December 2005 Archives

Lighting Reaction XTREME is the "Latest, greatest shock product" and comes with wonderfully hyperbolic taglines like Dueling for the 21st Century and my personal favorite "red to green, get ready to scream". Lightning Reaction is basically a reflex based drinking game with an electric shock delivered to the slower (or more intoxicated) players.

The Lightning Reaction XTREME contraption can accommodate up to four (4) players with a minimum of two (2) players. It looks fairly benign but with fresh batteries, it can deliver a rather pleasant shock. It won't kill you, and some of the more sado masochistic ones amongst us just shock ourselves for fun. It seriously feels good - especially when you hold more than one of the handles and let it shock you (it kinda "sticks" to you while the electric shock is delivered, much like how a real shock "grips" you).

Lightning Reaction XTREME has cords extending out to four handles with a grip and a red "trigger" on each one. There are two variations of the game - Lightning Reaction and Lightning Reaction XTREME. The huge button in the middle is depressed to start the game and it starts flashing red for a random number of seconds before turning green. The fastest person to press the trigger on their respective handles wins in Lightning Reaction XTREME and all the others gets a shock (and has to drink) while only the slowest player to react gets shocked and has to drink in Lightning Reaction Regular Mode.

There's no way to cheat coz pressing the trigger prematurely (before the flashing red light with accompanying sound effects turns green) is a foul and that person gets shocked and has to drink.

It's a great drinking game!

Download: Lightning Reaction XTREME [sixthseal.com]

The movie shows Cherie, Huai Bin (me), Shin and Hope playing the game with Jimmy bringing beer and stout for the drinking game. You just gotta love the horror movie suspense sound effects...

Lightning Reaction - If you snooze you looze!

Happy New Year 2006 everyone! Party hard and party safe!

Cheers,
sixthseal.com

Copial Tuak is an attempt at marketing tuak (traditional Iban rice wine) towards the premium market. It retails at a staggering RM 11.90 per bottle and is adorned with minimalist but aesthetically pleasing design placements.

I saw Copial Tuak for sale in Demak Laut, Kuching (tuak is a Sarawakian product) in a standard 330 ml long necked beer bottle (similar to the alcopop bottle sizes) and it comes with the tagline "The authentic rice wine".

Copial Tuak is a sanitized and quality controlled product aimed at disassociating it from the traditional Iban longhouse homebrew production methods. Tuak is a rice wine served during the Dayak festival of Gawai and it can be deceptively potent.

The Copial Tuak I got standardizes the alcohol content at 15% which makes it higher than most wines and it comes in a 330 ml bottle. I have no complains about the taste - it's slightly sweet and it tastes like genuine Iban tuak.

P/S - My apologies in advance pertaining to bouts of disturbing phallic imagery that any of the photos induce. ;)

McDonalds's is having their inaugural promotional burger - the Prosperity Burger to commemorate the Chinese New Year celebrations. The Prosperity Burger is an elongated burger with a beef patty (chicken this year) saturated with black pepper sauce and onions.

The Prosperity Burger 2006 now implements a chicken patty instead of a beef patty, which makes sense from a marketing point of view - a chicken burger would have a larger demographic compared to a beef patty (missing out on the Hindu market).

Everyone eats chicken except vegetarians and vegans, but those people shouldn't be going to McDonald's anyway. ;) The recent years has watched a shift in the Prosperity Burger set from just the burger itself to the introduction of curly fries (first debut in '94 as a side order with the Sambal Burger, and yes I'm such a McDonald's geek :p).

The past two years has also witnessed the introduction of the tagline "Enjoy the Many Tastes of Prosperity" with the whole range of the Prosperity Burger set as well as "Prosperity Desserts". The Orange McFizz (Sprite with Minute Maid OJ) comes standard with the meal and there are orange themed desserts - the Peach Orange sundae and the Peach Orange McFlurry with come under the banner of Prosperity Desserts.

Twister Fries replaces the standard fries in this Prosperity Burger meal. It's a twisty version of fries that seems like it has been dunked into the deep fryer more than once, giving it a crispy outer layer. It's great, especially when you bite straight through the spiral, spawning multiple mini Twister Fries. :)

This is the Orange McFizz - a relatively recent introduction which sees the mixture of Minute Maid orange juice with Sprite. It tastes surprisingly good (and it has Vitamin C) and it has earned its place in McDonald's permamenu. It's now paired with the Prosperity Burger meal to complete the orange themed spirit (Mandarin oranges and orange = gold = wealth).

This is the Peach Orange sundae (RM 2.80) which comes in an orange swirl of colors, with the abstract orange syrup adorning the entire circumference of the sundae cup and with the presentation topped off with Mandarin orange pieces and peach chunks.

The Peach Orange McFlurry (RM 4.50) is the McFlurry version of the Peach Orange sundae. It tastes the same and also has the orange and peach pieces blended into the concoction, giving it the distinctive orange hue.

This is the main feature of the meal - the Prosperity Burger (RM 9.88). It didn't come in the Prosperity Burger wrapper coz it's probably too early on and I berated them for not having it yesterday even though they were advertising it (partly due to the fact that I had to search for a parking space and thus, I took it out on them ;)). The burger didn't look too good, and there must have been a mess up somewhere coz I KNOW for a fact that Prosperity Burger has always had onions - raw onions at that, that's why I love them.

The Prosperity Burger didn't have the thick slathering of black pepper sauce that was in all the previous iterations of the Prosperity Burger and the square cut chicken patty looks so familiar it evoked a strong feeling of déjà vu...and then it clicked! It's the EXACT same patty used in the McDonald's Grilled Chicken Foldover [sixthseal.com] that tanked! They're reusing the exact same patty for the Prosperity Burger!

Dammit McDonald's, you McSwindled me... :p

I was walking around the shopping centres in Sibu today when I noticed that a Levi's store has opened up in Wisma Sanyan. I'm in Sibu now coz I have a work related project to attend to tomorrow morning.

I'm not usually inclined to go shopping and that wasn't the agenda when I drove out, but somehow, I ended up buying a whole lot of stuff. I saw this Levi's Red Tab Jacket that I liked instantly and it turned out to be a perfect fit so I got it.

There were Red Loop jeans but to be honest, I'm not a big fan of Levi's, preferring my denim to come from Quiksilver. The jacket I got is made of a non-denim fabric that strikes the perfect balance between insulating and comfort.

This is the Levi's Red Tab Jacket (Lot # 71361) that I got for RM 270. I like the slight weight it generates when it's worn. It's a great jacket.

...no, not a partridge in a pear tree. Cherie (which means "Love" or "dear one") gave me the black Stussy shirt that I'm wearing here. I'm not sure what happened to my hair, but according to witnesses, it was the Santa hat I was wearing previously that tousled my hair.

This is another one taken soon after that (with the hair malfunction managed). I like this photo; it kinda captures what we are. I swear that we are not stoned, it's just how we look all the time. ;)

Cherie also gave me two other T-shirts which is great - she knows the limitations of my wardrobe coz I always turn up in the same clothes. Thanks Cherie!

I celebrated Christmas Eve early, perhaps a bit too early from the look on our faces, but it's all good. :)

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Sean was celebrating his birthday last night at Mambo King - it's a cafe with a liquor license in Travillion. I went there with Cherie, Irene, Owen, Ee Fen (which despite my poor memory, I could remember coz she's doing Pharmacy at IMU and her name is a concatenation of Ecstasy and the Chinese word for heroin ;)).

Mambo King was packed with people when we arrived there after having a couple of drinks at Luconia. I recall hearing a passerby mentioning that there's a "St. Theresa gathering in there of some kind" which was funny in hindsight. St. Theresa is one of the biggest all girls high school in Kuching.

There were finger food served on a table in the middle - there were plates of calamari with dip, garlic bread, chicken wings, crinkle fries. Liquor was on the house as well - beer and Johnnie Walker Black Label was available. I think we started drinking at Luconia, then at Mambo King and ended up at Mojo, but it's all good - we're all having fun here, right? ;)

I saw a couple of familiar faces in there too - Joyce and Dru were there and there was a social faux pax when I mistook one for the other. Jesus Christ, I think the binge drinking is taking a toll on my cerebral faculties coz I keep on forgetting all sorts of other stuff as well...but fuck it, we're all having fun here right? That's my mantra anyway to hide my self-destructive behavior. :)

L-R: Irene, Huai Bin (me), Cherie, Sean

Happy birthday, Sean! Cheers!

Tambun Biscuits originated from Penang, Malaysia and I remember having them during my trips over there when I was young. I haven't had authentic Tambun Biscuits from Penang ever since and Freddie was kind enough to show up at my workplace with a bag of Hoh Heong Tambun Biscuits from 100 Macalister Road, Penang.

There were two transparent packages of individually wrapped old skool Tambun Biscuits in the bag. Freddie travels a lot and he dropped by to pass these to my on his Kuching trip. Cheers mate! :)

The Tambun Biscuits are wrapped in slightly translucent cream colored packaging with red script. The contents are listed as: Flour, Sugar, Caramel (?), Onions, Salt, Oil, Molasses and "Lenga", the last of which totally stumped me. What is "Lenga"?

This is what the famous Penang Tambun Biscuit look like - it's covered in flaky pastry which will totally fall apart as soon as you bite into it and get into the hardest to clean nooks at the first opportunity like the keyboard. ;)

Tambun Biscuits have a sugar based center and it tastes like caramel mixed with onions. It sounds like an odd combination but it really tastes great! My coworkers who had the Tambun Biscuits pronounced it "Good" as well.

...and now our office has pastry flakes all over the carpet.

Note: Videos are in .3gp format which means you need QuickTime.

sixthseal.com is doing a special on ethanol based drinks this week, coz apparently alcohol is legal. In a similar vein, I've also heard that the sky is blue and that grass is green, but I cannot confirm the veracity of those claims, unlike the former.

Download: Huai Bin and Cherie [sixthseal.com]
This me and Cherie doing Flaming Lamborghinis in tandem. Jimmy and Ghana were mixing the drinks.

Download: Jo [sixthseal.com]
This is Jo doing the Flaming Lamborghini

Download: Huai Bin [sixthseal.com]
This is me doing the second flaming for the night (had three in quick succession)

Download: Cherie [sixthseal.com]
This is Cherie doing another one again (she also had three)

Personal drinks count:
2 x Gin and tonics
2 x beers
3 x glass of red wine
3 x Flaming Lamborghinis
1/4 bottle of Korean wine

Totally random and unrelated photos from the previous night:

This is Jo....from the previous night, or last night, or the night before, I can't remember...

One piece of information which might or might not interest you - Jo brought me to do my second tattoo on my first week in Melbourne.

"OMG, did we take that many photos?"

Ericka turned up at Luconia one day, but I forgot which one, coz my memory is like, totally fucked.

"I drink to get fucked up"

This is me with Cherie wearing matching Santa hats. It's actually Luconia staff issue. ;)

More Santa hat pictures:

Huai Bin

Irene

Cherie

I'm doing all this is the name of science - I'm on a personal research mission to find out exactly how long the average human liver can take a nightly barrage of alcohol before it shrivels up and dies. ;)

Irene, and God Bless Her Soul, managed to wake us up at 6:35 am as promised. She's amazing, I think she's superhuman.

This is Jo with her Royal Pain in the Ass top - I've known her since '99, we go way back from Sibu, Melbourne and now Kuching. I just bumped into her at Luconia and was surprised that she was in Kuching. Apparently, she's been here for a while, and called me twice when she knew I was here but unfortunately I was so fucked up on meth that I didn't know. My bad...

She's got this really cool tattoo at the nape - it's Karma in Tibetan script.

Valerine + some guy with a Santa hat. Santa hat courtesy of Cherie from Luconia.

Her birthday was held at MC3 starting 10 pm - seats were reserved and boxes of beer distributed. The one is the middle is Val's sister, who's a really nice and friendly person, though I don't think she was amused by the non-alcoholic Substance Which Shall Not Be Named which I supplied. ;)

This is Val drinking a flaming cocktail - composed of several liquors and a ring of licking flames...

...and I don't have a caption for this one coz I'm too scattered.

Val with her sister - wanted to get a shot of them together.

Happy birthday, Val! :)

Isetan in KL has a wide range of sake and shochu in unique containers ranging from personal cup style containers to cardboard packages that would look more in place in the milk and dairy products aisle. It's one of my favorite destinations when I was working in KL due to the wide range of sake and shochu (distilled Japanese style "vodka"). It's a great place to browse when you're feeling particularly adventurous and have a hankering for a different alcoholic product or if your wallet is somehow weighing you down real bad. ;)

I was particularly interested in Choya Umeshu when I was in KL a couple of weeks ago. Umeshu is Plum liqueur and this particular product is made by Choya, one of the biggest brands for Umeshu and it actually has a plum inside. This is one of the more interesting shochu (which should not be confused with sake) containers - the personal cup container. It costs RM 26 for a small 200 ml cup style container.

The text on Choya Umeshu states that "The added natural fruit is called UME in Japanese. The organic acid of UME balances the beautiful taste of CHOYA. CHOYA will satisfy your taste buds till the last drop". Choya Umeshu is made from Fresh Japanese Plum, Alcohol and Sugar and the full name seems to be Choya Umeshu 160. The product is made in Osaka, Japan and not only has one, but two plums inside the drink.

The personal Choya Umeshu cup container has a plastic lid, presumably for the benefit of those who does not opt to enjoy the umeshu in one sitting, thus allowing resealing on the container. There is a soft metal lid beneath the plastic cap and it peels back easily via a ring mechanism to open up the umeshu (plum liquor) without any other opening implements. The seal states that Choya Umeshu contains 160 ml of 15% alcohol plum liquor with the plums taking up 20 ml (which is equivalent to 20 mg) of the drink.

Here's a closer look at the Choya Umeshu cup - there are two plums inside, infusing the shochu with a strong plum taste. The liqueur is clear colored and comes in a green tinted glass container. The plums are slightly wrinkled but retain the springy texture of preserved plums. It looks like the plums used to make plum drink at coffee shops over here - the old school establishments have a huge jar of similar plums soaked in brine.

Umeshu tastes great! It's best served as an aperitif (apologies in advance for using this pretentious wine snob term ;)) due to the nice acidity that the plum infuses the shochu with. It tastes like plum infused alcohol - it's hard to describe the tang of sweet acidity that hits the tongue, followed by smooth distilled alcohol ending with a plum aftertaste...

...oh wait, I just described it.

The Adios Motherfucker (AMF) cocktail is a time honored (well, maybe not, but saying "time honored" is as fun as saying "Adios, Motherfucker") one which usually is made up of:

Vodka (15 ml)
Rum (15 ml)
Tequila (15 ml)
Gin (15 ml)
Triple Sec (15 ml)

topped up with Sour mix and 7-Up (60 ml each).

I decided to go for something stronger and the bartender and Luconia managed to cook up something even better. It's a variation of the AMF so I'm going to call it "Something wicked this way comes..." which sounds pretty cool, but Cherie pointed out one major flaw in it:

Cherie: That's a really long name, man. I can't really say to a customer "Oh, do you want to try Something wicked this way comes".

...which is a really good point. "Something Wicked" it is then. It rolls off the tongue nicely too, "Do you want to try Something Wicked?".

Anyway, this particular drink is made up of:

Gordon's Gin (30 ml)
Bacardi Rum (30 ml)
Vodka (30 ml)
Tequila (30 ml)
Whisky (30 ml)
Triple Sec (30 ml)

topped up with lager (beer) and Guinness Stout. It's a bit stronger than AMF due to the topping up with alcoholic drinks (beer and stout) instead of non-alcoholic mixers (sour mix and 7-Up).

Download: Something Wicked [sixthseal.com]

The drink ratio isn't as important as the point of making a drink that will get you real drunk real fast. I had several Dormicum tablets and STILL couldn't sleep so I went and downed two of these motherfuckers in one shot (it's served in a Long Island tea glass) and I basically got really fucked up. ;)

This thing is fucking toxic. It's something wicked, alright...

Yeah, sixthseal.com is back and its as un-Malaysian as ever (albeit legally). ;)

Hello everyone! sixthseal.com is still in the testing phase as I, alas, do not have the habit of performing regular backups and thus is left in the lurch when my host went tits up. I have signed up for another server with a different hosting company and I'm trying to get most the stuff back up - although I seem to have lost a significant chunk of my images archive...

Rest assured, dear readers, nothing nefarious (except a catastrophic server failure) happened to me. I'm perfectly fine, much to the ire of my detractors, I'm sure.

Hell, I can practically feel you fuming at my general direction through cyberspace. ;)

Arnott's Dangerous Liaisons line of Tim Tams comes in a trio of unique flavors, namely Tim Tam Dangerous Liaisons Chilli Choc Fling, Tim Tam Dangerous Liaisons Black Forest Fantasy, and Tim Tam Dangerous Liaisons Creamy Truffle Temptation. I went back to Sibu last weekend (didn't tell anyone though...considering the circumstances) and saw two of them brought back by my sister from NZ. I think someone ate the Chilli Choc one so I'm left with two.

Tim Tam Dangerous Liaisons Creamy Truffle Temptation is a streak of gooey white chocolate encircled by dark chocolate cream, squeezed inside two rich chocolate biscuits and finished in temptingly smooth milk chocolate... one bite and you'll melt with pleasure. This is one of the tamer flavor pairings...but it's still good. It's more classic Tim Tam, best for the Tim Tam Slam.

Tim Tam Dangerous Liaisons Black Forest Fantasy is a stream of cherry flavor snuggled inside black forest cream, sandwiched between rich chocolate biscuits and covered in a layer of tantalizing chocolate you're sure to fantasies about. It tastes great, especially frozen - the cherry is slightly overpowering, but that is good.

CnP at its best, yo! ;)

This is the most interesting method of serving Chinese tea that I've seen to date - it comes in a metal ball attached to a length of chain ending with a hook. I saw someone drinking from this extraordinary contraption and asked what it was. It's apparently Chinese tea and it comes inside the metal contraption in a warm cup of steeping water and a side cup of ice cubes to cool down the drink.

The metal sphere which encapsulates the Chinese tea leaves is left to steep inside the warm water. The metal sphere has holes lining the upper and lower "hemisphere" to allow the warm water to circulate inside and steep the tea leaves before flowing out as tea. The metal contraption avoids the tea leaves from getting into your drink by effectively trapping them inside the sphere while allowing the liquid to freely flow through the steeping tea leaves.

The metal chain attached to the hook is meant to hold the sphere containing the tea leaves in place, a task assisted by the metal hook which is fastened to the rim. This metal contraption allows the user (er...am I allowed to use the term "user"? :p) to control the steeping process of the tea by facilitating the flexibility of brewing stronger or weaker tea. This level of control over one's tea may not be unpreceded - but it certainly is unusual in a coffee shop.

The metal sphere is lifted from the tea using the attached chain (careful of the metal hook - it has a tendency to pierce unwary fingers) when the steeping has reached a consistency and color of your desire from the loose tea leaves restrained inside the spherical contraception.

The volume of water displaced by the metal ball containing the loose tea leaves and the associated chain and hook leaves about 1/4 of the cup empty after it's been taken out. The small cup of ice can then be spooned into the Chinese tea for it to quickly cool down before it's consumed. The metal sphere can be inserted again at this point, but it would merely be aesthetic since the temperature of the water makes it unfeasible for further steeping to continue.

It's an informal mini tea ceremony, available at your friendly neighborhood coffee shop. :)

I will start scouring through the blog and remove all references to the drug and pharmaceuticals posts in compliance with the authorities request. The process will be completed before Saturday and I will resume writing after that.

Please do not make derogatory comments regarding our law enforcement officers, politicians and/or government - that will not be constructive and I've been told by my legal advisor to relay that while I'm still under investigation.

sixthseal.com will not tolerate racism (on principle) or inflammatory comments against law enforcement officers and the government (for reasons of self-preservation ;)).