July 2005 Archives

This is the cannabis stash that I got that night. It's not the same strain as the one in The Joint (see previous entry). The cannabis in that joint was from my friend's personal stash and as I mentioned, literally floored me with its strength. :) One of my other friends was smoking meth and she thought I had passed out or something and (with good intentions) attempted to get me to smoke some ice, but I said I quit, and I'm just chilling out from the weed.

Fast forward to an hour later, and she was driving me to score. In a haze, I remember getting out of her car, getting into the cannabis dealer's car and er...commerce commenced without any noteworthy setbacks. ;) I stumbled back to her car and got home, stashed the joint (was offered three for the road) and the 10 grams of cannabis I just obtained.

The 10 grams of cannabis was compacted tightly, wrapped with saran wrap, concealed in a plastic baggie and sealed with duct tape ala Malaysian style. Cannabis is a bit of a non-profit drug here due to its bulk-profit ratio and difficult concealment methods due to the distinctive olfactory properties.

I proceeded to break up the large compacted chunk into smaller portions and rolled a joint. It's good - not as good as the stuff I had at my friend's place, but better than the usual cannabis grade I get in Kuching. :)

I had a joint after downing a six-pack of beer and a lot of benzos the previous night. It literally floored me. I was so stoned that I had to lie down for a bit while my two friends looked on. It was a great indica strain based cannabis and it went too well with the alcohol and benzodiazepines.

One of my friends gave me another three joints for the road, and I took one. I smoked that joint last night, right down to the roach. It was great - same indica type stoned feeling. It's perfect for chilling out and winding down for the night. Righteous!

Mini Pot Noodle is a product from the UK and its basically instant noodles in a cup to suit English taste buds. I saw this product on the shelves of the supermarket and decided to get a pack to see how it tastes.

Mini Pot Noodles retails for RM 5.50 for a twin pack and is described as "Noodles in a chicken & mushroom flavor sauce mix with texturized soya pieces, dried vegetables and a sachet of soy sauce".

Pot Noodle seems to be a rather popular line of instant noodles in a styrofoam cup in the UK and it comes in various sizes, from mini to king size. It's the standard design seen in most cup noodles, with a foil lid (resealable) for retention of heat.

This is a closer look at the front of the Mini Pot Noodle - Chicken & Mushroom Flavor. Upon closer scrutiny, it seems that the product is actually called "Mini Pot Noodle Snack".

I found the instructions on the packaging to be amusing - especially the part where it goes "Boiling water is dangerous". No shit, Sherlock. ;)

The foil peels open to reveal the dried noodles and vegetable pieces and a sachet of soy sauce.

Here's a closer look at the soy sauce - it actually has script that goes "This Soy Sauce is in excellent condition when packed. When used, however, it may be found to contain some crystals. These crystals are common salt and are perfectly harmless". I thought the grammatically correct version should go "These crystals are common salt and is (instead of are) perfectly harmless.

Anyway, here's a photo of the contents of the Mini Pot Noodle. It seems that the noodles, flavoring powder, and bits of dried vegetables are all mixed together.

I used our office water cooler (which can dispense hot water as well) to fill the Mini Pot Noodle up to the indicated point. I missed out the part where the instructions mentions stirring the mixture but it turned out alright.

This is what the Mini Pot Noodle looks like after 4 minutes - the noodles are mixed with rehydrated vegetables (mostly corn) and soya pieces (which tastes surprisingly good).

I emptied the soy sauce sachet into the Mini Pot Noodles and added some more water.

This is what the final product looks like. It tastes surprisingly good, it's a great substitute for a quick lunch. :)

The good news is that I don't crave after methamphetamine anymore. I can safely and with honest conviction say that I've quit meth. The bad news is I've developed an unhealthy fondness for opiates. I find it invading my thoughts when I'm stressed out (and even when I'm not). I believe they refer to this as drug seeking behavior. ;)

It has come to the point that I would take any opiate, even paracetamol (APAP) laced codeine preparations like Paralgin Forte (400 mg paracetamol, 30 mg codeine). This morning, I stooped even lower - I went doctor shopping again, with full intent on getting DF 118 (dihydrocodeine 30 mg) but unfortunately, the clinic I went to did not have that. It only had a vile preparation called Panadeine which contains a whopping 500 mg of paracetamol with just 8 mg of codeine.

...and I took it. I took 8 tablets, which hits the 4000 mg paracetamol daily limit, but only gives me 32 mg of codeine. That's nowhere near enough to even catch a buzz, but I took it anyway. *shrugs*

It's always opiate agonists that I crave now, not stimulants. I just want some of that peace that methadone and heroin gives me. I love methadone due to it's long acting nature, heroin is overrated IMHO.

Anyway, I also obtained some dodgy looking alprazolam (Xanax) from the doctor today. I started out with the usual "migrane that neither NSAIDs nor stuff like Vioxx, Celebrex etc would help" and tried to go for DF-118 (dihydrocodeine 30 mg). The doctor was very accommodating, but they didn't have anything stronger than the said Panadeine. Thus, I decided to go fishing for benzos (TM).

I told the doctor my usual spiel and got prescribed 1 mg alprazolam per night. It's in 0.5 mg doses though, the clinic doesn't stock 1 mg ones. The doctor was very enlightened, which surprised me in Kuching. She didn't lecture me about benzodiazepines but just gently reminded me that she assumes that I know about the problems with benzodiazepines. I like that, doctors usually "talk down" to patients, which is one of my pet peeves. My regular doctors are the ones that doesn't do that, so I made the necessary footwork to get to see this doctor for a regular prescription.

The problem came when she wanted to check my blood pressure...she kindly told me to roll up my sleeves (I was wearing a long sleeved shirt) and it's just my luck that I sat on her left, which means I had to roll up my left arm sleeve.

It's the one that has my gf's tattoo on it, as well as two bad IV shots that are still visible (one on the upper arm and one on the wrist). There are a couple of self-inflicted scars too and I imagine that it doesn't look too good for someone with these...er, features to be asking for codeine and benzodiazepines coz the doctor's expression immediately changed.

She managed to cover it up quite well though, the doctor was very professional in that manner...but we both know what she was thinking. I noticed that the initial friendliness and warmth was replaced by a forced friendliness but at least no questions were asked.

I don't really care though; call me junkie if you want. That's what I am, anyway. Call a spade a spade. :)

P/S - My apologies about the personal entries today, regular sixthseal.com programming will ensue tomorrow. ;)

I don't have any real friends. It goes without saying that my lifestyle doesn't allow real bonding to happen due to the nature of the scene I'm in. My work doesn't help either, I'm either too tired to go out with friends or too tired to even answer my calls. I have (er...had) some great friends, but I don't bother to keep in touch. That's entirely my fault though...so now I live in a world with a lot of acquaintances and party friends, but not what people would consider "real" friends.

My high school teacher told me once that I have this shield or cage around me that blocks people from getting to close to me. She reckons that it's coz I'm afraid of getting hurt. I just shut people out. I think she's right. I've let someone in before, and I got hurt.

It's like the saying goes...

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.

This is a batch of jellies which has bits of various fruits inside which Penny (one of my coworkers) brought to work today.

I think they have that abstract look to it...and it rhymes to boot. ;)

The photo above depicts the empty Borneo issued water cooler (it also comes with a hot water dispenser). It is, as I mentioned, empty. Thus, I'll go through the steps of how to refill a standard water cooler.

The first thing to do is to disengage the empty water container. This one contains 5 gallons of water (18.9 liters). It weighs about 19 kg but it's not a problem when it's empty and can be removed with relative ease.

The next step would be to take a full water bottle from your cache of sealed filled water bottles.

It is important to check that the seal on the top of the huge bottle is intact, as the water dispenser pierces the seal in order to access the water. It would cause a minor catastrophe if one attempts to put an open water bottle upside down during the mounting process. This is very important.

Once the integrity check has been done, the bottle should be mounted on the water dispenser by turning it upside down and locking it into the water cooler. There would some gurgling sounds at this point - do not panic - this is normal, as the full water bottle attempts to fill the small cache in the water cooler.

The water cooler is now filled and ready to be used.

The universal blue colored nozzle is used to dispense cold water.

The universal red colored nozzle dispenses hot water.

This is the end of this document.

I've got two spare tickets for the musical theatre feature titled Hang Li Po on Saturday (worth RM 30 each). It's going to be on the 23rd of July, 2005 at 8 pm at Stadium Perpaduan in Kuching. Please come and collect it from my office if you want it, I've got two free tickets to give out.

Over here in Kuching, we're used to getting our food fast. Kolok mee and the ilk does not take long to prepare. The curry mee we get over here follows the same concept. The remarkable resourcefulness of Kuching coffee shops is manifested in the early deployment of the curry dish (shown above). This is the same curry dish that's reused in the afternoon for chup fun (mixed rice).

The noodles in the curry mee are the thick yellow noodles used in fried noodles. The noodles are "cooked" in the same method as kolok mee - it reuses the huge vat of boiling water used to make kolok mee to steep the noodles in boiling water.

The bean sprouts are given the same treatment...

...and the curry dish (with meat and potatoes) are poured over the entire concoction - giving you a near instantaneous curry noodle dish. :)

This Category III film called The Wayward Cloud was promoted to me by my friendly neighborhood DVD seller as a film that features a Kuching actress. It's actually not a Kuching actress in the Category III film (partial nudity) but a Kuching born director.

Tsai Ming-liang was born in Kuching, Malaysia and this is one of his feature films. I did not watch it as it did not, as I was led to believe, feature an actress from Kuching.

However, the flick seems convoluted...I don't know what the story was about since I can't read Chinese but it seems that the plot is centered around water bottles.

...a lot of water bottles.

Baclofen is a little known GHB analog and has reportedly produced GHB like effects in recreational doses. The precise mechanism of action of baclofen is not fully known and it's marketed at a muscle relaxant. However, baclofen is a direct GABA (B) agonist, just like the recreational (illegal) substance GHB. It caught my interest when baclofen and phenibut was suggested as potential substitutes for GHB.

GHB is not popular in the Malaysian recreational drug use scene. Ironically, Malaysia is also where the clinical trials for legitimate use of GHB was conducted in the form of sodium oxybate (Xyrem) which is essentially GHB renamed. ;) GHB is marketed as an Ecstasy substitute in Melbourne (and other countries) and has become very popular in the recreational drug use scene, leading to a lot of overdose, and fatalities due to its high dose-response curve.

GHB is rather scarce in Malaysia, with most people sticking to safe and known drugs (the usual suspects) and thus I've been searching high and low (no pun intended) for a GHB substitute. I've delved into the grey market "sexual enhancers" market which has GBL or 1,4-Butanediol listed but the toxicity of the other ingredients have dissuaded me from this path (will write up this soon).

I came across baclofen in a pharmacist one day and decided to experiment with this direct GABA (B) agonist. I have not had GHB for a long time and I'm interested in any potential GHB analogs since most of the analogs like GHL and 1,4 has been declared illegal. I took 100 mg of baclofen on my first experiment and did not expect to get much out of it, but Jesus Christ, was I in for a ride...

Substance: Baclofen (potential GHB substitute)
Dosage: 100 mg

I took 100 mg of baclofen on an empty stomach (together with about 8 mg of clonazepam, which is my usual night dose) on Saturday night. I felt the effects at about T+ 0:45 with effects peaking at around the T+ 1:30 mark. I remember thinking "Jesus Christ, this feels a lot like GHB" at that point. This is the notes I jotted down on my Pocket PC:

Extreme nysgymus, vision blurred, euphoria, eyelids can't stop flickering, even when shut/closed

Unusual photo sensitivity/light perception, dark room seems bright, "flash" (long) perceived in reflective material (eg snack wrappers) when sudden change of light eg light switched on suddenly

Visual anomalies (interesting) with light/dark shadow interplay

Thinking a bit off like on nmda anta
Motor coordination EXTREMALLY affected - balancing off, stumbling around, flying blind, haphazard navigation

Drowsiness present like ghb

Photo sensitive

Lag/latency when blinking - long retention of images, often with either v. dark or extremally bright spots. Dark spots black but white spots can be blue yellow green neon glare.

V. relaxed but not like klonopin - baclofen is unusual, muscle relaxant yet makes any muscle use painful easy tasks like holding arm up makes relevant muscle groups sore

This was when I dropped into a heavy sleep - a coma like sleep like GHB. I was totally out for about 4-5 hours. This is extremely deep sleep, with a heavy emphasis on extremely. It was exactly like a high dose of GHB in this sense. I woke up with a strange taste in my mouth and with all my muscles very sore and one motherfucker of a migrane.

I thought I had a seizure (probably a very mild one) and started to document this in my Pocket PC but I can't hold my stylus properly and kept on pressing the wrong characters. I was very confused and my motor coordination was still totally off, I was stumbling in all directions, knocking into walls in an attempt to go to the toilet. I felt some sexual aspects (like GHB) at this point (I had to hold my dick while I was taking a piss, alright :p). I nearly fell asleep while taking a piss. I won't attempt to post up the stuff I wrote at this point since I can't even decode what I wrote! It's all nonsensical - I was definitely unsober.

I woke up a second time about 7 hours later and I was still not sober! I still felt extreme mental confusion and absurd motor coordination and an unstoppable urge to sleep. I fell into a deep sleep again and finally woke up again 6 hours later with minor confusion, uncontrolled motor coordination and one fuck of a headache.

I slept a total of 18+ hours. (!)

I was very impressed with the initial GHB like subjective experience though - I would attempt this experiment again with a lower dose, perhaps 80 mg, to avoid the "GHB coma" from hitting me so fast so that I can enjoy the aspects of GHB euphoria.

Baclofen is stronger than medical literature would have you think...start with low doses. It is extremely similar to GHB and I would suggest it as a viable GHB substitute. Baclofen is a very interesting substance indeed. Baclofen also has structural homology with gamma-hydroxybutyrate (GHB). It lasted for close to 20 hours in total, which is amazing.

This is ketamine in Kuching. It's actually from Miri, but I've wanted to say "ketamine in Kuching" for ages. ;) It was concealed in a plain yellow capsule for logistical facilitation during transport and repackaged in plastic baggies for distribution.

Here's a closer look at the capsule filled with powdered ketamine. Ketamine is a white crystallized powder and is an NDMA antagonist used for recreational purposes. It's also called K, Special K, and various other terms on the street.

This is a standard choker with a cylindrical hollow metal tube. The nature of the powdered ketamine is ideal for concealment and portability using this choker. It can be bought for RM 5 - RM 15 depending on the size of the hollow metal tube from any accessory store.

The choker opens up by unscrewing the top of the metal tube, which can then be disengaged from the screw on top. The cylinder is hollow, and thus allows a variety of substances in powder form to be concealed inside. We are going to use ketamine in powder form for this demonstration.

The capsule opens up to reveal the powdered ketamine inside. The form of ketamine preferred here is the recrystalized and powdered variety instead of the liquid form due to the predilection for users here for insufflation versus parenteral administration.

One end of the filled capsule can be aligned with the hollow metal cylinder and the contents transferred inside. The metal cylinder filled with ketamine can be transported easily (don't try it at airports) for ketamine on the move when you're going out during the weekends.

The ketamine filled cylindrical metal tube is then screwed back on into the choker, which you can then wear. It looks fairly innocuous and wouldn't attract undue attention. It also allows for easy administration of the ketamine contained inside - the metal tube is disengaged and an appropriate amount of ketamine is then insufflated straight from the metal tube.

It is extremely important to insufflate excess ketamine that has been inadvertently dropped on the work area after you're done.

Drugs are bad, mmmkay?

Mmm...k. ;)

I was trying to test the capabilities of the coffee shop downstairs to cater to my unorthodox tastes so I thought up of three unusual combinations, all of which involves roti kahwin, which is a toasted sandwich with kaya (rich and sweet coconut based paste) and melted butter. In order of practicality:

Roti Kahwin with a pack of Next cigarettes in the middle
Roti Kahwin with kolo mee as the filling
Roti Kahwin with a fried egg flavored with pepper and soy sauce

The coffee shop delivers food and drink straight to our office premises so I got Penny to call the coffee shop and try ordering the items.

Penny: Can you deliver up one roti kahwin with a pack of Next cigarettes please?
(somewhat reluctantly, despite my encouragement)

Coffee shop: One roti kahwin AND a pack of Next cigarettes?

Penny: No, my colleague actually wants one roti kahwin with the pack of Next cigarettes inside the sandwich...
(somewhat embarrassed)

Coffee shop: .........

Penny: Nevermind, can you just get a roti kahwin up here please?

Me: No! Quick, ask about the roti kahwin with kolo mee inside.

Penny: Don't want.

Me: Alright, at least ask about the one with the egg.

Penny: Wait, can you send up a roti kahwin with an egg inside.
(resignedly)

Me: Fried egg.
(I told Penny)

Penny: Roti kahwin with a fried egg inside.

Me: With soy sauce and pepper too.

Penny: He wants soy sauce and pepper on the egg too.

Me: Don't forget the kaya and the melted butter in the roti kahwin!

Penny: He says not to forget that it's a roti kahwin with kaya and melted butter and a fried egg with pepper and soy sauce inside.

Coffee shop: Is this a crank call?

Me: No, it's for that sweet and salty taste!
(I shouted over the intercom)

The coffee shop proprietor hand delivered the unorthodox sandwich 15 minutes later with an unamused expression on his face. ROTFLMAO!

Pure Harvest Aussie Dream Organic Non Dairy Rice Milk is organic "Non Genetically Modified" rice milk made by the good folks down under. It's not "milk" in the literal sense of the word. I don't know why they call it that, since it's made from brown rice...

I bought this once during my uni days in Melbourne at Coles and I thought it tastes pretty good for "rice milk". I was surprised to see it at the import grocery store in Sibu and got it again to get my girlfriend to taste this rather interesting product that I've been telling her about.

Pure Harvest rice milk has all the buzzwords to appeal to certain segments of the consumer market - it's free from genetically altered products, has no pesticides, herbicides, added sugar, artificial chemicals, preservatives and is lactose free (since it's a non-dairy product). One interesting thing I noticed is that it's marketed as an "oriental product". Strange, I've never had it before I went to Australia. ;)

It retails for RM 6.95 over here, which is cheaper than the price I remember getting it for in Australia. Very interesting...

I don't remember if I've written about rice milk before but it tastes like...well, the water you get after soaking rice in it, with a little hint of milk. It needs Hershey's Syrup to improve the taste, but that kinda defeats the "healthy" attraction. It makes the beverage a contradiction of sorts. :)

I made some customized chocolate chip cookies during the weekend with my girlfriend. It's customary for us to do some kitchen work together when I go back...it's an activity we both enjoy. :)

We went looking for something to bake and were torn between making brownies and cookies before settling on the latter coz we haven't made cookies before. This is Betty Crocker Chocolate Chip Cookie Mix (RM 15.90) and you just need to add 1 egg and water to make the cookies. Nifty.

The instructions are quite straightforward, but they forgot to mention that you need to add water too. ;) It's not a problem though, since I imagine most kitchens would have a water supply.

This is what the Betty Crocket Chocolate Chip Cookie Mix looks like - there's just a single bag of flour inside, and the cookie mix has the chocolate chips embedded straight into the flour.

I poured the contents of the chocolate chip cookie mix into a mixing bowl. I can't find a proper mixing bowl, so we just improvised and used a glass bowl. ;)

The instruction also calls for 25 ml of water so I measured out that amount...

...and poured it into the chocolate chip cookie mix.

The next item calls for vegetable oil...which we don't have. I used "reconstituted cooking oil" instead, which is the pretentious term for normal cooking oil.

50 ml of the cooking oil went into the chocolate chip cookie mix and water batter.

The final step is to crack a medium sized egg into the entire chocolate chip cookie batter.

The hard part is blending the entire mix with a spatula...the small amount of liquid based matter is significantly less than the flour, so it took a lot of work to consistently mix it into a stiff dough.

Here's what the chocolate cookie dough looks like once we decided that we have blended it enough...the dough tastes sweet, I ate some of it. There are also a lot of chocolate chips inside, which surprisingly didn't break up during the arduous process of mixing the chocolate chip cookie batter.

I decided to add some Hershey's Syrup into the chocolate chip batter to make Chocolate Chip Cookies with Hershey's Syrup. ;)

This is what the batter looks like before it went into the oven - the chocolate cookie mix is significantly "browner" than the original due to the Hershey's Syrup.

Next, we dropped heaped spoonfuls of the chocolate chip batter on a baking tin. There are some that are larger than the others and I ate some of the batter, but it still didn't come out to "24 cookies" as stated in the box. ;)

Here's a closer look at the pre-baked chocolate chip cookie batter. It's a bit gooey but tastes great (even without baking). I attribute that to the Hershey's Syrup. It makes everything taste good.

The oven was preheated to 190 degrees Celsius and two batches of the cookies were put inside. I intended to make one "chewy" chocolate chip cookie batch and one "crunchy" chocolate chip cookie batch.

Here's the straight-from-the-oven piping hot chocolate chip cookies. It's a bit large, but I like them like that. It's like the large Famous Amos chocolate chip cookies you get at the franchise.

This is a closer look at the chocolate chip cookies. It tastes great!

I poured some more Hershey's Syrup on top of the Betty Crocker Chocolate Chip Cookies, coz you can't be too rich, too thin, or er...too sweet. ;)

...or so I heard.

I have received my first Google AdSense cheque for the 14 day period when I first started putting it up in the middle of May, 2005. It comes in a plain white envelope (no colored Google logo, unfortunately) and it's been sitting in my home address in Sibu, since that's the only "permanent" address I have. ;)

The green CitiBank check is actually part of a letter of sorts and has a demarcation mark at the end to enable the check to be removed and banked in (which is what I assume participants would want to do ;)).

There is text in the letter which goes "This check is for your earnings as part of the Google AdSense program".

Here's what the Google AdSense check looks like up close - the amount has been mosaic for compliance with the AdSense program, which includes non-disclosure of the amount received...so don't ask. ;)

The Google AdSense program is a viable source for contributing to the upkeep of your server and domains...and contrary to popular belief, they actually do mail out the checks. ;)

It just takes a while to get here, that's all.

There is a roasted chestnuts (called buah berangan locally) stall at the airport which also happens to sell an iced drink which for the life of me I can't recall. I always get the drink but considering that I haven't had lunch yet, I took a look at the chestnuts...

...and decided to grab a paper bag of the roasted chestnuts for RM 5. Just coz of the slogan.

There is a great tagline on the chestnut bags - The difference is in the Nuts (with a capital N, to boot). It totally cracked me up - no pun intended. ;)

The instructions on how to enjoy the nuts are printed in great detail at the back. The step by step guide instructs the user to "Use thumbnail to crack a line", "Press on both sides to crack the shell" and "Remove shell, enjoy the nut", with graphical depictions in three languages no less.

Remove shell, enjoy the nut.

You just can't make this shit up...

I'm going to Sibu later today...managed to get on a Supersaver fare for the first time. A supersaver ticket by MAS gives you a 50% discount off the normal trip price.

It's RM 54 for a one way trip...I didn't manage to get Supersaver fares for the trip back to Kuching on Monday. It'll be a well deserved break to go back to Sibu and get some righteous pharmaceuticals...

Mmm...pharmaceuticals...

No Problem!!! And Please Don't Shout!!!

This is a sign at a cell phone repair shop in Kenyalang Park, Kuching.

Copenhagen Long Cut is marketed as smokeless tobacco, a catch-all term for chewing tobacco and snuff. Copenhagen Long Cut is meant for chewing (it's not technically chewing, but that's what they call it) and it comes in the form of a small can weighing 34.02 grams.

The Copenhagen Long Cut smokeless tobacco can looks like the cans of pet food you see on supermarket shelves. Copenhagen is the flagship brand of US Smokeless Tobacco Company and it was introduced in 1822. It's the first brand of moist smokeless tobacco on the market. Eddie [cooknengr.com] gave this to me when he came back from the US last time.

The Copenhagen Long Cut tin is made of a solid cardboard tin and I tapped it against my hand (packed it) as per the instructions before opening it. There is the manufacturing date printed on top, which ensures the freshness of the product. The smokeless tobacco is opened by removing the label and then taking off the gold lid on top.

This is what the Copenhagen Long Cut chewing tobacco looks like. It's very fragrant and smells like fresh tobacco leaves. Nice! There's shredded tobacco inside and the method to consume Copenhagen Long Cut chewing tobacco is by taking a pinch of the tobacco and putting it between your gums and cheek.

I took a healthy pinch of tobacco...

...and lodged it into my gums and cheek. It's supposed to release nicotine, which is then absorbed into your bloodstream.

Here's a close-up of the chewing tobacco in my mouth, which I'm sure you didn't need to see. ;)

Download: Copenhagen Long Cut [sixthseal.com]

The Copenhagen Long Cut smokeless tobacco tastes tangy, with spicy and slightly sweet notes. It's definitely tangy, a very nice taste. The Copenhagen Long Cut chewing tobacco tastes salty too, probably coz it touches the "Salty" part of the tongue when I lodged it in between my gums and cheek. You're supposed to leave it there and spit out excess saliva every now and then.

Copenhagen Long Cut smokeless tobacco is great for the times when you need a nicotine hit in a non-smoking area. I love it!

Tramal (Tramadol hydrochloride) is manufactured by the illustrious pharmaceuticals company Sanofi-Synthelabo and marketed as an analgesic agent for moderate to severe pain. I take tramadol daily to boost my serotonin levels and this is hands down the most expensive tramadol I've ever bought. I just got it this morning at a pharmacy in Kuching.

Tramal 50 mg capsules retails for RM 27 (!!!) for a blister pack of 10 capsules. That's an outrageous price, despite the pretty box that it comes in. Yes, the blister pack has its individual box, a very nice touch. However, RM 2.70 per capsule is insane considering I take a regiment of 100 mg on Mondays with increments every other day.

The blister packs of Tramal by Sanofi-Synthelabo looks remarkably like the generic Tramadolor tramadol capsules [sixthseal.com] manufactured by Hexal, which I get at RM 60 per box of 10 blister strips (RM 6 per blister pack) from Sibu when I buy in bulk. It usually goes for RM 15 per blister strip of 10 capsules, which is the standard rate for tramadol, but I get discount for bulk.

Here's a look at the back of the Tramal "analgesic agent" blister packs - it has script saying "Tramadol HCl 50 mg diluluskan oleh KKM" which translates to "Tramadol HCl 50 mg approved by Kementrian Kesihatan Malaysia (Ministry of Heath, Malaysia)" which probably explains the outrageous price.

These are the green-yellow capsules of Tramal which looks like the Tramadolor generic tramadol capsules. I'm a big fan of tramadol - I take it every morning to make myself happier...as you may or may not know, tramadol has pharmacological properties which inhibits serotonin and NE reuptake, which in plain English, makes you happier and more alert. ;)

I love tramadol as much as I love fuckstress [blogspot.com]!

That's my blog p1mpage for the day. ;)

I saw this rather dodgy Roche Valium (diazepam) 10 mg bottle of 1000 tablets at the pharmacy. They assured me that it contains 10 mg of diazepam per tablet despite the admittedly questionable packaging. It goes for the bulk price of RM 800 per bottle, which is cheaper than the usual price of RM 1 per 10 mg diazepam tablet. I told them I'll get 50 tablets for the usual price of RM 1 per tablet and come back for the discount rate if it's good.

The back of the packaging details the Roche details - it's manufactured by F.Hoffman-La Roche Ltd in Switzerland and even has batch numbers and manufacturing dates. The inside contains a vacuum sealed bag of presumably 1000 x 10 mg Valium tablets. The tablets were blue and looks legitimate so I subjected it to the acid test - I ate 30 tablets...and yes, it's diazepam, alright. ;) I'm going back to pick up the whole bottle.

Mmm...Valium... ;)

I was waiting at the elevator at Civic Center last night when I saw four guys lugging two HUGE tubs of rojak (a local pickle) into the lift with me. Intrigued, I asked them what it was for, since it's late at night and all that.

It's supposed for be for the internal staff of Civic Center, Kuching. I got them to pose for a photo with the two large tubs (which are normally used to wash laundry) of rojak in the elevator. The photos didn't turn out very well, since I wasn't very sober, but the guys were very enthusiastic about having their photo taken, and were really friendly and chatty.

Here's the rojak in greater detail...it took two people to lug each of the tubs full of rojak each up the lifts. I thought the rojak looked interesting and ate one of them...it looks much better than it tastes. ;)

Typical lunchtime etiquette has certain responsibilities with regards to seating position. The general rule of thumb is to seat between two people and not facing the Food Entrance (refer to Exhibit A above) where the food comes in. This changes when the table is not at full capacity though, in cases like that, the rule above regarding Food Entrance alignment is null and void with the exception of being seated between two people (which is always true).

Pictured here is a classic example of the most disadvantageous position to seat during lunchtime with your coworkers. Please note that this rule only applies to coworkers who're on a similar wage level, when there's a significant disparity between the salary levels, the rules are also rendered null and void - the highest one always pays.

However, back to the general rule about positioning during lunchtime, the above photo shows the most disadvantageous position to take up during lunch. I'm on the side facing the Food Entrance and thus have a 50:50 chance of having to pay the bill. The variable here is the crucial waitress entrance point...if she's facing you when unloads the food, the probability just increased to 100%. ;)

I suffered from a wardrobe malfunction today. My fly was open, my zipper was down, my 12 o' clock door not yet closed etc etc and no one had the decency to tell me.

I mean, Jesus Christ people...it was down the whole day!

...and the worst thing is, I wasn't even wearing my red dragon briefs [sixthseal.com].

I was about to go lunching, as Fireangel calls it, at Pai Jia Le but since the food there is so bad, we just went elsewhere.

Pai Jia Le translates roughly to "Not nice to eat, lah" in Hokkien.

I know, this has got to be the cheesiest post ever, but it's a Saturday afternoon and I'm still at work. :p

.....Hainan Street Restaurant (with exactly five dots before the eating establishment's name) is located at BDC in Kuching. It's supposed to have really good Hainan chicken rice so I went there with Penny (one of my coworkers) and her husband for lunch just now.

There is a row of al fresco (be damned if I use this word again) seating arrangements outside .....Hainan Street Restaurant's premises, and an air conditioned indoor area for those who prefers to get out of the blazing afternoon sun.

I ordered the Milk Tea (RM 2.50). It tastes like the teh peng you get in coffee shops, but I like the crushed ice.

This is the Special Hainan Chicken Rice Set (RM 6.50) which includes a choice of either steamed chicken (proper Hainan style) or roasted chicken, soup and vegetables. We ordered two sets - one with steamed chicken and one with roasted chicken.

Here's a closer look at the Hainan Street Restaurant's steamed chicken. It's extraordinarily cold at the first bite, which startled me. Okay, that was a hyperbole, "mildly surprised" would be a more accurate description. ;) Seriously though, it was cold but I got used to it after the second bite and it's good.

This is the roasted chicken version - it's alright, but I preferred the steamed chicken. I never did care much for roasted chicken, I always go for the steamed ones...

The vegetables that came with the Special Hainan Chicken Rice Set is a sweet, juicy dish of bean sprouts (taugeh). It's great, and that's high praise considering I don't like vegetables. However, the dish that stole the show was without doubt the tasty rice. It has hints of a variety of spices in it, it's definitely the best chicken rice I've ever had.

Hainan Street Restaurant, sorry, I mean .....Hainan Street Restaurant, has really good chicken rice. I'll be going there for the chicken rice again.

This is our new KL branch office located at Plaza Danau 2 in Taman Danau Desa. It's in a new shop lot area and is located adjacent to Taman Desa.

The signboard isn't up yet, but we're located above One One Cafe. There's a lot of eating outlets there and I'm sure it's a nice locality (for food ;)).

The interior isn't much to look at when I was there, but I'm sure the contractors have already turned it into a very different place by now.

Here's a view of the back - the area is going to be partitioned into two logical areas - one for the showroom / reception and the other for sleeping quarters.

There's a design flaw in the shoplots in Taman Danau Desa though...there's a water tank located above the sink and the clearance is barely 5 feet (!). You have to lower your head to avoid hitting the "ceiling".

The Huygens Asia KL branch office sure has a nice view though...there's cafes, eating establishments, clinics, pharmacies and even a surgical unit opposite us.

This is the last of the KL backlogs, I'm in Kuching now and we're moved into our new office space in 2 1/2 Mile, Kuching. Huygens Asia is doing surveillance systems and there are a lot of new IP cameras [huygensasia.com] in our new office.

Please feel free to surreptitiously watch me at work if you feel the burning urge to do so...the surveillance cameras are all real time.