Leading the wild into the ways of the man…
Macro. This photo is taken with the monitor glare as the sole
lighting source. There is no post production done on the picture except
a re-size from the original 2560 x 1920 file. The elements in the
picture depicts…
Tell me what you think it is. 🙂
Photo Friday – Macro [photofriday.com]
I have just eaten at the longest chicken rice outlet in the whole
world. I was told that the chicken rice here is the best in Kuching.
It’s called Fang Yuen (opposite Hock Lee Center) and it used to be
located at the old bus stop (or something) until it moved to its new
premises. I was told to go early coz the place is likely to be full, so
we went at 6:30 PM.
It was a sight to behold…the place was indeed full, and we were
lucky to secure a seat outside. I noticed that everyone was
just…waiting.
Waiting for chicken rice. Except there was none, only neatly stacked plates…
Broth simmering in a lonely manner….
Thus we waited…everyone had drinks ordered and were just waiting
for the chicken rice to arrive. This was starting to look rather absurd
to me…this had better be good chicken rice, I told my friend. It took
one hour (and two drinks) before the van carrying the chicken rice
arrived.
They unloaded the goods…and now we have…
Chicken!!!
There was a flurry of activity and suddenly our chicken rice arrived.
The chicken
The rice
The three sauces
The poor people who didn’t arrive early enough to secure a seat and had to resort to take away.
This wonderful piece of abstract art of canine origin is a sight to
behold. The carefully molded sculpture is made entirely from organic
materials. Like all abstract art, it produces different interpretations
and evokes different feelings from different people.
I don’t know about you, but it’s just dog shit to me… 😉
This is Kapak brandy – a locally made (Klang, Selangor) brandy that
retails for RM 16.10. That makes it a mid priced liquor, perfect for
the middle of the month. 😉 The beginning of the month starts with
premium brands (JD, Absolut, Johnnie Walker etc) and the end of the
month is delegated to budget distilled spirits (Langkau, Longhouse
etc). I wouldn’t say I have a drinking problem, though that can be
attributed to denial, since I drink every day. 😉
Anyway, distilled spirits are best consumed on an empty stomach –
that’s my daily routine…get home from work, take a variety of
benzodiazepines (the usual is 20 mg nitrazepam, 4 mg clonazepam and 2
mg alprazolam) and drink before getting something to eat. No, this is
not in the interests of harm minimization but if I’m worried
about stomach ulcers (er…already have them) or brain damage (meth did
that already), I would have stopped my crystal meth consumption…and I
never did. :p I don’t expect to live a long life, carpe diem and all
that cliche shit.
I couldn’t be bothered with taking pictures since I got home from
work at 7:30 PM (there was a client) so I just made a video post:
Download:
Kapak brandi [sixthseal.com]
9.63 ZIP file, which contains a .mov file. Requires Apple Quicktime.
Transcript:
Hey, you’re watching sixthseal.com and this is Cap Kapak…a locally made whisky…er, a locally made brandy.
It says “Brandi sebatian” – a reconstituted brandy or a mixture of
brandy…its RM 16.10, pretty cheap, and it contains 37% alcohol.
Make me forget…coz I’ve had a shitty day…and…
It’s just like…it tastes pretty good actually.
I’m pretty tired from not having enough sleep (coffee, ya know ;))
and I just had an argument with my gf (so what else is new?) and I had
a pretty shitty day in general. That has all changed now though, I’m
feeling borderline normal…in fact, I’ll go so far as to say that I’m
feeling semi good. 🙂 Yes, I can type while under the influence of
alcohol…people who act all fucked up and shit on alcohol irks me to
no end.
Alcohol and benzodiazepines…for the times when you can’t afford meth to feel like God or ketamine to escape into dreams.
Disclaimer: alcohol and benzodiapines may cause CNS depression
(leading to death) so caution is adviced for inexperienced users
attempting to leverage on the synergy from multiple CNS depressants.
I didn’t really get to bond with them until one fateful weekend. It
was during lunch break on Friday when Aaron suggested that we go to
Palladium that night. Palladium is a club in the Christchurch city
which enforces a 21 and above only entry rule due to alcohol being
served. I was fascinated (and slightly apprehensive as well) – I’ve
never stepped foot inside a nightclub before. I’ve always been told
that these places are evil and I shouldn’t ever patronize one.
The years of parental propaganda wrestled with the strangely
attractive notion of doing something “bad”…and it was the latter that
prevailed, albeit with slight tinges of guilt. The others have all been
in there before and assured me that I won’t be asked for ID. I beg to
differ coz I have a rather innocent and young looking face. I would not
pass as a 21 year old unless the bouncers all happen to have a long due
appointment with their optician.
Thus, Aaron got me a fake ID from one of his university friends. The
photograph on the ID does not look like me at all and the name was an
Indonesian name. I had to memorize the name and the birthday. Anyway,
the others told me about the dress code and we arranged to meet in
front of the Riccarton High School gates at around 7 PM. We had planned
to crash at Tom’s house so I brought along a change of clothes in my
backpack as well.
I have never stepped foot into any entertainment venues before
this…tonight was going to change all that. I was looking forward
(with some trepidation) to what my mind’s eye imagined the club would
be like. The four of us met up at the rendezvous point and walked to
Church Corner to catch the bus to the city. We went to have dinner at
what would be our regular haunt in the days to come – the Chinese
eatery near the town square. The wonton was really good and relatively
cheap at NZ$ 6.
It was time to head into the club. I was constantly reminded to walk
in confidently and not to look guilty. There were two bouncers outside
the door of Palladium and I avoided eye contact with them and tried to
walk in nonchalantly behind Aaron…until I heard one of the bouncers
say “Hang on mate, can I see some proof of age please?” The others
stopped with me while I passed the fake ID to the bouncer. He looked at
the card and gave me the once over and asked me what year I was born in.
I faltered before remembering the birth date on the fake ID. “I’m
26, born in 1970”, I replied and tried to look insulted at this
affront. The bouncer raised his eyebrows skeptically and I silently
cursed Aaron for getting a fake ID that puts me 10 years older than I
really am. However, the bouncer just shrugged and handed the card back
to me and waved us inside. I’m in!!! We had a good laugh about how
Asians must look all the same to Caucasians because no one would
mistake an Indonesian for a Chinese.
Palladium was not what I expected…I have been fed with stories
about the sinful debauchery and violence that occurs inside clubs was
expecting it to be some dirty den filled with society rejects. I was
rather surprised to see everyday people in the club – university
students, office workers…normal people. There goes another false
depiction drilled into me since I was young. We secured a table beside
the dance floor and ordered a round of drinks.
I have never had any alcohol before so I sipped my bottle of
Heineken tentatively. We had a bit of a boogie at the dance floor and
after two hours, Ah Boon noticed that I was still holding the
very same bottle, which had barely three small sips taken out of it. He
asked me whether I had bought more drinks and I said it’s the same
bottle from when we came in. He was appalled at the speed (or rather
the lack of it) of my drinking. 😉
It was rather funny, now that I think back to it. I told him that I
was afraid of getting drunk and didn’t feel like drinking it anymore. I
handed it to him and he gamely chugged the relatively full bottle down.
I wasn’t inebriated at all…it was just all that propaganda that made
me fear being drunk that prevented me from imbibing the golden amber fluid. I later realized that I have a high alcohol tolerance…
However, that was not true for Tom. He has a very low alcohol
tolerance and was completely inebriated and flushed from just one beer
and one shot of tequila. He kept on saying he felt like throwing up and
later resorted to lying in the fetal position at the plush chairs at
our table and told us to wake him when we leave. We left soon after
that though, coz Tom was complaining that he had a pounding headache.
We went to the 24 hour KFC nearby to get some supper. Tom promptly
threw up and did so again during the taxi ride back to his house. He
immediately fell asleep when he got home and we got some rest too. It
was around 12 PM when we woke up the next day. I had expected that
we’re going to head home. I was still a newbie at that time and one
night was considered a big one then.
However, the others had plans to go play pool at this snooker and
pool outlet in the city called 9 ball. I was wondering whether I should
go or not, since I was pretty tired…I’m not used to sleeping anywhere
other than my own bed so I didn’t get much sleep the night before. I
was intrigued by pool and snooker centers though, coz the propaganda
machine told me it was full of juvenile delinquents so I decided to go
along and see if that was true. Strike two, another parent instilled
horror story disproved.
Ah Boon taught me how to play pool…the setting of the balls, the
way to properly hold the cue, the method of striking without deviating
from the aim, how to hit different spots to manipulate the ball
movement, how to follow through and stop for positioning, about solid
and stripe balls, the angles to hit the balls to pocket them –
basically, the rules of the game for someone who hasn’t played pool
before. I loved it. It helped that the heroin chic looking (in a good
way) girl who manned the counter was really friendly and hot too. 😉
It was night when we left and we grabbed some fish and chips to eat while waiting for the bus back.
End of Black Kingdom: Chapter 3 – Bonding
Next: Black Kingdom: Chapter 4 – Veritas vos liberabit [sixthseal.com].
I will do the review of the book Curiosity before going into details
about how a free review copy was mailed to me by the author’s wife via
their publishing house. I just got the book on Friday and I have to
state that I received the book free, so if you think that’s going to
bias my review…you’re absolutely right. 😉 Nah, I’m kidding, I’ll do
a proper review.
Curiosity is written by Gerald Allen Wunsch and published by
AuthorHouse and comes in a paperback format. The cover of the book is
printed on full color glossy high quality cardboard. The pages of the
books are printed on acid free “pulp-like” paper, and there seems to be
some inconsistencies in the typeface (poor printing) as shown below.
That’s the most extreme example though…the fonts are mostly printed
properly, unless you look too hard.
I finished reading the book in less than an hour. It’s not meant for
my age group – Curiosity is a children’s novel. However, I did learn
something from the book. I did not know about the Underground Railroad
(upon which this book is based) and how it ties in with the American
Civil War, the slave trade and the revolution. That makes it
interesting reading – the book is based on historical accounts, so it’s
informational as well as readable.
The protagonists are two girls named Ginger Wanamaker and Irene
Fong. The book goes out of the way to introduce cultural diversity,
which isn’t a bad thing. The best thing about this book is the “Choose
your own adventure” type ending to certain chapters. This is
illustrated in the photo above – the reader can flip to the back of the
book to learn about real information.
This excerpt is about Wire Fox Terriers and contains interesting
information about these dogs. The dog in the book is based on the
author’s own dog. There are a few situations that are based around the
author’s life and some characters are based on the people around him.
My only gripe about the footnotes is that it only appears in the first
few chapters and tapers off towards the end of the book.
The content of the book is interesting – it slips themes of racial
tolerance and historical accounts in the fictional story. I imagine
that some parents would want a book like this for their children. It
manages to keep the reader interested in the adventures of the
protagonists while telling a historical narrative and indirectly
promotes cultural tolerance. The other good thing about it is that
there’s a list of web sites at the end of the book for people who wants
to read further into the Underground Railroad.
I would prefer to rate a book by the “Whether I’ll buy it or not”
criteria instead of giving arbitrary scores. Would I buy Curiosity? No,
but hear me out. It’s coz I’m not in the target audience and my reading
interests lie elsewhere. I just bought The Road of Excess: A History of
Writers on Drugs and The Strength of the Wolf: The Secret History of
America’s War on Drugs from Amazon, so the subject matter of books I
like is not exactly a big secret.
The better question to ask is “Would I buy Curiosity for my kids?”
I would.
I started reading at a very early age and I fully expect my children
to surpass me so I’ll recommend this for children aged 5 and below. I
hope that my progeny would understand the themes this book goes into
before that age, since children are supposed to be faster, stronger,
better than their parents and I had understood complex themes when I
was 7. I should note that the book is suggested for children aged 9 –
12 though. The Amazon list price is US$ 11.45 (RM 43.51), which is a
bit steep for Malaysians due to the currency conversion, but it’ll be
fine for countries with a more robust currency.
Thanks to Martha Wunsch and AuthorHouse [authorhouse.com] for the free review copy. Cheers to The Book Review Blog
[blogspot.com] email digest for passing along the information for
getting the free review book. I don’t know if the offer is still valid,
but here’s the email in its entirety:
From: Martha Wunsch
Date: Tuesday, March 30, 2004 8:48 AM
To: thebookreviewblog@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [thebookreviewblog] Anyone want a free review book?
Here’s ordering information from my publisher. It’s at the top–
Jerry Wunsch
***For Immediate Release***
Tuesday, March 30, 2004
To request a free review copy of Curiosity:
Phone: 1-888-519-5121, Ext. 244-Leave message, or
E-mail: cmcglashan@authorhouse.com or FAX: 1-812-961-1023.
(Include your street address for UPS delivery. Charlene will inform
me of your request.)
Kids Find Underground Railroad Site-
Children’s novel offers Underground Railroad terrorism in a
gentle, modern story
Ginger Wanamaker and her best friend, Irene Fong, along with
a terrier’s help, make a great discovery. Ginger’s grandparents’
home was once a station on the Underground Railroad! In Curiosity
published by AuthorHouse in July 2003 (ISBN: 1-4107-3699-7; LCCN:
2003092263), Gerald Allen Wunsch tells this adventurous children’s
story through Ginger’s eyes.
Laird, a spirited wire fox terrier, accompanies the girls
and becomes a hero in the story through his digging and exploring.
The Wanamaker’s home is an artifact of a critical movement in
American history, and, for these knowledge-thirsty young students,
it opens a door to new learning.
Irene’s parents were born in Suriname, South America. Her
ancestors were slaves. These details convey the message that
slavery existed all over the world, not just in the United States.
This multicultural emphasis in Curiosity broadens young minds. Boys
and girls will have fun reading about Ginger and Irene’s
discoveries, while learning about the Underground Railroad from a
contemporary perspective.
The story text, sprinkled with “Whispers” interludes, also
links to a 30-page “More Information” section in the back of
Curiosity. Illustrations by Irene Joslin, award-winning cartoonist
for the Brown County Democrat in Nashville, Indiana, enliven the
story line.
Wunsch is a retired immigration attorney who also served in
the 1970’s as career diplomat with the U.S. State Department. His
foreign assignments included Hermosillo, Mexico, Paramaribo,
Suriname, and Amsterdam in The Netherlands. Curiosity is his first
children’s book. Since retirement, Wunsch has contributed four
articles to The Sacred Octagon, an MG sports car magazine. He lives
bordering the Hoosier National Forest with his wife Martha and their
terrier friend Laird, featured in Curiosity.
Curiosity may now be found in 34 public libraries and
schools. It is currently sold at Viewpoint Books and the Visitors
Center in Columbus, Cover to Cover Bookstore in Madison, the Levi
Coffin House in Fountain City, and Conner Prairie, the Indiana State
Museum, and the Indiana Historical Society in the Indianapolis area–
12 independent bookstores in all. On-line it may be purchased from
Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Borders, Walmart, and many other on-line
booksellers. You can order Curiosity at any Barnes & Noble or
Borders mall bookstore or directly from our supply at home
(mgwunsch@comuage.com).
Here is a roundup of a few Curiosity events. On September
23, Bud Shippee of Seymour’s WQKC-WZZB (93.7FM; 1390AM) interviewed
Jerry during his “Breakfast Club.” The next day Patty Spitler
interviewed Laird and Jerry on Indianapolis’s CBS affiliate, Channel
8, during the News8 at Noon show. The canine/author duo appeared
again at the Jackson County Public Library November 15 for a
children’s program on the Underground Railroad followed by Laird’s
clicker tricks and a book signing, the third such public library
program. They presented a program on the writing process at
Cortland Elementary School before 120 children November 21. Jerry
and Laird were also at the Indiana Historical Society’s Holiday
Author Fair on December 7 and are planning eight Underground
Railroad programs at public libraries and schools in February. They
recently finished a program at St. Ambrose Elementary February 2
before 4th, 5th, and 6th graders and with 500 children February 13
at East Side Elementary. Five other elementary schools have
requested their appearance before the end of the 2003-4 school
year. Also, look for them at the Conner Prairietown Market April 24.
For interview requests, contact Laird for his tricks and Gerald
Wunsch, 10019 North State Road #135, Freetown, Indiana, 47235-
8517,or call (812) 497-0067, or e-mail mgwunsch@compuage.com.
For further description and photos:
Until April 24th: http://www.connerprairie.org/Events/gaWunsch.asp
http://www.wirehairfoxterrier.com/resources/wunsch.htm
http://www.1stbooks.com/ & www.amazon.com
(type in “Gerald Allen Wunsch”-Curiosity)
Those dreaded Fridays and Saturdays…also known as Sapudays. I hate them!
Sapu is the colloquial term for police drug raids at entertainment venues.
The night started out at 99. It was packed and pretty uneventful.
Some people had some pills (not me, of course *cough*).
We headed down to Waterworld and found that it was closed. This is a bad omen.
We adjourned to Earthquake. This venue is usually packed during the weekends but was surprisingly empty for a Saturday night.
Our group sat there for a while before one of the Earthquake staff
(we know them) whispered to us that there are sapu vans outside. Time
to leave? The first photo was taken there – it’s one of the sapu vans,
there were 2 police trucks preceding that, but I didn’t get a photo and
I don’t want to get too close anyway for obvious reasons. It turns out
the police was just scoping out the area – staring at the patrons, most
of which started leaving in droves. The place was soon empty.
Earthquake didn’t get raided (coz it was empty) but since there was no
one there anyway, we left.
We went to Passion at 4 1/2 mile. It was closed early too (it was
just 3 AM when we got there). It seems that Kuching is the target of
the inaugural drug raids at entertainment venues again. *sigh*
We tried the MJC outlets, but all of them were closed too. News of
raids spreads fast and no chemical brother would want to be in one of
them when the police barges in, except foolhardy ones. 😉 We saw three
sapu trucks filled with people while on the way back…now that’s a
really bad omen, so we decided to call it a night.
Related:
Orange blanks pill review
Pill name: Orange blanks
Contents: Tested out to be MDMA
Circa: February – May 2004
Rating: 7/10
It’s a relatively strong MDMA pill. It has no logo or imprints
whatsoever – people just ask for it by name (i.e. the orange pill).
It’s quite nice, if you like MDMA…but MDMA has lost its magic for me.
I did feel classic MDMA characteristics, but I’ll go for crystal
methamphetamine or ketamine any day. MDMA just doesn’t feel good to me
anymore. Such is the life of a tweaker…nothing beats good old crystal
meth.
Marquis:
Reagent to black indicating MDMA.
It’s MDMA, from reagent testing and personal qualitative experience.
Go for it if you still like pills, stay away if MDMA has lost its magic
for you.
Those dreaded Fridays and Saturdays…also known as SAPUDAYS. I hate them!
Lam’s Place is the new eating establishment in Chong Lin Park
specializing in ngui chap (beef noodles). It just opened a couple of
days ago – it’s located right beside Waterworld. The place has a banner
that says: From Menggatal, Sabah’s “Ngui Chap” (Beef Noodles etc) & others available now!
I have a juvenile sense of humor so I didn’t really get over the
“menggatal” reference. Menggatal can mean ham sup or horny…a rather
unfortunate name for a town.
This is what the interior looks like. It’s pretty packed,
considering I arrived late. Their opening hours are from 8 AM – 2:30 PM
and 5:30 PM – 8:30 PM. The seating arrangements (a pretentious word for
tables and chairs ;)) consists of perfectly square wooden tables meant
for 4 people.
They have a variety of condiments on the table and this place
operates by writing down your order into a bill, which is then
tabulated and placed in an ornament on your table. You take it to the
cashier and pay the bill when you’re done.
Here’s my order – Raw beef & beef balls with noodles (RM 5.50).
The wet (soup) version is basically the same thing, but they combine
the noodles in the big bowl of soup instead of in a separate bowl.
Lam’s Place serves beef noodles as its staple (both the wet and dry
version), though you can opt to have rice to substitute the noodles if
you want. I’m not a big fan of soup dishes, so I went for Raw Beef and
Beef Balls noodles (dry).
This is a closer look at the noodles. The noodles taste absolutely
great! I can’t remember having a more delicious bowl since this beef
noodle stall in Sibu shut down. It was infused with a variety of tangy
and salty flavors.
Here’s a photo of the soup, served separately. There are beef balls
floating on the top (don’t think they’re home made), with beef slices
at the bottom, flanked with veggies and bean sprouts. The soup was not
as salty as I like it to be, but the salty noodles more than makes up
for that. The main portion was very generous too, though I would have
liked a larger bowl of noodles.
This is the raw beef slice that’s put into the bowl before serving
to slowly cook. I love it – the beef doesn’t get overcooked this way.
I highly recommend this place if you have a hankering for beef
noodles. It’s their specialty and they have great service. I’m not sure
if the service is the type typical of newly opened eateries or they
really do have good service, but that hardly matters considering the
food. They apologized for my order taking so late to arrive (I didn’t
even think it was that long of a wait) and I was asked whether I
enjoyed my meal and how my food was when I paid the bill. I told them
it was good. 🙂
I’ll reply all the comments later, I’ve got to head out now. Cheers!
I haven’t been to McDonald’s for a while…dropped in this afternoon
for a quick lunch after ironing out some annoying bugs and noticed that
McDonald’s has a promotion going on where you get a free soft serve top
up with every Big Mac value meal. It’s basically an upgrade of your
coke to a McFloat for no extra charge.
I’m rather partial to Spicy Chicken McDeluxe myself, but I thought,
why not, and got the Big Mac meal instead. I haven’t had one in ages
and I’ll need to start pre-loading for my Weekend Warrior Thing (TM).
😉 Big Macs sure tastes good after you haven’t had one in a while. The
coke float (or spider, as some people call it for reasons that escapes
my comprehension) was a welcome addition as well.
I like ice cream with McDonald’s and this McFloat substitutes that
well. 🙂 Head down to McDonalds to take advantage of this promotion
where you get a McFloat for free with every Big Mac McValue Meal!
This post was sponsored by McDonald’s. 😉
A mysterious ancient treasure chest in the middle of nowhere! I
wonder what lies within! I did not get to find out though coz I’m
afraid of spiders and I have a feeling that the chest is likely to
contain several specimens of the larger kind. :p
Anyway, a good piece of news semi related to treasure is that I’ve
just been told by my CTO that my salary will be permanently increased
by 10%. This makes my base salary RM 2,200 effective immediately. 🙂
However, this means that I’ll have to shoulder more responsibility and
now I’m developing a custom software for the company, which is due in
two weeks, just in time for our first exhibition and a road show a
couple of days after that. I’m starting to bring back work to meet that
deadline, which results in less personal time, but hey, I don’t really
mind. RM 200 would be enough to cover my VPS (Virtual Private Server)
costs, so I can factor that out of my budget. =D
Another piece of good news is that one of my co-workers have invited
me to come along to his longhouse for Gawai celebrations, so I’ll be
indulging in copious amounts of alcohol, as is the tradition of the
harvest festival here. 🙂 They have this locally brewed wine called
tuak, which is nothing to sniff at – it has a high proof alcohol
content. Debauchery awaits!
