The original personal DIY desktop

Now this is what I call a real 'personal DIY desktop'. Really impressive but I think the system will overheat easily although there's 2 huge fan for the circulation. It's wood man. And if you noticed... it's a laptop screen with AMD inside.

2005 's New Year resolution

Time really goes by so fast when you are busy. I can't believe it's already Thursday! Let me do a quick update on my week so far.

Work is great. With Christmas and the New Year holidays, most of the people I deal with are all on vacation! Weee!!! My email inbox at work are filled with away messages. Well, there are pros and cons to this. I have really little work since most of them are out of the office... but things will really get busy when they get back. And since they are on vacation, no one will be replying my emails! Even the important ones! Disaster!

Thing outside of work is really busy too. I have got much to plan for the New Years. I really want to go for the rave in Putrajaya for New years but too bad I already made other plans. Good thing is that I will be cooking for a few people for 3 days starting on New Year's eve. wOOt!

I have always wanted to cook something and have people over to eat. Planned it for my 21st and 22nd birthday but it didn't happen in the end. Have cooked on other days but most of my friends usually didn't make it. I'm very excited and hyped up for this! I already started planning since Monday! I only hope they like my cooking =)

Anyway, I found my old post on my 2005's resolutions. I scored badly HAHAHAHA.

2005 New Year resolutions.
- Stop getting waterfished <--- Well, I think I have made some progress but it seems now that I'm totally ignored and unappreciated... now I wonder which is better? Ish.

- Stop being a slacker when facing with work <--- LOL! All I have to say is that I'm a workaholic right now.

- Host my Final Year Project <--- I'm going to drop this. My FYP sucks. If I really want to do it, I think I will need help from the government to get my facts (on the site) right and endorsed.

- Get a my First Class Honors Degree! <---FAILED!

- Take more time off for dancing <--- I made progress here and there. Got to try harder. I need a Salsa partner!

- Watch more animes hehehe <--- Have been watching them on and off. I guess I still can cramp more animes in me!

My 2005 resolution is ....childish. I need better resolutions for 2006 this year.

Seafood in Kuala Selangor not that nice anymore

Ok, so we left the house early because we were headed to Kuala Selangor for seafood.



We ate here. Restaurant Kuala Sungai, their telephone number as seen on the picture. Overall the meal was just so so. I have tasted much better seafood. Read on for more critiques.



The sotong (squid) and vegetable came first. The sotong was like the typical deep fried sotong in flour. Nice. It didn't came with thousand island or mayonnaise though. Rating: 8.5/10. The vegetable was ok... like all vegetables. Rating: 7.5/10



Lai lui har. This is a type of shrimp, de shelled and deep fried. Then stir fried with some chili and tomato sauce with some spices. Taste a little above average but I have tasted better ones. Rating: 7/10



Ok, I have the shell of this shellfish at home for ages (but the ones I have are more pretty :P) now but I have not eaten them before. I don't really like the taste of this one. The meat is tougher than snail, less slimy... actually kind of have no slime at all. The texture is not rubbery slimy at all, unlike the 'see ham'. What I hate most about this shellfish is that for everyone of them, I have to remove their 'cover' before I can eat their meat. The cover I am referring to is the 'door' of their home (the shell). Removing the black piece of large fish scale thing is not as annoying as what I have to do next. After removing the 'door', I have to individually clean out all the mud that is stuck between the door and the flesh. It's really annoying. Imagining cleaning every single piece of your shellfish with tissue paper before eating them. Potong steam. Even the chili sauce that came with it wasn't nice. Rating: 3\10



Rayfish. This is the normal pangang (BBQ) ray fish you can find in most of the restaurant in KL and PJ. Taste above average. Loved the green sauce that came with it. It's some kind of fresh leaves grinned with some sugar salt and vinegar. Rating: 7/10



The otak otak was so so. Came with the green vinegar sauce too. It tasted like a fresh version of those processed otak otak where we can easily get from the pasar malam. I still prefer the original nyonya otak otak with lengkalok leaves and chunky fresh fish wrapped in banana leaves. Rating 6/10



The above is crab with salted egg sauce. The usual crab with salted egg I have eaten is dry but today's crab with salted egg is a little different. The sauce is creamy like cabonara sauce. Taste good. The crab however wasn't that nice. The crab was fresh but the meat wasn't sweet at all. A disappointment for me. Rating: 6/10 (if the sauce sucked, this dish would have a 3/10)

Tip: You will know you have fresh crabs when their meat sticks to their shell when tou peel them off.



This is another crab dish using different crab. The crab used is called 'fa hai', if translated its flower crab. I think it's called flower crab because of it's white and orange pattern on the shell that looks flowery. Just a guess though. Normally the meat of fa hai will taste sweet and the best way to enjoy their sweet meat is to steam the crab with no sauce.

Another disappointment because the meat wasn't as sweet as I expected to me. *sign* My mom requested for plain steamed crabs but the chef added soya sauce with it too.. *double sign* Maybe the chef knew the meat wasn't sweet enough for plain steam. The crab would be better off steamed with soya sauce, sesame oil and some rice wine. Rating: 5/10

Maybe I have put too much hope of eating food seafood in Kuala Selangor since the place is famous for seafood. Then again, maybe it's famous because the price is cheep. The bill came up to the total of only RM119 (we have 5 coconuts too). I wonder if their standard have gone down, or mine just went up. Back when I was a kid, my parents would bring us around for seafood and I remembered I have eaten in Kuala Selangor a few times and seafood was good back then.

If anyone is willing to go futher for seafood, you can try Sekinchang. The best cheap and delicious place for seafood I have eaten so far lies there. And if seafood is not your thing, try out the beggar chicken restaurants along the way to Kuala Selangor on the trunk road.

Ok, enough about food talk. This should end up in Eat First Think Later actually, but I think I would be spending 1 hour talking about how bad their crabs was.

Now just to back track a little, I had a mini pre Christmas celebration in the office on Friday. We had a small gift exchanging session. We stuck numbers of the gifts and folded pieces of paper with numbers so we could randomly pick. I got a photo frame! Got to figure what picture to put in it now... any suggestion? Wanted a picture of my whole family but the frame is a little small for that.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Shit! Donavan if you are reading this.. email me! Your email ended up in my junk mail and I 'delete forever' your mail before I could read it. So sorry.

Anyway MERRY CHRISTMAS! Got to make this really quick because I'm off to lunch. I woke up at 11. Mom made me eat chocolate cheese cake for breakfast... and a few peanut puffs at 11.30 and we are off to lunch now! It's not even 12 yet!!!!

No wonder I'm gaining weight like crazy!

Ignorance is bliss, until ignorance turns to neglection

You know sometimes when you have a really long and stable relationship with someone... things starts to get dry. Do you ignore it?

Ignorance is bliss, until ignorance turns to neglection.

Many people fail to see this coming. And you know, this applies to all kinds of relationships. Family, lovers, friends and even enemies.

Some people cry day and night, saying that his or her relationship of 5 years just went drown the drain because his or her partner left for someone else. No one is to blame but if this happens to you, ask yourself. You knew the relationship is running dry. You realized that things were not the same. You saw it coming. But did you try doing something about it?

I believe that many are too comfortable and relaxed in a relationship that they forget what the first few months of their relationship were like. Many assume that they are in a long stable relationship "We'll get married soon" kind of relationship until it makes them too lazy to move their brain to spice up their 'long stable relationship'. "Ahh never mind la, he\she is ok with it one", "Aiyor, lazy la... next time la" but next time takes forever. All this little things can actually destroy a relationship.
Well, if you start neglecting your friends. Same thing will happen.

Suddenly when a new man comes into your life, the only person you know is your man. Friends slowly fade away... and some turn invisible. Good friends become distant and slowly disappear. Before you know it, you are left with no one. (if your 'man' leaves you)

"Nar, I'm not that type" you say.

Some would climb mountains and swim across seas for someone they hardly know. Or walk on burning coal and sleep on bed of nails for 'new' friends. But what happen to your good old 'have always been there for you' friends? A quick directly "Too damn lazy la" answer but you think "Ah... have known him for ages, he won't mind". But really..?

Same goes with 'annoying' family members. One day you will know that you are the annoying one.

Think your wife have an easy life at whole while you work your arse off at the office? Seriously think again. I have personally see families fall apart because of this. Sometimes it’s not just husband and wife relationships, but siblings. And not forgetting, the unreturned love to our parents.

Why did I write all this? Well I know how much it hurts to be neglected. And I know I have been neglecting people.

Something to at for my new years resolution.

Eat First Think Later - Episode 007 is out

Aiyor... I wanted to get episode 007 of Eat First Think Later out early today but I guess I was too much in a rush to check my links. The link was dead and I guess listeners didn't get to download.

Anyway, the episode is related to 'Kor Thong' tomorrow so I hope the so very few of you who listens get to listen before then.

Work wasn't as fun today. Need to rant but can't do it here... this sucks.

Loads of stuff!

Woah! I'm back at the office after 6 + 4 days of annual leave and boyyyy... there's much to be done. Thank god there were loads of other stuff other than work for me to look at. =)

When I reached my cubicle I found some chocolates scattered at the center of my table. Then a small little gift. It seems that my former project manager left the chocolates and a cute little baby angel magnet for me! Weee! She's so sweet!

There was also a large company calendar at my table side. ....Hm... I'm still waiting for the table top calendar and the diary. ...I really need 3 table top calendar with boxes to write in for each day. Why 3? Well, one for my cubicle, one for my PC table, and one more for my room. Don't ask me why I need so many of them and why it's necessary for all of them to be 'boxes to write in for each day'. It's just how I organize my ‘life’.

Then at the corner... I realized that my cheapo blue Telekom phone was replaced with the nice Panasonic white 'changgih' phone with the speaker phone, memory dialer and the bla bla stuff! Muahahahaha! The phone used to me my former team leads phone, but since my current team leader have the same phone, I get to use the phone. I think I'm kind of lucky to get the phone (although it's just a phone for anyone else in the company).... the other ATL is still using the cheapo. But then again..... I think my current headset doesn't work with this phone. Hm... got to test it tomorrow. Someone call my office phone.

Ok, now back to work. Loads of emails unread. But out of the almost 200 emails, only 50% were work related. Most of them can be left unread hehehe. But can not play play man, it took me nearly 4 solid hours to read, sort, reply and delete my emails. Crazy!

...then back log back log back log.... looking at my 10 days' of untouched reviews made me sick. And if that wasn't enough, those darn access administrators in North America are not doing their job! They were requested to extend my accesses and my IDs 2 weeks ago but nothing was done. I couldn't get my work done! *(^$&#^(*&#%$#^

I did something really mean. I sent an indirect but very sarcastic reminder to the team to get my accesses renewed. And it worked.

Just when I thought this will get worst was I start to work on my backlog, well, it didn’t =) One of my team members came over and gave me another keychain to add to my cubicle decoration.

And then... an email came. Dinner at American Chilies at 6pm. RM350 of the total bill will be paid by my company as an appreciation for my team's performance on one of the company dinner. wOOt! I ordered a chunky juicy lamb shoulder, sided off with steamed broccoli, cauliflower, onions and carrots, one larger piece of garlic bread, and a large scope of smashed potatoes covered with melted cheese sauce. SLURP! Superb! Along with a glass of guava and mango juice.... I'm filled to the brim. This food in my stomach can last me for 3 days.

Haikkk... another long day tomorrow. Will have to do some last minute Christmas shopping for gifts!

Fire and Ice, Glitz and Glamz

Yep, I attended another one of my company dinner today and yep, I enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed the one last week.

The first thing that one of the organizers (that happens to also be my team mate) I was told when I was registering myself at the entrance was that I was actually suppose to become the MC for the dinner with another guy! But... thank god I was on leave for the whole week and they could not get hold of me. Muahahaha! It's not my fault anyway right? No one informed me that I was picked to MC when I was in the office. I felt bad for the other MC though, he hosted the dinner alone.

Anyway, the dinner was quite a long one. 7pm to midnight! But I had great fun and the performances were great! All I have to say is that some men have bodies that women would kill for.

No, tak kena lucky draw again... aiyahhh no luck one la.

Many of my pictures didn't turn out great. *sign* I really miss my Canon. Here's the only one that turned out ok.



I met up with Mei Ghee, Wei Tieng, Raymond and their friends after the dinner. I had fun although I was all beat up and drained. The mood and music really got into me. My body was too tired but my head was bobbing. ...Oh man, I haven been 'out' for quite sometime. I'm getting old!

Overall, I had a damn good day. I'm sick but what the heck... this is my kind of ideal sick day.

Mommy, thank you for today too! *muaks*

A’Famosa trip

The trip to Melaka's A’Famosa resort is really good! Let me do a quick run down on the trip.

We left home about 7.30am to try to beat the morning traffic. Had breakfast at a coffee shop in Puchong and then drove to Melaka. We reached the resort about 10.30am. Since my auntie’s family from Singapore have not reached, we tried to check in. But sadly could not check in until 4pm (yeahh check in time is at 4pm!). However, we registered and took our coupons. By that time, my aunty reached and all 3 families headed to Safari.

Since no outside food and drinks were allowed in park, we had a little picnic at the empty car park before we enter. LOL! My mom and aunty made and brought more that enough food to feed all of us for 2 days! We entered the Safari after a really heavy brunch.



There's a Japanese carp pond near the entrance. There's a fish food despising machine at the side for visitors to buy fish food to feed the carps but I saw a few people feeding orange skin!



I was with a lot of 'cute chicks' in the chicken house! Hehehe ;p Visitors were allowed into the cage and pick up chicks. We had to make sure we didn't kill\step on any and we have to really handle them with care. They are so cute!!!! They went *chip chip chip* hehehe so cute!

We also took the 'bus' ride to round the enclosed area with the Safari animals. Since all the animals were not caged, our bus was. I felt like I was a wanted criminal being transported to jail. LOL!





The lions and tigers were not caged too! HOHOHO very interesting!



This one I had to take. I like this picture a lot.



There were elephant, camel and pony rides. We had to pay of course. But nice experience for RM4. Visitors could also buy sugar cane for RM2 to feed the elephants.

There were multiple shows we saw too. The Cowboy show was really good! The acting, the comedy, the costumes and even the guns! I think they used real guns with blank ammos. Explosions were real. And stunts were good too!

There are other shows like the bird show, multiple animal show, elephant show.. and a few more that I didn't get to see.



My sis with the furry animal. I don't know what's its called but it clings like a baby.



Very handsome!!! It's heavy.



Albino python! This one was from the multi animal show. It's a much smaller python compared to the one I held in Singapore. I asked my mom if I could have one in the house ..... hahaha I can't as expected.

My parents left the Safari at 4pm to get the keys and returned to join the rest of us. After Safari, we unloaded our belongings at the bungalow we rented and drove to Tampin for dinner. Tampin is a small town only about 10 minutes drive away from A’Famosa. The food was nice and cheap.

It was straight to Cowbow Town after dinner. (No time to shower! I was like sticky all over and stinky! LOL!) The shows and performance were good. And fireworks too!





My sis, one of my cousins and I went for a 15 minutes 4D movie after that as the rest of my family went back to the bungalow. The 4D movie was really worth the money paid. Damn good! I freaked out at a few parts. Rats Rats Rats!!! OMG!

I wanted to stay to enjoy the rest of the place. There were a few areas we all didn't get to visit. But we had to return to the bungalow. We all slept really comfortably. There were 4 rooms, each with 2 queen sized beds. 2 bathrooms. A fridge, water boiler, clothes iron and also a hair drier was also provided.

I planned to visit the archery, paintball and micro light flying club but I woke up way too late for that. The kids were enjoying themselves in the pool a little before we had to pack up for check out.





My 6 year old cousin doing some synchronized swimming thing. Very impressive.

The whole trip was really nice, but there was one thing I didn't like. The check in (4pm) and check out (12 noon) time! Anyway, here's some info is anyone is (going to plan) planning a trip there.

- A Famosa's homepage
- Map of the whole area
- Recommended stay, 3 days 2 nights
- If you are staying at the bungalow, a BBQ would be really nice. There's a big supermarket in Tampin where you can get all your BBQ stuff from so you don't have to bother about transporting them from your home.
- They kind of have a suggested itinerary for you to follow for each park. Follow it and you got the whole visit covered! Very convenient and will save you the headache.
- Water is expensive. Try to bring your own. RM2.50 for any drinks in the Animal World, and RM3.50 in the cowboy town!
- Having a car would be nice because the parks and condos\villas are located very far from each other. There are free busses to get to and from these places but kind of 'ma farn' to rely on them.
- Enjoy durians along the roadsides on the way back home! ...but the durians I ate today wasn't that nice.. and a bit pricey too.

Blogger is cacated today

Blogger is cacated today. Sorry for the individual picures ... I'm trying to fix it but blogger's publishing is really lagging today. Check back later.

A few in one

This 'holiday' is going to be as busy as work for me. *sign* When will I get a break?!

Thursday, 8 Dec 05 : I rushed to finish my responsibility at work and made it for the performance practice at 6pm. Me and the dedicated bunch rehearsed until it was 10.30pm. By the time I reached home... it was already 11.30pm.

Friday, 9 Dec 05 : Since I'm taking the following week off, I had some extra work to complete. I had to delegate my work so I would not have so much backlogs when I get back. I went for the final rehearsal late because I spent too much time chatting with people in the 8th floor.. hehe oops.. Didn’t get my work done in time.

Transformed into cowgirl aka sheriff and off I went to JW Marriot. I was a little late, but no sweat because the beginning was all speeches. My team's performance was first and well... since we all didn't have time rehearse at the Marriot's stage... our performance wasn't our best. But it was still ok. We were later given a letter, which told us that RM350 will be given to the performing teams for our effort. *wOOt*

I took a whole bunch of pictures before I head back to the office.





If you think I was 'crazy' to continue my work, hey I'm not. Two other guys from another team went back too!



My new team leader, me and the other 'crazy' guy. A few people commented that my team leader and I look like sisters. Hm... I think we do, a little. We have the same attitude when it comes to our responsibilities at work and I think we do have the same pattern when it comes to other stuff. I work well with her too.

Saturday, 10 Dec 05 : BBQ at Sean's new condo. Really nice place. I like, a lot! Sean was a great host. He doubts himself too much. I think I'll make more garlic bread next time....there's a next time right? ;P



I didn't take much pictures. I was too busy poking chicken wings with skewers and BBQing heart shaped chicken nuggets.


I don't know why, but I like this picture. Jin was so cute during the BBQ.... she was very very tempted to step into the pool, which later she finally did.

Sunday, 11 Dec 05 : JK rung me at 9.40am. "Eh wake up it's 10 already" I went back to sleep because I set the alarm for 10! I went to pick Yih Wen and we became 'the girls who will pour beer' for the rest of the afternoon. It's a long story but I learnt a new skill. 4 can = 1 jug, minimal foam. And opening beer cans? Easyyyy lah.

Monday, 12 Dec 05, aka my birthday : Woke uo late, but in time for lunch. Since it was a public holiday for Selangor, I can celebrate my birthday with my family! Too bad my bro is in Singapore. Anyway, I couldn't decide where to eat. PJ Hilton Hi-Tea? Too short notice. Eastin Chinese dim sum thingy buffet? Mom rang the restaurant but they didn't have the buffet that day. I want to go for Saisaki, but then I remembered some of KL's roads are closed... kind of lazy to head down to KL.

We ended up in Subang, Taipan. Why? ...hehehe my Mom left her handphone in her pants pocket and that pants when into a wet bucket for soaking! We thought that the phone got stolen and barred the line... but... LOL! We couldn't get her card though. Maxis service center was closed for the holidays.

Anyway, we had lunch at Logenhause. Good food at very reasonable price.



The ham is hiding all my meat! I ordered mix grill because I could not decide on what to eat. The grill came with a rib-eye lamb steak, tenderloin of beef, de-boned chicken drumstick, fresh made chicken patty, ham, one really yummy sausage, potato wedges and some vegetables and carrots. All that, along with asparagus soup and apple celery juice went into my stomach. Yum Yum!

We went shopping after that. ...shopping... and more shopping. My sis bought me a dress. =)

Today, Tuesday, 13 Dec 05 : My grand parents and cousins came down from Ipoh. Had to prepare things around the house and bake cakes for tomorrow. We will all meet my auntie’s family in Melaka. Family holiday! Hohoho!

Anyway, I made apple bread pudding for my grand parents and cous SJ's family. It didn't turn out well though. The pudding was too fresh, too soft and too watery. The pudding supposed to be refrigerated first... but ah well... SJ will let me know if the leftover in the fridge taste better.

My two other cakes turned out better. Made one pandan cake and a chocolate chip cake.

SJ was telling me that I didn't have a cake yesterday, but I'm baking 2+1 today.
Ironic.

Tomorrow, 14 Dec 05 : I'll be off to Melaka... pictures with I come back.

I hope I will have time for myself after the trip. 1 week seems so short. 1 whole week... but no time for myself.

Not so happy birthday...

It's my birthday today. People wish me 'Happy Birthday'. I wish myself 'Happy Birthday'. But ... I don't feel all that happy today.

I'm glad I have my family with me for the whole of today. At least that cheered me up a little. But things didn't turn out as planned ....

I'm disappointment. Cover up. Pushing the blame on me. No excuses, no lies. Because I know. How dare you. I'm pissed just thinking of it. Screw you jerk.

I didn't go to work. I took the whole week of for myself...well I had to clear my anual leaves anyway. Happy but not so happy birthday week for myself.

But I'm not going to be a bitch to all by all these negative thoughts.

Thank you all for your birthday wishes, messages, calls, SMSes and not forgetting the presents! Thank you for remembering that I'm another year older ;P

I have more happy stuff to say... but I think I'm still to BLARNGHHHHH. Happy thoughts and some pictures tomorrow. For now... just let me be la ok.

Am I going to let my birthday go just like that? I guess so. I really don't have the mood to celebrate. I don't want to turn another year older.... not yet. So, I'm officially declaring that I'm still 21... HAHAHA... I'm only 22 when I want to be, or until I celebrate.

Can a person actually do this? Yes I guess so. I have no cake, no candles to blow out, so I think I can.

pictures first

Food wasn't great. Service was bad. But I still had fun! I'm too tired to give you details, so enjoy some of the pictures first.