October 2010 – sixthseal.com

For whom the bell tolls

October 31, 2010 by HB

I am going to start a new religion tentatively named “For Whom The Bell Tolls”.

for whom the bell tolls

Doctrine
We believe in the mortality of the human body and in accordance to that, our “communion” is to ring a huge ass bell 66 times to symbolize the average life span of a person.

The Bell (TM)
This bell shall not exceed 5,000 meters in diameter (although larger bells will be considered on a case to case basis and will likely be approved with a wink).
Said bell must have the acoustic capacity to wake everyone up within a minimum radius of 2 kms.

Our Creed
We believe in one true God. Monotheistic religions generally are tax exempt so I’m going to explain this exceedingly difficult to understand (but not as complex as 3-in-1 Father, Son, Holy Spirit, inseparable) concept.

Our one true God is called Substances.
There are many manifestations of substances e.g. ethanol (alcohol), MDMA, benzodiazepines, (insert your favorite).

This Man (or God) of Substance, as it is, is to be worshipped at exactly 3 am in the morning since it’s after party hours and you’ll have to go to bed after.

Every practitioner of For Whom The Bell Tolls is expected to reflect on what they did that day and how they could have helped themselves or their fellow man better.

Example:
I could have drank more so I won’t be dead sober now
I could have helped my friends be in a more cheery mood if we had more hydroponics

Upon said reflection, you’re expected to ring the bell 66 times, waking everyone up before showering (optional) and passing out.

We do not believe in donations. We do not believe in calls to prayers. We do not believe in evangelism.

However, we strongly believe that all true adepts in our religion should purchase their own bell to the specifications above.

Banh cuon in Hanoi

October 28, 2010 by HB

goi choon start

Banh cuon is a term used to describe rice flour rolls in Vietnam. I was wondering along the streets of Hanoi when I decided to pop into a street stall to try one of their offering. I don’t quite remember where this was as I was just walking along and taking in the culture but it was really good.

Goi Cuon stall

The Northern part of Vietnam (including Hanoi) has a slightly different varient of Banh cuon. It’s a “rolled cake” which contains pork, shrimp herbs and rice vermicelli wrapped in rice paper.

Goi Cuon woman

You can see them prepare it fresh right in front of you!

Goi Cuon plate

This version also has a healthy sprinkling of pork floss on top and it’s served with a dipping sauce which has lime, sugar and fish sauce called Nuoc cham.

Goi Cuon preparation

It costs VND 15,000 for a plate (about RM 2.40) for a plate of four rolls and unsweetened iced tea is on the house.

Goi Cuon dip

I love the yin and yang concept of Vietnamese cuisine – they always have raw vegetables and herbs to complement the dish.

Goi Cuon dish

The dipping sauce is something awesome too. I ate it without the dipping sauce first but with the nuoc cham it makes it all the more better. Street food FTW in Vietnam!

sixthseal.com is migrating!

October 27, 2010 by HB

I’ll be migrating the site to WordPress at the end of this month. I’ve stayed with Movable Type for a long time coz it was the first CMS that came out specifically for blogging. I had a HTML manually updated blog before this coz I started in 2002.

However, MT has a higher server load and a lot of security vulnerabilities. The dry run on castitas.com (no it’s not the old castitas :p) seems to be working well without any broken links so I’m going to just go ahead and do it instead of waiting for a design.

I’m sure a lot of you have experienced problems with commenting and load time and I apologize for that. This will be fixed during the migration to WordPress.

Anyway, in unrelated technical news…

Sponsored Post:

The new Peugeot 207 looks mighty interesting. It has a lot of features that is usually the domain of high end cars which you have to pay through the nose for. The 207 has auto wipers and auto headlights as standard with climate control (no more old fashioned air conditioning dials). It also has a USB port and Bluetooth for your music needs. The Bluetooth can even pair with your phone to answer calls!

Peugeot is not a huge name in Malaysia but the car looks damn awesome in this video clip. There’s the sporty styling, dynamic looks and excellent suspension. Check out how they drift. I reckon they have pretty comfortable seats as well since I’ve been to a drifting class before and it’s not as easy as it looks. There are 2 airbags and Tiptronic shift where you can opt for manual control over the auto car when you want a more exhilarating experience.

Peugeot-207

All this in a sub 100k car – it even has front and back fog lights! The new 1.6 liter Peugeot 207 – a Peugeot for everyone!

Microdermal implants – my third nipple

October 24, 2010 by HB

microdermal implant instruments

Microdermal implants uses surgical grade titanium to anchor an interchangeable stud under your skin. It’s done by creating a “pocket” under your skin and it’s a lot easier to heal than the previous surface bar piercing that I have. I shall do a quick n00b drawing to show how it works.

microdermal diagram

Basically, it needs to be anchored towards something, in this case, my ribcage. There is a long titanium anchor that goes up and a shorter one that goes down. The first time you do it, it’s best to have a flat stud so it won’t rub too much against your clothes.

microdermal implant draw

It’s a lot easier to get piercings in high school and university coz you don’t have to give considerations about work. However, now that I’m working, piercings (except for the usual orthodox ones) have to be concealable under office attire.

microdermal implant measuring

Michelle calls it my third nipple.

Fresh says it looks like someone just hammered a nail in my heart but it’s actually straight in the middle of my body. Frankie of Zoo Body Piercing measured it so it would be right in the center of my body.

microdermal implant look

The procedure is fairly simple – a small gauge needle (which is a large needle – the higher the gauge, the thinner it is) is used to make 4 incisions under your skin. The top part of the anchor is pushed in followed by the bottom part.

microdermal implant done

I didn’t find it painful but then again your mileage may vary since everyone has different pain thresholds. I actually like pain so it was quite enjoyable for me.

Microdermal implants takes only 3 months to heal and costs RM 250. You have to really take care of it during the first few days though. However, my approach towards body modification is always LITHA (Leave It The Hell Alone) and it usually works for me.

microdermal implant us

Thanks to bff Lainey for the recommendation! Zoo Body Piercing also does branding – my next project! =D

Pizza Hut Extreme Cheesy 6 Pizza

October 22, 2010 by HB

cheesie

Cheese – milk’s leap towards immortality – Clifton Fadiman

pizza hut extreme cheesy 6

A lot of people consider cheese to be an American invention due to the mass proliferation of heavily proceeded cheddar cheese slices. Others think cheese is of French origin coz they produce a lot of gourmet cheeses. However, the truth is cheese was discovered much longer than that. Think BC. Cheese was probably first made way before 2,000 BC.

pizza hut pbd

I love cheese. I used to be able to whip up a quick breakfast in minutes…with cheese of course. However, I just don’t have the time to cook right now so I jumped at the chance when Pizza Hut invited me to taste their new Extreme Cheesy 6 Pizza at Pusat Bandar Damansara last Friday. I love how they always come out with new pizzas – I was at their Fish King Pizza launch a couple of months back too.

me wei zhi

The Extreme Cheesy 6 as exactly six types of cheeses in their pizza. It goes well with my blog URL.

The cheeses in question are:

say cheese

Cheddar
Classic delicate taste
Mozzarella
Creamy and soft
Parmesan
Flavorful and savory
Monterey Jack
Zesty and nutty
Provolone
Full-bodied and slightly tart
Romano
Hearty taste

pizza hut gm marketing

We watched the TVC after a short talk by Mr Law, the GM of Marketing.

aud tim nick

The Extreme Cheesy 6 Pizza can be ordered just like that (with cheese) or with your favorite topping. You can choose from Cheesy Hawaiian, Cheesy Pepperoni or Cheesy Chicken but my favorite was the pure cheese pizza.

pizza hut extreme cheesy 6 pizza hawaiian

I tried all four variants, which considerably tested my stomach capacity. They each have their own strengths; it’s just what type of topping you prefer.

pizza hut extreme cheesy 6 pizza pepperoni

Pizza Hut was too generous with their food – side orders of chicken wings…

chicken wings

…and pasta

pasta

…magically appeared and by the end of the session, I was totally stuffed, in a good way. =D

pizza hut extreme cheesy 6 pizza chicken

The Extreme Cheesy 6 Pizza retails for RM 21 (Regular) and RM 28.90 (Large). Toppings are available for RM 2 (Regular) and RM 3 (Large).

balloons

Sara Khoo! <3

sara khoo

She eats with a fork and spoon, which totally violates the dining etiquette of eating pizza. It’s heresy! Pizza is meant to be eaten with your hands!

power of cheese

There’s also a contest for all you bloggers out there. The Extreme Cheesy 6 Pizza Contest runs until 16 November and is open to all Nuffnang bloggers. Just write a creative and interesting post with the theme “Why You Love Pizza Hut’s 6 Cheese Extreme Pizza” and take lots of photos with the pizzas. You’ll also need to name all the cheeses (refer to above ;)) and end the blog post with “I’m crazy about Cheeeeeese!“.

6-Cheese-Poster

There’s exactly 6 (six, enam, liu) e’s in that last line. The top 5 winners get RM 2,000 cash which is pretty good so it might be time to get cracking. 🙂

thumbdrive

As usual, the hospitality from Pizza Hut was awesome! We all got thumb drives, notebooks and a voucher to dine with 6 (how apt) people for free! Thanks to Mr Low Kang Moon and Nor Aziani Azizan for having us! 🙂

group

It was a cheesy-licious dinner!

You’re like the village bicycle

October 19, 2010 by HB

village bicycle

…everyone gets a ride.

Okay let’s celebrate the middle of the week by coming up with lame jokes! What’s your favorite?

Don’t hate the playa, hate the game

October 15, 2010 by HB

playa

I like to think of myself as a bit of a playa with the number of notches on my belt for my various conquests. It has come to the point that I can’t even remember how many people of the fairer sex I’ve done the horizontal boogie with.

jestina goon

However, one very special girl totally eluded me. This is Jestina and I’m not going after her for shits and giggles, I meant for it to be a meaningful relationship, which would hopefully culminate in holy matrimony. It took me over a year of effort, which ultimately proved to be futile.

I remember taking half day leave in my previous company just because she mentioned she was craving for a green tea latte. I went all the way down from SS6 to Berjaya Times Square to get her one from Starbucks. I didn’t have GPS back then so I took the LRT so I wouldn’t get lost and end up handing her cold latte. >.<

taken by yuen yee

I think the problem with me is that I have approached the entire enterprise the wrong way from the start. I am used to playa moves and for this one I went the romantic route, which didn’t work very well. I have a very high batting average a.k.a. success rate when I’m in playa mode but I didn’t want to play her. Thus, I might have come across as too desperate.

BTW, in case you didn’t know, girls can smell desperation from a mile (or two) away. (!!!)

Anyway, still being friends, I decided to give it the good ol’ college try for one last time. We went out for lunch and dinner and hung out together. The last date was the most memorable one coz we were just sitting on the floor in MPH side by side, reading this huge dual volume compilation of creative advertisements and laughing and sharing together.

me jestina mph

That was a very nice memory that I’ll keep forever.

sushi

Jestina is a very nice girl. She tries to make time for me even though I kinda knew deep inside that she wasn’t interested in me romantically. I just had a heart to heart with her after our date last weekend and she told me that she can’t see me as anything except a friend.

It took a lot of time and part of me was glad that she told me the truth at last.

dinner

I was out drinking last night and one of my friends asked me a question that was so obvious it would be the size of the Great Pyramids of Giza if I was not blinded by love:

Has she ever initiated conversation with you?

The answer is no! I have always been the one to call, text and MSN her. I knew it, and I willfully ignored it. Denial is not just a river in Egypt. >.<

Playa FAIL!

Thus, it’s time to move on and get my playa’ mojo back. Can’t be moping around when you’re in the prime of your life.

Incidentally, there’s a sexy party going on at Movida in Sunway Giza called Playa’. It’s on the 20th October and starts from 10 pm – 12 am. I reckon this would be the best time to socialize with the opposite sex over cocktails. There will be 4 different signature Encore cocktails at the event.

Horeca-Player-Poster

You can also create your very own cocktail with their Mixologists and experience how to shake, stir, mix and pour a proper cocktail. Join the Encore Facebook page to get the latest about their parties.

I have 20 drink vouchers to give out so if you want them, just drop a comment and say “I’m a player for life and I’m going to Playa’” and the first 10 will get a pair each.

Make sure all of you who commented turn up to cheer me up.

Dun be a FKK queen like Jestina. :p

Golden Palm Tree Resort, Sepang

October 13, 2010 by HB

nice photo

Golden Palm Tree Resort is located in Sepang and consists ENTIRELY of water villas. This 5 star resort is a great alternative instead of Port Dickson since the drive is a bit shorter. To be honest I was a bit dubious about this when I drove down with Lainey bff.

sepang gold coast

I had expected an empty resort…

lounge

…but the place was PACKED with tourists, both local and international. We stayed in the Travelers Palm Villa and this is what the room looks like:

bed

The double twin bed is Michelle‘s doing.

room

One interesting aspect about Golden Palm Tree Resort is that the place is exactly shaped like the fronds of a palm tree with the water chalets fanning out into the sea.

map

It’s a long walk from the reception to the dining area but fear not – there are heaps of buggies which you can hail down and hitch a ride from.

mermaid

They all have interesting names too.

tea

We arrived there slightly after lunch so we grabbed some tea.

tea time

There is a Club Med style package where all F&B is free so you can eat all you want without worrying about having to pay extra.

infinity pool

The one thing about Golden Palm Tree that completely trumps Club Med is that liquor is free too!

fronds

Gin and tonic? Vodka on the rocks? Neat rum? No worries, it’s included in the price! =D

water chalets

Anyway, we chilled in our room for a while before heading out to the mangrove tour.

balcony

It has an awesome balcony…

shower

…and a shower that I really liked coz you can sing while you soap yourself for all and sunder to see!

resort

You can also jump from the balcony but I seriously do not recommend it. Do it at your own risk. 😉

pool

The infinity pool! *refrains from saying “To infinity and beyond!”

boats to depart

Back to the mangrove tour, this is different from the mangrove tour I’ve been to in Langkawi – they have different species of mangrove over here.

me lainey mangrove

I’m on a boat!

Doing our part! *proud

planting mangrove

We’re planting mangrove seeds for it to grow.

Next on the itinerary was The Search for the Holy Ketam. I was one of the few to step off the boat and into the nearly knee high deep (at times) mud.

yellow crab

There are yellow crabs…

one armed crab

…and a very interesting crab with a immense left claw.

ketam

It took a while but we finally managed to find ourselves one of them. w00t!

gpt got talent

It was back to the resort after that for dinner and an awesome show by the talents at Golden Palm Tree Resort.

It’s called GPT’s Got Talent and it’s an awesome and interactive night entertainment program. YMMV though, they have different events running at different times.

Me and bff Lainey kept on supporting the good ones but alas, it wasn’t enough.

We had a lot of fun though and met a lot of different people.

The latest way to take a group photo is via video.

Okay la, I set it to the wrong settings. :p

love this photo

I particularly liked this photo. Heh!

We then adjourned back to our hotel where Nicholas and Lainey sealed the deal. *stamps I WAS THERE

it support

I had problems with the Internet at around 1 am in the morning and two of their IT staff came over to fix it. At 1 fucking AM!!! (deserves more than 3 exclaimation marks to be honest)

Now this is what I call excellent service.

The next day…wah damn hard to wake up lor, Lainey was up and I took my time and had a couple of swigs neat from the Absolut Raspberry I brought up before I could properly wake up.

lainey wakes up

Lainey wakes up like this.

i wake up

I wake up like this. T_T I could only drink a beer and eat a banana FML.

watersports

The eco friendly water sports were not running that day due to the lack of wind so we ended up…

spa

…touring the place instead!

escapade spa

There was a massage session scheduled for us after that at escapade spa. I love massages and I opted for full strength as did Lainey bff.

foot rub

It is a very relaxing environment and puts you at ease and takes all your stress away.

We got into the couples room and it started with a foot rub before the actual massage.

lainey semi nude

Here is Lainey semi nude. Lainey sez: WA who’s that hottie wei! I was wearing nothing but boxers too.

elaine loh

It was in this totally chill place where the masseuse worked her magic and I completely dozed off after she did my back and moved to my front.

It was an awesome massage though. First class treatment. It can’t get any better than this.

contented smiles

*contented smiles

steamboat

It was a steamboat lunch after that before lazing around the resort and packing our bags to get back home. I had a huge backpack which I lug around when I travel. Lainey bff travels lighter than me! We really didn’t want to leave. It was such a chill place that we had a discussion about taking leave the next day and just chilling here for one more day.

group

I love Golden Palm Tree Resort – you can’t ask for more in this 5 star getaway just an hours’ drive from the city. I thoroughly enjoyed myself there. The drive back was quite sad though coz Lainey bff pasaut in the car and I missed the short weekend in Golden Palms. 🙁

pasaut

It definitely warrants a return trip back if you want to chill and get away from the stress and hustle and bustle of the city.

end

Get more information at the Golden Palm Tree Resort official website. I <3 it.

Everyone needs protection

October 11, 2010 by HB

trend micro event

Protection is very important if you like to mess around.

trend micro launch

I’m talking about a different kind of protection though. I went to the Trend Micro TITANIUM Internet Security 2011 launch a while ago and got the lowdown on how it works. I’m no stranger to technology, I graduated in Computer Science (don’t ask me why I’m in my current line now – long story) and the product had some very interesting features.

Before I go into the details, lemme just go through the awesome start of the event! The lights were dimmed and this dance troupe came on stage to perform a routine involving a lot of fabric waving.

launch

The official launch kicked off after that and Trend Micro came on stage to explain how their TITANIUM suite works.

speach

It’s actually very interesting for two major reasons:

1. It doesn’t require the virus/malware/Trojan horse signature files to be downloaded – it’s stopped at their server level using cloud computing – a good thing considering there’s 1.5 threats per second
2. It takes up very little processing power – gone are the days when you have to disable your anti-virus before playing games

Also, it has a very nifty feature for all you Edison Chen wannabes – it securely deletes files according to US government standards. Useful, eh? 😉

first dish

Lunch was served after that and it was a good spread which includes everything from starters…

soup

…to soup

fish

…and the quintessential fish!

prawns

I was stuffed by the time the prawns came.

umbrella

There was no shortage of entertainment either – besides the lucky draw, there was a game where random items ranging from 4D stubs to a strand of hair was required and I am proud to report that our table won! We all got a Trend Micro umbrella which was rather useful the day after when I went to a client’s place and it was raining cats and dogs.

The dance troupe also went on stage periodically to do choreographed numbers.

The funniest game of the launch has gotta be this Girls vs Guys contest where they attempted to stack up the boxes of Trend Micro TITANIUM to the maximum possible height. The guys looks like they were winning but in the end the girls copied their technique with more finesse – they turned the box vertically instead of horizontally to achieve a greater height.

stacking game

There was a lucky draw at the end where you get to win a smartphone too but alas, I was not one of the lucky ones.

dance

However, it was an awesome event and Trend Micro was kind enough to furnish us with mooncakes, a jacket and a 3 license copy of Trend Micro TITANIUM Maximum Security when we went back.

I’ve tried out the product on my personal notebook and while I don’t need the parental controls (heck, at my age I’m supposed to be a parent) but the data theft prevention and web threat preventions works very well. I can even play Starcraft II (my current personal benchmark) while it’s scanning in the background.

trend micro girls

It’s amazing how security software has grown by leaps and bounds since the last time I’ve bothered to install one. I think the best feature of Trend Micro TITANIUM Maximum Security for me is their validation of WiFi hotspots since I use my computer at all sorts of places.

You can’t go wrong if you shield your (USB) dong(gle).