Photo caption: The CNY edition, Episode 3

Since there seems to be a lack of posts recently, perhaps due to the Chinese New Year celebrations, I will be resuming the photo captions posts. This time, here’s a photo taken at Garrick’s house when we gathered at his house on the 8^th day of Chinese New Year.

Just in case you didn’t know, the person in the green shirt and standing is our admin, Roa aka Dienasty aka Eli James.
The person with his hand outstretched is another admin, Fre3ch aka kvys2000.
And finally the girl with the messy hair is Wandkey.

Roa: You want my Coke? I dare you to grab Wandkey’s hair before I’ll give you my Coke. And if you don’t dare, I’ll shoot!

Fre3ch: Hah? Got like that one meh? Eehyer. Ok oklar… *Reaches out to grab*

Wandkey: Smile for the camera, guys… *Blisfully unaware of what’s going on behind*

Now, your turn. You know the drill, captions in the comments. Have fun!

Prodigy

The art of playing the piano goes back a longggg way. 1700 to be more "precise". Along the way, many many many impressive composers and pianists have cropped up. Prodigies and such.

In Kuching, almost every little kid who have parents with a nice, balanced income get sent off to try out the piano. Well, most of the people I know anyway. Some last, some don't.

I've got a piano that's balancing on a pile of books because of the flood.

That sentence was irrelevant. Anyway, back to the point, pianists...Check out this guy. He's playing from memory and it's pretty wow-inducing! Guess the pieces he's playing too. Not that hard to guess~

Hidden Treasures

My quest has taken me far. I have been down to the trenches. I have walked the front line and I have seen the devastation. I have seen things that no man should have to see. I have witnessed Hiroshima. I have witnessed total desecration. I am searching for a treasure so well hidden that my quest has taken me to the end of the earth and literally waltzed with me to the brink of sanity. All this over a chocolate éclair!

My trip to the trenches started without my knowing. One moonless summer evening, after dinner, I was walking in the streets of Perth, full of good food, good drinks and in good company. Funny how life likes to set you up before bringing you crashing back down to earth again isn’t it? Yes, to cap off this delightful evening I had purchased a chocolate éclair, the epiphany of all that is good about pastry, chocolate and cream. It’s a work of art that is the pinnacle of all deserts and confectionaries. The highlight for myself, and I’m sure you’ll all agree, is the cream. Without it the pastry has no feeling, no taste and no conceivable reason for existing at all. With it the éclair is nothing short of a ‘God’; and yet it was the cream as facts may have it, on this particular evening, pastry moist and chocolate sweet, that it went haywire.

The cream in this éclair was custard. Let me just enforce this- THE CREAM WAS CUSTARD. So what was going on in the minds of those who had crafted this pastry? What had led them to so freely turn their back upon their craft? What has happened to the entire western world we live in, when one can’t expect to taste whipped cream on the tip of their tongue after the first bite of a chocolate éclair? For the first time I was witnessed to the rapid epidemic of sloth and hence my quest began.

In short we no longer take pride in what we do. We live in a world that has become lazy and yes everybody cuts corners; we are only human. But you only need to look at the cream of an éclair to see where the ethics of the world have gone. Fast food, fast cars and reality television- a lifestyle that expects us to do things quickly and yet not so efficiently. It’s a lifestyle that expects us to settle for second best. We are on a downhill slide. One moment we are walking to the shops, the next we are driving and finally we are just having food delivered. Reports show that obesity in Australia is killing as many people as cancer and daily, to put it bluntly, we are a fat people and a lazy people. A people who aim low to avoid disappointment, eat chocolate in the car park to avoid meltage, achieve the mediocre and then still wonder why we are not happy.

I have been down to the front line. I have walked the trenches and seen the devastation. I have followed the trail of the beast and found it lurking in schools, in parks and in shopping centres. I have seen it dwelling within the minds of my family and friends. I have seen the beast in my wildest nightmares, but how to tackle it? Things need to be done properly. There are certain rules and etiquette with the way certain things should be done. The hidden treasures of our lazy world, that could be argued, may just be table manners, but surely not.

Our lives have become cluttered with the reasoning that quantity outdoes quality and things are better when they are done faster.

If there is an easier route or someone to blame, we will take it. When typing on the computer, we find it easier to dictate, when something needs fixing, we find it easier to buy new and when the phone rings and someone asks us to answer it we reply with “well you’re closer” or even worse “but you touched it last”. The easiest and ironically the laziest thing to do would be to place blame on the remote control. Never has a piece of equipment instigated as much sloth related trouble as the humble remote. It’s one small click for a big fat man, but a huge and obvious nemesis for our integrity and our waistlines. But I argue that we can go further back than the éclair and the remote, to see where humanity slid off the rails. Sloth as I first see it, first reared it’s ugly head the moment we waltzed out the primordial ooze and Mother Nature, and her not so infinite wisdom, gave us the gift of intelligence. From that very moment we have used that ‘gift’ to create things that simply don’t require its usage! It’s the mindless objects, mindless past times and a use of the friendly world that makes it easier for us to get by without thinking for ourselves.

I have been down to the front line. I have walked the trenches and seen the devastation. I have joined in the search for a hidden treasure of a lazy people. I have battled the beast and I have waged a war…against custard! At the beginning of the play ‘Prouder’ the villain lying on the roof says, “You are born in a tragic world. Tragedy is bred in your bones”. And he does not tell a lie.

We are born in a tragic world although we never stop to question it.

That is of course until we experience a moment of divine clarity and begin to take a serious look at what it is that we are doing with our lives.

Recently at an annual school’s cross-country running event, in the last race of the day, in the setting sun, one little boy, Trent, crossed the finish line dead last but by no means alone. Struggling to breathe and struggling to move, Trent raised his arms in silent victory. When he had been asked by the men in the first aid ute if he wanted to jump into the van and get a ride back to the finish line, Trent simply replied “no way” and ran on. Which isn’t bad for a boy with a spine difficulty, not bad at all. And for a moment everyone in the audience forgot about the evening’s television, their email and so on and so forth, and cheered for Trent; because for Trent the hidden treasure was pushing himself a little harder and becoming the best he could. I too had a moment of clarity, feeling, as the cancer researchers must have felt when they heard that there is a South American plant, which might hold the answer to their problem. Maybe Trent held the answer to mine.

The chocolate éclair, however insignificant, needs to be addressed. Now is the time to dig in our heels, grind our teeth, clench our jaws and push a little harder, before, achieving the best of our ability becomes like a perilous trip to the summit of Everest; attempted by many, but achieved by few. I want to live. I want to be able to stand up, walkover and change the channel. I want to walk to the shops to fix my shoes. I want to aim high. I want to cross the car park without eating the chocolate. I want to be able to feel true happiness. I want to pick up the phone no matter how close I am to it, or who touched it last, or whether or not it’s even ringing. I want to defy this tragic world. I want cream in my chocolate éclair and I want cream in those I make.

Yes! I have been down to the front line. I have walked the trenches and seen the devastation. There is a war going on in our own backyards. A war that we cannot see, hear, taste, touch or smell; yet one that surrounds us at every turn – sloth. It’s a war that infects everyday people and claims innocent lives. It’s a war in which we need to fight against members of our own family, friends and ultimately ourselves. However it is also a war that we can win. As Winston Churchill once did not say- “I shall never surrender to custard” and nor will I. Like Churchill before me, I stay here in times of peril and I say…sometimes quality is better than quantity, sometimes cream is better than custard and sometimes the most priceless hidden treasure of all is simply a state of mind!

She's So Cute

I have no idea why i liked this American Idol audition so much. The girl was cute, the vocals were drop dead funny and the judges were (whew!) sweet at the end.

PS: Did i mention the girl was soooo cute?

How To Wash Your Cat

We're back to the old kitty-me-not argument - those cute, dangerous little things called cats that can render you an impotent, sad owner in a matter of seconds. This video teaches you, tongue in cheek, the various important steps of washing a cat ... safely. (If you haven't read the earlier article, click here).



Recommended by Sam

Green Hill Temple, Muara Tebas

Note: This post is not meant for religious purpose. If you feel being offended, please kindly inform us or do not proceed reading this article. Have fun reading!

Ever wonder where to fill your free time by driving somewhere outstation to breath in fresh air while having the chance to enjoy the scenic views without having to pay a single cent? You may not have heard of this well known temple at Muara Tebas which is located about 30km off from Kuching. This temple is located on top of a green hill, heck it's called "Ching San Yen", direct translation would be "Green Hill Temple".

A view of Green Hill Temple from ground

source

Cut the crap, don't ask me why it's called that way. The temple is located about 100m from ground and is facing the sea. Perhaps, long time ago fishermen built a small temple on top of the hill for worshipping purpose before they got down to sea. (This is totally fictional, I don't read the history.)

A view of the inside

Every year, tens of thousands Chinese from Kuching and other divisions drive up to Muara Tebas to visit the temple especially during Chinese New Year. The temple is packed with crowds and you find it hard to move around during the season. It's said that every lion dance troupe has to perform at the temple every Chinese New Year.

Lion Dance performance

There are many sculptures you can find at the temple. One famous sculpture is the Dragon, facing directly at the sea which has become a symbol to the temple.

Dragon sculpture.

Sculptures on the walls of the main entrance

Lord Buddha definitely is a special person. Being able to walk right after being born, He has different foots from normal people like you and me. Have a careful look at the Foot Print of Lord Buddha. Spot the difference and tell us.

The Foot Print Of The Lord Buddha

The text on the golden plate:
The Foot Print of Lord Buddha was left behind when He descended from the Tavatimsa Heaven after preaching the Abbidhamma to His mother. The inprints symbolises the one hundred and eight auspicious signs of His soles. The Foot Print is one of the sacred items in Buddhism and is commonly found in Buddhism temples.

Up to date, no one knows why the temple is being famous among Buddhists. Some say that the Lords at the temple are very accurate. There is also a belief that we have to show our sincerity each time we go there to worship. One common practice is we must not drink and eat in the morning before we go to the temple. With empty stomach, we drive 20 minutes from Kuching to Muara Tebas and walk up the staircase of hundreds steps before we reach the temple.

You may ask why?

It's because Green Hill Temple serves the best noodle in town! The noodle serves at the temple is far better than the Kolo Mee featured by Kenny Sia.

So called best Kolo Mee rated by Kenny Sia... *thumb down*

None of the noodles you found in downtown is better than this simple cooked noodle. No meat (vegetarian la duh!), no special ingredients but just green vegetables and salt. With chilli sauce, the noodle taste excellent especially when we walk up the hundreds steps staircase with empty stomach! You can fill your stomach as much as you can. Tell you, you won't be able to satisfy your hungriness until someone stop you!

The best free noodle available only at Green Hill Temple!

source

Not only the noodle is the best you can found, Green Hill Temple also serves the best Kopi O around. Normally, people do not only drink a cup or two... but up to five to six cups of Kopi O.

The best Kopi O around...

You may ask if the Kopi O really tastes nice... Yea... and Kuchingities people ahh.. "Ai phi, yu ai chi" (want cheap, good quality). This free served Kopi O definitely never satisfy their thirst if only a cup or two. After all, they have to drive so far up from downtown to have taste the best free Kopi O available!

Short description of Green Hill Temple real history is available here for reading.

Box.net

Again, Techcrunch prevails. I've found a little service called Box.net that allows users of blogs to upload and share stuff with their readers. It's flash based, and a little heavy on resources - but here's an example.


Get your own Box.net widget and share anywhere!

See anything nice? Download it!

Happy Birthday Kenny!

As the title of this post suggests, this is about the Fr3ech man himself - Kenny Voon Yung Shen. Let's get down to it.

We've been organizing this one for the good part of two weeks, but by some stupid lack of foresight on my end most of the organization fell on poor Wen Qi's shoulders ... (coughcough i was working on wordpress, okay? ) Anyway, she deserves full credit for being the matriarch and the organizer of what can be called the First Gathering Kenny Enjoyed. No kidding.

The plan was like this: supporting cast enters stage left at 11.00. Female cast members enter at 11:45. Main character walks into coffee bean and supporting cast yell "Happy Birthday Kenny!", taking him by surprise and making him smile with obvious delight at the ingenuity and loyalty of his friends. Spends time eating cake, drinking coffee and talking. Everyone leaves at about 1 pm, with happy memories and fat (what with all the whipped cream and sugar and chocolate, goodness).

Get real.

Here's what actually happened:

I was supposed to reach there at 11, but my sister had school at Kuching High. This complicated matters, a bit. At exactly 12:43 the night before Ben smsed me and we realized there was no cake. Uh-oh. So Ben said he'd buy one at Tun Jugah just before we met up at Coffee Bean.

Stage Hitch #1:
Ben calls supporting cast (read: me).

Ben: I went to the only bakery at Tun Jugah, ah, and they said the cake will only be ready by 3.
Me: Heh? How lerr? Where are you now?
Ben: Tun Jugah. You?
Me: On the way. Tell you what. We meet up at Tun Jugah and then discuss what to do there.

Phone conversations ends. The two supporting characters in the car (me and Paul) start discussing options. In the end we stormed a bakery, got a chocolate cake, and stormed right back out. Crisis solved with quick thinking, wallet emptying and my driving mom.

Paul and i entered Coffee Bean, happily carrying our prize - the cake box. Wen Qi, Ravin and Ben were there. We moved to a comfy corner near stage right (better theatrical ambience) sat down and started stuffing photos into the album. Ravin and Ben left to buy a shirt for Kenny. Nicole, Samantha enter scene.

Stage Hitch #2
Kenny enters. In a textbook case of panic mouth-move-faster-than-brain, we chased him out. "Leave! Go away! You're not supposed to be here!"

He does so and vanishes into the dark bowels of Sarawak Plaza.

Nicole: "Did we just do that?"

Uhhuh. Right. :S

Zhe Rong, Vivian and Garrick enters scene. Girls buy drinks. We scribble as fast as we can on his present. Sam makes a comment on how thrigger happy we all are. The cameras are flashing everywhere. The tension builds up ....

Minor Stage Hiccup #3
Ben and Ravin rush onto the stage in an extremely flustered mood!

"QUICK QUICK! HE'S COMING! I SAW HIM OUTSIDE!"

We stared at them blankly. "I know. He came in just now and we chased him out."

"Oh." Then - "Quick! SIGN SIGN SIGN SIGN!"

I call Kenny to enter stage right.

He enters. After a whole lot of "Hello"s and "Happy Birthday!"s the boys buy drinks. We chat, we snapped pictures. I tested a little of Sam's drink and a little of Nickki's drink (sorry girls!). A moment of "Err - what do we do now arr?".

"Eat the cake!" I said, and we opened the box.

Minor Stage Hiccup #4
No lighter. This seemed relatively small, since candles were not a must for birthdays ... i think. Hey, coming of age ceremonies in certain parts of the Savannah required the birthday boy or girl to fast for a day and then sit still as ants are poured over them! And they had to be dressed in a loincloth! Okay, so that was how i remembered it, in a encyclopedia ... somewhere. And even if we had a matchbox, this leads us to ...

Minor Stage Hiccup #5
Smoke alarms. Apparently Coffee Bean doesn't encourage customers to roast their own beans. Hmmph.

Nicole poked the candles into the cake, and i stopped her, since she was destroying it. I licked the biggest one for jest. Then as Kenny was camwhoring with the cake knife, Nicole came up with the brilliant idea of sticking a candle into the cake and forcing Kenny to pull it out with his teeth (Kuching Birthday rituals are more exotic than African ones, apparently). And, this led to ...

Stage Hitch #6
That candle was the exact same one i had licked.

Uh-oh.

We solved it by giving that part of the cake to me, which incidentally was the part of the cake with the MOST icing. You know, sometimes i swear Kenny and gang want to give me pulmonary heart disease. Hmmph.

We sang the Big Man a happy birthday song, and he cut the cake. The cake immediately looked like how one of those Klang Valley cliffs looked like after a particularly nasty rainfall (read: landslide). We all ate dreamily, enjoying chocolate-induced happiness.

Then we started playing "Honey I Love You". This was where things started getting weird.

Kenny apparently wanted to marry me, thus raising questions about what gender was i underneath my jeans. I proposed to Wen Qi, and Wen Qi propose to Ravin.

Both were blushing so hard it was difficult to know who was proposing to who.

Ravin proposed to Samantha, and Samantha proposed to Garrick.

Garrick did a marvellous speech on Nicole. So it came to be that Nicole had to propose to Ben.

Poor Ben.

After which we come to the cutest picture of the entire gathering:

Ben proposing to Vivian.

In the end Nicole tried proposing to Paul, but she failed miserably. Paul was absolutely brilliant. In the end the only person who didn't kena was Zhe Rong, but only because Vivian was too shy to do anything about that.

The girls left for Girls Brigade shortly after, and we went to Tun Jugah for a little salivating at all the Macs, plus lunch.

And then we departed. You know, looking back, it's a wonder we can have so many gatherings together. We won't exactly win a Tony award for all the Hiccups.

But, as they say - the show must go on! Happy Birthday to the BiG MaN Kenny Voon, and may the new year bring plenty of opportunities and prosperity to his home, his car, and his love life!

*gee that sounds corny*

Dramatization brought to you by Eli James and his terlalu- free time. Someone remind him of the real world, please. He hopes you have enjoyed yourselves. Now go join UGS immediately!

10th UGS Gathering

Since no one else has seemed to really blogged about it, I guess it’s up to me to write about UGS’s most recent gathering. The 10^th gathering was held mainly to celebrate Kenny’s coming of age. Yeap, he’s finally 18.

Anyway, we decided to celebrate it a day early, on the 3^rd of February, since most people couldn’t make it if it was on the 4^th. I thought we all agreed to go earlier at 11.15am at Coffee Bean to make the preparations before Kenny arrived at 12pm. So you can imagine my surprise when I arrived at 11.20am and not a single person was there yet. So, to justify my waiting there, I had to fork out RM12 for one ice-blended coffee, there goes my money… Anyway, finally they did arrive, almost half an hour after the appointed time. For a moment there, I was worried that it would only be me and Kenny awkwardly waiting there you know.

When the UGSers did arrive, there was a flurry of activity as we tried to finish the preparations of our gifts and get everyone to sign them.

I have no idea whether guys would appreciate something sentimental like this, it’s a photo album and we put in some photos of previous UGS gatherings and activities. I like that the casing is in hard cover and that on every page there’s space for captions. We sure did crack our brains trying to think what to write.

Here’s the birthday cake! As they say, there’s a story behind every photo. We couldn’t manage to light the candles since Coffee Bean is a non-smoking zone, wouldn’t want to risk setting off the fire sensors. Didn’t realise it until after we put the candles in the cake though. So, we had to resort to this…

Kenny “blowing” the candles removed from the cake. Haha. Then, the unthinkable happened, Cedric absent mindedly placed back a candle into the cake, forgetting that he had licked the cream off one of them earlier on. Oopsie! Thus, he managed to secure himself a hefty slice of cake which had been contaminated by himself.

After all the commotion of cutting the cake and consuming it, someone brilliantly came up with the idea of playing the “Honey, I love you, would you marry me?” game. Well, the game goes like this, you say “I love you, would you marry me?” to a person of the opposite sex and if the person smiles or laughs, then he/she loses and has to continue the game with someone else. Quite embarassing playing this game in public, thank goodness the place had cleared by that time. But no doubt very funny. Well, somehow I ended up being the first victim and of course lost. Everyone was victimised at least once, except for the birthday boy, who somehow got away. The eventual winner was Paul, who managed to remain stoic looking and did not even show a hint of a smile when “proposed” to.

All too soon, it was time for the other girls to leave as they had Girls Brigade meeting to attend. Here’s a group photo we took just before everyone left…

Ikea Ads You'll Never See In Malaysia

Okay i'm on a roll. While i was in youtube i found some more funny videos (hope the last one didn't give you a phobia or something ...) These are kea ads, and judging from the ad content, i don't think you'll ever see any of these on local television, except probably the first one. Which is kinda mild. But never mind.

The Lamp


Tidy Up


Balls

Mark Leung's Crazy Computer Bug

I've been trying to mod my blog, got bored and went to Youtube. Watch this - it's kinda short so it should be light on you, whatever your connection speed is.

5 Ways To Survive Valentine’s Day (The Single’s Way)

Valentine’s Day is coming up, and if you’re like me, you probably wouldn’t be celebrating this overly hyped, overly commercialised occasion. Therefore, here’s a guide to surviving Valentine’s Day.

5 Ways To Survive Valentine’s Day (The Single’s Way)

1. Fight the urge to turn on the television that evening, sappy love stories that are totally unrealistic will be showing. If you do however forget and turn on the television, do quickly press the mute button to save yourself from hearing the sappy love songs that accompany these movies. Yes, prevention is better than cure in this case. Resort to DVDs if you must turn on the television. Or better yet, pull out the microphones and start karaoke-ing, anything to tune out the sound of any lovebirds in your neighbourhood.
2. Eat in! Yes, you must not succumb to temptation and eat out on this night. Eating places will be full of lovebirds who willingly pay outrageous prices just to feel that they are not missing out on something. Parking spaces would be hogged by this people who can spend hours at dinner. Save yourself the trouble, and eyesore, by eating at home. Saves money too, plus it’s way healthier.
3. At work or school, whilst other people are getting into the hype of receiving or giving gifts, steer clear of conversation unless you want to be asked why you did not receive anything. Be proud, being single is good, embrace the freedom. Don’t resort to buying yourself flowers to evade the mentioned questions, it wouldn’t be worth the price at this time. Plus, it will only lead to more questions. Remember, honesty is the best policy.
4. Locking yourself at home may not be everyone’s ideal, so why not gather a few friends who are free and have a night out. Again, do remember to avoid those lovebird hotspots: restaurants, parks, dark alleys, goodness they can be sighted almost everywhere on this day. Take advantage of the fact that the lovebirds would probably not be at shopping places and go get some Chinese New Year shopping done perhaps. Anything to get your mind off you-know-what.
5. Laughter is the best medicine. Watch while your colleagues or classmates get gifts from that creepy, awkward guy, or people get hilarious, unexpected and embarassing proposals. Then, cherish the fact that that would not happen to you. Haha.

Note: This list is not meant to be taken too seriously. And no, I have not turned cynical about love or Valentine’s Day.

National Photography Contest

This camera is older than me. And it's lived with my mother longer than I have!

You know, in within the blogosphere, there seems to be so many many budding, creative, talented, *insert another nice nice adjective* bloggers who can do things with a camera we all go Wow at.

So, I thought this might spark an interest. All the Malaysians who have a camera and an internet connection would probably want to join but competitions are fun are they not? It's a Photography Competition that's being held in conjunction with our Fiftieth Anniversary by...the Star I guess.

Theme's are Our Home • At Work • At Play • Our Beliefs • Our Culture • Our Heritage • Our Cities / Towns / Kampungs.

Pretty general I think. *Thinks hard*...Photograph your toilet if you want to for the "Our Home" category...Or you could photograph yourself stuck to your computer screen for "At Play" =)

Okay, so that would probably cause the organizers to blacklist you from any other competitions organized by them, but if you could pull it off, hey, you deserve to win dontcha?

Win what?

There are three categories.
School children & Youth Category
(aged 18 years and below as at 1st January 2006) Three (3) Best Entries: Top three (3) entries will each receive RM1,000 cash, prizes in kind and a certificate. Five (5) Consolation Prizes: Each entry will receive RM500 cash, prizes in kind and a certificate.
Open Category
(aged 18 years and above as at 1st January 2006) Three (3) Best Entries: Top three (3) entries will each receive RM5,000 cash, prizes in kind and a certificate. Three (3) Consolation Prizes: Each entry will receive RM1,000 cash, prizes in kind and a certificate. Open Photo Essay Category
(aged 18 years and above as at 1st January 2006) Three (3) Best Entries: Top three (3) entries will each receive RM5,000 cash, prizes in kind and a certificate. Three (3) Consolation Prizes: Each entry will receive RM1,000 cash, prizes in kind and a certificate.

With all of the "gao shou" (High hands slash elites) and "ren chai" (orang yang berbakat slash talents) around...I'm sure there must be somebody interested somewhere...Uhrm, somewhere...

Wen Qi's beloved...

So...don't kill your cameras in the process of hunting for the perfect picture to send in!

aPpLe IpHoNe

Since everybody's is talking about iphone, Intoducing one of my favourite shows, where I learnt all the junkies which includes the way I write- The Colbert Report

The show is available for day to day updated downloads in TorrentSpy.