bikes

Question: What are the coolest stuff you've ever found?

2009-01-26T01:09:00.002+08:00

As the question implies, I wanna ask you guys what are the coolest stuff you've ever found lying around, be it on the sidewalk, inside your lunchbox, in your neighbour's garbage can, anywhere. Here's a list of the stuff I've found (and so far remembered). The items doesn't have to be something that you took for yourself.

1) 'Mario Pinball Land' GameBoy Advance cartridge [Taken]
- Found in a safe in a hotel at Langkawi Island.

2) HotWheels Enzo Ferrari [Taken]
- Found on a slide at my old apartment's playground.

3) Srixon Golf Clubs with Bag [Left]
- My neighbor's trash.

4) Proton Waja sports front bumper [Left]
- Parking lot in front of BU3 bike store.

The items that I had taken should be something of my interest.. the ones I left might be something of my interest, but is deemed useless, like the Proton Waja sports front bumper. What'd I need that for? The golf set looks fine, but I don't play golf. The bag looks really tatty though.

So you, tell me what you've found.

Life Snippets #16: CNY Holidays

2009-01-25T18:12:00.005+08:00

It's been a rather bleak start of the year for me, or some might say, a rude awakening. I found my brain struggling to compress all the information that the teachers are pouring in. No ZIP files to replace your saliva-laced mouth, teacher? Anyways, I'd like to wish a very happy and prosperous Chinese New Year to all that celebrate it. Don't forget to send me a cheque after collecting your moolah from your aunts and uncles. All donations would go to the purchase of a PS3 game(s) of my choice.

We had a giant family dinner at Marché. I ate a whole Hawaiian pizza, a plate of potatoes rosti with cheese, half a medium-rare sirloin steak, and one of their giant beef sausages. Then, another part of the holidays are of course the wake-up late sessions. I'll need to catch up with the sleep I lost on school days.

Not to mention.. gaming. Done a couple of good trades with last week and got a Lost: Via Domus game for the PS3. I'm telling you, Lowyat.Net forums are a good place to hang out and talk, and you can also buy/sell/trade your items at the Garage Sales section. There are thousands of people thronging that place trying to get the best deals like you do at the pasar malam.

The seller of this game gave it a RM40 price tag. Second hand, of course, but the disc is 100% scratchless and so is the case. Manual not torn, looks like no one touched before. Played the game and already halfway through it. You play the game episode by episode, and it offers alot of cinematic style plots like the TV series. I received the game through meeting up with the seller who operates a small video game/BluRay movie rental and sales service called Blackmango Games. Free advertising!

I hadn't been mountain biking for days, because both me and Irfan agreed that we should take a breather from battling the massive traffic in One Utama and Taman Tun everyday just to ride a few singletrack trails in Bukit Kiara. Haven't tried the 4k loop though, many riders have recommended this to us.

Evenings nowadays are mostly rainy. It's rather boring, but it's good too. I don't have to water my grandma's plants and flowers. They're lined up all along the side street next to our house. Then again this (the rain) prevents me from going out and cycle.

And oh, and enjoy a random pic below!

Sg. Dua Pictures

2009-01-09T16:35:00.008+08:00

I am making a separate post for the Sg. Dua mountain biking pictures because if I combine it with the other Sg. Dua post, it's gonna be flooded. The pics are all in chronological order. Enjoy!

Before leaving.

En. Ajis's Pajero

Mr. Rosli and his Toyota Hilux

Unloading bikes.

D.I.Y.

Reattaching Daniel's front wheel.

New tents.

This is tent 2 and 3 (and a chair)

Night Kopitiam

Kids eating.

Nasrul warming up.. literally.

Me and my stuff.

Irfan and his stuff.

Ustaz Ikbal

Ilyas pushing bike across river.

"Jom kayuh !"

Mountain View with Daniel

Mountain View with Irfan and someone.

Last checkpoint.

Me on the way down.

See Ustaz Suhaimi taking pics..

Heaving bikes across fallen trees.

I just finished lashing down the bikes.

Life Snippets #15: 2009 is a School Year!

2009-01-05T22:17:00.007+08:00

So, if you're reading this and you're form 4, congratulations, thou art a senior now. It's been rather fast really, and I must agree with other Form 4 bloggers on this fact.. it seems like only yesterday I was in Form 1.. Once you sit in class, it's all like any other times you've had back then.. sitting on a hard wooden chair.

Well well.. it's been a rather good year, 2008. and to my fellow friends.. let's look forward to a bright school year ahead of us !

Life Snippets #14: New Year, New Phone

2009-01-03T22:53:00.008+08:00

I haven't even stamped my name on my exercise books yet. Haven't even taken the new school shoes out of the box yet. Haven't even sewed on my nametag and badge on, but that's okay - I'll need new ones, my current ones is sooo 2008.

This morning, I was flicking through The Star, and saw an advertisment for a newly released touchphone - I had been eyeing it for a week, but haven't voiced it out to my mom in case she will dismiss my appeal as a joke. So I showed the ad to her.. and got the phone the same night. Here goes - it's the LG KP500 or more known as 'LG Cookie'. It's a touchscreen phone - you use your fine digits to operate it. There's also a stylus, for the 'businessman' look, but styluses are sooo out of date now.

It's the Touchy-touch Revolution! Remember how once a phone with 0.3 megapixels camera costs RM1500? That used to be a point where everyone thought it was really unaffordable. Now, a 1.3 to 2.0 megapixel camera is standard in almost all cellphones now.. if you say that your phone doesn't have a camera, you are lying. Unless you ain't.

When you say touchscreen phones you almost always think of iPhone, a technology icon with a cult following. iPhones are expensive enough in our region, and we don't have official iPhones in Malaysia yet, although Maxis has said it will bring iPhone to Malaysia and you could own one if you signed a year or two contract with their services.

Then there was the Samsung Omnia, which had been released recently. It costs about RM 2,700 in Malaysia, and anything beyond RM 1,000 for a damn phone will not be considered.. why do people need a 3G phone in Malaysia? 3G phones suck ass because their cam quality is as great as a cow dung. Plus none of our phone services in Malaysia has good FPS streaming for the live 3G show - screen refresh rates can take 10-20 seconds, and your static, unmoving 'live video' is most likely comparable to a toad's wart.

So enough crapping. I bought the phone at The Hello Station in One Utama Old Wing. It costs RM999, although the original price is RM899, but that extra RM100 is for a 2GB MicroSD Memory Card. Holy smokes! That's friggin' cheap. A very well-endorsed touchphone for less than a grand! I have tried every feature that you could ever associate a touchphone with - and it comes with an accelerometer too, which is a motion sensor. It also has a 3.0 Megapixel camera.

The normal typing layout for the phone is the alpha-numeric layout, which is the ABC123 in a single button. Tilt the phone to the right and you get a QWERTY keyboard to text on.

Here's a picture, isn't it sexy? And here's a video of the LG Cookie. A video says a MILLION words.

Mountain Biking in Sg. Dua, Pahang

2009-01-02T22:03:00.008+08:00

Our local T-Bolt Mutiara Damansara (T-Bolt MD) club organized an two-day event which includes both camping and cycling. The club is named T-Bolt MD because it's composed of 90% cyclists using new Proton T-Bolt mountain bikes which are sold cheap by a merchant among us. The other 10% did not use T-Bolt bikes, including me and Irfan, but you needn't a T-Bolt to join - it's all about the cycling, the fun, and the team spirit. The event is held at Sungai Dua, Pahang, off the highway near Karak. Half the event attendants came on the second day just to cycle (due to work) and the other half including me camped overnight.

*NOTE*= PICTURES CAN BE FOUND HERE!
30th December 2008

9:10 pm
After performing the Isha'a prayers, I followed Irfan and En. Aidit to the Myrasa restaurant across the street to sign up for the event, which is tomorrow. All you need to do is pay RM20 for your meals and etc. Cycled back home and finished packing my stuff. Could hardly sleep out of anticipation (which was a different kind of anticipation compared to the one I felt while taking my PMR results, which was on the same day too!)

31st December 2008

2:25 pm
I left home and cycled to Teak 5 Furniture and Cafe, which belonged to Irfan's father Mr. Rosli. I cycled with one hand while the other was holding a tent. I am wearing 3 bags at a time! One was my Camelbak Rogue Hydration Pack, one was the bag which had my clothes and other necessities inside, and the other was a hiking waistpack. Not to mention the extra bolster-shaped bag which contains the tent.

2:27 pm
Reached Teak 5 and went to the back where Irfan (14) , Ilyas (13) and his brother Daniel (14) were waiting for me. They had already removed their front wheels and loaded their bikes into the back of Mr. Rosli's Toyota Hilux, and then we dealt with my bicycle before being served late lunch which is a plate of spicy fried rice and fresh watermelon juice. Then Mr. Hassan, who is a Moroccan, came out of the cafe (we ate outside) with his two kids Adib and Omar, who were 10 and 9 respectively. His car, a Kia Rio is loaded to the brim with Tesco plastic bags filled with food.

3:13 pm
We were all wondering what took the other team so long. The other team, let's call them Team B, were given the task of loading cooking utensils and coolers and other items of importance in a proper camping event into En. Ajis's powerful and Rainforest Challenge certified Mitsubishi Pajero. Irfan got tired of waiting and drove us the the mosque where they were loading the Pajero with equipment. They finished and both vehicles were driven back to Teak 5. We took some of the food in Mr. Hassan's car (the rest of them are for Mr. Hassan's refridgerator) and also chucked our bags and helmets into the Pajero.

3:30 pm
Mr. Rosli got into the driver seat of the Hilux while his son Irfan sat beside him, and Daniel, Ilyas and me got into the back seat. Meanwhile in the Pajero En. Ajis is driving while Mr. Hassan and his two kids will be passengers. We left Teak 5 and were soon cruising along the highway.

4:25 pm
We're on the highway and had passed a tunnel, a McDonalds at the Genting Sempah R&R, and now heading towards Karak - but we went off the highway into a single-lane road into the green. We passed a small metal bridge, a cluster of messy wooden Orang Asli houses, and some good time later a collection of 4 Orang Asli houses - and this time it's a solid concrete structure, and it's new too, judged by the spotless paint and shining zinc roof and air ventilator.

We headed further and soon reached a dirt road connected to the main road we are on now. The dirt road slopes downhill, and only four wheel drives, motorcycles and mountain bikes could go down and back up. Both the drivers switched to a low gear and drove down the slope with a bend in the middle. We reached the bottom and was greeted by a waterfall with a large swimming area below it, in which a few Orang Asli youths which came in their Kap Chai motorcycles were doing somersaults into the river. The bottom of the slope is directly into the river, with only a small beach where a few motorbikes could park. The camping/picnic area is on the other side, so En. Ajis beckoned Mr. Rosli to cross the river. En. Ajis drove his Pajero across the river to the other side, followed by the Hilux.

4:40 pm
We had finished unloading some of the stuff. The adults busied themselves with the planning of what should be set up where, etc. Adib and Omar donned life jackets. 80% of the swim area is very shallow, but the other 20% close to the waterfall and cliff walls are very deep. There are two logs bordering the deep area, and you could jump off it, but it didn't keep the kids off. So En. Ajis used a strong bungee cord to mark a border.

Us four young cyclists fumbled with our bikes, putting back on the front wheels. Daniel's rear tyre dropped out and after much trying from Irfan, Daniel just dumped his bike near the Hilux until the other teams arrived. My front brake weren't in a good shape, either. So only Irfan and Ilyas got the enjoy cycling back and forth across the river. But hey - I wasn't left out, I got to use Irfans's bike and boy, was cycling across rivers fun.

5:30 pm
We have just finished setting up three tents, and the third team - En. Aidit, Ustaz Suhaimi, and two more people which I haven't met before arrived. They came in a Proton Persona, which is a sedan so it is left parked at the top of the slope, on the shoulder of the road. We greeted them and they dropped their load and started making a small makeshift multipurpose hall with a large canvas sheet, lots of rope and a few long bamboo poles as support. The hall would be used as a place to eat meals, perform mass prayers, and in the night, for sleeping in.

Us four youngsters (let's call us the Foursome for this post) tested the waters - it was slightly cold - but nevertheless we jumped in and splashed about. We played with Adib and Omar - or specifically, splashed them and pulled them around the water by the life jackets.

En. Ajis had made a simple fishing rod out of a long stick, with a string and a hook (with a small shrimp attached to it as bait) and made Daniel try his luck at the river part lower than the swimming area. Sure, there are some fishes, but they were very nimble and either got the hide below the large rocks that littered the rivers or got further downstream - the water flowed rapidly here. Omar walked into the water wearing his red Crocs and the right one accidentally came off, and flowed downstream, while the Foursome and Omar dumbly watched it go away, before someone snapped us back into attention the Foursome quickly scrambled downstream in pursuit of the runaway shoe. The rapid waters eventually got it out of sight, and we were hampered by the slippery rocks, and we closed the case.

The Rest Of The Night
Mr. Rosli was the main cook while En. Ajis and En. Aidit did the barbeque. We ate hotdogs, French fries, lamb meat, and prawn fritters for dinner, and drank either tea, coffee, or Capri-Sonne Alaska Ice Tea. There was brief laughter as some of the crowd that had not seen, heard of tasted any Capri-Sonne before tried to pronounce the brand in the most kampung-like manner ever. It was fun.

We had Maghrib and Isha'a prayers, and then adults went to clean up and discuss some stuff while the younger people - The Foursome and the Brothers Adib and Omar - played with fire. The purpose of the fire was supposed to keep mosquitoes (hates smoke) and other animals (hate fire) at bay - but in the end it made a good toy for us. Adib kept shoving newspaper into the flames. I took a small, long branch, covered one end with newspaper and torched it. I paraded towards the waterside holding the torch, when Adib made me make another fire, so I did. Soon enough, all the newspapers had been reduced to ash and Adib battered the dying flame.

10:20 pm
We got a call that the lorry and the van that carried the other 12 T-Bolt bikes for the bikers tomorrow got caught in a massive traffic jam and would be arriving in about 30 mins or so. The Foursome accompanied by En. Ajis walked up the slope and along the road towards the highway to wait for the truck. It was a good 3-kilometre walk, and at night we were more tired than we were in the day so it felt long to us, but since we kept talking it helped shorten the journey somehow.

10:45 pm
We arrived at the side of the highway, the entrance to the road, where En. Aidit and another man had already been waiting in his Proton Persona. They got out of the car for a smoke and chatted with En. Ajis while the Foursome got into the car, turned on the AC and blasted out music from Hitz.FM. We listen to Flo Rida's In The Ayer, Gym Class Heroes's Cookie Jar, Katy Perry's Hot 'N Cold, and a few other songs that I didn't recognize - also a Happy New Year greeting from the deejays JJ and Rudy every now and then followed by a rock version of Auld Lang Syne. Then the truck and van arrived, and we all drove back to the top of the slope. The bikes were unloaded one by one, and the Foursome cycled every one of them down the slope, and pushed it slowly across the river while holding on to our pants (we didn't want to sleep wet later). The ones who got bikes with a CatEye bike torch on the handles were lucky - the ones that did not had to cycle down the slippery slope in the dark - but we all made it somehow.

12:10 am
Ilyas prepared to sleep in the hall, and Irfan, Daniel and me went into our tent. I went in first - and accidentally stepped on Mr. Rosli's stomach. I didn't expect him to sleep at the tent entrance - and his sleeping bag matches the floor color, so yeah. He let out a groan while I was apologizing. He later went back to sleep, while I was shifting about the floor trying to sleep, while Daniel had managed to fall asleep, and Irfan was concentrating on racing a Chrysler 300C in the game Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition on my PSP.

1st January 2009

5:30 am
Hello, a new year! We woke up early for Fajr, or in Malaysia more known as Subuh prayers, and it was still dark at 6:30 am. Me and Irfan quietly crawled back into the tent, and Irfan resumed playing the PSP while I was resting. We only played for some time and as I poked my head out of the tent entrance it was already bright - sun's out!

7:30 am
We had breakfast and then we got Daniel's rear wheel reattached properly and En. Aidit fixed my front brakes. Then a few adults went into the really cold river (it's colder in the morning and night) and Irfan joined them too. Ilyas only waddled in the shallow part. The rest of us thought it was best to avoid getting wet and cold for the moment and did some work.

About 9:30 am
The other group arrived, bringing with them alot of people. There was the more seasoned bikers, and also Ustaz Ikbal, as well as some other ustaz that I have not seen before. Also present were the younger kids (about Omar and Adib's age) that I knew from the mosque, they had come to swim 'n splash. Tarriq, a six-year old boy, also came with his father En. Syed Mazlan. Tarriq, who is my brother's good friend, asked me about my brother, and I replied "He is at home playing games, he'd miss out all the fun!"

11:00 am
We got our water bottles refilled, changed into proper attire and everyone pushed their owned bikes up the slope to the road above, and we all had a group photo before started cycling further up the road, ascending. Some of us were already tired even thought the real mountain biking hadn't kicked in yet - hey we're still on a tar road. Halfway across we halted to a stop - some Orang Asli people were chopping a tree at the roadside, but so far only the branches had come down, covering the road so they pulled the branches off to let us pass. We cycled onwards and entered an oil palm plantation. We trudged on past countless oil palm trees and then the path started sloping upwards at a gradient of about 20%, which wasn't much but the uphill path was long and stretching about 2 kilometres or so - it was a total workout for most of us. Many of us gave in to the ache and pushed our bikes further. The Foursome and Ustaz Ikbal were the first to reach the fourth and final checkpoint. Did I mention that Ustaz Ikbal never pushed his bike up, but rather kept on cycling?

A few minutes later two cyclists arrived at the checkpoint. We had a short and laughy talk about why they showed up late. The last cyclist arrived about 10 minutes after Ustaz Ikbal and the Foursome arrived. We had a brief group photo here when the last cyclist to arrive voiced out - "Baru sampai, dah nak turun dah ke?" (I just arrived, and now it's already time to come down?)

We cycled down one by one as Ustaz Suhaimi wanted to take a photo of each participant cycling down. I went after Irfan and on the way down we saw an Orang Asli elder on a motorcycle waving us past. We turned left at the fork (right would take us back to the main road) and stopped at a small hut where we took another group photo. We headed back downhill on the main road, and boy it was great! And again, we screeched to a halt - the Orang Asli at the roadside had managed to fell a great tree down across the road and En. Aidit and En. Ajis passed everyone's bikes across the stash of branches and log.

12:30pm
We headed back to the campsite - and was greeted by a giant crowd of people. Apparently about a collection of three Chinese families had got together for a picnic - so the place was abuzz with hubbub. They had also erected a large canvas hall as a shelter and eating place - tying the ropes around the nearest tree, and also, much to Mr. Rosli's dislike, on his Hilux's roll bars. The group had come in a Mitsubishi Triton and a Honda CR-V, which managed down the slope and parked beside our Hilux and Pajero - and another car, a Perodua Myvi, was parked atop the slope. I was the first to cycle across the river - much to the Chinese group's amazement, while the rest didn't want to get their shoes wet to they parked it on the bank.

3:00 pm
We had eaten lunch, and most of the people that came today all had to go back, so we got the T-Bolts back up the slope and loaded it into the truck. This time, we managed to fit in Danial and Ilyas's T-Bolts into the truck as well, so the Hilux will have space to carry more load. We went back down and I took off the front wheels of Irfan's and my bike, and loaded the bike into the back of the Hilux. As I was lashing and securing the bikes with rope, a few of the Chinese group came to me and asked wether I was going back - and I said no, we had much more to pack. Some of them got friendly with me. A young lady in her twenties came to me and we chatted about the campsite, and I told her some of us spent the night there, and she had a 'Are You For Real?!' look on her face. A brief pause, and I told her there was nothing really, no wild animals, no ghosts, no nothin, just a peaceful night's sleep. Then I told her about the T-Bolts, and she was amazed at the price the guy sold the bikes for. She was even more amazed when I told her that my bike, a 2002 Giant XtC Team, had a hefty price tag. I dismissed her and got the rest of the Foursome to dismantle the tents.

3:37 pm
All the kids are still here, splashing about. We loaded our bags, floormats, helmets, a cooler with frozen nuggets, and a large carton with water bottles. Some of the Chinese group got up and untied their creative supports on the Hilux's roll bars, and moved away their foldable tables and chairs so that our Hilux and Pajero could get through and cross the river. Once across, we were met by a group of 15 or so young adults on 10 Kap Chais. They pushed their motorcycles out of the way and the Hilux steadily went up the slope, followed by the Pajero. En. Aidit got into his Persona with the kids and we all got into the highway.

About 4:00 pm
We stopped at Janda Baik for a drink. En. Aidit dropped off Mr. Hassan and they left for home. I ordered Iced Milo while the rest orded whatever they like. We also had fried rice. Then we left the restaurant and I slept for the rest of the journey, and soon we reached the mosque where offloaded the floormats, then to Ilyas and Daniel's house to drop them off, then to my house, where I unloaded my bike and bags.

I went inside and told my mother about the trip, and then I went upstairs to watch my Lost Series 2 DVD's as I didn't manage to watch Season 2 and beyond on television.

THE END

Life Snippets #13b: PMR Results OUT!

2008-12-30T23:14:00.008+08:00

So today, on the 30th December of 2008, most of us third formers in Malaysia woke up in cold sweat and had to be frog-marched into the car by your dad.. and slowly walk with your head down towards the school entrance like a bunch of Mormons at a burial ceremony. Me? Nah - I ain't like that. I always keep things cool, althought I like to over-exaggerate occasionally just to get into the mood of everyone else around me HAH.

So I woke up like a normal holiday day.. and played some Uncharted: Drake's Fortune on my PlayStation3.. and then went into the Asiasoft's MapleStory forum where a bunch of players including me who took PMR are discussing about what marks they're gonna get and what time they can get theirs.

So here I am, at school. As I walked towards the entrance I saw a bunch of other kids that had taken their results.. you can tell easily how they did in the exams. A person who is jumping around gleefully or chattering on the phone with a happy grin (probably bragging to their friends from other schools). The one's that didn't get any A's at all would walk out with a stoned face.. and their mother would walk beside him with a stoned face, too.

So I ran up to the hall where emotions ran high among the 50 or so students present at that time. Some that were from the top classes were having a friendly but heated discussions or comparing their marks with each other. Some were sobbing, one was crying in her mom's shoulders.

I stood in front of my class counter and Pn. Nurhayati, my class teacher for two years in a row, had me sign my name first before revealing my result slip. My blur side got the better of me as I didn't notice I only managed a squiggle for a signature, thanks to teacher for pointing it out. Man, what was I doing? And then, the teacher started to fold the paper out towards me.. and it shows..

Bahasa Melayu: B (So shameful lar, I'm a Malay also can't get an A!)
Bahasa Inggeris: A (Dude if I ever get lower than A for English imma shoot someone.)
Mathemathics: A (Shocking! I was sweating and constipating throughout the paper! OMG!)
Science: A (T'was easy for me, heheh.)
Sejarah: A (Wow, is this even possible? I haven't gotten an A on this for 2 years!)
Geografi: A (I know I will get A here as my geographical knowledge is 1337)
KHB Perdagangan dan Prinsip Perakaunan: B (No comment..)
Pendidikan Islam: B (Well I thought I got a C because it wasn't easy.. but yeahh!)

Pendidikan Islam Fardu Ain: Lulus (This was expected.. duh!)

So cut the crap short and I got 5 A's and 3 B's, and a Lulus (Pass) for my Fardu Ain. What is Fardu Ain, you ask? Well every year of the high school year we use a book which teaches us the practices of a Muslim which you must memorize and recite back to the teacher, or have to perform in under the guidance and eye of the teacher, which only applies once or twice throughout a year's study. I find this program to be extremely useful.

Later Hazim arrived and Azrai fled the scene at the sight of him. It turns out that Azrai only got 3 A's like urhh. Heheh but I got that 5 A's you talked about, you bastard! ^__^ Hazim received a spankin' 6 A's.

Hazim followed me home to play PlayStation 3. We played some PS3 and then Irfan came along. He had come to see my PS3 as well. We were busy battling mercenaries and mutated Spaniards and Nazis which possess superhuman strength and speed in Uncharted: Drake's Fortune.

And guess what? I completed the game just now! I only had the game for three days, damn it. But tell you what - the gameplay is really immersive and the art direction as well as motion capture, not to forget the details and scenery. I don't have the heart to tell my mum that I have done playing a PlayStation 3 game which was only bought 3 days ago and costs RM150 (which is relatively cheap for a PS3 game)

Later I let the other two try my Guitar Hero: World Tour and then my mom wanted to go to One Utama so I followed her, and so did Hazim. Went to Carl's Jr afterwards for a munch. A huge munch.

And now, I am half-blogging and half-packing. Tomorrow, I am going on a 2-day mountain biking trip in Pahang. That post is reserved on the next one, readers, so ride on!

Life Snippets #13a: PMR Results Tomorrow!

2008-12-30T02:30:00.007+08:00

Hey fellas, I'm really sorry for not updating this long (just how many times can you say sorry!) but my desktop computer has encountered a problem with its RAM which in turn serves me one after another BSODs, resulting in me reseating the RAM modules into the slots but problem not solved - sent it to Pineapple Computer Store which made some calls to Acer and found out my computer is still under warranty (yippee!) and they will arrange to send it back and since it is holiday season now I can't have my computer back until after New Year.

So uh yeah most of you probably won't understand what I was talking about up there anyway so here's one of the topic - PMR Results.

And it's tomorrow. Gasp!

Glennz's Geeky Shirts Rule The World

2008-12-14T10:25:00.007+08:00

I hadn't had much to blog about but yesterday I came across this guy who goes by the alias Glennz and he creates some wicked geeky shirts that rock. I really am too lazy to elaborate more, so I'll put up pics of my personal favourites. The full collection can be found on the website.

Endangered Species

Evolution

Secret Habits

Risky Engineering

Modern Pirate

Geeky T-Shirt by Glennz - Link

Life Snippets #12: Sawasdee Krabi!

2008-11-28T22:49:00.011+08:00

So sorry that I wasn't around for the last one week or so. I had been on vacation with my family to Krabi, Thailand. Krabi is a province in Southern Thailand (nowhere close to Yala or Pattani) and it is famous for it's beaches and giant limestone formation and mountains. Also, if you didn't know, it's not very far from Phuket, a more popular tourist destination.

Pre-Journey
I packed my clothes into my bag, and apart from that, didn't bring much else other than my PSP, iPod Nano, handphone and their respective chargers. Uh.. that's all.

Day 1
Woke up early. After getting ready, had some breakfast and a black Mercedes airport limo arrived to send us to the LCCT, a subdivision of KLIA that only serves budget airlines, namely Air Asia. Reached there and had some Coffee Bean. They have free WiFi in the terminus and I left a comment on my mate's Friendster using my PSP. Nice. Some minutes later I had checked in my luggage, scanned my passport, scanned my hand luggage, walk through the metal detector, and sat down at the waiting area. Everyone boarded the plane and scrambled for seats, for Air Asia believes in free seating.

This is my brother playing Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition on his PSP.

Look at the hubbub as everyone can't wait to be the first off the plane.

It is quite rare of Air Asia to provide suspended walkways, now we have to tread on the ground.

The doors at the end will bring you to a horde of taxi drivers offering you his services.

People here are fond of pickup trucks - I especially like that jacked-up Hilux to the right.

They also believe in operating 7-11's in the middle of nowhere.

And we have reached our destination. From Krabi Internation Airport to our hotel, Sheraton Krabi it is only 15 kilometres or so and they charge you RM70 for it. Here, the taxi drivers believe in overcharging tourists. The Sheraton Krabi is situated in Ban Klong Muong, Krabi. It is a 5-star hotel and room rates are more than RM1,000 per night. I will be staying here for 3 nights.

This is the place where you are supposed to sit down while your parents check in into the hotel. The Front Desk Manager will personally take you to the room and show you how everything works and where everything is in the hotel compound. Kind of her, in Malaysia, they will give you the room key and leave you to find the room yourself. Also, in Thailand, ALL hotel employees will greet you by saying "Sawadikap!". The more lowly workers such as gardeners and cleaners will bow down to you as well, to show respect. All you Malaysian hoteliers suck!

Krabi was affected by the tsunami too. They have these signboards all over the place.

They are also obsessed with their royal family. Outside our hotel entrance, a picture of a female royalty has been erected. You haven't counted how many King Bhumibol pictures we saw on roadsides, stall calendars, and even billboards. Occasionally a shop may have "We Love Our King" written beneath their shop name signboard. My dad and me rented bicycles from the hotel's Fitness Centre and we cycled all the way to Thap Kaek Beach and also on another far end, Noppharat Thara Peninsula where the Princess's Residence, or holiday home, is located right next to a small school.

This is a modern pickup Tuk-Tuk and it also displays those ridiculous expensive rates to ride on the back of a truck like a construction workers.

This is Khlong Moung Plaza. There are restaurants, souvenir shops, massage parlours, car rental offices, tour service offices, and a painting shop where a young man paints beautiful stuff on canvas that screams Thailand when you put it up in your house.

Sunset, sea, and tour boats.

This is the smaller leisure pool in Sheraton Krabi.

My sister wetting up before entering the pool.

The hotel has it's own elephant too. Rara the elephant. It enjoys playing with guests, specifically those wearing bikinis. Here Rara is caught red-handed trying to grope a possibly married woman. You can also feed it bananas, which are provided by the mahout.

A monitor lizard in the stream.

Using the hotel's computers.

I left my LOST tag in a restaurant carpark.

Now it is time to go out and eat at out. We walked about 20 m outside the hotel entrance into a bar/restaurant by the name of Palm Beach Bar, but according to the menu front it is 'Rock Devil Cafe'. We ate fish 'n chips. Later, about dinner time, we went out again to another restaurant at the Khlong Moung Plaza which has been shown earlier. The restaurant here failed to spell milkshake properly. I ordered a Strawberry Milk Shank. Well, that's how they spelled it anyway in the menu.

Milk Shanks, anyone?

I was light painting to pass by time waiting for the Tom Yum.

After eating, we left and returned to our hotel room. We were quite surprised to see that the housekeeping also tidied up our room at night and placed orchids on our pillows. Very thoughtful of them. Certainly A++ service.

Orchids on pillows.

Day 2

The breakfast was priced at 600 Bath each or RM60. 100 Bath = RM 10, generally. Instead we had breakfast in our room, eating sandwiches and drinking this really sweet milk we bought from the store outside - it's called 'Nongpho Sweetened UHT Milk'.

Later, we went to the pool and beach, and pool and beach. And then, it was time for lunch, and again, we ate Tom Yum. Then, back to the pool and beach, and pool and beach. This time, I went on catching crabs. No, not those crabs you eat - just those tiny baby crabs. I managed to catch 20 or so baby crabs.

Catch of the day. Note that this is not the final crab count.

And then, it was dinner time, which is Tom Yum time. And then, blablabla, put away those orchids on the pillow, read a book, go to sleep.

Day 3

Everything was like usual. Then at about noon I decided to follow my dad to walk to the nearby island, yes, walk. It was low tide and you can even drive to the island if you want. The island, like most of the islands here, is a huge limestone formation with beaches and basaltic rocks around it. If you didn't know, those basaltic rocks are formed by cooled volcanic lava. The limestone, howerever, are not, and if you are Form 3 you should know what makes a limestone.

The basaltic rocks. They're flat and you can fry eggs on 'em.

The island's beaches have two sampan wrecks - so I dubbed the island 'Sampan Island'. Only the main frames of the sampans are left. One of the sampans, hold a treasure. Heeeeeee.

Sampan Wreck #1.

This is the treasure - a toilet bowl in a sampan wreck.

We walked across the 10m tombolo to the mainland beach and back into the compound of Sheraton Krabi. We were in time to catch an interesting activity which was to hang out with Rara the elephant. At first, you had to play football with him. This stocky white man came up and kicked the ball around and the elephant would use its trunk to throw the ball into the air and do a header or kick it. The man then kicked the ball around the Rara, trying to confuse it. Frustated, Rara stomped on the ball - deflating it completely. The 30 or so audience all laughed, including me. What fun! Then, an European lady came up to Rara. Rara, having a strong liking to ladies in bikini - chased her around!

This is the crowd admiring Rara.

This is the European lady being cornered by a certain Rara.

Day 4

Today we checked out of Sheraton Krabi to try out another hotel which is Sofitel Phokeethra Luxury Resort & Spa Krabi. My dad had picked up the rental car - a Toyota Vios. We packed up, loaded the car and drove about 2 km along the road to Sofitel. The resort is far more luxurious and is 6-star, and room rates are about RM1,000++ and can fetch up to RM4,000 per night. Another 3 nights here.

Note: I am sorry, but from now on there will be no pictures as the camera had spoilt. So I hope you don't mind the sudden absence of pictures.

We reached the guardhouse, where the guard-in-post walkie-talkied to his friend that a certain Toyota Vios would be approaching the lobby. We reached the lobby drop-off point and the guard at the lobby walkie-talkied back to the guard in Thai. We were ushered into the lobby and were made to sit on some really comfortable day-beds. They served us jasmine tea and some moist towels to wipe the face. Like in Sheraton Krabi, the Front Desk Manager, a young lady, appereared and took us to the room and gave us a tour and explanation. We are then left to tend to ourselves. We went to the pool - the pool was really huge and long! I estimate that the lenght of the pool is about half a kilometre. Part of the pool also wrapped around the south wing of the resort. The pool and two slides, a fountain mushroom like in Sunway Lagoon, lots of jacuzzi area, an island where it houses a massage hut, and two bridges which I found useful to dive from.

After some splashing around, we returned to our room and requested an extra bed and a babycot. Two lady housekeeping staff appeared and pushed in the extra bed and babycot. As they left, my dad tipped them and they quickly closed the door when one of the ladies had their toe banged under the door. Quietly snickering, I saw the lady hopping back to the housekeeping storeroom.

We drove about 15km towards Ao Nang, the prominent tourist town in Krabi. All the shops are lined up on either side of the road where applicable. We entered McDonalds there and ordered food. On the menu there is an item not sold in Malaysia, which is 'Samurai Pork Burger'. You can also have your Cheeseburger in pork, if you wanted. Meals here are about 150% the price of those in Malaysia. Say, a set meal would cost RM14. But then again, you don't pay no stupid Government Taxes in Thailand. I ordered a Big Mac (Beef, duh, Big Macs only come in beef!). My brother, he obviously ate a Happy Meal and received a Sergeant Keroro toy. An American couple gave him another of the same Sergeant Keroro toy. Apparently they ate a Happy Meal because it was the cheapest set meal, which is less than RM10.

We browsed around town till it was nightfall, and then we ate this seafood restaurant called 'Kruathara - After Tsunami' which clearly shows that this restaurant was a victim. We were greeted by a dwarf woman, and then another dwarf woman came along. Twin dwarves working in the restaurant! The seafood there is really good! I would recommend you that place. Also they have those tanks where they keep crabs, and baskets where they put live snails and clams and shellfish, etc.

Then went back to Sofitel. The guard waiting at the lobby was the first Thai we saw here who could converse in Malay, albeit in a Kelantanese dialect. The reason for his Malay fluency was because he was raised in Pattani, which was close to the border at Kelantan. Basically Souther Thailanders in Pattani, Haadyai, Yala and Narathiwat also learned some Malay so they can easily get along with the people on the Malaysia side of the border.

Day 5

Usual stuff in the morning. We drove towards Krabi town - not to be confused with Ao Nang. Krabi is the administrative town of the province, Ao Nang is just the tourist magnet. We ate at Choke Dee restaurant - it was raining heavily and my dad was sick of driving around looking for a parking spot where you would be completely dry. In was quite full with those white people escaping the rain and gulping down some Singha beer while pondering over maps. The food was not bad, either.

We then went to Factory Outlet Village. Usually a factory outlet would sell clothes and such at doorstopper prices, but here they sold it all at original prices, which is not quite factory outlet-ish. Instead we bought pool toys, such as a beach ball, a pair of water wings, and also for me - a one-man (or one teenage boy and one small kid) inflatable dinghy.

We then went to Tesco Lotus (as it is called here) which is up the road. I bought about 20 boxes of snacks, all of them being Pocky and Pretz. Dirt-cheap! Also bought 4 tubes of Lays Stax potato crisps and 2 anime figurines (they sell these here!). It was Bandai's Emotive Figure Collection 'Shinn Asuka' and Bandai's Petit Figure Collection 'Mu La Flaga'. Both of them are from the anime series 'Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny'.

We also ate Dunkin' Donuts here - they had this special flavour where even the dough is chocolate - yummy! Tastes like mocha. I did not know if Malaysia DD's have this flavour, must go and check out.

Then we returned to the hotel. The Malay-speaking guard is there as usual, ever-friendly. Did I mention that in Sofitel they too had the night housekeeping? Here, not only they put orchids on the pillows, they also folded the duvet so you can easily slide into bed, put the slippers beside the bed, place 'We Wish You A Good Night's Sleep' card on your bed, and also a packet of SMINT mints on each bed.

Day 6

It is time for us to go back to Malaysia now. We packed up, checked out and drove to Krabi International Airport where we returned our rental car and checked in our luggage. The line at the Air Asia counter was full - many people had taken an overnight bus from Bangkok. If you are too stupid, then I can tell you that the day before there had been bomb blasts in Bangkok and the Kanchanaburi Airport in Bangkok had been closed due to protesters and the threat of another bomb blast. So people took buses to Krabi or Phuket and leave for Kuala Lumpur or wherever else for all I care.

We went into the waiting area and we saw there are seats labelled 'For Monks Only'. The plane had been late for 30 minutes, and we quickly boarded it. We left Thailand.. and back into home country Malaysia.

An interesting thing happened while we were approaching LCCT runway in Malaysia. If you understood aviation physics, the plane will fly further south past the airport and do turn back to line up for the runway. In this case, the plane turns around right above Port Dickson - and I spotted my grandma's house! She is still there, for she returned to her house while we went to Krabi (my grandma lived with us). Soon, we lost sight of the house due to clouds and when we emerged from the heavenly whitish blindness, we are descending towards the runway in LCCT.

After boarding off the plane, around a 500 people are waiting to pass the checkpoint. Malaysian Passport Holders had it easy - if you took the manual counters, all they do is just look at your face, stamp your return in your passport and you're done. If you took the Autogate, you just slip in your passport in the slot and put your right thumb at the scanner and you're done. International Passport Holders were unlucky - the lines are too long, it'd take you maybe an hour to reach the counters. You know how thorough a Customs officer must be when it comes to letting a foreigner step on your soil.

The taxi driver had been waiting for us in a Nissan Serena. As we reached the street where I live, the driver told my dad "This place so familiar. I think I been here before..". Turns out he HAD been here before. He was our driver 2 years ago when we took the airport limo to KLIA to catch a flight to Brisbane, Australia. He was also our driver when we went to KLIA to catch the flight to Bandung, Indonesia! Interesting, how those taxi drivers always turn out to be the same guy. Ha-ha!

And that, concluded the end of my little story. I am dead tired right now - too much typing. I hope you enjoyed my post!

Life Snippets 11: Gaming for Holidays

2008-11-19T21:58:00.005+08:00

Holidays are for three things: Holidaying, games, and not studying. Usually gaming is easy for me, as I used to be preoccupied with a plethora of online games. Last year, it was MapleStory. 2 years ago, it was RuneScape. What will it be this year, World of Warcraft?

At first, I only owned the game Grand Theft Auto IV, which is the game that forced people to buy any of the seventh generation consoles except for Wii, because frankly Wii is not HD capable. BUt then, Wii has an array of fun interactive games such as WiiFit and Super Pii Pii Brothers. Xbox 360 sucks balls because the hardware is FUBAR. Red Ring of Death, LMAO. PlayStation 3 rocks in all levels, both players and critics have rated it the perfect console.

While GTA IV was fun, I was so engrossed playing it, that in less than a month I have already finished the game. My dad purchased me a Guitar Hero: Aerosmith two days ago at my request, but sadly he didn't buy the bundle that came along with a wireless guitar controller. How the hell am I supposed to rock out?!

The next day, I went to Gamer's Hideout with my dad and lil brother and I got a Guitar Hero World Tour. Not the World Tour full band set with drums and all, just the Solo Guitar Pack. At first I wanted to buy a Nyko Wireless Guitar Controller which is RM290, but Guitar Hero: World Tour is only RM340 and it also comes with the game disc, which in turn contained alot of my favorite songs like Paramore - Misery Business, Lynyrd Skynyrd - Sweet Home Alabama, Tokio Hotel - Monsoon, Michael Jackson - Beat It, Bon Jovi - Livin' On A Prayer, Linkin Park - What I've Done and many more. It proved to be one of the most fun games I've ever played in my life. Apart from Guitar Hero, my dad also also bought Midnight Club: Los Angeles, but that was for my brother. Shit, now I have to share my PlayStation 3 with my bro now that he has a PS3 game of his own! Nooooo!

I will now turn away from the computer and have a shreddin' guitar session in Guitar Hero.

Real-life Eye of Sauron Discovered

2008-11-15T21:33:00.007+08:00

Those guys fooling around with the Hubble Telescope have done it again. This time they found, for the first time ever took pictures of another star system much similar to ours. The planets there orbit a sun-star.. and there, lives our doppelgängers!

It looks eerily like the Eye of Sauron which is the scariest object next to the Nazgûls in J.R.R. Tolkien's series novel Lord of The Rings.

The star is Formalhaut, ours is the Sun. Located 25 light years away in the constellation Piscis Australis, and I can't continue no more. The thought of my doppelgängers is still scaring me. Imagine, if there is another blog in the galaxy which is a mirror of mine.. AISAKEEG!

Full article on Gizmodo

Life Snippets #10: Genting Highlands!

2008-11-11T15:56:00.019+08:00

It's gonna be a really long post. I assure you this. I will try to cover everything I can, and put pics where I have it.

I am now back from Genting Highlands, a.k.a. the gambling and entertainment capital of the East (2-in-1 combo!). I had a blast there! It was so fun, every minute of fun is another minute closer to going back home. We tried to make full use of all the time available because it ain't everyday you get to have fun with friends with somewhere other than the local mall. Here's a full report that you may not find on anyone else's blog.. :P

DAY 1

7:35 a.m. I arrived at the 1 Utama Aeroline Bus Depot. Most of the people were there already, some have yet to arrive.

At 8 a.m. sharp we have all boarded and the bus left. As the bus left the car park, Daryl's mom arrived to send his son for the bus.. too late! Lydia was late as well. We left without them.

We reached the Genting Skyway cable car station at the bottom. We waited at the boring bus depot below the station for Daryl and Lydia to arrive on the next bus, accompanied by Pn. Chan. Do you really think we are going to leave them there?!

The Genting Skyway Bus Depot

Animal Kingdom, it is an indoor mini-zoo where they display fishes, exotic birds, amphibians, reptiles, arachnids and even a skunk. There was a male mannequin hidden behind some cages, and we pointed it out to Lydia, who must have thought it was a naked intruder and.. she screamed so loud! Everyone was telling her, "It's fake lah, not real.. it's fake" to calm her down. Daniel flashed at a scorpion and it froze! We thought it was dead.

A worker cleaning the wallaby's enclosure.

The chameleons are posers!

We went out to take the cable car. The line to board the cable cars were super long! While queing up, everyone patted Daryl's back and said "Good Job!" for being late. It took us about 20 minutes to step into the cable car. I shared the seat with TM and Rez. We reached the peak about 8 minutes later.

Waiting for Daryl.

We alighted from the cable car and went up five escalators to reach the First World Plaza, which houses a mall, an indoor theme park and also two lodging towers on top. We went down an escalator to reach the First World Hotel lobby. Here, we all deposited our luggage into a Luggage Area which is really the lobby with smooth polished marble flooring with a metal wire mesh fencing around it. Then, we went down to the ticketing booth to receive our All Park entry wristbands.

First World Hotel (by RW Bhd.)

The Outdoor Theme Park had three sections: Genting Land (Childen Rides), Frontier Land (Very few rides), and the famed Magic Mountain where all the thriller rides are at.

Me, Rez and TM walked slowly towards the direction of the Magic Mountain , which is an area of higher altitude and contain the more daredeviled rides. We saw the Pirate Train ride, and lined up. Each car needs two passenger, Rez went alone first followed by us. The ride sucks! Don't ride it! There is nothing but total darkness in it. The ride was like what, 10 seconds? Before we know it, the ride was over. We saw some European blonde girls lining up for the Pirate Train and felt like warning them about it.

We bought corn-in-a-cup from a stall. Then we sat facing a waterfall, where we saw a woman feeding the koi fishes and another woman washing her hands in the water beriddled with stringy aquatic animal compost a.k.a. fish poop. We left and headed for the spinning Tea Cups. It was fun! I was crazily spinning the cups, feeling like we reached the zero gravity moment. Rezman's head was literally spinning, and TM helped spin the cup abit.

We left the cups, walking with shaky sea-legs. We headed for the Spinner, which are the flying chairs. It was fun too! The sensation of flying through the air.. next stop! The Flying Dragon. It is one of the many rollercoasters found here. The ride was quite fun.. enough juice to pump up our hyperactivity.

We went up the escalator towards the thrill peak. Me and Rez left TM so we can ride the Grand Prix Go-Kart. Roughly the speed of a John Deere, the current drivers drove around the circuit. Half an hour later, it was our turn. But suddenly, it started to rain! OMG, I was so angry.

We ran in the rain towards the safety of the Indoor Theme Park, which is also a mall. Rezman visited the Diadora shop and bought a new sweater which costs RM99.90. Then everyone gathered at the lobby to receive our room keycards and stow away luggage. I shared my room with Rez. Rez didn't feel to well so he burrowed into the bed and slept. TM and me went out to buy some ice-cold choc drinks at Starbucks, even though it was already cold enough!

We spend some time watching the Venetian canal gondolas float by.. when we noticed every single oarsmen (which were mannequins) wore Converse! We spotted mostly white Converses.. a pair of brown ones.. and a pair of the classic All-American red. Rez apparently woke up, he called us and went to find us. Unable to do so, we ended up finding him browsing in the Nike shop.

We all headed back to my room to eat dinner. Me and Rez had some cup noodles which we brought from home, and TM ate some sloppy chee cheong fun she bought from a food court named "Mm Yum Yum Bak Kut Teh". We left the room to play bowling with Daniel and the rest at the Genting Bowl. It was my bad luck day, usually by half-game I would have acquired at least 40 points, but I only scored 56 points throughout the whole game! We left them to start another game while we went to the arcade, Funtasy Video Games Park. Me and Rez played 'Street Dunk', spamming balls into the hoops. Then we drifted through the touges of Mount Akina in the Initial D arcade game. Then we rode the Euro Express, the indoor roller coaster. It was fast but wasn't very fun, it ended after a few seconds.

Day 2

I woke up at 6:30 a.m. so I can have a long, nice, relaxing hot shower. Then Rez did the same. TM woke up later and when she was ready, we all left for the breakfast buffet at the 8th floor cafeteria. Here's to tell you. The breakfast buffet SUCKS. The food the serve to large groups are.. worm-like bee hoon, sloppy-mushy red beans, rubbery sausages, soggy chicken ham slices, sticky nasi lemak, and putrid porridge. If you wanted fried eggs or cereal, you have to walk a distance away to the other side. The cereal has to be eaten with hot milk. TM can't finish her food so I helped her with it, and you have to pay a buck for each 100g you leave.

Food For Thought.

Daryl and Daniel at the breakfast buffet.

Then we straightaway went out. We were the first to enter the Outdoor Theme Park, and everyone ran towards the Grand Prix Go-Kart. I had two rounds or karting, it was fun! I mean, it's a genuine motorized vehicle..

Rez was feeling sick, so me and TM lined up for the Corkscrew. It was the ultimate rollercoaster in the region! A bladder-bursting downhill plus two loops in a row, it was.. I can't describe it. You have to ride it yourself! After that, we went to Dinosaurland. There is a dino island where you can walk about and camwhore with the statues, or you can take a boat 'round the moat. We took the boat first, and upon alighting after the ride ended, we saw Daryl and Brandon. I can't believe they went on a romantic cruise instead of riding Corksrew!

Me posing with a London Double Decker Bus at Genting.

We rode the Tea Cups and Spinner again.. and then me and TM rode the Rolling Thunder Mine Train twice! Next, we bought more corn-in-a-cup. We headed back to the Indoor Theme Park. We bought KFC and headed back to the room. We noticed that on the hallways, the staff laid out bedsheets on the floor and we all stomped on it. Me and TM went out again to buy Starbucks, and to get Pn. Chan a stirrer for her cuppa coffee.

It was time to gather again, this time for Snow World. We entered the premise and everyone grabbed a jacket, which were all sized differently to fit. Then, you have to take boots if you are not wearing sneakers, and nobody wore the boots. Then, you had to take gloves. Choosing the right sized gloves were hard, everyone was scrambling the bins. We pushed past the double doors into the snow room. Immidiately everyone started scrapping snow (shaved ice) from the floor and throwing it into anyone nearby. It was a crazy snowball fight! Me, Rez, TM and others all went up to the second floor of a snow cabin to go down the slide. When you reach the bottom, you skid about 1.5 m away from the foot of the slide. Then, it was the Cresta Run. You had to take ring tubes up some stairs, sit in the tube and slide down a curved downhill track. It was such a blast! It was also bumpy if you didn't sit properly. Lydia was about to go down when she slipped out of her tube and hung on to a railing for dear life. We got the tube back up.. but Lydia was still hanging on. Ken Yi tried to pull her back up but she slipped down. Finally, after some grueling moments she got back up and I pushed off her tube. Then, we continued throwing snowballs and left the place after returning the jackets and gloves.

We had dinner and we went to line up for the 4D Motion Master at 8:00 p.m. But the line wasn't moving at all, so we had to dump the plan and meet up everyone else in front of The Pavillion to see the live-action stage show, Dreamz. There was a magician who played balloon badminton with the audience.. a magic show where they sliced a woman's head and put in on another table.. and it still moves! Also there were four daredevils with dirtbikes, zooming in a spherical metal cage. There was also a white lion and white tiger, so cute! And they're rare! The show then ended.

Three Wild Stooges of Dreamz

While the rest of the group went back to their rooms to play poker and gamble, we went to watch Quantum Of Solace. It was okay, Daniel Craig's parkouring was good, the car chase was okay, but such a waste of exotic vehicles, I'd say. Olga Kurylenko had an ugly scar at her back which looked like her father had poured acid on her when she was three.

We headed back to the room.. watched Poseidon and went to sleep. Tomorrow will be the last day..

Day 3

TM gave me a wake up call, and I greeted her immediately after showering. Rez was pissed that me and TM we awake and all ready while he is still in bed. We went straight to the breakfast buffet, where we ate more or less the same things we had yesterday. It still sucked.

As if it wasn't enough, it was our last day! And there is nothing much left to do. Rez went back to the room to pack up, so me and TM went riding on the Reindeer Cart to get an aerial view of the Indoor Theme Park.

Then, we headed up to the arcade to play more Street Dunk, Daytona Racing, Dance Dance Revolution, and House of The Dead 2. We didn't redeem our wad of tickets, instead we just kept it. It's time to gather again and head back home. We went to my room and I packed up my stuff, and everybody went down the lifts. We walked through the mall.. down the five escalators.. and into the Genting Skyway station. We shared the cable car with Pn. Chan, Pn. Sow and a random old man.

Goodbye, Genting Highlands.

Me and TM in the cable car.

We spent the entire cable car ride snapping photos of the mountains and Genting Highlands, which were slowly disappearing in the horizon. We alighted from the cable cars and we were given 45 minutes before boarding the bus. We went to the pickle market to buy sour sweets and fruit drops. Nearly everyone else bought cup noodles from the Seven Seven store (a real parody of 7-11). We dubbed the noodle snorters "The Maggi Mee Club" after the brand of noodles.

Amateurs of the The Maggi Mee Club.

We boarded the bus. I sat next to TM this time. I passed around a bag of fruit drops, only to receive the empty bag in return. I passed the time in the bus reading Galaxie with TM. We got nearer and nearer to OU and everyone looked quite down.

Ken Yi sleeping in the bus.

We got down from the bus.. and sat at the benches. One by one, everyone disappeared into their parent's cars. Me and TM were the last to leave. We also went back at the same time. I reached home.. and it was so hot compared to Genting Highlands.

That's our bus parked at OU.

My luggage.

And that concludes the end of this post. I suppose mine is the most complete of any posts about Genting Highlands, and I hope it will rekindle those fun memories in Genting, riding go-karts, Corkscrew, and others. Thanks to TM for helping me to remember what we all did so I can complete this entry. My life is back to normal now. Monotonous.

Life Snippets #9: Let's Go Genting!

2008-11-08T22:46:00.006+08:00

This is part one of my entry for the school trip to Genting Highlands tomorrow. If you do not know where or what is it, Genting Highlands is South-East Asia's number one entertainment and gambling capital. So good that even Singaporeans come here to gamble their Sing dollars away.

It is located smack in the middle of Peninsula Malaysia, on Banjaran Titiwanga (Titiwangsa Range) which is also called 'Backbone of Malaya' because it lies in the middle of the long peninsula and its long, starting at Southern Thailand and ends near Jelebu, Negeri Sembilan, about 500km away. Enough crapping on these, school's out, damnit!

As of now, 10:54 P.M. (+8.00 GMT) I am half updating this blog and half packing. So far I have only packed my clothes. I am currently trying to gather my camera, PSP, cellphone charger, and toiletries to stash away in an orange, wheely, hard-molded-ABS luggage bag which I called my own. Then, I will go to sleep and pray that I do not miss the bus which would carry the teacher and the other guys alone. Please don't leave me here!

So.. I will update on Part 2 which is the whole trip in one, after I get back. The trip is 3 days and 2 nights, by the way.

Dah-doo my readers.

Life Snippets #8: Unofficial Last Day of School

2008-11-07T14:42:00.004+08:00

For most of us third formers today will be the last day of school. Actually we have two more days next week before the fifth formers or seniors take their SPM exam before leaving school for college or career. Today we had a prizegiving ceremony for the mini sports event we had yesterday.

My friend Azrai who is in Team 4 bagged most of the prizes while my own Team 5 only won a consolation prize. All the prizes are hampers stuffed with food such as Kellogg's Corn Flakes, Pepsi, 100 Plus, choc bars and others. Azrai is smirking the whole day, looking at us losers as if we were filth. Just kidding.

All I did the whole day was listen to my iPod and handphone, and occasionally swapping iPods with other people or lending them my iPod. The more musical guys were playing songs on the school piano such as Sara Bareilles's Love Song. Tan Jian was playing a very recognizable song but I had forgetten what it was.

Other than that, my mind is racing on wether to get Midnight Club: Los Angeles, Saints Row 2, Guitar Hero III: Aerosmith, Burnout Paradise, Uncharted: Drake's Fortune or Metal Gear Solid 4 for my PlayStation 3.

Hummer - Pimped Out For The Arctic

2008-11-07T14:23:00.005+08:00

Recently spotted was this ice-cold Hummer with caterpillar tread tyres to replace the 22" spinning rims. Also, it has a sound system at the back to boot. Schweet.

Those geeks at Arctic research camps will easily get Eskimo girls with this.

Too bad it ain't spinnin' or it be tha fly vehicle.

Why there is a wheel at the back I'm not sure, but who cares, just look at the sound system. Not bad for repelling gangsta polar bears with some Billy Joel.

Link: Full Article at Jalopnik

Life Snippets #7: Happy Birthday To Me!

2008-11-02T03:02:00.005+08:00

So, on the 1st of November, I turn fifteen. So me and my friends went out today. Actually it was yesterday, because it's already 3:08 AM now. But it still feels like today because I haven't slept yet. And while I am still awake, I am still the birthday boy so I make my own rules, suckers!

I woke up bright and early to get a head start in GTA IV on my new PlayStation 3. I gave Hazim a wake-up call at 10:30AM so he will move his lazy ass off the bed and be the birthday boy's chaffeur to the mall. We arrived at the mall at noon, only to realise that the girls have only left their homes, despite them saying they will come earlier to pick up the booked movie tickets. I ended up getting the tickets myself. Michelle called me saying that she and Abi had arrived and we told them to wait at the Halloween event at the ground floor. Me and Hazim, having played numerous FPS/TPS and stealth games, stealthily moved between stalls, store mannequins and giant pillars and ornamental plants to ambush the girls. We were planning to scare them from behind, but when we saw that a store clerk of a Halloween store was offering the girls a dare to open a mini-toilet seat, we were stunned. I dare not open the toilet lid. You know why?
Toilet Bowl = Water = (Dirty) = IN YOUR FACE!

Then we left the place for the cinema. We crashed in to the snack counter. I ordered a large salted popcorn (I HATE CARAMEL!) and a large coke plus a corn-in-a-cup. The rest bought either drinks or popcorn, but not both. Apparently they are all on a diet stint. We entered the the screening hall and got ourselves seated. We were a noisy bunch, apparently. We kept fussing about seat numbers. Not me. I said, "Who the hell cares? If there's a single seat left at the end, no one will sit there because no one goes to the movies alone."

The Thai movie "The Coffin" is starting. A woman and a man joins a traditional ritual which is apparently Buddhist (the presence of a large central Buddha statue). Around the Buddha statue are hundreds of coffins.. brand new, no ghosts. All the participants are to be laid down in the coffins while holding their name cards and a bunch of flowers with a posed hand. Then the palm is tied up and the lid is closed. And the rest is boring stuff I am not interested in elaborating.

My job in the cinema is to give witty comments and views on each scene, just to spice the quiet audience up. Well, my group at least. They have a sense of humor and accepts and embraces sarcasm well into their lives but only I and I only have the nuts to joke around in a cinema screening a Thailand horror movie.

Overall the whole movie is absolut shite. No offence, but Thai people suck at making movies. The acting was quite bad. And they are using pseudo-American English slang. The whole movie is practically in English, which kinda kills the Thailand setting. The only native language spoken here are by people you know are not capable of handling English, such as the Cremate-O-Matic operator cum coffin stacker cum wizening, old, actor.

The ending was quite as predicted. Not quite a good finishing.Or should I say, terrible. No, LAME. Because I am a civilised, liberal person, I gave a weary clap towards the comatose actors on the screen. We quickly busted out of the cinema. We went to MPH Bookstore to meet up with Rezman, who came later to avoid horror movies (You scared?). We entered U Parkson and I rushed to the LEGO section. Sad that they still had the same stock, I went over to the board games section, which I liked too. The girls bought me Boggle, which I like as well because it testes my Ivy League certified grammatical brain. We then walked about half a mile to the other side of the mall to eat pizza at Pizza Hut.

I ate the most of the food. Enough said about food. I paid about 3/4 of the bill because I had no small change so I extorted money from my friends. Then we went back to the Halloween event to find that there were cosplayers now. There is even a Joker! And also a mini-Joker who looked about nine. And there is also a couple of Grim Reapers. We took time to camwhore with the deadly beings. And not to mention we took pictures of us all.

This is me and Death. The axe is my own.
This is me and Rez.
This is me and Michelle, albeit blurry.
This is me and Hazim.
Abi is the one on the left. I am too tired to edit this picture.

Life Snippets #6: PlayStation 3, WOOT!

2008-10-31T23:11:00.004+08:00

I haven't been posting a new Life Snippets episode for a while, mainly because there is nothing interesting to blog about. It's just post-exam school life - slacking off, playing PSP, and hanging out.

Until today. My mom took me to the game store and she got me a PlayStation 3. It was the console of my dreams! Also, I am a Sony supporter. I own PlayStation, PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable and now, PlayStation 3. My handphone is Sony Ericsson. My video cam is a Sony Handycam. The TV in the den below is a Sony Bravia. My old laptop is a Sony Vaio. My new name is Sonny.

Because PS3 games do not come cheap, I choosed the game Grand Theft Auto IV (GTA IV) which is the reason why I bought the PS3. The game shop clerk kept asking me to buy other games, such as Battlefield: Bad Company, Uncharted: Drake's Mission, Burnout Paradise and more. Then he offered me Dead Space and Metal Gear Solid 4. I gladly dejected these offerings. I was on the way to keep the PS3 in the car when two guys in their 20s exclaimed "Wah! A PlayStation3! This guy, damn rich hor?" while pointing at my box. I tried to escape this but they stopped me. They asked me the price of it. "My mom paid RM1599 for the console, RM210 for the disc", I told them. They both nodded. Then one of them said, "I'm working now, save up for PlayStation3. I wanna play GTA IV too. I already owned all the rest of the GTA series, but was forced to buy a PS3 to play GTA IV. Anyway, it's time to move on to a new console." Then they both waved me off and entered a shop specializing in imported Italian-made step dustbins and extendable arm clothesline.

After that, we headed to IKEA to buy a new TV rack. My room is so claustrophobic, I decided to move the TV and the other gaming consoles to the family area outside my room. It was quite a tiring move. First, I had to assemble the TV rack which seemed easy but pretty tedious. Then I had to move the TV to the new rack. Luckily the TV is a Samsung flatscreen and not some heavy, bulky CRT so moving it was a breeze. Then I had to remove the PlayStation 2 and the DVD player. The PlayStation 2 was placed in my mom's room and the DVD player is to be next to my PS3. Then I set up the PlayStation 3 and took a quick shower.

My hands were trembling with joy when I approached the touch panel on the PS3. I gently felt it with my finger and the PS3 came alive. I set the time and date settings and network settings and etc., and brought out my GTA IV. I opened the case and took out the Liberty City Guide and the Liberty City Map which has a complete road layout of all four boroughs and also another Liberty City Map of the subway system. Sweet!

I carefully took out the disc and slotted it into the PS3. The PS3 doesn't have any stupid disc trays, just like my mom's MacBook. I started playing GTA IV with the SixAxis DualShock 3 wireless controller charging. I removed the cable when it was fully charged, and it felt pretty nice without annoying tangly cables, at last.

GTA IV gameplay took me by surpise. The first mission is to drive to your cousin Roman Bellic's 'mansion' near Hove Beach. They changed the controls completely for this game. Luckily they give you and option to switch to Classic Controls, which I am more accustomed to after playing GTA: San Andreas, Vice City Stories and Liberty City Stories. Also the vehicle handling seems to be updated, and it feels harder to manouvre around the city now without hitting a lamp post, a pedestrian or a station wagon at least once. Maybe needs some practice, but there are major changes to this title. Now you have to hotwire a car (parked) before stealing it, and pedestrians call the cops if you do something to them. Try to run off in a parked exotic vehicle and the alarms will keep buzzing, signalling a good day to the police in the vicinity. I learnt this the hard way, on my way back to Roman's ratnest I found out that the Hove Beach police station is at the corner of my block. Oh shit.

Now I feel tired from gaming and assembling and walking around malls so I will end the day with a blog post, and see ya!

Have The Coolest BBQ Party Around

2008-10-28T01:10:00.004+08:00

Well occasionally we may find a need to cook outside, usually for social purposes. When we say cook outside, we think of Barbeque. BBQ is fun. And also requires abit of cleaning-up after, I'd say, because I have hosted barbeques twice in the past month and no, you're not invited.

This is called the Boom Cooler. As you can see, it is clearly not Rubbermaid. And it has subwoofers! I am not sure wether it actually stores frozen meat and 24-packs of A&W Root Beer together, but for the price of $899, I think it should! Get it here.

This is the chork. It is half chopsticks, half fork. This would help if you are hosting a Joy Luck Club themed party, and you're Americanized enough to use forks. Click here.

For the geeks that actually cooks, here is the OMGWTFBBQ apron that lives up to it's name. I know, I was OMGWTFBBQing when I saw this apron for sale at ThinkGeek. Get it here.

As I have mentioned previously in my aparment-themed post, this is the Bruce BBQ for apartment balconies. Pretty handy, huh? Since most geeks live in one-bedroomed apartments. I found the article here.

Life Snippets #5: Back From The Basics

2008-10-27T22:20:00.003+08:00

Well, three days ago it was back to the basics, now it is back from the basics. On Saturday I left for my maternal grandmother's house in Port Dickson, which lies on a 15 mile stretch of coastal road. The town is on the 3rd mile, if I am not mistaken. The cemetery is on the 5th mile, at the road bend where it bends because of the bay point. My grandmother's house is at the 11 1/2th mile. It's just a single-storey house. My grandmother's house has a weird outlook on it. You park your car on the road above, go down a flight of stairs, and you reach the house. The house is basically below road level. The stairs go down on a steep slope where my grandma has planted all sorts of flowers.

The moment we arrived at the doorstep, we were greeted by a strong, stinky smell. We immediately cleaned up, but the smell was still there. We traced the smell the the sofa, where a rat made home at the bottom, and eventually died there. My grandmother was very annoyed at my brother who was making alot of noise, so she picked up the dead rat and chased him at it. Since my brother is a scaredy cat, he quickly ran around the house avoiding my grandma and after she stopped chasing, my brother stopped running and cried at the top of his lungs.

My brother forgot to charge his PSP at home, and I forgot the charger. To make up for it, I lent him my PSP, which turns out to be a bad move. He was the last to sleep and within the first night, he drained the batteries. So for the next two days I played Gravity Defied - Trial Racing on my handphone and listened to the same song on my iPod repeatedly. For the record, it was Holidae In by Chingy ft. Ludacris and Snoop Dogg.

Life Snippets #4: Jusco J-Card Day

2008-10-25T01:44:00.003+08:00

As many of you living in Klang Valley area know, 22nd October 2008 marks the Jusco J-Card Member's Day in their One Utama department store. Taking it as an opportunity to stock up on LEGO, I followed my mom there early in the morning, arriving at 7:30 a.m.

Traffic jam caused many of the drivers on the way to the mall started sipping their coffee in the car. We found a parking spot at the top level parking and waiting for the roller shutter doors to open. We were waiting for a long time, the lifts were all packed like sardines in a tin. So, being the smart boy here I led my mom to an escalator which nobody knew existed (It was newly added). Sadly, we had to eat breakfast first so we went to Mickey D's to grab some Egg McMuffin. Then, I rushed to the toy section which would be my home for the next three hours.

Hour 1 at Toy Section
I spent the first 20 minutes checking the price of every LEGO box. I noticed that the LEGO sets that I most wanted were not available. Damn! LEGO is only given a 20% discount, can't they give it 70% discount like they did with the clothes?! I picked up the MX-11 Astro Fighter and the MX-41 Switch Fighter, priced at RM32.90 and RM119.90 each before 20% discount. Both of the spacecrafts are from the same theme, Mars Mission.

Hour 2 at Toy Section
I went around to the large wire boxes where they dumped all the 50%-70% items. Although they were mostly boring Made In China toys full of lead, LEGO wasn't exempted from discount because it's damn well expensive in Malaysia. Did you know that LEGO here cost twice as much than in America? So you Americans better shut the feck up. I grabbed a parts pack which is the Doors and Windows because my buildings lack natural lighting. The only LEGO given discount are the Batman series, officially licensed by DC Comics/DC Direct so that it would even more expensive without discount as The Lego Company would have to pay expensive royalties. All of them were given only 30% discount (WTF!) and only two Batman sets were given a 50% discount. One of them is the Ultimate Collector's Series Batmobile, which was RM529.90 before discount. The other was the Two-Face's Escape, which I got because it was only RM99 after discount. The price after 50% discount is the price you Americans pay when it first came out. Damn!

Hour 3 at Toy Section
I saw this young Chinese lad who bought a whole trolley full of LEGO sets! Shit! And he made his girlfriend wait at the trolley as he went LEGO-hunting. Sighing, I quickly walked over to the movie-themed toy section. I grabbed three figurines from Indiana Jones, which are Indiana Jones in his normal outfit, Marion Ravenwood in her Nepali clothing, and Mutt Williams in his casual outfit. Yes, I am an Indiana Jones fan. I tried to find those uber-awesome Mighty Muggs figurines of Indiana Jones, but found only Lando Calrissian from Star Wars. Instead, I bought an Indiana Jones vehicle which is the German Troop Car, it is damn realistic. Also, it is in scale to the figurines I bought alongside it. The figurines are priced at RM16.90 after discount, and the vehicles are priced at RM44.90 after discount.

Later In The Evening
We came back to Jusco. Yeah, WTF. My mom forgot to buy new pillows, quilts, and bedsheets. Needless to say, it was a pain in the ass to carry two pillows on my left arm and a large quilt on the right. Then we went to the supermarket to buy a 15-pack of Pocky.

Life Snippets #3: School After Ending

2008-10-20T21:10:00.006+08:00

So we basically still have to go to school after major exams have ended. Which is no biggie, because we have to choose our streaming for next year. Our education choices for Senior High is cool, they come in packages. I feel like taking Package C, which includeds the six base core subjects that everyone no matter what package you choose have to take, and also the main subjects for Package C which is Commerce and Accounting. Also, we get to choose what kind of activities we'd like to participate in for the rest of the school year (which is only a few weeks).

Next, we have school trips and field trips. For our field trip, we will go to the FRIM (Forest Research Institute of Malaysia) which consists of nothing but leeches. School trip, we are heading up the mountains.. no, not to some lame-ass summer camp, but to Genting Highlands, aka the gambling and entertainment capital of South-East Asia. For 3 days and 2 nights, we can have fun with friends.

There are many post-PMR activities that they'll let us decide to choose, such as futsal, basketball, and netball competition, banner painting for the SPM candidates, water balloon tournament, tug-o-war, and many more interesting ones. The ones I am concerned about is the few but stupid suggestions. There are also choices for doormat making class, fireworks making class (PEW PEW awesomeness!), and also soap making experiment. The fireworks one is cool, but hey, who needs soapmaking class when you can get a bottled one at Tesco?

Some of us are still arguing about PMR answers, saying that this is right and this is wrong and vice versa. Dammit, start partying already. To let the stress sliperizzle off, me has been kajizzling with tha hiphoperizzle tunes 'Holidae In by no other than Chingy ft. Ludacris and Snoop Dogg, or also known as Chingarizzle ft. Ludacrizzle and Snoopy Drizzle.

Also, don't ya folks forget that Halloween and my birthday is back-to-back, so if you don't wish me it's hollering DOOMSDAY for ya'll. October 31 and November the First have never been such good buddies.

Playing games? Me too. I've been playing 'Thief: Deadly Shadows' and also the MMORPG megalomaniac RuneScape, the coolest medieval/fantasy era RPG ever created in history. And I'm continuing my membership there, it's only US $6, so cheap!

Sushi In No Time

2008-10-19T17:13:00.007+08:00

Now I know that alot of us can't be bothered to make some actual sushi, like hey, they're pretty cheap and they come ready-made. But what if you can't be bothered to move your lazy self over to the mall as well? This is where the invention dubbed Sushezi comes in. It is a little white tube where you just chuck stuff into and then squeeze the stuff out of the tube with a push of a pump-lever.

Here are some pictures of the Sushezi to show you how it works, roughly.

Here is a video demonstration of the Sushezi by Anthea's Kitchen.

Speaking of sushi, here are two other sushi items I'd like you to check out.

This is a whole plate of delicious-looking heart shaped sushi made by DeviantArt user Ziralma.

Combining two favorite elements of mine, sushi and LEGO, "Big Daddy" Nelson created this oishikatta sushi out of well, LEGO. I like how he added a squit of wasabi at the corner.

Sushezi - Official Website
Sushezi Video Demonstration - Anthea's Kitchen
Heart Sushi - Ziralma's DeviantArt Page
LEGO Sushi - 'Big Daddy' Nelson's Flickr

Life Snippets #2: BBQ Parties

2008-10-19T01:04:00.004+08:00

I didn't tell you but we had barbeque parties twice within a fortnight. So I will fit it all into this post. The last party was just today, I mean tonight. Tonight at the time of writing, stupid.

We had the BBQ session with the paternal side of the family. Many people turned up for some grillin' fun. Uncle Adrian lighted the coals and manned the roastpit while I was skewering sausages and cutting tenderloin beef into strips and giving the lambs a chop. Auntie Pacha prepared the salad while my mom was doing the gravy. Pak De brought the electric grill he bought in New Zealand which proved to be useful for smokin' those old timers such as the chicken wings. All the little kids were running around. After all was well, we dived headfirst into the plates and succumbed into the goodness of freshly grilled meat. Later, all the adults suddenly started singing some songs while the younger generation froze to death. Again, food was nice. Better than Tony Roma's, I say!

And here are some pictures.

For the salad!

Shiny Potato (Eggs?) by me.

Life Snippets #1: Exams Are Over

2008-10-17T23:51:00.004+08:00

I had to introduce Life Snippets series so that no one would confuse it with any other geekier section of my blog. This part of the blog, like the title implies, is meant to share with everyone my daily shenanigans or whenever something interesting happens.

Life Snippets #1: Exams Are Over

From 12th October 2008 till 17th October 2008 all third formers across Malaysia are having their PMR examinations - a major examination. Some papers are divided into two sections (unless stated), Part A is the multiple choice and Part B is where you have to write out your legendary skills. Here is a short review of the days gone by.

PMR Day 1
We have our Malay Language paper first. Part A was easy and so is Part B except that I struggled as I forgot the main character's name from the Malay novel 'Panas Salju'. Later we had Islamic Studies paper which wasn't as hard as I thought, but challenging enough.

Difficulty: 41%

PMR Day 2
First part in the morning and we are happily delving away on our English papers. Happily? What?! Well, readers, English is a guarantee 'A' paper for me because English is so intricate yet so easy. Later we had our Science papers which was so-so and so-so because the mix of questions were well-balanced.

Difficulty: 10%

PMR Day 3
The most dreaded day of all as Mathematics have come to beat the living shit out of me. I am terribly intimidated by the sight of mathematical terms. This is not an easy subject therefore I spent most the time trying to combat my growing constipation feeling. Part A was easy but Part B is where you have to write down the equations and such and this is where they found out how to make me cry. Like OMG, History is also today! History is all about crappin' factuals of dead people that make no sense in our ever-changing modern world.

Difficulty: 999.9%

PMR Day 4
Today one will have only Living Skills if you are not taking Conversational Arabic, Mandarin Chinese, Tamil, Punjabi or Ibanese Language. After bidding good luck to our friends that are taking Mandarin Chinese, we went home to either sleep, study, or play 'Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures' game on the PS2 like someone by the name of Afiq Feisal (isn't that me!)

Difficulty: 14%

PMR Day 5
Today is a day I am looking forward to. Because one, we have Geography papers. Geography is damn well the easiest and most interesting subject. Two, because I am heading to the mall to strike a deal with my mom (Mom..please buy me that, I am begging you!). Three, because it is the last day of PMR. Actually, make it just two. I have no reason to be happy that PMR is ending because PMR or no PMR, I am still not studying and will continue playing games like a proper life-enjoying person should be. *hearty laugh*

Difficulty: -10,000%

The Bakery's Back in Business

2008-10-17T23:15:00.004+08:00

Well it seems that my major examinations are now over (which I shall explain in my personal blog here) so I am now back to posting the usual eeriely geeky stuff here. As you can see, exams make me hungry - so it would be a good idea to think of cakes as the reward for getting good results. Bah, I can get a cake any old time. But can anyone get these cakes?

The iPhone cupcakes are lovely! They were designed after not the iPhone, but the iPhone apps. I can see the music player, clock, calculator.. but where is the famed iPhone apps 'Virtual Breast' and the $999.99 'I Am Rich'?

Any old gamer would know that this is the Halo 3 logo. Apparently GameGuru sent the cake to Microsoft (why not Bungie?) to celebrate the launching, or so I am told.I wonder if there are any Kinder Surprise eggs with Plasma Rifles in them.

This is one guitar you can't shred without putting your face in it first. Also, the guitar is not XBOX360 compatible so please stop crying now!

I don't know who Eric is but he sure is one lucky guy to get a NES cake. It looks very real and it also looks like the overheating problem gave it a bit of a meltdown. Anyway, Eric won't be happy to know that the Zelda gold cartridge he bought off eBay won't work here.

The classic wood veneer finish Atari 2600! I am constantly reminded by arcade machines that Atari brings the world Pong and Pacman goodness. I hope they didn't use Atari wood for the cake here because I sure don't want to eat termite, sweat and gamer grub infested wooden panelling worth 30 years!

Google Chrome - Overview

2008-09-08T15:00:00.004+08:00

Before we start on anything on the computer, we most probably click a little icon that is the logo. So what's in the logo of Google Chrome, the latest browser?

Google Blogoscoped contemplated the logo for a while and came up with several possible combinations of items to create the Google Chrome logo. A webcam, a Pokeball, Mozilla Firefox logo, a Simon, and the colors are obviously of the RGBY Google logo.

If you open a new tab, it will instantly show you the most visited websites just for good measure. Pretty convenient. Then again, look at the picture below.

This Chrome user apparently has a fetish for assholes, shemales and chubby women. And he is also into gay porn. If this particular user is browsing this in the school computer, the next person using it is in deeeeep trouble. Oh yeah.

It also has Incognito Mode, or what almost everyone is calling the 'porn mode' because only porn freaks would use it. Used to have discreet browsing.

The Smart Address Bar has both Google search and an address bar combined, saving the hassle. But it's nothing much to me because the Firefox i'm using now has the same thing.

In case I ever feel the box I'm typing into right now is too small, the Resize Text Box option is open in Chrome. By dragging the south-east corner of the box, users may resize to his liking.

Another feature that is present is the Domain Highlighting. This is very handy especially if you forgot what is the parent page of the website you are at.. if your website has a long 'aJhGbyTiao=191752jUytbGrt' or something similar.

What's In A Logo - Google Blogoscoped
Features - Gizmodo

Geeky Timepieces

2008-09-06T22:51:00.008+08:00

This is our own geek timepiece bumper issue. Covering several timepieces, I share with you my findings.

USB Memory Watch

This shows the USB Memory Watch in full action. A red LED shows that the device is in use, and the USB Memory Watch is listed as a USB mass storage device.

Phosphor - E-Ink Display Watch

This watch has an interface that could change itself at the push of a button, thanks to its innovative e-ink display. E-ink, you ask? Think Amazon Kindle. Official Webpage.

Video Watch with OLED Screen

Equipped with 2GB on-board storage, you could fit in 2-3 full movies into your watch and have fun watching 'em in your boring History classes. Too bad if I watch a movie on this the whole class would gather round me, causing a commotion. Can be bought in ThinkGeek (link at bottom) and in wholesale at ChinaVasion.

Tokyoflash - Infection LED Watch

We welcome our first Tokyoflash entry into the blog. Tokyoflash is famous for its increasingly hard to tell timepieces. Usually people want a watch that makes it easy to tell the time, but this one is for the ones that want to tell the time the hard way. This watch, named the Infection, has 3 different colours of LED to tell the time. Wait, wait - don't ask me how am I supposed to tell the time.

USB Memory Watch, Video Watch with OLED Screen, and the E-Ink Display Watch can all be found on ThinkGeek
Tokyoflash 'Infection' can be found on Tokyoflash

My Documents - Literally!

2008-09-05T22:20:00.005+08:00

Laptop and notebook users worldwide have been discussing alot about the latest slip-on cover sensation that's abuzz around the Net. My Documents laptop cases are made to uncannily resemble that folder where you stash your unmentionables.

A real touchable cursor pin.. how cool is that?

Reported on LikeCool

Livin' High Up In The Sky

2008-09-05T00:34:00.008+08:00

Apartment Life. That's it. An all-new way to look at your homes made its way to the market, being realeased just before Q4 starts. No more boring old normal-type homes, we can all live in the top floor and stomp on the neighbors below. In this game you can become a witch! And there is also the all-famous San Francisco Painted Ladies townhouses in the game, although I doubt very much that it resembles anything like the Burj Dubai. And oh - a trailer park too! Whoopee, rednecks ahoy.

Talking about apartments - which happened to be my favorite type of house, I'd like to share with you guys a few other cool stuff that you can put in an apartment. A real-life apartment. C'mon guys, sometimes a geek just got to revisualize his own natural habitat.

Have you heard of the Bloomframe? It's a retractable balcony which looks like a window when closed and a balcony when open. How very cool is that?

Whoever said you can't have a BBQ on the 10th floor? With this Bruce BBQ set, you can have a BBQ anywhere you want as long as it has a railing. Wonder if it'll work on stair railings?

Lately a lot of high-end upmarket apartments have included car elevators that take your car directly to your doorstep at the 17th floor. Very thoughtful, and dumb. I have a fascination for automatic parkings and car elevators, but wouldn't that annoying Hummer living above leaving for work be annoying especially when it revs its V8 engine every morning?

Bruce BBQ found on Neatorama
Sims 2: Apartment Life found on GameSpot
Car Elevator Apartment found on CarLoft
BloomFrame found on BloomFrame

Space Invaders Keyboard

2008-09-03T23:19:00.007+08:00

So you've heard of the rubber roll-up keyboard. No biggie, although it's a cool invention. But does it really appeal much to the retrogamer in you?

If it doesn't, then this certainly will. Introducing the Space Invaders Keyboard, a rollup keyboard specially designed for retrogamers in mind. Now you can say your keyboard can PEW PEW.

Ah, I particularly liked the ingenious space button design. What better way to mash up those space and destroying the invaders at the same time? Costs about $35 which is very cheap considering it is coffee-proof and asteroid-proof.

Found on CrunchGear

Security First - Protect Your Gadgets

2008-09-02T21:30:00.008+08:00

If you are a geek like me and have alot of tiny little gadgets you don't want anyone to touch or steal - for example: thumbdrives, iPhone, expensive watch, and other whatnots - then you better know that the safe is the worst place to hide items because where would a thief go when he enters your house? The safe, of course! Now I know since most of you don't have a safe (not even me) because you don't want to invest in one, then let me show a few items that can protect your item better and in far more cheaper ways.

This is one of the effective ways to hide your items. In a wall socket - I mean, the thief would only want your power cable so he can watch your plasma TV in his shack, why would he need a wall socket? As in the picture above, a key unlocks the wall socket and it swings on its pivot to reveal whatever you hide inside there. Sweet.

Ah - the classic book vault. This company glued together two random boring books and drilled a rectangle crevice hundreds of pages deep so you could hide stuff inside - in the picture, they hid an iPhone so you can roughly guess the size of the real book.

If you have smaller items such as jewellery to hide, then maybe a small place like this 7-Up can is all you need. You can unscrew the top to stash away. However I don't think so this one is effective as alot of thieves are poor and hungry, and they always grab a quick snack in their victim's house. 7-Up, unopened before their eyes, mm. Once they realize the can contains more than $1 worth of carbonated drink, you're in for some sobbing time.
However, this one would certainly work well. I'd like to know what kind of thief eats dog food. And nobody ever opens a can of dog food unless you have a dog. So, this one is the least expensive way to hide your hideables.

Ah, this one is different. No, you can't hide anything in it - but with battery-powered blinking red LED, this dummy camera would fool any crook. They'd think the camera is videotaping their every move because not many homes have a CCTV installed in - it's a breach of privacy. But this one would be more than welcome, I'm sure of it. For a tiny more cash you get a swivelling version, one that tilts left and right on it's own. For a bit more cash you get a waterproof outdoor version so you can always put it by that new Ferrari of yours - or so you've been telling me.

All products can be bought from X-Tremegeek

iPhone Accessories - I've had enough!

2008-09-02T20:25:00.006+08:00

I've had enough with iPhone accessories! Who would design it, let alone make it and sell it? Them, sir, are the dumbasses of the 21st century - the iPhone era.

Look at this. It's a rotating iPhone stand. It means only your iPhone can rotate, not the stand itself. For $40, you get to spin your iPhone around on the pedestal. Schweet.

This is the VideoShell. It lets you watch movies without holding the iPhone. What's the joy of an iPhone without holding the iPhone itself? Anyway if you watch movies on an iPhone you always have the urge to fast forward to the best parts only.

Next comes the PhoneFingers, a finger stylus for you. Out of YOUR finger. For 3 Euros, you get to play what is dubbed the 'iPhone condom' - another true dumbass design of the iPhone era.

This is by far the stupidest accessory I've ever seen for the iPhone. iPhone telescopes? Get real! Who wants to zoom in with an iPhone camera? Unless you're that nerd that nobody wants to make eye contact with and always spends time spying at the nude beach, nobody needs this crap.

I'm telling you - there useless contraptions don't come in cheap - expect to spend at least $25 with the exception of the iPhone condoms.

PED3 iPhone Stand - ThoughtOut
VideoShell - DLO
Phone Fingers - PhoneFingers
iPhone Telescope - RedFerret

Stormtrooper Fun

2008-09-01T23:41:00.008+08:00

Stormtrooper Times

Hey, you know, Clone Wars is like in the season an' all - so I guess I would promote the most parodied character of Star Wars - the Stormtrooper.

Does anyone have a Playboy issue here?

Urinals are always the best place to meet up.

Oh baby, I've gotten my sick leave! Mmpf!

Even the Skywalkers couldn't resist her.

Happy 51st Independence Day, Malaysia

2008-08-31T17:32:00.009+08:00

Or shall we say.. Merdeka, in our language? 31 August 1957 marks the start of our nation's independence from all previous invasive forces. This year's Merdeka is pretty lame, hardly any cars sporting a flag on their roofs. I didn't even know it was Merdeka until fireworks boomed outside while I was reading Gizmodo.

70% of schoolchildren, I estimate, do not have a single patriotic feeling in their hearts at all this year. Including me. Can't help it man, look at the sight of our nation.

Fake Halo 3

2008-08-31T17:16:00.007+08:00

Prior to the famous XGame 360 which is a NES in disguise news, someone made a spoof of the games available to the Mexico-wide gaming device XGame 360. Yes, it is only 8-bit, no 20GB, no HDMI support, no XGame Live.

Behold, the Annulus 3! Only on Xgame 360.

Retails for only 50 Mexican Pesos! Looks great on monochrome display! Play as either Master Chef or El Locusto and complete all 6 levels! Rated 18+ due to intensely hot salsa movements and taco stands getting blown up. If you ask me, Annulus 3 sounds like an anal sex porn video, honestly.

Picture from GamingBob

Catwalking Nuns

2008-08-26T15:49:00.007+08:00

Believe me, nuns can't get anymore crazier once they've applied to join an online nun beauty pageant. Nuns? Apart from their usual contrasting uniform and the occasional athletic nun outfit -I don't think so any nun would want to wear tight latex miniskirts or a babydoll with a headress on.

It seems I was wrong, eh? Reverend Antonio Rungi from Italy started Miss Sister 2008 for any nun with wireless internet at the chapel. Eventhough the Associate of Catholic people opposed the idea of nuns ripping each other's headresses for the winner title, they think that there is nothing wrong with it at all - even with these kind of non-nun outfits we see on the Internet.

Just look at her, will ya? I have a feeling that chaos would be unveiled once these nuns start donning clothes from Paris Hilton's signature store..