Wah Kee

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Oops…I overslept this morning and didn’t bother to go down to the city
coz the YHA office closes at 1 pm. By the time I woke up, it was already
11:30 am and going down to the city takes around an hour, so it’ll be
cutting it pretty close considering I still need to walk to Hardware Lane.
Thus, I’ve decided to go down on Monday after my classes. Speaking of ski
trips, frostee at
2boredblog [2boredblog.tk] is going snowboarding sometime this season
too. He’s a fellow Melbournian (living in Clayton as well), and from what
I gather, is a Malaysian too, though he has been working in Singapore.

Anyway, I haven’t been doing much work today. Lazed around a bit, and
managed to read one measly set of lecture notes. I went out to Wah Kee for
dinner with Adrian and I had a plate of Yang Chow fried rice and another
plate of boneless spare ribs. The fried rice is pretty good, though my
girlfriend’s helper fries up a mean plate of Yang Chow fried rice as well.
Headed down to the Asian grocery to get some Pocky (I like Mango Cream)
and also some dishwashing liquid. Hmm…this blog is starting to get
food-centric again. =D

Scans from the Pocky box with my CanoScan N670U. The Z-Lid feature is
pretty nifty. Please don’t ask me why the scan of the back is shorter than
the scan of the front. I just cropped it wrongly, that’s all.

Outback Passion

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My workload this semester is depressing. I’ll even go so far as to say that there’s a shitload
of work this semester. I don’t know the empirical value of a shitload versus a normal load, but
I’ll postulate that a shitload is significantly more than a normal load. One of my subjects even
has a graded exercise starting from Week 2! After my dismal grades last semester, I have decided
that I need to bunker down and study hard this semester if I’m going to do well. Tell you what, I’m
even going to read through one set of lecture notes after this and I’ll sleep early and wake up
early and sync another set of lecture notes to read on the train tomorrow. In fact, I’m even going
to START MY ASSIGNMENT TOMORROW NIGHT! *gasp* There you go. Seriously though, I’ll have to work
harder this semester. It is my final year of university after all. Anyway, I’ll be heading down to
the city tomorrow to pay for my accommodation booking at Mt Buller [mtbuller.com.au]. Yeah, I’m heading for the
slopes next weekend. =D I’ll be there for 3 days and 2 nights, which should be heaps of fun,
considering that my trip coincides with the Victorian Uni Championships and the 3rd Quiksilver
Interschools GP. It’s not the Mountain Dew Shredfest, but it’ll be entertaining nevertheless.
I’ll be staying at the
YHA Lodge [yha.com.au], which is probably the cheapest on-mountain accommodation at A$55 per
night. It’s the peak season and I can’t afford anything better. It will be a fun three days up at
Mt Buller and I’m already looking forward to it. Heh.

Images taken from McDonald’s Australia [mcdonalds.com.au]

Anyway, my friend Adrian came by today to download MP3s and burn some CDs. We headed to
McDonald’s after that and I tried the new Outback burger on their New Tastes Menu
[mcdonalds.com.au]. The McDonald’s here has this New Tastes menu, which changes every month to
give a bit of variety. I’ve had the Pavlova Passion before but I couldn’t fit an Outback burger
into my stomach that time, so I’m glad I had that today. Pretty nice, there is an egg in there
too. I love burgers with eggs.

The real thing doesn’t look so vibrant. Outback burger meal with Pavlova Passion dessert.

The Friday Five [fridayfive.org]

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1. How long have you had a weblog? I registered sixthseal.com sometime in April and my
first post was on the 19th of April 2002. That’s just slightly more than three months. =D

2. What was your first post about? It was a message saying sixthseal.com is officially live
and the story behind my domain name. It’s based on a Revelation passage. Read the entry here [sixthseal.com].

3. How many changes (name, location, etc.) of your weblog have there been, if more than
one? The major change that I made ever since I started was to put all the images in an
images directory about a week ago to better organize things. I also started the weblog with
the intention of it being a webcam page too, but unfortunately my university proxy does not allow
off-campus FTP connections, so that idea was nixed after a while. I still have my
Logitech QuickCam Pro 3000 [logitech.com] though. The webcam image has been replaced by a
Picture of the Day (look above) and a POTD archive [sixthseal.com] which
has the previous 7 days worth of Picture of the Days.

An old capture from my non-streaming webcam dated 05/09/2002.

4. What CMS (content management system) do you use? Do you like it or do you want to try
something else? Plain old Microsoft Frontpage. I update my blog manually and FTP the files to a
Unix server on campus where I have an account. Then I have to SSH to the Unix server and FTP my
domain from there. This is because I don’t have direct off-campus FTP access. Everything needs to
be done through the on-campus Unix server. I’m not too happy about this arrangement since it makes
updating a bit tedious, but I’m stuck with it because I live on campus. I might look into some CMS
packages like Greymatter though.

5. Do you read people who have both a journal and a weblog? Or do you prefer to read people who
have all of their writing in one central place? I didn’t know that there is a difference
between a weblog and a journal. I read a couple of weblogs, around six, and I usually prefer all
the writing to be in one central place so I don’t have to browse around the menus.

That is some damned brisk walking indeed

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There I was, walking to the bus loop to catch the shuttle to Caulfield, when I caught sight of
the line. It was really long and I started counting before I reached the loop. There was 24 people already waiting in line and the shuttle fits 25, so I picked up my pace a bit and walked briskly to the bus loop. When I was about halfway to the waiting bay I saw this guy walking from the other end.

He caught sight of the line too and started to trot a bit as well. Not to be outdone, I started to walk faster as well. I needed the stability whilst running but must keep the pace too so the shoes I had on proved to be very helpful. Unfortunately, the waiting bay is closer to the other end of the bus loop so naturally he reached there first. Grrr…I had to take the bus and the train to
Caulfield. Oh well.

First day of class

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I slept for a nice, solid 12 hours last night. I cast a resurrect spell on myself at
around 7:30 am and went to the halls dining room to grab some breakfast. It’s good to know that I
can barely finish two bacon and egg muffins and two hash browns. I used to be able to eat three of
each. Perhaps that is a sign of better things to come. I’m planning to go on a diet, coz my weight
is becoming atrocious. I dunno how much I weigh now, but I feel heavy. =D Well, I met Vivek in my
IT Project Management lecture, and he told me about this gym promotion where you can get a
membership for the price of a renewal if you register on the 5th of August. I’m planning to get a
membership coz the Clayton branch of the gym
[monash.edu.au] is just a 2 minute walk from my halls and I can also use the Caulfield branch if
I want. The gym is owned by Monash University’s Sports and Recreation
[monash.edu.au] department, but it’s pretty well equipped. Anyway, I went for my first lecture
today – the aforementioned IT Project Management. It seems to have a pretty aggressive
deliverables schedule. Starting from Week 5, there will be a part due every week. Nasty.

Outside the Cummings (I kid you not) lecture theater.

Margot Schuhmacher is the lecturer for this course.

Anyway, I only had one lecture today so I went to the bank after that to bank in my bank draft
(try saying that three times, fast). I also managed to pay my Optus bill at the post office. Good
thing I thought to bring it with me this morning. Went to the Asian grocery in the campus center
after that to get some much needed laundry detergent and also a box of Cola chicken wings with rice
to eat later. Pretty good stuff, it’s nice to see that the rice boxes in Frank and Lily Lee’s Asian
Grocery has been beefed up with new products.

Melbourne

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Melbourne again. GMT +10 again. I arrived at around 6:45 am but got delayed by a HORRENDOUS line
to the red exit. The red exit is for people who have stuff to declare. The line snaked all through
the baggage collection area. I was waiting there for half an hour and I had barely moved 10 meters
and the line in front of me was 50 meters at least. There was this one customs guy going through
the line to try to reduce the people going for the red exit. After a bit of questioning, some
people were directed to the green exit. Now, come my turn, I told the customs officer I was
carrying stuff for a friend and I’m not too sure what’s in there so I have to go through the red
exit. This revelation alarmed the customs occifer, I mean, officer, and he directed me RIGHT
THROUGH THE CROWD to the alternate red exit! Apparently, there are two red exits, the normal one
with a mini x ray machine and manual checks and the alternate one with an industrial sized x ray
machine and more stringent checking. There were only 4 or 5 people in the alternate red exit. The
only way to get to the alternate red exit is to bypass the cordon, and for that you must be
escorted by a customs officer. How nice indeed. I jumped the bulk of the queue just by saying that
I was carrying “unknown stuffs” (make a conspirational face while you say it) for someone
else. Oh what a tangled web we weave. Heh. Granted, the checking is more thorough, but hey, it
saves you from queuing up. So if anyone experiences a long red exit queue at Tullamarine airport,
it won’t hurt to try telling the customs officer that you’re “taking something for a
friend”. Heh. I was slightly worried coz I had a warez version of Photoshop 7 conveniently
concealed behind my legit Nikon View driver CD, but fortunately the customs guy did not care to
look through it. I’m starting to think that the intellectual property issue is becoming less
enforced nowadays. What of those horror stories about warez CD being fined A$1000 each?

Oh, something funny happened on the KL -> Melbourne flight. There I was, reading a newspaper
while an orange juice laid in the cup holder of my seat, conveniently within arms reach. Alas, I
accidentally tipped the nearly full cup with my newspaper and it poured unto the pants of the guy
sitting beside me! How embarrassing…I apologized and got the cabin attendant to bring us some
napkins. The guy was pretty cool about it, but I still felt bad coz it wet the whole left side of
his pants and I could see he was uncomfortable for he put napkins on his pants to try and absorb
the orange juice. Oh well, these things happen in sardine class. Speaking about fluids, the Sibu
-> Kuching and Kuching -> KL flight left me all st and uncomfortable due to the heat.

I finally caved in and paid RM 20 (!) for a private shower at the KLIA Airside Transit Hotel
[klia.com.my]. They give you a towel and you use the private toilet/sink/shower room. Bar soap
or liquid soap is provided in the shower. I still can’t believe I paid RM 20 (!!) for a shower,
but it sure felt good, coz I was st and uncomfortable by the time I reached KLIA. You know,
if you’re so inclined, you can actually bum a free shower if you want to. The hotel staff only
provides you with a towel and you leave the used towel in the shower, so if you bring your own
towel, I presume they won’t know either.

Well, I noticed that the in-flight entertainment system of Malaysia Airlines has improved. They
now have a larger library of games – even multiplayer games (chess, reversi, trivia) where you can
compete with other passengers. The trivia one is quite fun coz when the scores are tallied, it
displays all the current players and their seat number. But the best thing is that they have
Bejeweled! Apparently they have gotten a license from PopCap Games [popcap.com]. It’s not exactly easy to play
though, coz you have to manually move the square down the grid instead of using the mouse in the
PC version [popcap.com] and the Web version [zone.msn.com] or the stylus in the
Palm version [astraware.com]. Nevertheless,
it was very interesting to see it available in-flight.

PC Games on the in-flight entertainment system.

Bejeweled!

Ooh…

Dynasty Restaurant

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I spent the afternoon making buttermilk pancakes with my girlfriend. It was those instant
pancakes in a container that you just add water to. They are pretty fun to make and tasted good
too. Anyway, I’m suffering from a bout of INDIGESTION today due to eating my KFC lunch too quickly.
I have already expelled the watery feces in the late afternoon and I’ve needed to vacate my bowels
two times since then. I had an…uh, accident too. You know how it’s hard to distinguish
between the need to fart and liquid feces pressure on your sphincter when you’re having a
stomachache? Yeah, that’s what happened. Luckily, I didn’t get any on my briefs, I managed to wipe
myself down in the toilet in time. =D

From left: Lawrence, Auntie, Louisa, me.

I went out for dinner with my girlfriend and her mom tonight at the Dynasty Restaurant in town.
Lawrence (my girlfriend’s brother) joined us halfway through. I’m heading back to Melbourne
tomorrow afternoon. Sigh…it’s always depressing to go back. I’m gonna miss my girlfriend.

The Friday Five on Saturday

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I forgot to do the Friday Five [fridayfive.org] yesterday, so here it is – a
day late and none the worse for wear.

1. Where were you born? Sibu, Sarawak. Sarawak is in Malaysia.

2. If you still live there, where would you rather move to? If you don’t live there, do you
want to move back? Why or why not? Well, technically I live in Melbourne coz I spend most of my
time over there. That is because I’m enrolled in a university in Melbourne. I come back to Sibu every time my
semester break starts, so I spend a healthy chuck of my time in Sibu as well. After graduating,
I’m planning to do my post grad studies in the United States before coming back and working
either in KL or Singapore. Tentative plans of course, anything could change.

3. Where in the world do you feel the safest? I feel safe everywhere.

4. Do you feel you are well-traveled? I’ve been to Malaysia (obviously), Singapore, New
Zealand, Australia and Indonesia. That doesn’t qualify me as being well-traveled but I do love
traveling.

5. Where is the most interesting place you’ve been? Rotorua [naturalnz.co.nz] in the Bay of Plenty, New
Zealand. It’s like a hot springs resort town and the air permanently smells of sulfur. I went
there for my first landing in ’93. I had PR status in New Zealand. Me and my dad went to this
hot pool and there were pools going up to 50 degrees! Unfortunately, there was a sign there
saying that it’s not advisable for people under 13 to use the higher temperature hot pools. This
puzzled me slightly, until it was explained that high temperatures might arrest the growth of
the testes and probably kill a bucket load of sperm as well. The horror.

This picture was taken in ’93. I’m in the spa equipped in every room of the motel we stayed in
Rotorua. I was around 13 at that time.

Supper

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I was showing my girlfriend pictures of Melbourne that I took using a video out cable. Pretty
nifty, allows you to see the pictures on a large TV screen instead of the small inbuilt LCD screen.
Terrible refresh rates though. Anyway, I met up with Daniel, Johnny, May Ling and Susie at UCA
foodcourt at around 9:30 pm for supper.

From left: Daniel, Me, Johnny

From left: Me, May Ling, Susie

I had a steaming bowl of hot noodles. There was a lot of people there coz it is a Friday night.
Which reminds me, I only have two more days in Sibu before I have to head back again. I better turn
in now coz I’ve not been getting enough sleep these few days. I can’t even form concise sentences
because my brain is trying to quit on me even after helping myself to coffee just now. Heh.

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