August 2008 Archives

Well, today is Merdeka Day (Independence Day) for Malaysia. It falls on a Sunday, so that means tomorrow is a public holiday. This also means that the clubs are packed with cubicle slaves for the Merdeka countdown. I went and joined in the excessive ethanol indulgence...



...and sang along to the National Anthem during the countdown. Except this particular establishment was playing the other national anthem, otherwise known as Negara Kuku. ;)



I had a little too much to drink (understatement of the year) and I couldn't remember the details of what happened last night. I had apparently met Grace, which I honestly didn't remember until I went through the photos in the digicam this morning. Sorry Grace! :)



I also met Katherine, which I also don't recall. In fact, so much of last night had "Missing Scene" that I can only remember a friend of mine driving my car home (since I was apparently unfit to drive), stumbling into the house to offer gifts to the porcelain throne (puking in the toilet) and then passing out in bed.

She told me the next day that I had apparently been pole dancing, kissed three different girls (not the ones in the photos - strangers who came on to me), one for apparently 10 minutes (WTF? Who is that girl? I can't remember!) and couldn't even walk straight. She gave me more detail than I cared to recall (anterograde amnesia can be a blessing sometimes ;)) but I had a good laugh about it.

However, I certainly wasn't laughing just now. I had the chance of a lifetime with a girl I really liked with an amazing body and the face of an angel and...I couldn't get it up. I'm so bummed right now and feeling less than masculine. Everything was good to go and I just had to have ED. Jesus H. Christ. I shouldn't have drank so much last night.

Excessive Drinking has the same acronym as Erectile Dysfunction for a reason.

HDS:

2002: Nada.
2003: A very long post which requires Level Six clearance and a random post about a fansign I got.
2004: Obligatory Merdeka post.
2005: Nothing.
2006: Obligatory Merdeka post. I wanted to do one of me naked with the Malaysian flag covering me but my then-girlfriend told me not to tempt fate with the amount of existing subversive content on my blog. :)
I also did a review on Sri Shan which is still around and still one of the best places for Indian food in Kuching.

It seems that our government has saw it fit to remodel the pricing structure of cigarettes to a more auspicious number, no doubt inspired by the 08/08/08 overload during the Beijing Olympics. The price of premium cigarettes will be imposed a Sin Tax (TM) of RM 0.03 per cigarette. This makes the existing RM 8.20 for a 20 pack increase to RM 8.80.

Very auspicious! I'm sure I'll be very lucky and not die a horrible death in the accursed clutches of lung cancer just coz the price for cigarettes has been raised by 60 cents to RM 8.80. Thank you!

Oh well, the tobacco tax has increased again. So, what else is new?

At least I have a stockpile of duty free cigarettes thanks to Cheryl.

HDS:

2002: There is a random post about university life and a really interesting post that will not be linked from here. Sorry, you do not have Level Six clearance to view that post. ;)
2003: I think I would classify this as site news now but I seemed to be wittier back then, no doubt due to certain cognitive function boosters. ;) It's a thing I used to do back then - basically a teaser post for the next day with the bulk being updates about my life.
2004: Radio (blog?) silence.
2005: Blog silence.
2006: My Pièce de résistance of 2006. I tried to kill myself and lived to blog about it while hospitalized by using the WiFi from the hotel next to the hospital and a notebook. I am pretty fucking impressed by my dedication to the blog back then. ;)

Jumbrella Cafe is an interesting al fresco concept cafe that has a great theme. Jumbrella is a concatenation of the words Jumbo and Umbrella and that's exactly what the cafe is - a giant outdoor eating establishment under a huge canopy.

The place is only open at night since the area (with the exception of the brick and mortar kitchen) is used as a park during daylight hours. Thus, the canopy (umbrella) is modular and constructed at night with the seating arrangements all taken out and set when the place opens at around 7 pm.

I didn't really notice this place until I sent a friend there to meet up with her coworkers for supper one night. Jumbrella Cafe is tagged as a bakery, cafe, dessert and grill house. I thought the sign said dumbrella Cafe at first glance. Unfortunate choice of font there for the signage. ;)

Jumbrella Cafe has a huge projection screen which attracts football fans during the game. The place serves beer as well, which goes well with a football match, I'm told. It can get a bit crowded during the major events like the Olympics but there are fan and mist units so it's not warm unless the ambient temperature is.

The service at Jumbrella Cafe is inconsistent. The waiter/waitress of undetermined gender above gives excellent service while some of the others felt like taking orders was a huge chore and probably just wanted to curl up in a ball at home.

Anyway, this is one of the very rare occasions where I have to write a bad review about the food. It has dropped below the "nothing to write home about" standard to downright bland. I wouldn't call it bad per se, but it's very unimaginative and plain - not exactly adjectives you would want your food to be addressed by. ;)

This is Jumbrella Spaghetti (RM 9.50). Bland and tasteless.

This is Lamb Chop with Black Pepper Sauce (RM 20). Bones and fatty meat.

This is Orange Juice (RM 7). Watered down and diluted.

This is Fried Lok-Lok (RM 4). Over fried and tasteless.

This is Autumn (RM Priceless). Delicious!

It's the only dish I had that was absolutely fabulous. ;)

*high and mighty tone*
Hmph...then I'll take my business elsewhere! ;)

HDS:

2002: University life in Australia.
2003: Working life in KL.
2004: Cigar review in Kuching
2005: Blogger's block. It was an omen for things to come...I couldn't find anything to enthuse over and it culminated in perhaps the best post of sixthseal.com (in terms of mainstream controversial content) on the very same day a year later. :)
2006: Psychotic break but not documented until two days later. ;)

Hmm...it seems like I have some form of Seasonal Affective Disorder hitting me around this time of the year. My posts during this time has been, for the most part, uninspiring and almost mechanical but if the annual trend analysis produces consistent results, then this is where Exciting Things (TM) start to happen to me as well, and the writing will pick up pretty soon. =D

HDS (The Undocumented and Personal Version):

2002: I had no direction, and was in a long distance relationship I wasn't really happy with.
2003: I had no direction and was in a dead end job paying me peanuts and trying to support an increasingly expensive methamphetamine problem. I was tweaked out of my mind most of the time and on benzodiazepines the rest of the time.
2004: I liked working in Kuching and the pay is much better but I'm still supporting a destructive pattern of methamphetamine use.
2005: I was probably coming down from a 3 day meth run. It's increasingly affecting my life and has evolved into a schedule where I don't sleep or eat for three (3) days in a row and then crash and sleep on the third night for 12 hours before wash, rinse, repeat. This pattern can be seen from my posting frequency and style but I hid it pretty well with scheduled posts (this was back before CMS had scheduled posts) during particularly inspiring periods while tweaking.
2006: The first real love of my life (not drugs, a girl) dumped me. I thought she was perfect, she's a pharmacist (what more could a drug user want? ;)) at a renowned private medical center but she turned out to be carrying a Shitload (TM) of emotional baggage that she hid really well. She was 29 and I was 25 and I just worshiped her. Unfortunately, she has self-esteem issues (despite being really beautiful) and other miscellaneous Problem Accounts Brought Forward (TM). I had switched to using opiates and had problem with heroin and other opiates like DF-118 (dihydrocodeine) and methadone. I had a bit of a psychotic break with all the stuff I was using and tried to kill myself. Drama. Pffttt...
2007: I was in a drug rehabilitation facility missing The Great Outdoors (TM) and telling myself (for the umpteenth time) that anything would be better than this. I counted the months and days till I could get out and promised myself not to use again.
2008: I kept my promise and haven't used drugs but am involved in a devastating pattern of unhealthy relationships with unavailable girls/women. Sigh...my so called life. Oh well. :)

Why is August so depressing? Is history doomed to repeat itself? Why am I doing this to myself?

My apologies for sicking this Pity Party (TM) on you. Misery loves company. ;)

The next post will be more uplifting, I promise. :)

I finally managed to get the MSN Live Messenger Blogger gets Twister-fied KFC ad that has the inbound link to sixthseal.com. It took a lot of clicking on the close button and double clicking it from the task bar again to reload the MSN ad though...

Wah, can get OCD like that wei...

Anyway, the animated ad is at the bottom of MSN Live Messenger and it expands into a larger ad with text from my entry on the KFC Toasted Twister.

The cursor is changed to a Toasted Twister wrap and it warps the letters around the text excerpt. There are excepts from two blogs, with the top one being mine and a photo of me eating the KFC Toasted Twister.

Warp is an anagram for wrap. There's a mini-game where you find all the words - I think it's supposed to be "Try me now".

I clicked on the sixthseal.com link in the advertisement and it really links back to the KFC Toasted Twister entry that I did. Nifty. ;)

Toasted Twister = KFC toasted chicken wrap
Twisted Toaster = Home appliance that enjoys toasting your fingers

HDS:

2002: Some mundane post about university life in Australia.
2003: Some mundane post about working life in KL and site news.
2004: Some mundane post about working life in Kuching.
2005: Writer's block (blogger's block?). There's no post for today in this year. It seems seasonal around this time, I can feel it now. ;)
2006: Lunch Box Cafe review with Joanne in Kuching.

I have seen a batch of National Service trainees walking around town lately and noticed a remarkable resemblance in the particular hue of their uniform...

...with one of my work shirts.

Anyway, I've been searching for this particular song ever since I heard it earlier this year. I'm not a big fan of Chinese music at all (since I hardly understand the lyrics) but this one is good. I call it the Flaming Lamborghini song. The actual title is Cong Taipei dao Beijing (From Taipei to Beijing) and it's a liberating break up song of some sort.

I don't really understand the lyrics but it goes something like:

From Taipei to Beijing / I feel liberated by love lost

I heartily party with one Flaming Lamborghini / A couple drinks of Bloody Mary

Gives me an outlet for my rage.

When you said you wanted out / I felt very relaxed, my mind absolutely calm

I want you to regret this decision / I really don't need you

I could be completely mutilating the song due to my limited understanding of Chinese so if someone better than me could actually translate it, it would be much appreciated. I think part of the appeal is that I don't understand most of the lyrics so I can related to it any way I want to. Heh! It's going to be my ringtone now. ;)

HDS:

2002 - Grampians trip report in Melbourne, Australia. I was camwhoring before the name was even invented. ;)
2003 - Bangsar Telawi Mamak and first day at work in XM Malaysia. I was in KL working at the time.
2004 - Jojo Cafe in Kuching - it's a popular Chinese eating establishment. I used to bring one of the boys in blue there to eat, despite the non-halal status. It's the one I like better.
2005 - Doing a Fast Food Inc. post on a Pizza Hut promotional pizza.
2006 - Triple play - there's a post on BDC beef noodles, another one of Cherie and the last one is a syringe pen that I got in Thailand.

The annals of sixthseal.com are kinda messed up since I don't actually have a backup copy of my own blog - the archives you see on the sidebar is a monthly HTML manual save, and it's not searchable since it's not in the main blog database. Clicking on it is probably going to rape your bandwidth since one month's worth of sixthseal.com posts will likely choke even the most robust broadband connection.

I've been meaning to do something about it but I'm a natural at procrastination. It just reminds me of this saying "Procrastination is like masturbation - It may sound like a good idea at the time, but in the end you're only fucking yourself". Thus, I have decided to do a Hari ini Dalam Sejarah (Today in History) feature where I upload the posts of the day starting from 2002 until 2006 so it can be fully integrated into the blog.

This would be easier for me to do since I'll only have to do 4-5 posts per day. It basically requires cleaning up the HTML code, and uploading the photos. This will appear at the end of every post starting from today until 365 days later (The Day Before Today, which would be best summarized as YESTERDAY in 2009). It's a long, tedious task since I've been blogging daily since 2002 but in small doses, it just might be manageable. :)

This is the debut post, the posts after this will just have the links at the bottom.

Hari Ini Dalam Sejarah Singa Laut Nombor Enam (sixthseal.com)

25th of August 2002



I was studying in Monash University in Melbourne, Australia and had just come back from a trip to the Grampians. The trip report was done on the next day since I was bushed (no pun intended) when I got back.

25th of August 2003

I was in KL and apparently had a lot of time on my hands since there were several posts. I had just gotten my job in XM Malaysia and also made a trip report of another sort which shall not be linked directly from this post. ;)



I made one final post about the The Tallest Book Tower + The Biggest Pushpins Jalur Gemilang @ Sunway Pyramid.

25th of August 2004

I was in Kuching working and wrote about this drinking establishment (of the non-ethanol variety) in town.

25th of August 2005

There isn't an entry for this date on this year. Phew, I thought the previous day's one was 25th. I'm glad it's not. ;)

25th of August 2006



I was writing about the Gourmet Market at Siam Paragon in Bangkok, Thailand. I went there with one of my ex-girlfriends. She had a pharmacist convention going on there and had a room all to herself so I booked a ticket and went with her since I was on leave at that time.



It's very interesting to see how my writing style changes throughout the years. My belief system and experiences have gradually shifted as well, and it always makes me nostalgic to go through the archives.

Hope you enjoyed the journey back in time as well. Cheers!

I went to the PC Fair 2008 at Delta Mall yesterday. It's not the PIKOM organized event, but a smaller scale expo by local IT organizations. There are still a lot of bargains to be had there though - I got an 8 GB USB drive for RM 73 (SanDisk Cruzer Micro) and am planning to get a Philips external HDD (3.5" 320 MB) for RM 260.



I know the prices might be kinda steep compared to KL prices, but it's the best deals we get over here. There isn't even a booth selling 16 MB USB drives which I've been hankering for. Anyway, I bumped into a couple of people there since it was the last day of the fair.



This is the delectable Susie Ting, who for some reason or another is helping out at one of the booths over there.



It would be remiss of me if I didn't do an XX Chromosome post on her since she is, by most standards, quite aesthetically pleasing. She's a really friendly person too - the first thing she said when she saw me was that she can smell the liquor from my breath and inquired as to why I didn't bring her along to drink. It was a Sunday afternoon. :)



There's also this very nifty UV signboard that I really liked, manned (womenned?) by Fang Ling. It accepts an AC adapter and you can write on it and it can display various colors according to the settings. The ink is erasable and you can write whatever message you want on it and then erase it and put up a new message the next day, The power consumption is pretty low too, so it's more practical than an LCD screen (which would probably get my car smashed and the electronics stolen).



I want it for the rear of my car - it's going to display a quote of the day or a random post and it'll have the sixthseal.com URL on it. This is much better than plastering your car with blog stickers, since it'll be inside the car itself and powered by a battery array. However, at RM 488 it's a little bit on the steep side, and a friend of mine who went with me told me it can be fabricated for much less and at a custom size to boot (no pun intended), so I'm going to go for that option - take the tinted glass off my rear window and install this thing - guerrilla advertising and all that. ;)



I also bumped into Siew Ling a.k.a. my little sister at the fair. She's not actually related to me, she's a model for my Oreo advertorial. She's a really nice person and I always feel comfortable around her. She's very soft too, and cute. Adorable! I don't usually get attracted to younger girls, but she would be the exception. ;)

I was drinking at Bamboo House last night - it's a very chilled out place with a live band that attracts a more subtle clientèle. This is the Airwaves band - they sing covers of popular English, Chinese and Malay songs. They hail from the Philippines and directly above and below this column of text is the obligatory XX Chromosome shots. ;)




Airwaves band in action

Anyway, at about 12 AM, there was a large entourage of people entering the lounge. These people didn't look like the sort that tends to hang out around drinking establishments - it's a mixed group of people ranging from probably their late 30's to 60's.



It seems like they're from Selangor and they're in the hotel for a function of some sort and the entire group adjourned to the lounge to have a couple of drinks. Most were dressed rather formally and I honestly didn't expect this group to raise the rafters...



...but they did. :)


Blast from the past! The Twist is back. Old man dancing...vibrantly.

The dance floor was quite empty before they arrived and this posse of fun loving mature people took to the floor quite liberally, doing the Twist and Cha-Cha, which were probably all the rage during their time.


Susu Niang Niang - classic song for a classic crowd.

I love these people, most of them didn't look like supermodels (understatement of the year) and yet they didn't care and just lived life. I learned something from them.


Forever young!



They were chronologically advanced, and yet they still know how to kick off their shoes and just let their hair down.



Them dancing shoes...

I wanted to do a See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil pose but one of the singers apparently thought I enjoyed having my boobs grabbed from behind.



Eh, don't pok mong me, can? ;)



See No Evil. Hear No Evil. Speak No Evil.

File under: Lazy Sunday morning posts. :)

I was approached by a media company for permission to use my photos in an online ad campaign for KFC a few weeks back. It was meant to be non-monetary (e.g. free) but with an inbound link to the post in question about the KFC Toasted Twister entry I did a few weeks ago. It came out in The Star (pictured above), MSN Malaysia and MSN Live Messenger this week.



I've seen it also on the Today screen of MSN Live Messenger. There seem to be two (2) versions of the ads:



Skyscraper unit



Large rectangle unit

The two versions above does not have the inbound link but I've heard from a friend that there's another splash page version that comes out occasionally with an inbound link if you click on the headline (other parts of the ad will direct you to the KFC website).

Has anyone seen that version around? Cheers! :)

I have been doing a lot of thinking lately about the direction this blog is going. The recent two controversial posts - the thinly disguised "human advertising" post and the profanity laced Dear Aries confession has received a lot of negative feedback from people I care about. I talked to one of my friends about this issue - he's about the only one detached from the blogging scene to be able to give impartial comments and thought really hard about what I should do.



This is what I tend to doodle when I'm thinking about the direction I should be taking. I ponder the pros and cons while drawing opposite arrows.



I also found myself drawing this house/witch's hat thing when I was particularly stressed out. I'm sure psychiatrists can make sense of my feelings from analyzing that, but I usually just draw this when I'm worried or stressed:



It looks like a zipper, a friend of mine told me. I've never thought of it like that. I am always thinking of teeth when I sketch that. It's supposed to be the upper and lower set of teeth.

Anyway, astute readers would notice that several posts have been discreetly unpublished during the last week and I'm going to do the same to the two "controversial" posts as well. It's not an easy decision to make but one thing my friend shared with me really hit me hard.

How long are you going to be the bad boy? Beh sian meh? (Hokkien for "It's getting old").

I must admit that a lot of my early inspiration was CKY and Jackass and I noticed one particular thing while watching Jackass 2.5. Johnny Knoxville looks really old. It was revolutionary when it came out, but the Jackass franchise is a little like flogging a dead horse. It's fun to watch once in a while, but only in small doses. I can't keep on doing this stuff all my life, even with the self-destructive tendencies that gets out sometimes and I shouldn't burden unwilling readers with them.

Thus, I've came to a decision:

sixthseal.com is going to branch off - there will be a new domain for personal and "controversial" posts, made available to friends only. This blog (sixthseal.com) will be maintained as the main(stream) site while the other domain will be limited to sporadic and occasional posts, much like the castitas.com arrangement back then.

No worries though, the main content will always still be at sixthseal.com since I don't do much controversial posts anymore anyway. I *heart* sixthseal.com and I can never let it be anything less, so the other domain will always be on a lower priority and will only be updated very rarely.

It will be password protected and when updates are available, it will still be announced on sixthseal.com - it would be just like the good old days with castitas.com. ;)

Haz Cafe and Restaurant is an eating establishment with a lot of weird angled aquariums inside. I initially thought it was a seafood restaurant but upon further investigation it turned out to be a shabu-shabu restaurant. These places have been popping up like mushrooms over here ever since the success of Mitsu Shabu Shabu.



The interior of Haz Cafe is dominated by 90 degree angled aquariums which I found rather odd. It does work well as a demarcation fitting though - the seating arrangements are clearly delineated by the design. I went there with Clare and Cheryl for dinner since Cheryl was in town.



Haz Cafe has the standard fittings you'll expect at a shabu shabu joint - there are receptacles for the pot of boiling broth and individual heating elements. The departure from orthodox shabu-shabu comes from the community BBQ grill in the middle. The place serves food that can either be dipped in broth or grilled with butter.



There is a platter full of the standard trimmings for adding gustatory perception (a pretentious word meaning taste and texture) to the broth - vegetables, rice vermicelli, nori (seaweed), tofu, mushrooms and an egg.



This is the mixed beef platter - it contains various cuts of beef from tenderloin to sirloin. The variety just makes me tingle in my loins. =D



We also had another side order of a more marbled slice of beef. I can't remember which part of the cow this came from.



Oink Oink. This is the pork platter. Mmm...pork. ;)



The meat can also be grilled on the central BBQ grill but the place is meant for shabu-shabu style eating.

It seems that the art of eating shabu-shabu is lost on most people so I have taken the liberty of showing how it's supposed to done:



Step 1: Take piece of the sliver of meat/fish/crustacean.



Step 2: Dip it with your chopsticks into the pot of boiling broth and start swishing it around.



Step 3: Take it out again and consume. I know mine looks raw, but I like raw! :)



Step 4: Dump the remainder of your rice into the broth after the meal and consume the broth + rice mixture.



You can also pour the broth into the rice if there's not a lot left, but this is a departure from Tradition (TM).



This is Cheryl Lim - an auditor who gets to travel around to places like Langkawi but works till late in the night, which takes much of the fun out of business travel.

Thanks for getting me the duty free cigarettes, Cheryl! :)

There was a break in at my place last night at about 2:04 am. This house still has the old skool glass shutters and metal grill which is rather easy to pry open. Apparently the intruder(s) carefully removed the glass shutters piece by piece and reached in to pry one side of the metal grill to gain access.



They even had the consideration to stack up the glass shutters nicely and leave the screws on the floor outside that window too. Thank you, the gesture is much appreciated.

Anyway, it appears that nothing was taken so I presume they didn't manage to gain access after all. How did I know it was 2:04 am? I heard the house phone ringing and woke up to take a piss and heard the sounds of someone(s) beating a hasty retreat so I went down to investigate and found the grill pried open.

Oh well, at least this seems to be the work of petty thieves. There was another break in earlier in the year in which they took - get this - a pair of my jeans and a tin of Milo (no kidding). Thus, my most prized possessions, which are the photographs contained in my notebook and various USB drives and DVD-Rs are safe.

They wouldn't be interested in that, I presume. ;)



Don't touch that please, your primitive intellect wouldn't understand alloys and compositions and things with...molecular structures.

I was browsing through my old photo albums just now in search of photos of my sister when she was younger for her wedding video when I came across this photo. This is (from left) my sister, me, Sing Ling and Wei Ling when I was 7 years old. I still remember the event - it was just after a 2.4 km jogathon that was held at Methodist High School when I was in Primary 1. My dad was the principal at that school then and we had this family sports day event where we ended up on this huge tandem walker thing with my mom taking a candid photo.



Anyway, I had this HUGE crush on Sing Ling, who's my classmate in Primary 1 at that time. It was my first love (at 7 years of age). I wrote her my very first love letter on a torn out piece of exercise book, and it went something like:

I love you Sing Ling
Please love me
I'll give you a eraser or a ruler if you love me

I had a really crappy red broken ruler at that time and I have to admit that my budding Casanova skillz was very much at a n00bie stage at that point. ;)

It was funny recalling that incident though, and it made me laugh. Nostalgia, eh?

I went to Full House Cafe for lunch with one of my colleagues and her younger sister and brother in tow. I have seen this cafe before but it always looks to be anything but what the cafe's name suggests. It has always come across as cold and empty.



However, little did I know, the interior is actually rather nice, with silk privacy screens between the booths and a decor that exudes warmth. It's private and conducive to conversation and my coworker told me the spaghetti here is rather good.



The best thing about Full House Cafe is the dirt cheap cocktail prices. They serve alcohol (beer and cocktails) with the latter starting from RM 7.90 (!). At least that's what I thought at first. I asked them for a stronger version of the cocktails and was told it would cost "RM 1 or RM 2 more" which I happily agreed to.



I had the Margarita (RM 7.90) which came in a tiny cup with a slice of lemon. I wouldn't call it strong by my standards, and the cafe charged just RM 1 more for the souped up version of the drink. However, the meager liquid volume makes you think you're getting more value for your money than you actually are. ;)



I had another Long Island Iced Tea (RM 13.90) which came in a much more acceptable receptacle that holds a more reasonable amount of liquid. It still wasn't strong enough for my tastes but Full House Cafe is not known for it's cocktails so I shall not judge it based on that alone.



The non-ethanol based drinks are very reasonably priced - Diana (my coworker's younger sister) had the Red Elf (RM 3.50) which is a mixture of Ribena and Sprite while her younger brother had a Coke (RM 3.50).



The younger brother had the interestingly named Lazy People's Set (RM 4.50). I can't read much of the menu since most of it is in Chinese but it consists of two slices of toasted (fried?) bread, a sausage, coleslaw, sweet corn, baked beans and a fried egg.



Amy had the Chicken Chop with Thai Sauce (RM 8.90). It came with the standard trimmings of coleslaw, baked beans and sweet corn. She claimed that it tasted a little on the bland side though. The chicken chop is fried, not grilled which could be where the problem lies.



Diana had the Japanese Style Pork Chop (RM 7.90), The pork chop is served teriyaki style (dipped in batter before being deep fried) with mayonnaise and tomato sauce on top. The pork is tough though, probably due to overenthusiastic deep frying. ;)



I went for the pasta dish that Amy recommended - this is the Prawn Spaghetti with Tomato Sauce (RM 8.90). It came with two fully deshelled and large prawns which is rather generous for the price. It tasted good but I had eaten a late breakfast before this so I didn't manage to finish the dish.



Full House Cafe has great service and reasonably priced food in a private air conditioned alcove. It's like a little gem waiting to be discovered. The cocktails are cheap (albeit underpowered and volumetrically challenged) and the ambiance is relaxing, with soothing piped music and a laid back atmosphere that allows you to stay as long as you like. It's good for hanging out with friends or your partner for a long, lazy lunch.



This is Diana Lau (Amy, your finger is on the lens), who is currently doing her Form Five in my alma mater (and in the same class I used to be in to boot!). I have noticed that I have problems attracting the under 18 demographic to my blog, probably due to its content, so I have taken the liberty of passing Diana a stack of my blogger name cards to be distributed to her classmates when school starts again. ;)

Word of the Day:
Volumetrically challenged
(Adjective)
A politically correct term for a small amount of liquid that is better described as a drop, droplet, or moisture. ;)

Please don't drink and drive. There are very serious consequences and ramifications to driving under the influence...



...you might need to take a piss by the roadside. On long road trips. Under heavy rain. With a PINK umbrella awkwardly positioned at your neck.

It's very serious. Accidents can happen should strong winds get the better of the umbrella and whip it into someone's windscreen temporarily blinding the driver. It's no joke. Keep a tight leash on your umbrella. This community message service has been brought to you by sixthseal.com. ;)

This is the obligatory "first cheque" posting that seems to be all the rage amongst Nuffnang bloggers (or at least a portion of them). ;) The concept of monetizing blogs have been around for ages but none has seen the success of Nuffnang in our part of the world.



I started out with Nuffnang a couple of months ago and found them to be a great and visionary team, and nice guys to boot. I was familiar with the concept of ads but advertorials was a new word to add to my vocabulary (hey, it didn't exist before I went to rehab okay? :p).



Cheers to the team at Nuffnang! :)

P/S - I shall post again and reply the comments tomorrow. It's 9:44 PM and I already have a massive hangover. Jesus Christ. I'm tired and I'm cranky to boot coz of relationship issues - It's Complicated (TM). I wonder sometimes if the problem lies with me or with my partner(s). If so many of them say similar things about me, the law of averages says it's probably gotta be true right? Food for a headachey thought. I can feel my brain cells dying. I shouldn't have started drinking this much this early.

Koreana restaurant is quite an established institution serving authentic Korean food in Kuching. It has recently moved its premises to 101, complete with brand new décor and fittings.



I went there with Irene and Emeric during my last trip to Kuching. The new Koreana looks much better than the previous restaurant and features an upper level for more dining space.



I like the eating implements (and also using unconventional words instead of just "utensils") in Koreana. The chopsticks at Koreana are Korean chopsticks - it's angular and oblique which makes it difficult to handle the first time you come across it.



We all had a mug of steaming green tea (RM 2) since we had just consumed an excessive amount of Slurpees previously, which made us a little on the cold side. The weather was chilly too, for some reason - rainy season, probably.



Koreana serves a select range of complimentary entrees for all diners. There's kimchi (the staple of Korean food), clams in some sort of hot sauce, seaweed, anchovies, a salad and vegetables of some sort.



Irene had the Dolsot Bibim Bub (RM 20) which is described as "slizzling rice with assorted vegetables in stone bowl". I'm sure they meant sizzling. ;)



The bibim bub (stone bowl mixed rice) comes with a raw egg which was cracked in by the waitress...



...and mixed thoroughly. Check out the look of concentration on her face. The raw egg is actually cooked by the excess heat from the stone bowl.



The obligatory kimchi is then added to the stone bowl mixed rice...



...before it is served. Koreana serves a pretty mean bibim bup and a testament to the authenticity of the place is the Korean expatriates at a table beside us.



Emeric opted for the Kimchi Fried Rice (RM 12). It tastes a lot like the Dolsot Bibim Bub minus the theatricals. ;)



I went for the Mulnaengmyun (RM 22) which is cold noodles in soup. It came with bamboo shoots and other vegetables and half a boiled egg. The dish was served in a metal bowl full of ice cubes. It's not just cold, it's freezing! I like! :)



Koreana also provides you with scissors for the cold noodle dish to cut the noodles into more manageable lengths for slurping. I really liked the taste of this dish - the freezing cold soup tastes delicious and although the concept of having ice cold noodles may be foreign for some people, it actually tastes really good.



We also ordered a bowl of Samgaetang (RM 35) to share. It is chicken soup cooked with ginseng Korean style and Irene insists that it is a very healthy substitute for ED meds. I'm not sure why she thinks me and Emeric has that kind of problem, but the chicken soup does taste good. ;)



The chicken soup with ginseng is served with half a whole chicken and lots of Korean ginseng. There's also some rice at the bottom of the soup bowl and the rice expands and absorbs all the goodness of the soup and is meant to be eaten after everything else is consumed. It's delicious!



Koreana is a nice place to have dinner if you're hankering for authentic Korean food. The bill came up to about RM 95 so it's pretty reasonable for three people. Thanks to Irene for driving me around Kuching in search of the elusive Slurpee! ;)

Transit Point is a budget accommodation facility located in the heart of Kuching. It has just been recently completed and features WiFi in every room. The rates start at RM 35 nett which is slightly more expensive than the RM 30 nett charged by it's main competitor - Singgahsana Lodge. However, the two places are different in many ways.



Transit Point provides a more private environment with a room consisting of a double bed and air conditioning (and television and WiFi to boot) while Singgahsana provides dormitory style accommodations sleeping 10 in a room (without WiFi). Transit Point provides towels for free too, which is chargeable (RM 2) in Singgahsana Lodge.



Transit Point also features shared toilets and shower units but the place is very clean and there's a soap/shampoo dispenser in the cubicles. Smoking is not allowed in both places (except outdoors).



I would recommend Transit Point if  you want the privacy of your own room and a larger bed with an air conditioned room. Singgahsana Lodge would be more suitable for people who wants interaction (and doesn't mind leaving their notebook filled with incriminating photos and videos in a room with 9 other strangers). ;)



Transit Point just costs RM 35 nett per night. I stayed there during my recent trip to Kuching (the 12 hour grueling trip where I nearly missed my express boat back) and was happy with the place. I'll definitely do a return visit when I'm on a shoestring budget.

7Eleven has come out with two new Mystery flavors for their Slurpee machine. Intrigued by this enigmatic campaign, the detective in me (who has read one too many mystery novels in my youth) decided that a quick trip down to 7Eleven was warranted to solve this mystery.



The trip involved planes, trains and automobiles (technically, since I was in KL at that time) and I arrived at 7Eleven to find out more about the two new Mystery flavors. ??? were abounding and they needed answering.



I decided to look into Mystery Flavor 2 while my dear Watson, I mean, Irene went for Mystery Flavor 1.



Elementary, my dear Irene!



Mystery Flavor 1 tastes like a grape based Slurpee, which Irene preferred. It has an almost blackcurrant aftertaste and although I can't identify the exact flavor of this mystery Slurpee, my taste buds tells me it has a hint of citrus as well.



Mystery Flavor 2 tastes like a mango based Slurpee. I liked this one better. It reminds me of the Slurpee I had in the very same 7Eleven outlet that saved me from a moribund state after a particularly dehydrating episode of partying. ;)



One man's meat is another man's (or woman's) poison.



Vote for the flavor you like best. I'm going for Mystery Flavor 2.



The two new Mystery flavors is a very interesting marketing campaign by 7Eleven. I don't even know what the flavors really are! However, the thirst quenching qualities of the 7Eleven Slurpee is still present in abundance. You should check it out if you haven't had a Slurpee before and if you're a regular imbiber, the new flavors are definitely worth looking into.



The 7Eleven Mystery Flavor 1 and 2 Slurpee is out now in all outlets and there will be a contest running during the promotional period up till the 5th of October, 2008. Slurpee users are encouraged participate and vote for their favorite mystery flavor amongst the two varieties.



The contest forms are available at all participating 7Eleven outlets and the winners will be selected from the winning pool with the highest purchase and correct answers (there are two very easy questions). You have to mail in the contest form with the Slurpee receipt.

Find out more about the contest here.

Guess what the prizes are? 1,000 mystery prizes.

Yup, you read that right. Even the prizes are a Mystery. ;)

I woke up this morning, grabbed my morning coffee and was sitting down to let the caffeine wake up my sleeping brain neurons when my dad told me he had accidentally opened an envelope meant for me and passed me the mail. I thought it was just another bank statement when I noticed the distinctive green cheque like printing on the back.



My sleepy brain neurons started to reactivate gradually without the aid of the hot steaming cup of java. I looked at the figure and was immediately jolted awake. Jesus Christ, Buddha and (cannot say the other deity in Malaysia)!



Yahweh eh, er...I mean wahlau eh, I didn't know I had Google AdSense running!

Well, I did for a while back in the good old days of sixthseal.com before a group of "concerned bloggers" launched a concerted campaign of hell raising in Mountain View, CA for allegedly "endorsing" a drug site. I think they were just jealous coz my traffic back then was very high and I got a cheque just after 14 days of putting AdSense on. ;)

Anyway, I took the ads down from sixthseal.com and...put it elsewhere. Little did that group of bloggers know that the sixthseal.com empire was like The Roman Empire back then. All roads leads to sixthseal.com and all that. ;) Okay, let limpeh tell you a story from the good old days of blogging:

Well, back in early 2003, when most of you weren't born yet, if you think of a Malaysian blog, you think sixthseal.com. It's the brand recognition factor (like Nescafe, Panadol etc) - it was really popular back then and sixthseal.com was on a very aggressive conquest, er...I mean expansion program. I had a forum, a website for helping people write assignments, a dedicated drug blog (the now defunct castitas.com) and many other development projects.

I didn't even know how many sites I had! Honestly, I had so many domains that I couldn't keep track of the various development projects I was involved in. I helped a couple of bloggers start up their careers and was one of the PPS core founding members. I had other sites which were "cleaner" than sixthseal.com and thus more acceptable for AdSense. sixthseal.com was always meant to be my outlet of expression.

Thus, I put the AdSense code into my other websites and it did what it does best (making money). However, just like the Roman Empire, the rise and fall of civilizations is a constant in every single endeavor. My readership declined in direct correlation with my escalating drug use and my posts were getting more and more erratic (not in frequency, I always post at least once a day, but in content - it was more and more about drugs).

Thus, the Persians invaded, the Mongols took over, etc etc and fast forward to a year later, I was sent to drug rehab and sixthseal.com was completely taken down (since I can't renew my hosting from rehab, with them not having Internet access and all). However, the other sites remained online and was actually making money for me while I was in rehab.

My mom told me that there were several other cheques like this that came in during my time in rehab but they threw it away coz it was only about USD 100 or USD 200. WTF! Their justification is that our bank charges for foreign cheques makes it quite useless anyway, but oi, RM 300 or 600 is still quite a lot of money okay?

This cheque had much more and I am still trying to identify which one of my sites is generating this kind of income. Back to the Roman Empire analogy, I will only offer this quote from The Sopranos:

Jewish guy: You ever heard of the Masada? For two years, 900 Jews held their own against 15,000 Roman soldiers. They chose death before enslavement. The Romans? Where are they now? (spits)
Tony Soprano: You're looking at them, asshole.

 

I was so excited by this unexpected windfall that I accidentally wore my trainers to work instead of my dress shoes. ;)

RedCarrot is designed as a "higher end" dining experience by SugarBun (the fast food franchise). Naturally, the concept of fine dining for a fast food establishment is rather different from boutique restaurants and such, and I wouldn't use that adjective to describe RedCarrot at all (despite owning stock in SugarBun). ;)



The ambiance is really quite warm and inviting and the place is air-conditioned. It tends to attract a different set of clientèle despite being located just above the SugarBun in Pedada. There's no screaming hyperactive children running about with minimal parental control on the upper tier. ;)



The place is quite conducive to conversation but the food isn't anything to write home about, so I hardly ever go there despite it being just a two minute drive from my place. Autumn lives near me too, and the only reason we went there tonight was coz we've both already eaten dinner and wanted to get out of the oppressive heat without ADHD inflicted rug rats stressing us out.



We get more than our RSA (Recommended Stress Allowance) from our office already, so that's enough stress vitamins and nutrients for healthy daily intake without adding to it at night. :) RedCarrot serves a lot of carrot based drinks - this is Autumn peering at the Red Carrot + Beetroot (RM 5.80) and Red Carrot + Lemon (RM 5.80) that we ordered, trying to figure out which is which.



We shared one of their flagship dishes - the Fish Fillet "RedCarrot" Style (RM 13.90). "RedCarrot style" apparently means dousing the fish fillet with Thai chilli sauce and having a lot of red carrots (what else) on the side. It's served with French Fries which tastes suspiciously like SugarBun French Fries (and in all probability is SugarBun French Fries since it's under the same banner). It's pretty good though.



This is the Fruit Platter (RM 5) which comes with sliced green apples, starfruit, and honey