Month: April 2004

1314

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1314. It came out on Magnum 4D Draw 048/04 just now. I hardly ever
buy lottery tickets. Yesterday afternoon, I was going to get a Foochow
big pau (RM 2) for lunch and I only had RM 50 denomination notes and
they didn’t have change. The memory of the last time I bought 4D from
the accident was still fresh and the Magnum 4D outlet was just a little
down from there, so I decided to get change there, and got a number
just for fun.

1374

1374. I figured it was an appropriate number because I was depressed
and thinking about the utter pointlessness of life. 1374 pronounces as
“once born, go die” (literal translation) in Mandarin – it fitted my
mindset because that’s what life’s about. We get born, we live through
our meaningless lease on earth, and death awaits us at the end. I was
hoping it would be sooner than later, due to my personal problems which
I would not like to talk about but you can all probably figure out
(it’s related to veritas).

Anyway, I went back with change and bought my big pau for lunch.
Walking past the outlet, I realized that there was an even better
number – 1314. It would translate as “one birth, one death” – a rather
Zen like approach to life…we live, we die. Until then, we take what
we can from the offerings of this world. I started to walk into the
Magnum 4D outlet with the full intention of buying that number, I shit
you not, I really stepped in with the FULL INTENT to get that number –
when I saw one of my coworkers walking past.

I did not want to be associated with these activities, since I do
not gamble. That is not my vice, my vice is drugs, so I immediately
walked out again to avoid being seen at this venue. Anyway, I was
posting today and remembered the 4D slip that I got and vaguely
remembered that the draw was opening at 7 PM today – it was the live
results draw on their website and I saw 1314 come out as the “Special
Prize” number, which nets RM 200.

1314
Results from Magnum 4D website [magnum4d.com].

I was elated! RM 200 would give me a free return ticket back to Sibu
during the long Labor Day holidays! RM 200 would get me a “stick”
(about 500 mg) of methamphetamine crystals, with RM 20 left to donate
to the nice auntie who explained the semantics of this game to me! The
possibilities! It’s a small amount, no doubt, but to win by just very
casual buying (I think this is the third time in 4 years?) would be
incredibly lucky and I jumped up in elation when that number came out.

I checked my slip…it was 1374. I forgot. I didn’t go in to get
1314 because I didn’t want to be associated with this (which is
strange, since I don’t mind being associated with drug use). Fuck! The
sheer elation…and then the letdown. The disappointment at what could
have been mine. Not could have, it’s WOULD HAVE. I had the full intent of getting that number. My girlfriend says it’s not meant to be.

I fully agree. I swear that I’ll never let Magnum 4D get RM 1.10 from my pockets again. Pffftttt…

I don’t care now though, I get over things very quickly. 🙂

Lok lok

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lok lok nasi lemak

I’m not sure where the etymology of the word “lok lok” comes from,
but it’s basically stuff skewed onto a stick (like a satay or kebab)
which you can pick and choose from the large selection on offer. There
are two different styles of lok lok – it’s either boiled (more common
here) or deep fried. This is Ming Corner in Kuching, it has become a
staple where me and my friends go for lok-lok and nasi lemak. It’s
along Jalan Padungan and you can’t miss the neon sign.

Here are photos of the many varieties of selectable items that can be found in places specializing in loklok:

loklok offerings
These are the more common offerings. There’s fishballs and meatballs of
all sorts and shapes and mystery meat made in the likeness of shapes
like fishes, barrels etc.

sausages cuttlefish
You’ll also notice that some of the lok lok sticks comes interspaced
with different items e.g. one sausage followed by half a meatball till
the stick is filled. There’s also more esoteric items like the mussel
(with shell intact) topped with a fish ball you can see beside the
sausages. The far end of the picture shows the items that are less in
demand like chicken stomachs.

crabclaws mussels
Here’s a picture of tofu, cuttlefish, shrimp and crab claw lok loks.

sotong vegies
There’s also vegetables strung onto a stick and sotong interspaced with vegetables.

quail eggs preserved
Now this is something I won’t miss out on every time we go for lok lok
– quail eggs! =D I love these things. The white ones are normal boiled
quail eggs and the dark ones are century quail eggs!
I’m surprised that century eggs comes in the quail egg size in addition
to the chicken egg size. I love them all! Quail eggs! Quail eggs! Quail
eggs!

clams lok lok
Last, but not least, is the staple of lok lok – clams. These are the
small clams you can find in Penang style char kueh tiaw. There are also
unshelled clams and whole fishes in addition to stingrays and whole
prawns.

Anyway, what you do is grab a plate from the stack and pick up the
sticks of lok lok you want. I had two plates, this is the first one:

jellyfish crabstick
It contains jellyfish, clams, squid, a crab claw and meatball combo, and a prawn ball and half fish ball combo.

loklok cooking

You pass your plate to the attendant when you’re done choosing from
the selection and she cooks it by dipping it into the small boiling pot
of broth. The time it takes for each item is different e.g. vegetables
are just dipped in for a second while squid will be simmering in the
pot for a while. Thus, each batch is cooked separately.

loklok sauces

In the meantime, you can take another plate and fill it up with the
sauce(s) of your choice. Personally, I mix all four together in
different ratios. My personal preference is – two portions of satay
sauce (peanut based sweet sauce), 2 portions of oyster sauce, one
portion of chili sauce (it dilutes the sauce mix and I like mine to
have a thick consistency) and one portion of this unknown salty tasting
sauce which is not soy sauce (just to make it salty).

serving prawns

Here’s a photo of the cooked plate, served to your table. This is
Plate #2 – it contains vegetables (yes, I do eat
veggies…occasionally), quail eggs, century (preserved) quail eggs
spaced with cuttlefish, prawns and clams.

nasi_lemak.jpg

Ming Corner (or just “the lok lok place”, as we call it due to the
prominent neon sign) serves a mean plate of nasi lemak as well – the
dish that makes the meal, since lok lok isn’t filling per se. Yes, I
realize how cheesy the adjective “mean” sounds when used in this
context. 😉

McDonald’s Fish McDippers

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fish mcdippers bucket

Fish McDippers is the latest addition to the McDonald’s menu over
here. It’s like Chicken McNuggets, except it’s made with fish instead
of chicken. This gives it a soft and spongy texture which is quite
pleasing. McDonald’s Fish McDippers comes in two sizes – the photo
above shows the large “mini bucket” which contains 6 of the fish
nuggets and retails for RM 4.90.

fish mcdippers large
Here’s a look inside the six piece container.

It’s also available in a smaller size, which usually comes with
Happy Meals, but can be purchased separately for RM 2.95. The small 4
piece box has…er, four pieces of the deep fried, batter coated, fish
nuggets.

fish mcdippers box

It is wonderfully crunchy and crispy on the outside, but retains the
soft, slightly undercooked and delicious fish flesh on the inside.

fish mcdippers small
This is what the 4 pack looks like, when opened.

The Fish McDippers comes with tartar sauce – which goes well with fish.

mcd tartar sauce

Unlike the sauce mini containers in Australia, the ones here are free instead of the A$ 0.30 they charge over there.

Instructions for use:

fish mcdippers dip

1. Grasp one Fish McDipper with your fingers and insert the nugget
into the open tartar sauce container. Dip the exterior surface with the
sauce.

fish mcdippers eat

2. Open mouth and take a bite out of the piece. Repeat.

sixthseal.com 2nd Birthday!

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2nd birthday

On this day, the 19th of April 2004, sixthseal.com celebrates its
second anniversary! It coincides with the day this site was moved to
its own VPS (Virtual Private Server) to accommodate the huge bandwidth
demands that it generates. There will be the traditional wrap up of the
previous year as well in the post below.

I have been blogging for two years now, starting from a humble HTML
blog without comments to the blog you see now. I have watched the site
grow from single digit daily unique visitors to the thousands of unique
visitors that it now receives every day. For that, I thank everyone,
from the vast silent majority to the vocal minority, for reading my
daily posts. Thank you!

This year was particularly noteworthy, due to the fact that the
timeframe covers my final days in university at Melbourne, Australia
through to my first job at XM Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and up
to my second job in Kuching, Sarawak. The site also expanded and
acquired multiple domain names under the sixthseal.com umbrella – castitas.com (9th September 2003), pengsan.com (18th November 2003), louisalee.com (27th January 2004) and fengtau.com (30th January 2004).

It also stands witness to “veritas” finally coming clean and
admitting what everyone already knew or guessed – there was never a
guest author…every single “veritas” post was written by the “main
author” (which would be me, there is only one author on sixthseal.com).
It was necessary to use a pseudonym to distance myself from the drug
related content, thus “veritas” was born. I realize that it’s an ironic
name since “veritas” is Latin for “truth”.

However, it was originally meant to provide readers with an insight
to my recreational drug use – the Latin word for “truth” was meant to
dispel the junkie drug user stereotype and to provide true
harm-minimization oriented drug education, without any government or
anti-drug propaganda. It was also meant to help existing users to be
safer and more responsible in their drug consumption and to be aware of
what they’re actually consuming and the risks involved.

I’ll be the first to admit that it’s not all altruistic…I love
drugs and writing about them. I enjoy receiving the “fan mail” that
veritas gets. I wanted to be the first drug blogger in the world. I’m
not sure if I really am the pioneer in this sense (experience reports
have been around forever), but I’ll like to think that I’m the first
one to take photos of the various drugs that I consume and write posts
about them in a weblog format, at least in Malaysia.

Here is a re-cap of the more noteworthy posts during the blog year from 19th April 2003 till 19th April 2004:

Huai Bin

Project Petaling Street announcement
June 12, 2003 – Melbourne, Australia
The birth of the monumental PPS documented.

Flunitrazepam (Rohypnol, Hypnodorm, “date rape drug”)
June 12, 2003 – Melbourne, Australia
My doctor shopping skillz shall be disputed by none! 😉

Tribedadelic rave
July 5, 2003 – Melbourne, Australia
My last (indoor) rave before leaving Melbourne.

Miss Malaysian Chinese photographic shoot
July 6, 2003 – Sibu, Sarawak
Photos of girls in Sibu.

McDonald’s Sega handheld video games
August 1, 2003 – Sibu, Sarawak
The promotional Sega – McDonald’s collaboration handheld games.

Okonomiyaki
August 22, 2003 – Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Full photographic documentation of the okonomiyaki making process.

Deviant Species doof
December 22, 2003 – Melbourne, Australia
The outdoor rave (doof) I squeezed into my itinerary when I went back for my convocation.

McDonald’s Salads Plus
December 28, 2003 – Melbourne, Australia
I ate most of the Salads Plus menu – an attempt by McDonald’s to shred (no pun intended) it’s unhealthy image.

Last day at XM, Malaysia
January 15, 2004 – KL, Malaysia
My last day at the first company I worked in, before moving to Kuching for a better paycheck.

Firecrackers in Malaysia
January 21, 2004 – Sibu, Sarawak
A sixthseal.com Chinese New Year special!

HIV testing in Malaysia
March 22, 2004 – Kuching, Malaysia
My community service message to balance out my karma for all the drug posts I make. 😉
*Updated with Western Blot Gribbles test results.

Come out and play
April 4, 2004 – Kuching, Sarawak
Nightlife in Kuching.

Lidocaine experiment
April 12, 2004 – Kuching, Sarawak
I inject myself with Xylocaine, “veritas” has already been admitted to be me all along.

“veritas”

LSD (acid) blotters
April 23, 2003 – Melbourne, Australia
Never underestimate hallucinogens.

Dextroamphetamine scripting success!
April 30, 2003 – Melbourne, Australia
This is legal speed (not available in Malaysia) – amphetamines from your friendly neighborhood doctor. 😉

Magic mushrooms
May 9, 2003 – Melbourne, Australia
Successful mushroom hunting for psilocybe subaeruginosa and amanita muscaria.

Methamphetamine IV (intravenous injection)
June 17, 2003 – Melbourne, Australia
I join the (dubious) ranks of injecting drug users.

Video of veritas smoking methamphetamine
February 7, 2004 – KL, Malaysia
The first video release on sixthseal.com – we embrace all forms of journalism. 😉

The first anniversary of sixthseal.com can be viewed here.

Thank you, dear readers of sixthseal.com. It has been another good year, and here’s to many more good years to come! Cheers! 🙂

sixthseal.com is back online!

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vps move done

This post would be visible if the move to my robust VPS with 6 GB
disk space (it has been upgraded) and 75 GB bandwidth per month with
128 MB guaranteed RAM (up to 4 GB possible) has successfully
propagated. There are still a lot of things that needs to be done, much
of the site is totally messed up, but that will have to wait till
tomorrow due to human fatigue. 😉

Say hello in the comments so I can gauge when to switch temporary pointers to permanent ones.

sixthseal.com is moving

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I’ll be performing a “forced migration” today, since attempts to get
it working on my VPS with a preserved SQL database seems futile with
the latest Movable Type release. The DNS/nameserver change may result
in some downtime, though a smooth transition is expected (but that
hardly ever happens from experience). This, of course, will result in
heavy Google penalties since this method of migrating does not preserve
the original file structure, but it’s unavoidable, since bandwidth
bills are getting insane, so I’ll have to move it to my robust 2 GB
disk space with 75 GB monthly bandwidth VPS. Please allow 24 – 48 hours
for the move to be completed. Please direct all email to this address and if the transition does not go as smoothly as I hope it will, new posts will be temporarily made at castitas.com. Thank you for your patience and I’ll see you all soon!

Keropok perisa ayam (square tapioca crisps)

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bika bulk

Do you remember those square tapioca keropok (crisps) that was
widely available in our primary school days? I love those things – it’s
the best testing crisps in the world! It’s made from tapioca instead of
potatos, unlike mosts crisps. I seriously cannot find anything that
rivals these things (though Double Decker chicken crisps comes a close
second)…it’s simply delicious. I couldn’t find it in normal retail
outlets though…it seems to be only sold in bulk (100 packs or so).

keropok perisa ayam

Well, I managed to find some at this shop near a primary school – it’s not the original ones that I remembered, but they taste exactly
the same. It costs the same too, which was surprising. It’s a very
affordable RM 0.20 per packet. Just 20 cents like it used to be!
Nostalgia…I could eat heaps and heaps of these without getting sick,
and most people in my workplace loves these things too, the shop is
near the place I work.

tapioca crisps

Basically, its square crisps flavored with chicken with heaps of MSG. Mmm…tasty!

In other news, I had a long meeting today with the MBKS (Kuching
South Council) mayor and his entourage. I don’t know what half the
people in the meeting room was there for – they didn’t seem to be
related to the project and was just there sitting passively and nodding
their heads and smiling at the appropriate moments (usually on the
mayor or his assistant’s cue). I went to the MBKS HQ with my CEO, CFO
and CTO and we successfully secured a project…which means more work
for me in the foreseeable future, but hey, it’s what I’m being paid
for. The suaku guy in me was amazed at the expensively decorated and
architecturally extravagant interior and the lavish meeting room. There
was even an attendant to make sure our coffee cups were full and he was
serving us sandwiches as well. It’s shrink wrapped individual ones with
a polystyrene container and a three layer sandwich in one side and a
two layer one in the other. I don’t know what’s inside though. We later
surveyed the site for a while and I highly regretted not bringing my
digicam along (I figured it would look unprofessional) since there were
good photo opportunities – the view was amazing from there. Suaku guy,
signing out…

Hilux vs Wira accident and 4D numbers

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hilux vs wira

There was a vehicular collision involving a Toyota Hilux rear ending
a Proton Wira just a little down from where I work right before lunch
break. I didn’t hear the accident but Evelyn from Accounts informed me
that there was a loud collision and showed me where it happened. I
tried to look out of the second floor window, but couldn’t see anything
– apparently the vehicles have moved to the side to allow traffic to
flow along the busy and narrow Jalan Padungan road.

Anyway, after ascertaining from her that it seems to be a rather
gnarly accident, I was disappointed when I went down, digital camera in
hand, to see there was only a damaged bumper and boot to the white
Wira, and hardly any signs of damage on the front of the Hilux.
Nevertheless, it seems that people like to buy 4D (lottery prediction
numbers) based on the victim’s car number plate, and I decided to go
during lunch break to this 4D outlet near my workplace to get one just
in the spirit of fun.

4d is closed

I must say that I can’t remember the last time I bought 4D since
gambling is not one of my interests, so I was surprised to see that the
outlet was closed. Another coworker who saw me photographing the closed
outlet told me that all prediction number agencies are closed on
Thursday. I guess I’ll have to get it tomorrow then. 😉

BBQ chicken skin

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bbq chicken skin

I have been recently introduced to the strangely tasty offerings of
chicken skin, skewed on a stick (not unlike a satay) and flame grilled
over a BBQ. BBQ chicken skin is exactly what it means – it only has the
chicken skin on it. Look closely at the photo and you’ll make out the
skinned chicken pieces arranged on the sticks. These places usually
also offers other items like chicken liver, as well as more
conventional fare like chicken wings and sausages.

bbq other fare

Chicken skin has this cloyingly chewy sweet taste and I must say
it’s somewhat of an acquired taste. It does taste good, but after the
3rd or 4th stick, you’ll start to feel a bit queasy. It’s pure chicken
skin after all, without any meat, so the texture starts getting a
little…unpleasant after a few skewers of this. I would recommend this
in small portions…and its best eaten with a slathering of chili
sauce. 🙂

Clams cooked with ginger

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ginger clams

I love these clams…the larger ones with a white shell and a tender
and moist center. I had these for dinner just now. It was cooked with
ginger, but that did not overwhelm the taste. The place I go to does it
just right – slightly underdone and the clams are fresh. Mmm…

Anyway, my mental faculties are somewhat impaired right now and Mr.
Sandman is being insistant about doing his duty, so I’ll have to reply
the comments tomorrow. My apologies about this – there’s some really
insightful and feedback in the past few posts, thanks for all the
responses!

P/S – Your posts always provide much needed insight to keep me in check, maria callas. 🙂

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