HB

A long, personal journey worth having.

Splish splash I was taking a bath!

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sony cybershot tx5 underwater photo

It’s very difficult to pose properly underwater due to the natural buoyancy of our bodies. /science teacher mode

ice

I highly applaud this group who practiced their underwater shots until they got it spot on.

sony cybershot tx5 my water moments

I was at the My Water Moments with TX5 event at Mali Cove, Sunway Lagoon on the 7th of August. I had to wake up really early and dragged myself out of bed but it was well worth it!

sony bas

Sony events are always awesome and this one was no different.

me aud tzia

Here’s Aud and Tziaa!

jestina

Jestina! w00t! The water was very enticing with the heat so I was very tempted to take a dip. You know how I am with temptation, it always wins. >.<

yuen karen

I went for a swim before the event started and Yuen Yee and Karen was kind enough to oblige carrying my t-shirt back to our table (since I neglected to take it off before I went into the water, that was how appealing it was).

friends feet

Feet friends! Jesus walked on water. You can too! =D

sony cybershot tx5 event

My Water Moments was organized for Sony Cyber-shot TX5 owners as well as bloggers and the Nuffnang contingent was there in droves!

crowd

It aims to highlight the features of the camera by a series of games and I must admit, most of it was very creative!

me karen

Water, water, everywhere and not a drop to drink! =D

temperature proof

The first game highlights the temperature proof feature of the digicam several working TX5 cameras was placed in a box of ice cubes and the groups who managed to get the most in a set won. There was a lot of frantic digging around the ice for this activity as well as abuse meted out to the digicams in the spirit of competition…

throwing cams

…but have no fear! The second task was actually THROWING the TX5 INTO tubes from a distance of three meters. These tubes are color coded, matching the colors of the cameras and you’re supposed to throw the right color into the right tube. The digicam is shock proof so this was also partly to demonstrate that.

The third task illustrates the dust proof characteristics of the camera a lot of the cameras was placed into a box filled with Styrofoam and you have to dig out 10 of each color.

dust proof

I saw some of the groups being overly enthusiastic and throwing the digicams to the floor but each and everyone survived.

pure win

The digicams I mean, the participants obviously are still alive and kicking. 😉

event

The fourth task is one of the more interesting ones.

sony cams underwater

You’re supposed to dive underwater and grab the water proof TX5 which were floating under the water. I took this video with my very own TX5 and check out how trippy it is:

The digicams were floating around and moving with the currents in Mali Cove so it’s not easy to actually do this. I tried and I got a bad case of eye irritation from the chlorine in the water. It’s still a damn good video though and one of my best from this session. 🙂

pose station

The fifth and final task is at the Underwater Pose Station (where everyone can pose underwater and get a free photo developed). This is rather challenging as you have to be creative and defy gravity, er, I mean buoyancy by staying underwater long enough to come out with a great group pose.

Consider this the Top 5 Things You Can Do With The TX5. smirk

people

A lot of groups in teams of 5 participated – kudos to the winners for they worked hard for it.

food

Lunch was provided and it’s a proper catered lunch instead of packed stuff there’s rice dished out, chicken curry, vegetables, an omelet with generous ingredients, and honey chicken. I loved the cake and ice cream provided as dessert too.

winners

We had a lot of fun at the My Water Moments with TX5. I liked how they blended the features of the camera into games which reflects the characteristics of it. The food was good, the games were great, and the crowd was awesome!

My only beef with it is my failed JAWS attempt. No one even noticed me. FML max.

Rai Leh Rendezvous

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railey

How do I even begin to describe this epic adventure?

railey longboat

We just checked into our hotel in Ao Nang and decided to head down to Railey East at about 7 pm since I read that there’s algae there which glows brilliant blue in the night. The bioluminescence is supposed to surround your body in “a million tiny blue lights” so we headed down despite the longboat telling us that we HAD to get back at 8 pm coz that’s when the last boat departs.

railey travel

I reckon we could just pay any longboat operators hanging around to get us back at 12 am. We were going to Wing It ™ in the true spirit of ADVENTURE! =D

The trip to get into the longboat sounded the death toll for my Blackberry. To reach the longboats, you have to wade through waist high water and I wanted to Twitpic everything since I didn’t pay RM 38 for BIS international roaming for nothing. Unfortunately, everything got wet, including my friend’s bag and my Blackberry.

railey beach

That’s okay we’re still going to enjoy the glowing algae! By the time we got there it was nearly dark and we were starving so we ordered food at the incredibly over-commercialized island. There are bars right on the beach and food stalls which were predominantly dominated by Caucasians.

railey food

We jumped into the water after that and went for a swim towards the elusive bioluminecent algae.

It was nowhere to be found.

I don’t know if it’s coz of the rain (we were thoroughly soaked) or the rocky seas but the algae just wasn’t there.

We finally gave up trying and decided to create our own creature instead – The Beast With Two Backs ™.

beast with two backs

Trying to do that while in that weather is nigh impossible. The waves kept pushing us inland, the rocks lying under the beach kept cutting us, and I lost my fucking underwear.

* Watching this video is discouraged – you can’t see jackshit from the darkness

We finally gave up and just went back to the beach. No longboats in sight.

We walked to Railey East. Nope, no longboats either. We walked back to Railey West and a kind dude manning a tattoo place with dreadlocks said we could try taking the employee only longboat back – it departs at 10:30 pm.

railey smoke

* The soaked cigarette is still smokable, just a bit…watered down smirk

However, there was no guarantee that we can actually get on the boat and it doesn’t stop in Ao Nang so we’ll have to take ANOTHER taxi from there.

We walked back to Railey East to play Spot The Longboat Operator ™. I reckon the game would have been fun if we were not thoroughly drenched, with no cell phones (my friend left hers at our hotel in Ao Nang and my BB died a watery death).

rock

* The rock that thwarted our intimacy

I think we must have walked back and forth from Rai Leh East beach and Rai Leh West beach at least 7 times in vain before the same dread locked guy told us that it’ll probably would be easier just to stay here.

diamond cove resort

There are several problems though:

  • I don’t have a cell phone (my BB died in the rain and waist deep water while getting on the longboat)
  • We were both drenched with no towels and no change of clothes
  • I lost my fucking underwear to the tides of Rai Leh
  • My digicam (which is thankfully waterproof) is running very low on battery since it hasn’t been charged since I got here
  • We have to go to Phi Phi Islands the next day
  • I left my medication in Ao Nang FML max

Finally, we were so exhausted, wet and bearing cuts from our attempts to recreate the cocktail Sex On The Beach (or Sex In The Sea rather) that we just decided to stay on Railey. There’s a hotel called Diamond Cave Resort which goes from 2000-3000 baht (RM 200-300) per night but since is low season we managed to get a rate of 500 baht (RM 50) – a tip from the dread locked dude again.

railey strip

Thankfully we had a bottle of vodka with us or else I’ll have withdrawal symptoms from the lack of GABA agonists (clue to what meds I’m taking LEGITIMATELY) – no need for a degree in particle physics for that.

We were a bit concerned about missing the boat to Phi Phi Islands the next day but we woke up super early.

I had wrung my clothes and left them to dry at the balcony but it still wasn’t dry.

It was an adventure indeed – one we dub the Rai Leh Rendezvous.

railey hotel

One thing about hotels in Krabi though – they’re very big on animals as towels. smirk

Time rules over us without mercy

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We never turn our back on it and we never ever allow ourselves the SIN of losing track of time.
– Cast Away

fuck i'm late

I am very particular about time. It harks back to an incident where I got locked in the public library when I was a kid coz I went to the gents near closing time. We didn’t have cell phones then so it took a while for my mom to realize I was missing and even longer to get security to open the grill. Needless to say, that experience was rather unnerving since I still remember it.

ellesse time

Ironically, I’m not much of a watch person. I keep track of time by using the computer’s lower right clock feature when I’m at work and a cell phone when I’m out. However, I can appreciate having a fine timepiece. A lot of people consider a watch an important accessory for men – a status symbol of sorts. Personally, the importance of a watch can be summed up with one word:

HINT

This only works with watches. Let’s say you have an important appointment to go to and you’re in a similarly important discussion. Dilemma! You wouldn’t want to be late for the next meeting and you ALSO don’t want to offend the people in the current discussion.

Solution:

michelle watch

Make sure you discreetly glance at your watch when the other person is watching. This will generally project a hint that you’re in a bit of a rush and allow you to exit gracefully without a social faux pas smirk.

This won’t work with my Blackberry since people would assume I’m just checking work emails.

That’s the importance of a watch and now I know why so many working professionals wear one. 😉

I’m not in the habit of wearing chronographs so it surprised my friend Michelle when I had the ellesse Sportivo on. I have to admit, it looks very nice and she was rather impressed with it as well.

ellesse

ellesse started out as a sports apparel brand from Italy but have since expanded into timepieces with ellesse TIME. I got one of the Sportivo collection for men. This stainless steel ellesse watch contrasts well with the black textured PU middle links around the bracelet. It has a very cool black dial too – large and stylish with three separate counters and a date display.

ellesse sportivo

This watch has all the features a good timepiece would have, like a tachymeter, but the best thing about the ellesse Sportivo is that it looks good and feels solid. The black/silver color scheme works very well – the red highlights is a real attention grabber too! It’s also water resistant up to 100 meters so you won’t have to take it off when you’re in the pool.

underwater

1 SECOND. YOU. THE WORLD.

ellesse is running a contest where you share a photo and story about a touching moment in your life. It’s really simple to join and here is my entry:

mom pre op

If I have 1 second with the world, I won’t give the usual Miss Universe crap about “World Peace”.

I don’t exactly have a very close relationship with my mother. We were always at odds for as long as I can remember and truth to be told, I used to secretly blame her for a lot of my personality traits. She worries a lot, over small and insignificant matters and somehow that passed on to me during my formative years.

She expects nothing less than perfection from me, using the rotan and vacuum cleaner tube liberally when I got anything less than 90/100 for my school exams. 90 would get a disapproving frown and a scolding. 95 would get a nod of acknowledgment, not approval. 99 got me a slight smile in the form of an almost insignificant upwards twitch in the corner of the mouth, which is quickly replaced by the oft repeated comment – “It’s just 1 mark short of 100. You could have done better.”

I remember that very well coz my dad wasn’t around when I was in primary school so all the insane expectations kinda left me with very low self esteem. I figured I just wasn’t good enough for the world. I was never going to be exceptional. I will always be mediocre.

I don’t blame her now though. I guess time and age changes perceptions.

It’s hard to be a parent.

(I also don’t want to be like Eminem – constantly whining about his mom for causing his problems smirk)

My mom was diagnosed with lung cancer a couple of months ago and had to undergo an operation. I flew down to New Zealand before she went for the surgical procedure and one thing that surprised me was how well she handled everything. She trusted in God and was never fearful.

She was strong.

The trip also made me realize how estranged we’ve become.

She made it through and is recovering now, and I think my newborn niece had a lot to do with that. I wonder though, would I ever forgive myself for not setting things straight if she didn’t make it through?

mom post op

I’m always closer to my dad and although my mom nags a lot, she does it coz she loves me in her own twisted way (and I mean that in an affectionate manner). 🙂

I’m not going to pretend to be magnanimous and go on about stopping poverty, helping starving kids in Africa, or somehow magically cease the tense situation in the Middle East when the UN couldn’t even accomplish it in decades.

If I have one second with the world, I would just like everyone to be happy about themselves. No anxiety, stress, or self doubt. I want everyone to accept themselves and be proud of who they are.

I’ve learnt to appreciate all the things in life that I have now. The important things – my friends and family. Especially my mom, since our relationship has always been strained and I aim to improve that. I’m just thankful that it’s not too late for that.

ellesse watch

Do you have you own story to tell? Join the Touching Moment contest and stand a chance to win an ellesse watch!

Greetings from Aonang!

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elephants

Sawadeekap! I’m in Ao Nang right now, came here straight from Krabi.

hotel pool

This is our hotel room.

broken elephant

My friend killed the elephant. 🙁

chillin

Just chillin’ yo.

…with Cheers Beer! You remember the hilarious TVC?

Yes, not a lot of words, but according to my math that’s 3,000 words. Geddit? Pictures says a thousand words? 😉

I’m on vacation. w00t!

Posted: 4:23 pm Thailand (Krabi) time

The Middle Finger

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dui

I have a confession to make. I am not the safest driver out there. In fact, calling my driving reckless would be something of an understatement. I hereby list the sins of the road that I am guilty of:

– Speeding
– Tailgating people who are “slow” e.g. driving in accordance with the speed limit
– DUI (Driving Under the Influence)
– DWI (Driving While Intoxicated)
– Cutting people off
– Using the emergency lane
– Running red lights
– Using the horn and middle finger liberally

damage

Hell, I once nearly got into a fight for the last one. I would have definitely had the crap kicked out of me considering there are three guys in the car but after a heated exchange we parted somewhat amicably. I don’t want to go all Hong Kong bus uncle and it wouldn’t have been pretty (for me) if they were obliged to violence since in the frame of mind I was in, I was all too willing to indulge them.

I’m sure a lot of us here in KL are under a lot of stress from work and often we take it out on the road. I am not proud of it but once I chased this MPV that cut me off on the LDP and swerved right in front of him to make him stop to get out of his car.

back damage

I don’t know what I was thinking coz I was in serious road rage mode but when I got out of the car, I realized it wasn’t just a man – it was an ENTIRE family, grandmother and kids et al. The man apologized and said he didn’t see me and that made me feel really bad. I was in his blind spot and I overreacted and I took my stress out on him.

I have tendency of drinking and driving as well, which is Really Bad (TM). I used to have a statement tee that goes “If I don’t drink and drive, how the fuck am I going to get home?” but there have been a lot of incidents that has given me pause.

My car has gone through so many accidents I couldn’t keep count. In fact, I totally wrecked my previous car in Kuching. I also ran down a pedestrian while running a red light on a zebra crossing which took me ages to settle while I was in Kuching. I’m so embarrassed of that incident I always tell people it’s a person (being vague) while in actual fact..

tires busted

…it was an old woman crossing a low cost flat while buying groceries. I did not see her and the pedestrian crossing usually is empty so I didn’t stop. The bones in her right arm were all broken so they had to install steel rods. I still feel guilty about that incident.

Well, I guess that’s the trick isn’t it? What if it was your grandmother I ran down? Won’t you hate me and want me to burn in hell for all eternity?

towing needed

My sister recently gave birth to my niece and I went down to New Zealand to visit them. It was eye-opening, the way she took care of her baby. She’s super safe, it takes her 15 minutes to setup the car for the baby to go in.

my neice

I don’t have to wonder how I’LL feel if my niece got hurt just coz a speeding drunk driver rammed into my sister’s car. I’ll take it REAL PERSONAL.

We flaunt road rules when we drive – whether it’s due to bad attitudes or plain carelessness but take a moment and think about others. I drink and drive and sometimes forget how I even got home and it scares me sometimes…what if I ran someone over? Someone’s wife? Someone’s child? Someone’s niece?

Malaysians are known to be rude on the roads but it doesn’t have to be that way. MUFORS (Malaysians Unite For Road Safety) is a big advocate of road safety and it’s a community project aimed at changing the mindsets of people about road safety. I’ve pledged mine.

MUFORS is also running a contest for students of institutions of higher learning (which means all you college and university people out there). It’s called MUFORS Road Reels and it’s a short film competition where you can speak out and capture your opinions Malaysian drivers (either negative or positive).

accident

The MUFORS Road Reels contest aims to educate people that safety on the roads is up to the attitude of each and every driver (that means YOU too). It enables you to make the roads of Malaysia a safer place and change the mindset of drivers to reduce road accidents and deaths.

RRM_short_film_competition

There are prizes up to RM 10,000 in each of the three categories and the closing date is 30th October 2010. You can find out more about this awesome initiative and contest at the MUFORS website.

The soya bean nasi lemak truck @ Pusat Bandar Damansara

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soya station nasi lemak

One of my coworkers told me (or at least I thought she told me) that there’s a truck that serves nasi lemak cooked with soya bean instead of santan (coconut milk) opposite our office. I trust Lee Fen a lot when it comes to nasi lemak coz of an act of kindness that she did – when I first started working here, she asked me if I would like nasi lemak for breakfast and went down and got a packet for me. *touched

soya station nasi lemak truck

She wouldn’t accept payment either so I somehow associate Lee Fen with nasi lemak. Of all things. Anyway, I had wanted to try the elusive soy bean nasi lemak since she told me about it – the truck comes every day around 12 pm and parks smack dab right in front of Watsons opposite our office during lunch. It’ll be gone by 1 pm or so when they sell out.

soya station nasi lemak lauk

It doesn’t have a name, or at least I didn’t see one (except Soya Station), so let’s just call it the soy bean nasi lemak truck. Anyway, I was rushing work today so it was perfect to go down and finally taste this elusive soy bean based nasi lemak. My expectations were high coz it’s such a different way to go about this Malaysian classic. Nasi lemak cooked without santan but with soya bean!

soya station nasi lemak aud

This nasi lemak mobile truck sells out INSANELY fast – you have to be quick since they have a very limited supply of packets. I’m not sure what their business model is since the food is really popular. This woman started grabbing drumsticks when I was taking my order and I glared her.

Wait your turn, woman!

soya station nasi lemak soy drinks

Anyway, it turns out that I either misheard Lee Fen or she was joking coz its regular nasi lemak with santan. However, don’t let that detract from the food. They have fried chicken, rendang chicken and ayam masak merah as add-ons in addition to the regular peanuts, sambal and fried egg which are staples of nasi lemak.

soya station nasi lemak eat

I went for the regular nasi lemak with peanuts, veggies, a fried egg and extra sambal (their sambal is awesome) and added a piece of ayam masak merah (chicken cooked in red sauce) as well as a drumstick from the rendang chicken. It cost me RM 9.

soya station nasi lemak chop

Regular ones would cost RM 5 (with your choice of meat). Their forte is the homemade soya bean drink (RM 1.50) so don’t forget to grab one of those while you’re there as well.

soya station tau fu fah

Oh, and one other interesting thing – their soy bean turns into tau fu fah when you leave it for too long. smirk

soya station nasi lemak macro

The nasi lemak is pretty good but I wouldn’t compare it to Village Park nasi lemak. The strength of Soya Station nasi lemak is in their awesome sambal.

The African man

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car keys

I feel like blogging about this coz it doesn’t happen very often (or at all) in KL. I was supposed to meet Michelle at Coffee Bean, bsc and I parked my car near the lift. Usually I instantly put my car keys in my pocket but I called her instead to see where she was since she arrived before me.

Thus, the keys were still in my hand and I put it on the table when I saw her.

We adjourned to Dome to meet someone and then sat at near the water feature in the central concourse to discuss several matters. Out of a sudden, this African man in a suit came up to me. I thought he wanted to sell me something until he asked me whether I had my car keys with me.

I checked my pockets and FML I really did leave my car keys behind!

(and didn’t even notice it)

Now, the time when I arrived to the time at the water feature was about 2 hours. The man searched for me for two hours while his daughter waited at Coffee Bean.

I’m pretty sure he’s not Malaysian but we can learn a thing or two from this man.

Thanks man, for your act of kindness. It’s very rare in this city. We sure could use more people like you. 🙂

Public transport

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public transport

Judging from the photo above, you might be inclined to think that I’m going to write a long and insightful post about public transport in Malaysia or perhaps launch into a heated and passionate diatribe about the woes of it.

I’m not.

I’m actually busy playing Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty. smirk

Public service announcement: Alcoholics Anonymous members should refrain from playing the game. Seriously. It has a lot of triggers in the starting campaign.

Starcraft II SUCKS BALLS

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starcraft ii sea edition

I was waiting in anticipation while the installation screen brought me through the grand memories I had playing Starcraft and Starcraft: Brood Wars. Jim Raynor! Sarah Kerrigan! Mengsk!

I quickly dropped the sad excuse of a manual in the SEA version and rubbed my hands in glee as the game finally installed and the grand sound effect loudly proclaiming that YES, THE GAME IS INDEED READY – with the Play button blinking seductively, begging to be clicked.

I moved my mouse cursor and did just that. It proceeded to start downloading a host of patches that took about 45 minutes. No worries. It’s a small price to pay to get my grimy paws into the meat of the game.

The starting cutscene which was released as a teaser last year came on and I watched it – fascinated with the detail and armed with a refreshed memory of the storyline in the previous iteration and it’s expansion pack.

I couldn’t wait to play the game and see what happens next! I was so excited I could jizz in my pants!

I eagerly entered my Battle.net login and was confronted with:

starcraft ii error message

I tried and tried and tried again and still couldn’t get it.

I had the urge to shout at someone. Loudly. With lots of profanity. I called Blizzard’s support number and told an incompetent dumb fuck my problem with the game. Do you know how hard it is to recite a CD key through the phone?

It makes me want to commit seppuku!!!

After the person on the other end got it wrong fro the 5th time I went from F for France to F for fuck. *rage

He gave me a whole lot of runarounds before admitting that a number of users have this problem and they’re working on it.

I tried changing my Battle.net password and trying again after 30 minutes.

I tried using the Guest Pass to register under a new Battle.net account.

It still didn’t work.

I was told it would take days for them to fix. DAYS!!!!!!!

I can’t play the damn game coz it’s my first time running it so I can’t even go offline mode since I haven’t even created my Battle.net character name for Starcraft II.

It. Will. Take. Days. To. Fix. It.

I can feel my fever returning already. Or maybe it’s a heart attack. Or a stroke. Perhaps even a brain herniation. Odds are, it’s all three in one. >.<

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