Bukit Aup

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Linda Blair makes a cameo

OH MY GOD!!! What is that face?!?!?! I swear it wasn’t there when I took the photo! BUKIT AUP
IS HAUNTED!!! Damn ghosts, now they’re coming out in the daylight too.

(Click for a bigger picture)

I headed out to Bukit Aup at around 4 pm today for no particular reason. It’s a park about 8 km
from where I live. People go there to run in the afternoon and couples go there to ensure the
continued existence of the human race at night. There are also some persistent rumors about ghosts
infesting the park, and I remember this crazy old guy passing around leaflets with a photograph of
a ghost supposedly taken in Bukit Aup when I was young. Of course, this raises the question of why
a ghost can be caught on film when it’s supposed to be optically invisible, but I digress. Looking
at the place though my lens, I found out that it’s actually a pretty nice place. I’m very out of
shape though, I found myself HUFFING and PUFFING by the time I got to the observation tower. I
could count 3 other people with cameras there too, I wonder why.

The signboard telling drivers that this is Bukit Aup, in case they happen to forget.

The opening hours, but you can get in anyway after 10 pm.

The map of the park, complete with names like Fairy Pond and Garden of Meditation.

1. Rowing Platform. Quack!

2. Observation Tower.

3. Skysteps. They really are quite steep.

4. Pavilion.

5. Garden of Meditation.

6. Fairy Pond.

7. Picnic Area.

8. Children Play Area.

9. Mid Level Platform.

10. Lagoon.

11. Boating Lake.

12. Amphitheatre.

13. Administration cum Food & Drink. Bad choice of words. Hearing cum in the same
sentence as food and drink makes me think of unconventional sexual acts.

14. Jalan Aup and 15. Car Parks. I didn’t think anyone would be interested in the T for toilets.
If you’re wondering where this numbering comes from, it’s from the board (Pic #3).

The view of Sibu town from the observation tower.

The spirit offerings (that’s what I heard) at the observation deck. Plastic bags full of Weird
Shit TM that’s either to ward off bad luck or to induce good luck.

The view of the cemetery from the observation deck. Those are not residential areas. All of them
are cemeteries.

I carved my URL into the wood at the observation tower. If you live in Sibu, go to the tallest
deck and look at the wooden railing to your left and it should be there. Heh. It took me a while to
do that with my car keys. Next time I’m bringing something sharp.

Oh, and if you’re wondering, the ghost picture is done in Photoshop. I don’t know how to use
those newfangled filters, so I just traced Linda Blair’s face from a screen capture of
The Exorcist [imdb.com] movie and cut and pasted it
into the photo I took in Bukit Aup today. Pretty low tech, but hey, it works.

Fucking hell

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The naughty parking ticket

It didn’t even register to me that I was parking illegally coz I’ve been parking at that spot
for so many times and heaps of people park there too. It’s that line beside the road divider in
Taman Selera. Hmph…while I was eating, one of the stall waitress asked me where I parked and I
said at the road divider and she told me that the traffic police are writing summons. I rushed
there but they were already in the middle of the line and I was the first car in the line.
Sheesh…I took a photo of them anyway, this photo is worth RM30 and 10 demerit points, so please
save it to your hard disk or set it as your wallpaper. =D

(Click for a larger picture)

The smoke is from the satay BBQ beside me. I have taken the liberty of applying a mosaic
filter to the license plates.

I hate getting parking tickets, it always happens to me for some reason. And it’s not like I’m
out to spite The Man and park anywhere just for the hell of it. It must be coz it’s the end of the
month. Gotta meet quotas, you know, and where else in Sibu can you get 20 at once. Hmph. Anyway, I
went to the pasar malam today with my mates Daniel and Johnny. Guys always seems to go out in
three’s coz two will suggest questionable sexual orientation and one seems kinda sad. hehe.

A noisy photo of us. I’m the guy with the hand down the pants. I can’t remember why I did
that. 🙂

Headed out to Kin Orient Plaza to get another Photoshop CD coz the last one was an upgrade
version. After that, we headed down to the pasar malam to take a couple of pics. I haven’t been
there in…ten years I think. I hear it’s getting torn down in July to make way for a tourist
attraction of some sort. After that, we went to Premier for more photo taking fun and finally went
to Taman Selera (grr…) to get something to eat. Had some chicken chop. I was taking a photo of my
friends when the group of waitresses behind them started smiling at the camera. One of the them
asked me to take a photo of them, and I was more than happy to oblige. Heh.

(Click for a larger picture)

The waitresses (and a waiter). There seems to be some debate to which is prettier, the white
shirt with a blue spiral design or the black shirt with Number 1 on it. Make yourself heard.
White shirt or Black shirt?

Anyway, I found a dead lizard outside my door today. I hear it’s because my cat is offering her
friendship to me in her own way. Sharing her food with me, so to speak, coz she doesn’t want me to
go hungry. How sweet.

Mist Garden

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I went out with my mates Daniel and Johnny tonight for some Counter-Strike action and found out
that I suck more and more now. I have decided to blame the st keyboard for my poor performance.
=D I give myself an A for effort though…heh, look at this picture:

(Click for a larger picture)

Counter-Strike

When night falls on Gotham City, Sibu, we put on our bat suits and save hostages that needs
saving, kick asses that needs kicking and take names that needs taking.

We headed down to the Mist Garden near the town post office for some photo taking. Daniel is a
photography nut too. Interestingly, there were two security guards there. I heard it’s coz the mist
pool was always getting vandalized or stolen, so they were stationed there. I asked whether it’s
possible to step into the pool, and the security guard said it’s okay if it’s only going to be for
a while. So here’s how that one turned out:

(Click for a larger picture)

Powering Up

Doing my best Gohan impression.

We also took a picture from the green lighted trees, which required some creative positioning of
the camera to get right. Finally, we put the digicam on a concrete water drainer that’s kinda
jutting out from the top of an incline. Perfect for the shot.

(Click for a larger picture)

Lost Souls

It seems that we have passed on to the next world. It’s nice down here though, lots of
trees.

Finally headed to the food court at Pedada to get something to eat. I had fried kueh tiaw.
Haven’t had that one in a while, so it tasted pretty good. The food court was packed, even though
it’s on a late weekday night. On another note, my girlfriend gave me some constructive criticism
regarding my blog. It appears that the design is too bland, so I’ll crack out the designing CDs and
revamp the website this holiday.

Stoopid

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Ah…it feels good to sleep for a solid 10 hours. Spent the rest of the day with my girlfriend.
Today was very hot, maybe I haven’t acclimatized from the Melbourne winter. We went to get some ice
cream…found a really good one with pineapple chunks in them. Just the thing for a hot afternoon.
While driving past the Bukit Lima swimming pool, I saw the Chinese association building had a lot
of cars parked in front. Looks like they have a food court at the bottom floor now. Anyway, I found
an interesting property of milk. I bought back some fresh milk and freezed it so it will keep
longer. The color of the milk turned slightly yellow, like the condensed milk in cans. After the
defrosting, it returned to its normal…urm, milky color. It could be that I’m easily amused, but I
found that interesting. Well, I also managed to get some of that good ol’ kampua lovin’ action.
Went to my favorite stall in Pedada and had a big plate of kampua mee. It’s noodles with soy sauce,
chilli, red wine, green onions, fried onions, pork oil, pork slices, and plenty of MSG. Very nice,
and tastes very different to that nasty kolo mee stuff. Fed the cat some of that
sardine-calamari-shrimp cat food, which she loved. The Whiskas Cravers stuff must be good too. My
cat usually snubs dry food, but this one seems to agree with her. Anyway, I saw on the news that
there was stuff going down in Carlton after the Italy-Korea match. Heh. Wish I was there to take
some pictures. Then again, it’s entirely possible that I will be mistaken for a Korean and get my
ass kicked. =D

Link: Italian fans get a yellow
card [theage.com.au]

Kampua with a side serve of meat dumplings. It doesn’t look appetizing to the uninitiated, but
it is.

The heat is making me stoopid. I find myself puzzling over basic grammar and having to think
really hard to find the right words to explain something.

Flight Cancelled – Fog

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I have finally arrived in Sibu at 10:10 am today. I couldn’t take the
Sunday flight out coz the fog grounded all of the incoming planes, which
were routed to Sydney. After a 2 hour wait, the airport cancelled all
remaining flights and put us up at the
Rydges with dinner and breakfast
vouchers and a cabcharge coupon (lets you get on a cab for free). The
hotel is in corner Exhibition St. and Lt. Bourke Street. Right in the
middle of the city…I would have thought they will put us up at the
Hilton opposite the airport. Heh. Rydges is not a bad hotel nevertheless,
I think its a layby hotel for cabin crew coz there are heaps of them
walking around. I got a suite with a king sized bed all to myself. Not bad
at all, although I would have preferred to fly out on Sunday. Well, there
were two flights out of Melbourne on Monday, the 3 pm and the 11:50 pm.
The MAS people said they will try their best to put us on one of those two
flights. I didn’t get to go on the 3pm coz I have a connecting flight that
couldn’t be made with the 3pm, so they assigned me to the 11:50 pm one. Oh
well. I didn’t do much though, just slept through the night and woke up at
9:30 am to line up at the MAS counter and grabbed some breakfast after
that. I slept most of the afternoon as well. Heh. MAS paid for two nights
at the hotel, but I had to check out at 9 pm to catch my flight back. The
flight was overbooked so good thing I was there earlier. Anyway, I
couldn’t get the pics up coz I don’t have image editing software at my
home computer. Will pick up a warez CD of Photoshop on my way back later.
Feeling tired now…nearly had an accident just now too. Those damn brakes
need to be changed.

Selamat Datang Ke Malaysia

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I’m taking the 11:50 pm flight back to Sibu later. Damn, cleaning up
my room sure takes a lot of time. I had stuff lying around from the
beginning of the semester! Heaps of trash to throw out, prompting a
neighbor to question whether everyone takes out the trash on Sunday
after seeing all the bins full. I have already taken out 8 bags of
trash and I’m still not done. I’m suffocating from all the dust I
kicked up while packing. 3 months worth of dust… Oh well, at least
I’m going back for a month for my winter holidays. Goodie.

Let my angels sing

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Went to the Melbourne
Indoor Pistol Club [mipc.com.au] today. It’s near the Newmarket train
station in Flemington. The building is actually an indoor rock climbing
place and a shooting range combined into one. They’re also an authorized
dealer for H&K handguns. After a quick registration and handing my
passport over to the counter (security reasons) I was off to the briefing.
I got to use the

Heckler and Koch USP 45 [hecklerkoch-usa.com], the
Beretta 92D 9mm [beretta.com] and a silvery .357 caliber revolver. I was surprised
at the weight of the handguns. I wasn’t expecting it to be that heavy. The
bullets are live bullets so the recoil was pretty strong. The first time I
fired the 9mm, I was puzzled by the strong recoil and the loud report.
There I was, thinking that the 9mm is a kiddy gun, but it’s pretty
powerful too. I know that guns can kill people, but it never really
registered until I fired a real gun with live ammo. You do feel respect
for the weapon after that. I do have some OCD tendencies sometimes, and I
had this disturbing URGE to put my hand in front of the muzzle. Good thing
I kept it under check or I would have blown my hand off. Heh. Looking at
the target, I wasn’t really accurate with the Beretta. Of course, it’s not
an accurate gun in the first place, but I must have overcompensated for
the recoil coz the shots were off center. The bullet ejection system is
pretty impressive. It comes out from the side chamber, and when the
bullets run out, the handgun does ‘reset’ and the muzzle is slightly
detached from the main chamber. Interesting. The .357 has an even harder
recoil. It’s one of those revolvers that rich old men use in movies. This
one was accurate, most of my shots hit the center of the target. The fact
that I started tapping the trigger instead of squeezing it (which skews
the bullet trajectory) might have helped too. My favorite gun is the H&K
USP though. It’s also one of the guns in Counter-Strike if I’m not
mistaken. Plus it’s a .45, and I’ve always wanted to fire one of those. It
looks pretty impressive, aggressive profile and nice weight. The front
sighting stump is easier to align with the back groove in this model too.
I also liked the hefty recoil. You get the feeling that this gun means
business when you use it. Very nice. It seems easy to get a handgun
license here, but unfortunately I’m not a permanent resident so I can’t
apply for one. Bummer. I would love to have that H&K.

All pictures are clickable to bring up a larger picture.


Taken thru the blurring window from the viewing area. Cheers Jimmy.


Another pic thru the window. The target is 7 meters away. Don’t laugh.
It’s supposed to simulate a “real life situation”.


Now follow as we ride…

The Beretta 92D 9mm


Making you an offer that you can’t refuse…

The .357 revolver


Keepin’ it real, thug style

The H&K USP .45. It would have worked better if I didn’t have a slight
smile from the previous photo.

I realize I will look pretty damn stupid if someone rips those photos and
starts forwarding them with “Fwd: Look at this wannabe gangsta HAHAHA” but
then, everything looks stupid when taken out of context. Oh well, by
posting it on the net I have lost my right to complain anyway. =D It was pretty fun
to think up captions though. Most of them are snippets of Tupac’s lyrics.

The scoreboard:

The big tears are made by the 9mm bullets, the star shaped holes are done
with the .45 and the compact round holes are .357s.

Pepsi Twist and Diet Coke with Lemon Flavor

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I went to the city today to sort out the Flemington shooting range
booking. I’m going tomorrow afternoon at 2 pm straight after my last
exam. Will be keepin’ it real G style and post some photos tomorrow to
boot. 😉 Anyway, you know how Pepsi came out with Pepsi Twist? It’s
normal Pepsi with a slight lemon taste. It’s only available in KFC for
the time being. Well, I was grocery shopping at Coles the other day and
saw that Coke has something similar. I don’t know which one came out
first, but here’s the Coke version:

Diet Coke with Lemon flavor

I prefer the Coke version. Pepsi tastes too sweet to be thirst quenching
unless its watered down with ice cubes. Diet coke is my drink of choice.
Anyway, I’ve noticed that the KFC chicken here are absolutely miniscule.
The drumsticks are half the size of the Malaysian counterpart, if that.
It’s only slightly bigger than the Ayamas frozen mini drumsticks. While
having 3 pieces of chicken will make me feel bloated in KFC Malaysia, here
it just made me feel slightly full. And that’s the ultimate 3 piece meal
with the Picnic bar, bun, fries and mashed potatoes.

KFC’s The Ultimate 3-piece Meal

Well, I took a lot of pictures while I was in the city today. I’ve been
getting the dreaded “System Error” that plagues most Nikon digicams. I
figured out that it only happens when the zoom lens have not been
retracted properly for some reason. The remedy is to manually push (not
too hard) on the zoom lens, so that it is ‘docked’ again. You shouldn’t
touch the actual lens with your fingers, just apply pressure on the side
if you have this problem. Anyway, I’ve been doing a bit of gadget shopping
too. I went the the really cheap computer hardware place opposite
Melbourne Central. Picked up a

Canon CanoScan N670U for A$170 and a

Surecom self powered 4-Port USB Hub EP-1004P for A$45. I saw this
Wacom tablet going for slightly over A$100. I don’t draw, but I felt a
nearly uncontrollable compulsion to buy it. Just because. Good thing I
walked out of the store before I did. Heh. I did notice that the first
thing that the Quick Start booklet of the scanner says is “Scanning of
certain documents, such as bank notes (snip) may be prohibited by law and
may result in criminal and/or civil liability”. Oh? I had already scanned
a crinkly 50 dollar bill and was about to post it with some quip about
printing it but on second thought, that might not be a good idea.

Anyway, here’s a complement to yesterday’s POTD. I found this today while walking
to the bus loop.

Rumble of the Peters: A 3-Way, all out, no holds barred, “no need
to keep the dinner warm honey, coz I ain’t coming back” cage match.

Peter the Possum

Generally regarded as the crowd favorite, this little critter can run fast
and has pretty sharp claws to boot.

Peter the Possum Man

Not much is known about this bloke, but I hear he catches possums for a
living.

Peter the Speed Racer

Because of the speed his vehicle is capable of, there are no known
photographs of this menace to the roads. Question mark picture taken from
CRpuzzles [crpuzzles.com].

 

The result:

Peter the Speed Racer Wins! (with a total knock out)

Power bars that cost more than a meal

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Today’s exam was pretty easy, which is good. I woke up at 11 am and didn’t
have time to eat lunch so I just grabbed a couple of power bars and a coke
from the Nature Pantry in the campus center. It’s on the way to the bus
loop. The creatine one tasted pretty good. I feel like I’m growing
already. Heh. The protein bar one is called Nitro-120 and supposedly
contains 40 grams of protein, 3.8 grams of glutamine and 10 grams of
glycerol. After eating it, I saw the label said Warning: Due to high
potency consume with plenty of fluid over a period of two days. Half a bar
before or after training. Not suitable for children under 15 years or
pregnant women. Now you tell me. Oh well, I’ve got another exam tomorrow.
Wish me luck.

Slippage

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Not a good day, today. Took the 8:30 am shuttle to Caulfield and got
a pastry and a coffee and a large chocolate milk to eat while walking
to the racecourse. I was balancing the latte on the plastic plate that
comes with the pastry. Unfortunately my skillz were not up to par and I
ended up spilling half the latte all over my shirt. Grr…had to go to
the toilet to clean up and I could smell coffee all day long. Oh well,
at least it woke me up. The first exam was went okay. Systems Design,
I’m repeating it (keep your comments to yourself) and it’s a core
subject so that’s good. Didn’t have enough time to do the business
class diagram well, but that’s okay coz I think I did pretty good on
the other parts. My “pretty good” might not be Martin’s “pretty good”
though. Heh. Martin is my lecturer for this subject. Anyway, I had a 2
hour break in the middle, so I got a burger from the plaza and went to
the labs to read up on Unix. I read all the past exam papers and the
lecture notes. I didn’t have time to read the Week 12 tutorial
exercises though, which, as I would learn later, was a Grave ErrorTM.
About this time, I felt a disturbing trickle of warm liquid down the
back of my pants. I already knew what was up without having to look
into my bag. The chocolate milk that I got this morning and drank only
a bit from lay spilt at the bottom of my bag. A little quick math
reveals the amount of liquid that has been displaced from the bottle
into my bag. 600 ml (bottle capacity) – 100 ml (amount drank in the
morning) = 500 ml of chocolaty goodness. My books were soaked and so
were my pants. I went into the Winner’s Circle feeling very decidedly
un-winner like. The Unix Programming assignment can be summed up in one
word. Hard. Upon coming out, I was told that all the questions were
based on the Week 12 tutorial solutions, which I didn’t read. There was
even a 20 mark question that can be done in one line of code. One
measly line of code that was in the Week 12 tutorial exercises which I
neglected to read. One miserable line of code to grant me a “Get out of
Fail free” card. One wretched (I’m using the inbuilt thesaurus here)
line of code that is worth 20 marks. I’m going to print out the Week 12
tutorial solutions and eat it for revenge. To top it off, I tried the
balancing act again with two seafood baskets and a hot cocoa from
slops. When I opened the door to my room, the plates tilted and the cup
of cocoa started to slide. One of my hand was on the door knob and the
other was holding the plates with the sliding cup which dropped and
spilled all over my floor. It was either that or drop my two seafood
platters. Guess which one I chose?

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