sixthseal.com

Nescafe Ice review

Nescafe Ice is the newest lineup in the canned drinks portfolio of Nestle Nescafe brand of coffee products. Nescafe already has a canned drink range, in the slimmer and taller canned and ready to drink form factor, with a variety of flavors. Nescafe Ice is the new product that conforms to the standard 330 ml canned format.

Nescafe Ice is the latest product in the Nescafe drinks line to jump on the X Ice bandwagon. It is marketed as Nescafe coffee with a "deep chill sensation", which is a phrase for making "it contains mint" sound better. ;)

Nescafe Ice has mint added to it like all the other X Ice products out there. However, it is the first non-carbonated canned drink in Malaysia to add mint and the "Ice" suffix to it. It does have a mint aftertaste to it, which can be pleasant on a hot day, but still, coffee is coffee. Nescafe Ice doesn't offer anything new, but it's a refreshing drink...

Nescafe Ice is great for those who want the convenience of coffee in a can. Personally, I drink a lot of coffee (not the euphemism, coffee coffee) in a working day, and I like the mint aftertaste, so I consider it a great addition to Nescafe's canned drinks portfolio.

Posted in Snacks by Huai Bin at 10:29 AM Permalink | Comments (17)

sixthseal.com forum suggestions

I'm peaking like fuck right now (insane dose) but you didn't need to know that, I'm sure. I'll just get straight to the point - in this tweaked out, I-want-do-do-something frame of mind, I've decided to jump on the forum bandwagon. I figured that since I'm not around most of the time, I'll make this blog more interactive.

I'm going to set that up today (while I'm still productive - that is, if I don't die from a stroke in the next few minutes, which is a big if, considering the probably malignant hypertension that I'm currently experiencing with extreme cranial pressure extending to behind the eyeballs, permanent chest pain, ultra rapid heartbeat, and extreme breathing difficulties, but I digress and bore with details) and I'm open for forum topic suggestions.

Off the top of my head, there will be:

Open to all:

General discussion
It's like a pre-requisite for a forum, or so I hear...

Forum member introduction
Please make this your first stop - a short post to tell us about yourself. It can be as detailed as you want (feel free to tell us the details about your bowel movement patterns) or as vague as you want (just say hi).

The sixthseal.com Lounge
Inspired by bl - talk about any topic under the sun, perfect for the bored reader who wants to talk, or just while away some time at work at your employer's expense. ;)

Food and snacks forum
This will be a forum for all foodies - talk about anything and everything related to food, excluding restaurants. Basically, if you can eat it (without fatal consequences) it goes in there.
Except if it is psychoactive, there's another forum for that. This will be a celebration to food and food only. That means no other threads besides ones that elicit saliva in response.

Restaurants and cafes
Venues for food - know a great place for eating? Share your cuisine experiences! We want details. Pictures allows in here, so go crazy.

Tech and gadgets
Tech talk...consumer electronics, PDA's, cell phones, anything...you can buy/sell/trade here too, but caveat emptor. I'm not going to be responsible for reader-reader exchanges.

Music and bands
This is where you talk about anything with a beat, and even those without. Warning: Posting about how you love a boy band is probably going to get you flamed. ;)
I'm thinking about allowing .mp3 files to be uploaded here.

Movies and TV
The latest blockbuster to the lamest B movie - talk about films, movies, anime, whatever rocks your boat. Links to torrents/direct downloads are unofficially encouraged, but uploads are impossible unless it's a paid privilege, due to bandwidth issues (bandwidth costs money, ya know ;)). Oh, and XXX movies doesn't go here - it goes into the other forum.

Books and literature
The written word - talk about books, literature, hell, even The Bible, if you like. Reviews and recommendations to critical dissertations, as long as the source is printed, it goes here.

Events
This is where you can talk about upcoming events or organize one...

The Rest of the Known World
The forum for Australians, Americans, etc. ;)

Adults-only forums (passive age check):

Passive means that it's not going to be enforced, I just have to legally state that these forums are not for the ones under 12/16/18/21 (refer to state laws) years of age due to its content, but if you tell me you're 18, who am I to say you're not? ;)
Basically, there will be a checkbox saying that you are 18 years and over while registering as a member (free), and you have to check that in order to view and post in these forums.
That means I'm counting on you to tell me if you're a minor - if you're a minor and you check that box anyway, I can't be held legally responsible...but that is not officially condoned or encouraged, since I have to legally say that too.
In fact, from a legal standpoint, I shouldn't even be stating the obvious, people automatically check the 18 an over checkbox anyway.
But I don't encourage that. At least I can't legally say that I condone that practice. ;)

Drug discussion
Illicit, OTC, Rx, any recreational drug discussion forum, and that includes pharmaceuticals.
Heroin, methamphetamine, ketamine, benzodiazepines, pharmaceuticals, psychedelics, anything that has recreational potential - please post about it. Legal or illegal, prescription-only or over the counter, from the usual suspects to research chemicals - if it can be used recreationally in the broadest interpretation of the word, we want to talk about it.

Note: The server farm I'm on is drug-friendly, it took me a long time to find one that is, so don't worry about legal ramifications. Anonymity is encouraged, but not enforced. Just use common sense, don't slam law enforcement here, but don't get unduly worried too - the server is hosted in the US and I've been assured that in the unlikely event that a US law enforcement arm request details about the blog, the good people managing the hosting center I'm with will do a complete transfer of content to The Netherlands instead, where they have another server farm.
That's the reason I chose this particular hosting service - no one can legally get on my server due to ambiguous legal circumstances that I have the privilege of enjoying due to the geographical (and thus jurisdiction-wise) location of this server and where I am currently at. I was advised to host my stuff at the server farm in The Netherlands, but I didn't want to, coz I wanted to be on the US internet pipeline.
However, I've been assured that I can and will be moved there, in the unlikely case that legal issues arise. Thus, don't worry about IP logs, I won't log the forum IP addresses - and don't worry about what you post...if push comes to shove, this will all be moved to The Netherlands. The significance of that particular country? One word: bl is hosted there. OK, maybe that's 4, but you get the point. ;)
Your privacy is protected here.

The Dark Side
Just like the bl forum, this is the yin to balance the yang - drug dependency and withdrawal, health issues, quitting drugs...it'll be a supportive forum, no flaming the addicts and all that. The drug forums are not meant to replace the great ones out there - it's just "our place", a more personal forum with more accurate regional context. It'll be the friends of veritas helping each other out (literally, if you're in the same geographical location) kind of thing. Like the forum above, no dealing is allowed, please take that elsewhere. By elsewhere, I mean email me directly instead. ;)

Clubbing and nightlife
Share how you got wasted during the weekend...drug culture discussion goes here.

Ethanol and tobacco
The intoxicating liquor and the flavorful leaf - cigarette and alcohol topics, legal vices only. There will be a certain (perhaps significant) group who uses drugs and drinks and smokes too, but the former should go where it belongs. You're welcome in the Drug discussion forum. You may not be over here, coz a lot of people who smoke and drink do not take illicit substances.
Thus, ethanol and tobacco related subjects only. Oh, and Bhutan citizens are welcome here, we know your government is legally insane. ;)

Life and living
These forums are not strictly adults only, but the threads are not minor friendly either, so age-check will be used.

Working Life
The forum for the working class (white or blue, there's no such distinction now) to bitch about work. ;)

College and University
Tell us about life in varsity. No holds barred, this is the place where you can run Top #10 most aesthetically pleasing girls in your faculty, talk about which classes to avoid in a university coz of the lecturer from hell, or conversely, which ones to take, coz of a lenient lecturer. Hell, you can even talk about that guy you like in your class, and hopefully a friend of his can post the phone number.
It's everything about the best years of your life - who is fucking who, which chicks are easy, ways to score points with a tutor, how to bypass that web proxy in your halls of residence, what clubs to go to around your uni, etc. A place to hook people up in the same university, create networks for friendship, relationship, clubbing events management, meet-ups, or who has "stuff" in your city.
Oh, and that last one will be deleted, no dealing drugs in the forums.
Stuff is alright though, that generic term can mean anything. You could be talking about who has that Chemistry textbook you need for Chemistry 101 for all I (legally) care. ;)

The Grapevine
Tell us about a rumor you heard, or just slander someone you hate e.g. one of my co-workers is a drug user.
The place where reputations can be torn down to shreds and characters figuratively assassinated.
There is only one rule: You're responsible for what you write, so if you call me in the middle of the night, asking to remove a certain derogatory and untrue post you made while drunk...I will, but it would be easier if you didn't post that in the first place.
Cheaper too, since I would appreciate a token reload to my cell phone so that I can get online using EDGE/GPRS coz I don't have a net connection at home. ;)

Sex, Love and Relationships
Discussion about relationships - not porn, rather relationship advice and sexual issues. Advice on whether or not to break up with that cheating two-timing boyfriend of yours (yes) or whether to break up with the drug using boyfriend of yours (no ;)) - it'll be the forum for all relationships - love, sex, friends with benefits.

Local news and political discussion
The place where you discuss news and political decisions - anything which affects you, be it legislation that is about to be passed, who you're voting for, issues like arming the National Drug Agency (bad move)...let us know what you think. You have a right to express your opinion and the moderators have a right to delete it if they deem that it's unconstructive.
Examples of comments that will be deleted: "I hate (insert race) coz (reason)."
sixthseal.com does not tolerate racist or bigoted remarks. Policy discussion is encouraged, as is calls for reform, but not attacks based solely on racial/religious/cultural differences.
It's in adults for two reasons: that's the age of suffrage and to facilitate more mature discussion.

XX chromosomes
The forum for XY chromosomes. The posts are likely to offend:
Feminists
"Empowered new age women" or whatever they call themselves nowadays. ;)
Females
Most likely the above and then some. Let's not forget about SNAGs, rushing to defend a female to get in her pants. ;)
Unless you're "one of the guys", or has a sense of humor, please don't go flaming around in here. Lesbians, homosexuals of the feminine variety, females who has a non-hetero sexual orientation, or whatever's the PC word of the day - you're welcome too. :)
It's a place for the people to enjoy feminine aesthetics (doesn't matter if you're male, female, or "other"), and posts may contain "juvenile language", "vulgar depictions", or "derogatory remarks", and most likely all three.

Site related:

Suggestions and complaints
Let's hear it - this forum will be a work in process, and suggestions and criticisms are always welcome, but not always implemented. ;)

Restricted access:

Ministry of Truth
(Forum members with access with have a symbol)
veritas will post here, and the said posts may or may not be reposted on sixthseal.com (and as it stands, it looks like it won't be). This forum is access restricted - it's for trusted people only, with strict screening and perma-ban on violation of NDA.
My apologies to my family, my gf, my co-workers and known acquaintances of said groups of people - for obvious reasons, you will not be able to view this forum.
No, it will not be spidered or cached, and no, I won't allow access to the abovementioned, so don't bother asking. :p
This will contain posts by veritas - complete with pictures and videos. Just like it was. Just like it always will be.
There, I found a solution to the authentication problem. ;)

sixthseal.com blog posts
(Forum members will gain access upon reaching 35 posts and will have posting privileges upon 60 posts - this will be indicated to differentiate active forum members and lurkers)
This is where new sixthseal.com blog posts will appear in advance of the actual posting at the blog. The lead time can be minutes to days to never - this is where the drafts are posted for earlier reading (if you have reading privileges) and comments (if you have posting privileges). The comments will be ported to the blog, chronologically.
This will also be where the "missing" sixthseal.com posts will be...as well as entries that will never be posted on the blog...
Note: This forum will not be accessible to the people who're associated with my family, girlfriend or co-workers, even if the requirements are met. The rule does not apply to people who are not in that group, but the posting requirements are, to establish that you are not affiliated with the abovementioned groups listed in veritas's ban list.
Moderators and bloggers I know will have automatic access without having to hit the 35 post requirement.
The same NDA also applies to everyone, since this forum will contain posts of a sensitive nature. Leaking out information = permanent ban.

Moderator news
(Moderators only - the moderators will have the Moderator tag)
This forum is open to moderators only. Policy, news, stuff like that. Moderators will be emailed upon a new post.

I would need moderators to well, moderate the forum, and if you want to be one, you can email moderator@sixthseal.com and I'll get back to you. I'll give you an @sixthseal.com email address with POP and SMTP privileges (which I won't cap, so you can go crazy and put up attachments up to 6 GB and run amok with the bandwidth*) and web mail (IMAP) access. I'll foot the bill. I'll throw in a token angpow of RM 6 as a small gesture of appreciation and a hand written letter to boot.

*Please read The Fine Print (TM) below. ;)

Preference will be given to people who're online a lot (it's a bit of a requirement, since you'll need to pop in now and then :p), and people who comment a lot will be given #1 priority. It's open to lurkers too, basically anyone who's interested will be considered.

The Fine Print:
The accounts going over 5 GB per month will receive a polite email from me to request reasonable use and the suggestion of Gmail as an alternate p0rn exchanging system. I won't shut down accounts, but in the case of non-compliance, I'll kill one kitten for each 1 GB over 5 GB you use and email the gristly video to you so that you'll have the conscience of that weighing on you before you decide to send that email with the 645 MB p0rn .avi attachment. ;)
One kitten will be massacred with a balisong and gutted in a manner which RSPCA will not approve of and recorded to be emailed to you for each 1 GB over 5 GB you use per month until the guilt convinces you to stop or I run out of kittens, whichever comes first.
The above does not apply if you can email me back within 48 hours (hey, I have to search for kittens, that needs time) with an acceptable explanation.
Acceptable explanations include:
1. "I was using it to send a 6 GB zip file of my recently deceased (insert family member) to (insert another family member) for remembrance."
2. "(Insert primary email service) died on me, and I had to send that extremely important 7 GB presentation/assignment/company accounts to my (check one: employer/lecturer/client) which will (cross out the ones that does not apply: get me that 1 million dollar worth contract/either make me graduate or have to repeat another semester/be instrumental in my career for promotion prospects and/or huge bonuses)."
3. "Don't get your panties all in a twist, proleate. Jesus, it's always with the bandwidth bills, I'm sick of hearing about it. Here's $1 million from my trust fund, don't bother me again." (In the case of which I will give you all the bandwidth you want, and my soul thrown in for good measure)

Explanation #1 and #2 will make me release the kitten and explanation #3 will never happen. ;)

Unacceptable explanations include:

"I was using it to exchange movies and/or porn to with my friends"

and will result in an email reply to request that you use your work/uni/ISP email instead...and a movie clip of one kitten being killed by me. ;)

Please add any suggestions and email me if you're interested in becoming a moderator.

Oh, and if I kick the bucket today, please tell my parents I love them, and that I died happily (if not peacefully). One other thing, tell them to keep this blog alive, renew the domains and hosting. My password is (insert root password before passing out). ;)

Feel free to post-humorously kick my ass for not taking sensible counter-measures to quickly self-medicate by chemically overriding the screaming NE and DA production, arresting the absorption of the time-released stimulants (had a combo of IV, smoking and oral ingestion at the same time, and the last one can be nullified with charcoal pills), lowering the seizure threshold with a combo of quick acting and long lasting cocktail of lorazepam and clonazepam, and heavily sedating myself with midazolam and massive doses of alprazolam and diazepam (all of which is in abundance just 3 meters away), but illogically choosing to ride the high instead. :)

Come to think of it, while you're at it, you might as well tell my gf that I'm sorry about everything, send my employers my regrets for not being able to finish the current project I'm working on due to my untimely demise (and tell them to get a C# programmer to finish it, the code I wrote is near completion for RC 1 and is well documented to boot, so a 30 day fixed term contract C# programmer should be more than enough to complete the build, the latest of which is in my notebook, which you can have (the code, not the notebook), on the condition that no other files or folders are touched, coz some of them are quite incriminating, and not just to myself, but 5-6 (maybe 10) other people as well, but if said files and folders (which will be referred to as "photos and videos" henceforth) are accidentally viewed, please promptly forget that you saw what you saw, and for Christ's sake, don't tell my gf, but my parents already know, so pass the notebook to them after said source code is extracted, and remember, the notebook goes to my parents, not my gf, it's very important, the difference between grief and anger, I kid, there's nothing incriminating here ;)), and nominate someone amongst the readers to keep the comment spam at bay. Oh, and pass my non-existent Cayman Islands account number 1-6-0110-666-6 to my lawyer so he can disburse the funds in this order:

60% to my parents and sister
30% for him to do the necessary money laundering to legitimatize the profits from drug trafficking which that account contains (it's cool, he's a lawyer, he does stuff like this all the time)
6% to my gf (and it should be reminded that my notebook, CD-Rs, hard disks and other media storing device, inclusive of anything which can potentially store .jpg, .jpeg, .avi, .mov, and .mpeg suffixes goes to my parents, not my gf, a very important distinction)
and 4% to the person who actually believes this. ;)

Excuse me, I should be setting up the forum. Hit me in the comments or email moderator@sixthseal.com to express interest in becoming a moderator. There is no time frame or cutoff period coz I don't even have the forum up yet. I'm putting it between my work related programming and the Sunday mass I have to go to tomorrow. Kidding. About attending mass, that is. ;)

Well, enough verbal diarrhea, it seems that I'm not going to die tonight, since I feel slightly better now, but I'm going to take more, so it's 50-50 either way, but I'm serious about the forum. Hit me to tell me the preferred forum you want to be moderating, and understand that some forums will be less popular than others and that I will be choosing based on qualification for certain forums (e.g. drug discussion, which shouldn't be moderated by someone who hasn't taken anything stronger than Asprin, or the dark side, which wouldn't bode well should it be moderated by someone who only smokes cannabis, or the grapevine, which would be hell of a forum to moderate and still thread the thin line between free speech and libel lawsuits against me ;)).

General discussion and The Lounge and others like that doesn't need a prerequisite except having a strong online presence (that means you have net access at least 4 hours a day, it'll be good if your job involves sitting in front of a computer), since those two are the probably high traffic ones.

The forum will hopefully be self-sustaining and provide fresh user-contributed interactive content so there will be something new to read every time you hit the blog. I'm working on another project (for the blog, not work) which will be announced soon as a feasibility study. I'm counting on the latter to create a self-sustaining blog, literally, so hopefully that one pans out.

First things first though...hit me at moderator@sixthseal.com. I'll be here all weekend, which sounds sad, but is necessary to complete both work and personal projects, with chemical assistance, naturally. ;)

It should be noted that the forum will have a different intellectual property stance - the stuff you post is yours. You retain all the copyrights to it, and "own" it, to put it bluntly. Thus, please ensure that it's not copyrighted by someone else i.e. post photos you have taken yourself/have the copyrights of or those under public domain/Creative Commons (remember to give credit) licenses only.

This IP stance goes for all the posts people make as well - you own the words you write and you're responsible for it. Basically, anything you post here is (C) (Insert Your Name). This allows forum users to retain their intellectual property and distances myself from IP dispute issues at the same time. It also relieves me from libel lawsuits if you decide that talking about your boss/some prominent politician/etc and putting real names (both yours and theirs) is a good idea. ;)

That's not to say that I won't delete posts you regret making though, here at the sixthseal.com forums, we go the extra length to make sure that you can speak freely and protect you* at the same time.

Nifty, eh. ;)

*Fine print is here: I'll protect your rights the best I can, but in order for me to do that, you have to understand that you can't e.g. slander someone with a good lawyer, unless it's true (in which case you'll have to convince the court with hard evidence) and even then, political figures attracts unwanted attention. In line with our free speech stance, you can do whatever you want, and we'll protect your right to do it, but if shit hits the fan, it'll be best for all if it doesn't have a real name to fly to, if you get what I mean...

For those who don't - if you're going to slander someone, for Christ's sake (or for your sake) don't put your real name, and since the IP's are not logged, that means you can say whatever you want. Unless there is a takedown notice issued to me, in the case of which I will comply, to protect my own interests.

The gist of it is - use common sense, I won't hand over server logs, coz I can't, but don't get me in trouble either, coz I can't afford to since I'm a *newsflash* drug user and all, and that means that I will be in trouble, should the police, say, raid my place, or, do a urine test on me. You won't, of course, but think of the children! I mean, think of me. ;)

OK, enough writing, I'll be doing more forum creation from now on.

I'll furnish progress reports from time to time in the comments.

Jesus, now that sounds really sad...

Right, moderator@sixthseal.com if you're interested...

Posted in by Huai Bin at 10:12 PM Permalink | Comments (43)

Italiano's Pizza and Pasta review

Italiano's Pizza and Pasta is an authentic Italian eating establishment located at Abell Road in Kuching. The place is owned by an Italian and it's been in operation for quite a while, and with a reputation for authentic Italian food to boot (no pun intended).

The interior of the place is nicely done, there is a lot of wood based furniture and a large replica of the outline of Italy strung together with cloth with the colors of the Italian flag on the ceiling.

Italiano's has a set lunch promotion going on for RM 9.90, with a choice of four different main dishes. I went there for lunch just now with my co-workers Penny and Mancy. We each ordered a different main so we could try the different variations.

The person in charge of our table was friendly and attentive - the service at Italiano's Pizza and Pasta is great, and the waitress was kind enough to accommodate unusual requests like customers asking to take photos of her. ;)

The meal started with the soup of the day - it's a tomato based creamy soup, with mushrooms, onions, tomatoes, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots and various other ingredients. It's a hearty soup, nice and filling.

This is one of the mains that we ordered. Pizza Margherita is described as "pizza bread baked with tomato sauce and cheese". It has a thin base and is unlike the topping piled American style pizzas. This is a more authentic Italian pizza with just tomato sauce, cheese and herbs. It's great - I give this two thumbs up!

The second main dish that we shared is Risotto Francheska which the menu bills as "Italiano's style tomato rice cooked with tomato sauce and vegetables". I liked this dish as well; the risotto is rich and creamy, with a lingering aftertaste.

The last main that we ordered is Pene Arabiata, which is "short tube pasta cooked with tomato, dry chilly, olives, and garlic in tomato sauce". This is a spicy dish, and that always scores points with me. It tastes good and it's always fun to stab penne rigate with a fork. ;)

I wanted to order tiramisu, unfortunately Italiano's were out, so Mirela recommended another dessert. At least, that's how I remember the spelling as she enunciated it out for me. She's not from Italy, as I assumed, but is of Bosnian origin. She's really friendly, and has this fragile beauty about her...but I digress, we should be talking about food.

This is the pudding type dessert that Mirela (pronounced MIER-la) recommended. I don't know what it's made of, but it's very creamy, with a melt-in-your-mouth texture and a sweet aftertaste. It's has cherry sauce and chocolate drizzled over it, but it's not cloyingly sweet, it manages to allow the creamy taste to dominate the pudding. It's wonderful.

Italiano's Pizza and Pasta comes highly recommended from me. The food is good, the ambience is warm, and the service is great. You can't go wrong with Italiano's if you're looking for authentic Italian food in Kuching.

Posted in Food reviews by Huai Bin at 03:21 PM Permalink | Comments (32)

Sobranie Mints cigarettes

Sobranie is a London based cigarette brand and Sobranie Mints is one of their slim cigarette product lines. Sobranie Mints are not available in Malaysia, as far as I know, but I managed to get a pack of these, courtesy of Irene. Thanks!

This pack of Sobranie Mints is from Korea and the back of the pack describes it as "A menthol cigarette of style and distinction from the famous House of Sobranie". These cigarettes are definitely different from the first look - the pack is long and thin.

Sobranie Mints are marketed as specialty cigarettes and retails for much higher than normal premium cigarette brands, from what I gather from the prices on the Internet cigarette retailers. It certainly looks nice, with the blue-green hued graphics...

This particular pack is made in the UK despite the Korean characters. It's an ultra light cigarette with 5 mg tar and 0.5 mg nicotine.

Here's a size comparison to give perspective to the dimensions of the Sobranie Mints cigarette pack. It's much longer and slimmer than regular King Sized cigarettes.

The pack is lined with gold foil with "Sobranie" inscribed on it.

The Sobranie Mint cigarettes have a nice greenish blue hue on the filters, which slowly tapers off as it reaches the end. The tip of the filter has a gold band and letters spelling SOBRANIE, also in gold. The cigarette body is inscribed with "Mints", written in the same bluish green color, in italics and underscored. This is one classy cigarette...

Here's a closer look at the Sobranie Mints filter - notice the two arrays of airflow holes...

This is another side-by-side comparison to a regular cigarette. Sobranie Mints are much longer and slimmer, with an equally generous filter.

Sobranie Mints are fun to smoke. It feels strange to hold such a slim and almost fragile cigarette instead of the regular sized ones. Sobranie Mints smokes well too, with nice notes of mint dominating the tobacco taste. It's well made and burns nice and long, producing a very satisfying smoke.

I finished the pack of Sobranie Mints before I knew it. It really is that good. I wouldn't say that it'll replace your regular cigarettes, but these things are so fun to smoke that you can't help but smoke every one of them...

Posted in Ethanol and tobacco by Huai Bin at 02:52 PM Permalink | Comments (23)

Chocolate umbrellas

I noticed this whimsical chocolate umbrella display in a grocery shop just now. There are two different colored display umbrellas housing arrays of smaller chocolate umbrellas underneath the canopy.

The chocolate umbrellas come in two flavors - strawberry cream and orange cream. It retails for RM 1.50 each. These mini replica umbrellas have a hooked handle and a tapering cone, making it look like an unopened umbrella. It comes with a pretty ribbon to boot. ;)

Upon removing the wrapper, I found another paper-foil wrapped around the chocolate umbrella. These things are called gizitas umbrella chocolate & (orange or strawberry) cream.

The unwrapping of the second layer reveals a shiny cone of chocolate, with a plastic base that acts as a handle and also doubles as a decor.

The strawberry cream and orange cream chocolate umbrellas taste pretty much the same to me. It's an Indonesian product, and you know what their chocolate tastes like, no offence. ;) The chocolate umbrella is made up of a cream center, followed by a layer of wafer, which is filled with actual sugar granules (!), followed by another layer of wafer, which is then coated with chocolate.

It's nothing to write home about. I just thought the chocolate umbrella display was interesting. :)

Posted in Snacks by Huai Bin at 01:43 PM Permalink | Comments (13)

Wall's Paddle Pop Hip Hop Jelly

Hip Hop Jelly is the latest variant of the Wall's Paddle Pop series of iced confectionary and it offers something unique - it's not ice cream.

It goes for RM 1 each, in line with the Paddle Pop pricing structure, which has always targeted children as it's primary market.

The Paddle Pop Hip Hop Jelly is described as an apple and peach flavored ice confection, but the thing that makes it stand out is it's...well, malleable nature.

Download: Hip Hop Jelly [sixthseal.com]

Look at Mr. Happy. ;) In short, it's very flexible. I imagine a lot of fun can be derived from shaking said ice confectionary by its primary target market. It doesn't lose its structural integrity by being shaken. That's probably where the "hip hop" name comes from - it wobbles instead...

Hip Hop Jelly is made in China and seems to be made primarily from jelly and a lot of air bubbles. The inside is made up of an unknown substance which seems to be a cross between jello and ice.

The jelly tastes surprisingly good too...the apple and peach flavors is very thirst quenching and I had five of the Paddle Pop Hip Hop Jellies in a row. It's a hot day, and these things are fun to eat.

Posted in Snacks by Huai Bin at 11:45 AM Permalink | Comments (36)

Pizza Hut Ocean Treasure Tempura King Prawn

The Tempura King Prawn platter is the latest addition to the Ocean Treasure series of Pizza Hut offerings. The tagline goes The king on the platter joins the ocean treasure and it's a side dish for the Ocean Treasure pizza series.

The flagship of the Ocean Treasure series is the Ocean Treasure Pizza, which has prawns, calamari, crab sticks and other seafood as the topping of the pizza.

I've always liked the Ocean Treasure Pizza - there's nothing like baked crab sticks...it just has this delicious texture to it.

The Tempura King Prawn platter is described as "a delicious bundle of crispy golden bites made up of crunchy Tempura King Prawns, irresistible Tempura Calamari Rings and tasty Criss Cut Fries with Cool Lime Mayonnaise".

It's good - the tempura king prawns are great and the dip is nice and creamy, but I found the fries to be the best thing on this side dish.

At least it's not crinkle fries. ;)

Posted in Fast Food Inc. by Huai Bin at 11:23 AM Permalink | Comments (33)

Pepsi Fire and Pepsi Ice

Pepsi came out with two new additions to their range of drinks. It comes in a pair - Pepsi Fire and Pepsi Ice. Pepsi Fire is billed as Cola on Fire and images on the can depict a "hot" theme, with fiery red color schemes and fonts. Pepsi Ice on the other hand goes with the "cold" theme, and it's billed as Ice Mint Cola, with crystals and such to contribute to a cool theme.

Pepsi Fire has an intense amber color and two people commented that it has a warm note, much like drinking Chivas Regal with coke. I didn't notice that at first myself, but then again, my taste buds aren't all that pristine. I did notice a slight hint of strange warmth as I drank it though, and it tastes like regular Pepsi spiked with alcohol.

Pepsi Ice on the other hand is artificially blue in color. There are a lot of X Ice offerings out there e.g. 7-Up Ice, Sprite Ice etc, just to name a few. Pepsi Ice differentiates itself with hints of mint though - you can really taste the cooling mint element in the drink. I prefer the color of Pepsi Fire though; X Ice has been done to death...

Now, the next test is to mix equal portions of Pepsi Fire and Pepsi Ice to create a Pepsi Fire and Ice drink. :) I had wanted to do that ever since I saw the ads for the drinks a while ago - it seemed like the natural thing to do.

I first filled a glass with a quarter of Pepsi Fire and then put in an equal amount of Pepsi Ice. The color changed from amber to purple and settled to a slightly clear violet colored concoction. It tasted like...well, Pepsi.

Pepsi Fire and Ice could rejuvenate the sex industry - temperature differential fellatio (or hot and cold blowjobs as experts refer to it) where the working lady swaps in an ice cube could be replaced with a can of Pepsi Fire and another of Pepsi Ice before administration in sequence. ;)

Pepsi Fire. Feel the burn!

Posted in Fast Food Inc. by Huai Bin at 03:07 PM Permalink | Comments (24)

CNY red underwear!

I was out with a couple of friends and we chanced upon these bright red underwear for sale - it's meant for Chinese New Year. It was quite popular too, as quite a few people were looking at it. We were doing that too, when a sales person came up and asked us what size I was. I told her I didn't know, and we discussed about the merits of having a loose versus tight fit. ;)

We all bought one box of the red underwears each. I didn't have time to have a detailed look at them last night. Besides, I can't read Chinese. Thus, I brought them to the office this morning and got them translated.

The Emilio Valentino 100% combed cotton briefs comes in a set of three. I bought the L sized ones, while one of my friends went for the M and the other had to go for XL.

One of them has the Chinese character Chai meaning Prosperity emblazoned in gold across the bright red underwear. This interplay of color is supposed to be very auspicious - the red, a traditional color of the Lunar New Year celebrations for the Chinese, combined with gold, which symbolizes wealth, comes together to make on hell of a prosperous brief.
You'll want to be wearing these when you're gambling.
Sure win one!

The other has an image of a dragon, presumably to symbolize the "dragon" that lies under the bulge when one is wearing it.

The third and last one has the gold Chinese character for Fu, which roughly translates to happiness, in the family context. It's probably wise to be donning these on during the Chinese New Year eve reunion dinner to avoid unwanted questions and stop bickering relatives (if any).

It also comes with ang pow (red packets)!

So there you go - the complete package for Chinese New Year. Prosperity for gambling sessions, dragon for you-know-what sessions, and happiness/unity for the reunion dinner. All bases covered.

Don't forget to tell me in advance if you want to set up the traditional Chinese New Year gambling session...I'll be donning this Chai brief on the outside. I'll be letting it all hang out. ;)

Posted in Chinese New Year by Huai Bin at 08:52 AM Permalink | Comments (25)

Elektra the movie

I caught Elektra during the weekend with a bunch of friends. I didn't plan on going to the cineplex, but we just happened to pass by and decided to catch a movie. The only one showing was Elektra (12:30 am). I am familiar with Jennifer Garner from Alias Season One and Two (which I watched back to back, while stoned most of the time).

The popcorn and snacks bar had a showcase of Elektra merchandise - there was a beanie with "Elektra" on it, the cuff that Jennifer Garner wears as Elektra in the movie on her right arm (RM 69.90) and a cell phone Dangly Thing (TM) going for RM 20. I was attracted to it for some reason. I can't explain it, I have never bought those things and didn't think I ever would.

I was wrong. Can I be excused on the grounds that I wasn't sober at that time? :p I bought the Elektra cell phone dangly thing and affixed it to my cell phone right there on the snack bar. I had so much trouble coz I didn't know where to affix it (never had one, remember?), so it took the better part of 5 minutes and a friend together with the counter girl to help me.

I had a better look at it just now - it's enclosed in a box with the Elektra logo on all four sides...

...and the Marvel and 20th Century Fox logo on the opening side.

The cell phone dangly thing itself is the standard string affixed accessory that fits most cell phones. It's made of solid stainless steel and has two nifty parts that allows it some degree of movement. One side has the Elektra logo...

...and the other is embossed with "TM & (c) 2005 MARVEL. (c) TCFCC".

Thus, I found myself in possession of a cell phone dangly thing. It's not that bad though, I found it rather useful for the times you put it in your side pocket - the metal rod can hang out and allow easy "pull" retrieval of the cell phone. Nifty.

Oh, and Elektra the movie? It sucked. But hey, it had Jennifer Garner in it, so it didn't suck that hard.

OMG, the warnings are all true! My IQ dropped the instant I bought a cell phone dangly thing!

Posted in by Huai Bin at 09:58 PM Permalink | Comments (14)

Denis Place cafe & restaurant review

Denis Place cafe & restaurant is a well-hidden gem in the old part of town. Nestled between rows of old shop houses, this charming restaurant manages to work with the existing infrastructure and create a luxuriously decorated interior at the same time.

The ambience of Denis Place once you step into it is palpable. The lighting is dim and diffused, and there are racks of wine everywhere.

There is also a staircase leading to the upper dining section and sections which have ceramic bowls filled with water and fresh flower petals, as well as candles everywhere.

I love the effort spent into creating a warm ambience here...

Denis Place is very big on candles and flames, as you can see.

I had a glass of house red wine (RM 12) and a Blueberry Coolest Shake (RM 8), which is a blueberries and ice cream blended drink. It's nice and creamy. My dining companion opted for the more conservative freshly squeezed carrot juice (RM 14).

She had the House steak (RM 21) for the main dish.

It's the signature dish of Denis Place, with 250 grams of well-done prime Australian mince meat, grilled with melted cheese and served with fries and chilli cheese sauce. It's alright, once you find the steak. It's there somewhere under the other adornments. ;)

I had the House sandwich (RM 15), another Denis Place signature dish. This sandwich is huge...it's impossible to open wide enough to get a bite. Seriously, it's that good.

It's a generous triple deck of toasted bread with salad, chicken, a whole fried egg, and beef bacon, served with crinkle fries.

We shared a dessert billed as Chocolate made in heaven, with chocolate ice cream decked with pure chocolate fudge and Oreos for RM 9. I was amazed by the sheer portion of the ice cream serving when it came out...

Behold! The Chocolate made in heaven in all of its glory! Just look at that sinful concoction of Oreos slathered with chocolate fudge in a huge bed of chocolate ice cream...

Posted in Food reviews by Huai Bin at 10:29 AM Permalink | Comments (22)

Do you think it, do you like it, do you feel hot?

It started out as a plan. I would make full use of the public holiday and stay up to write a flurry of posts for the blog, which has been somewhat neglected this week coz I had a lot of work to do. I had come up with ideas, great ideas! (well, it sounded good at that time).

I would first give the readers a sampling of the more bizarre SMS's I've gotten (with the sender's number taken off for privacy, of course)....

...followed by a BK post, the Melbourne convocation series I never finished (!!!), and perhaps even a food review if I had the time.

There was going to be a planned avalanche of the written word. It would be post-o-mania!

Hey, I look up too the task, don't I? Hell, I was fucking set for 12 full hours of writing!

Just look at the size of my pupil, er...I mean, windows. Just look at the size of my windows.

Right. The windows on my place...it's...hmm...quite...well...sturdy, yeah, that's it, I meant to say that the windows are really quite sturdy, with grates across to boot! You know, gotta keep people out and all that...

I digress.

Going back to the original thread, I could justify a push for the maximum monthly RM 199 monthly Digi prepaid GPRS ceiling charges. I'm already at RM 150 (got the RM 100 usage notice two days ago) point and there's still 10 days left in January. It'll be good, since I just got a RM 80 (eighty dollars - the highest I've ever received!) bonus credit payout from the Oct-Dec 2004 reload period, so I can piggyback on that.

Oh wait...I think that means I spent RM 800 in that quarter...

Great, now you've got me thinking about how I reloaded an average of RM 266 each month without realizing it. The Digi prepaid reload loyalty program credits back 10% of the total value of credits purchased and used in each quarter by the customer (me). It's a great way to keep churn rates low, IMHO!

I, for one, welcome our new demon-worshipping, blood-sucking, customer-behavior-pattern-model-analysis-exploiting telecommunication overlords!

Hang on...that wasn't me...

Nevermind.

Oh, I remember now...I'll just extrapolate and from the past 24 hours...

I bought a RM 100 prepaid 016 (Digi) card and topped up my credit yesterday afternoon. The credit balance seems to have been mysteriously truncated into a single digit. I dare not let my thoughts dwell too long on what manner of evil is capable of making two figures disappear a scant two days after I loaded another RM 100 reload card.

It simply wouldn't bode well for my sanity if I deliberate even further into the phone call I made a few hours ago to my friend who owns a cell phone shop to get him to reload RM 30, RM 30, RM 50 and a final RM 50 for a total of RM 160.

He didn't have RM 100 denominations and I needed RM 150 to be safe, so I asked for one RM 100 and one RM 50, but he only had the RM 50 and RM 30 denominations, so we made do. One of the benefits of having a friend who owns a cell phone shop - reloading is just a phone call away!

I didn't even need to get off my ass, which, come to think of it, feels rather numb. No worries, it's probably due to the fact that I've been sitting on this chair since early last night without much in the way of movement. I guess you didn't need to know that, but still, just to put things in context...and er, where was I?

Okay, so I do run up high cell phone bills...15 cents per minute for the friends and family package notwithstanding. Throw in the verbal diarrhea that usually results from being tweaked and there's a dangerous combo for you. :p Well, that explains it then. There's the reason for the emergency call to reload...I let it run down to RM 60+.

Long story short, I talked a whole lot of nothing to a bunch of people in different states (and one different country, to boot). I can't say I didn't enjoy it, I did, and very much so. I like writing and talking while tweaking. I usually opt for the former since its more productive, but given distractions...well, you better hope I don't call you up in the middle of the night and attempt to hold a loud and animated conversation, all the while goes off in tangents and assuming that you're enjoying it too. Pray that day does not come. ;)

Excuse me, I digress yet again...

Well, back on topic, in case you didn't know, I don't have a net connection at home (long story), so I just use my SE K700 as a GPRS modem. I was set! I took a few photos. I even had some choice ones from this anonymous quack (in a well meaning way, I'm sure) who keeps sending me "Words of wisdom" type SMS's. I'm just going to switch windows and make a brief update to my contacts list...

...and before I knew it, I found that the quick single-address-book-entry detour I took turned into a full fledged re-ordering, re-categorizing, re-entering, just plain fucking obsessive reorganization, nay, overhaul of the entries until I got everything into alphabetical order, grouped by state, and re-edited to make sure all the entries have the same spacing between cell phone numbers...and I found out that 10 hours had passed.

Time flies when you're speeding.

Not anymore. I was, but I blew it on the stupid address book. Now I'm coming down hard and I have just written a single irrelevant post...

Oh well, at least I have a really organized contacts database now. :p

Posted in by Huai Bin at 07:41 AM Permalink | Comments (24)

L&M promotional cigarettes packs

L&M came out with this limited run packaging for both the menthol and full flavored variants last year. It's nothing to write home about, I imagine it's marketed as a collector's item.

It has a pack of L&M cigarettes and a lighter for RM 9. I remember L&M cigarettes were going for RM 4 before the price hike, so that means the lighter is RM 5. That's one hell of an expensive lighter, considering it's not refillable, like a Zippo.

Here's a closer look at the front of the pack, without the distracting translucent cover...

...and here's the back of the pack.

The limited edition box features a slide-out, flip-open design - revealing a recessed receptacle containing a pack of L&M cigarettes and the L&M lighter.

It's quite well designed, though I can't imagine the target market with the pricing...

The interesting bit in this particular is the lighter, which also came with an instruction booklet (!). I'm glad it did, God knows I can't operate a lighter without reading a manual first. ;)

This is a closer look at the lighter in question...

...and the L&M lighter when it's in action.

L&M seems to have a fondness for designing clothes for its cigarettes for they came out with another promotional pack recently.

This is the full flavored packaging design. It features a male and female model in what I presume is supposed to be a rugged, rough look.

The menthol version features what seem to be the same two models, this time going for the hip and cool look. Is hip even a word nowadays or did it get deprecated in the turn of the millennium?

Anyway, the interesting part of these new promotional packs is the price - it retails for RM 8! That's two packs of L&M cigarettes, together with the push-out packaging for the pre-price hike price of RM 4.

It's a great deal! L&M - Mellow, distinctly smooth... ;)

Posted in Ethanol and tobacco by Huai Bin at 04:30 PM Permalink | Comments (14)

Black Kingdom: Chapter 6 - The Lunch Gauntlet Run

Note: The series is meant to be read sequentially. It won't make much sense otherwise. The first chapter is here [sixthseal.com].

It had become a routine of sneaking out for lunch at Desmond's house and maybe a beer (he always had some in the fridge) before coming back...or not coming back at all. The latter was more common since I did not have a lunch pass. You need one to get out of school grounds and there's a teacher on duty to check your student ID for the compulsory fork and knife cross that grants you free passage from the gatekeeper.

I had grown closer to Ah Boon and hung out with him a lot, as well as Desmond and some of the other less academically oriented Malaysian group. Tom was avoiding us and stuck with Aaron (his old friend) for company. Chen is Chen, he just goes with whoever he feels like. Aaron remained neutral and got along fine with us, but the both of them can cause for some awkward moments. We had a couple of cigarette breaks at Aaron's house (which was near the school too), but there was a tangible air of tension when Tom was around.

A lot of the people in the unofficial Malaysian international student's society, L'association de Academia Apathetica (either by choice or by nature) was in some way or other connected in some degree to Ah Bi, and thus had some measure of aversion to Tom due to the preceding events. Thus, by circumstance, it became a regular thing for us Malaysians (mostly from Sarawak) to meet at the seats near the canteen to go out for lunch.

This made getting out a daily gauntlet run for me, since I was the only one without that sacred fork and knife stamp on my Student ID. The "pack close to Kevin and flash the ID's so he won't get noticed" modus operandi, the brainchild of Desmond, worked for a while before one of the teachers on guard noticed that there was always someone shielding a clear view of my ID and caught on to the ruse.

I guess you can only use the "Distract and Confuse" evasion method that many times before someone catches on. The first time that happened, I just told the teacher on duty nicely that my house was just a minute's walk away and I forgot something for class, which wasn't always an outright lie, at least not the first bit. I did live just a minute's walk away from the school. The other part, it's called being economical with the truth. ;)

That worked for a while due to the rotating shifts of the teachers, I would just give the same excuse everyday...until the guard became permanent. I tried variants of the excuse, but it clearly wasn't a well thought out strategy of deception, coz Desmond parks his car in front of the gates and I got into it along with the others....with the teacher, who still has very capable eyesight despite his age, looking on, as I was unfortunate enough to find out the next school day.

"You're not getting into that car", he said when we walked to the school gate, looking directly at me. "Thou shalt not steppeth out! Let there be no student, man or women, pass these gates freely, barring the possession of the Royal Seal of the Lunch Pass, as is ordained by the sacred School Rules, and as will always be."

It was a standoff. Imagine a group of unmoving ten teenagers at the school gates facing off a solitary Guardian of the Gates of Noon. We started conversing in Hokkien about methods to thwart this inconvenient twist of events. "You guys aren't even supposed to leave in a group. The lunch pass means exactly that - an allowance for students to go home for lunch. Home as in your own home, not some friend's place", he butted in, pious in his role of upholding Riccarton High School Rule Number 23, Section 4.

"Look, I'm just getting a ride to my place, to save me the walk," I reasoned, looking at him with what I hoped was a righteously offended expression.

"No can do. You don't have a lunch pass, remember?" he shot back with finality.

"Well, I'm going to apply for one as soon as I get back," I retorted.

"Lunch passes are given out before the start of each school term. You'll have to wait till the next semester for the application form," he answered, with what I swear was glee in his voice.

"So what now?" Desmond asked me in Hokkien. We had plans to skip the second half of classes and go to the city. "I'm thinking," I replied, and surveyed the school grounds behind me. There were two girls walking down, I know them from my Biology class - they were from Kuching, good girls, and card carrying members of SAUSAGES (Society of the Asian Universal Stereotype of Academically Gifted and Extra-studious Students).

I had the feeling that one of them has a thing for me. She was always trying to talk to me in Biology class and...well, make accidental physical contact too many times to account with the probability statistics. The abovementioned accidental physical contact also lasted longer than the average, often with me having to break the said contact. Plus, her friend told me. :p There you go. I didn't have any feelings for her, but that's not the point of this chapter. I looked at them...

...and I looked back at the gate and the wretched being standing watch beside it.

"Desmond," I started excitedly, still speaking in Hokkien to leverage on the language barrier advantage, feeling the familiar adrenaline rush that comes with doing something impulsive. "Go start your car."

"What?" he replied, mystified.

"You all have lunch passes. Go out now and get in the car and leave the right back door of your car open and start the car. Dennis, get the others in your car and go first. Leave room for me in Desmond's car."

"What are you going to do?"
"You're crazy!"
"What are you planning?"
"This teacher is going to give you hell if you're going to do what I think you're going to do."
"Hey, are you serious?"

I was enjoying every moment...the adrenaline is peaking and I was smiling like a loon, riding that slice in time/space, feeling it. Damn, it always feels good.

"Yes," I said, still wearing a wide grin which I imagine looks a lot like the one on the proverbial cat who ate the canary.

The teacher on duty was eying me with suspicion...he knows my disciplinary record has been less than stellar and I have been getting a reputation for being unpredictable and impulsive and my lack of adherence to rules combined with a deep-rooted contempt of authority made me a little volatile in the personality department. He knew something was up. I didn't plan on letting him down.

"Hey, Amy!" I called to the fast approaching girls. They smiled and walked faster to my shouted greeting. I switched to Mandarin:
"Distract the teacher on duty, I can't get by him."

They hesitated in mid-step, unsure of what to do. They knew I didn't have a lunch pass, I've been griping about it in classes. I wouldn't ask them to do anything that would get them in trouble, they're the studious types that go through school without a disciplinary record, and I wouldn't put them in the difficult position of having to do something that would jeopardize that. I just wanted the attention of the teacher diverted for a while.

I looked at him out of the corner of an eye and saw that he's starting to get wary with my persistent presence at the gate.

"Amy, you going out with Jia Jia?" I asked in English.

"Yeah, we're going to the dairy shop," she replied in Mandarin. "What do you want me to do?"

I hear the engines starting up.

"Cover me," I grinned and spoke in Mandarin, "Show the teacher on duty your lunch pass. I'll be damned if he's going to ruin my plans. Just walk up to him and get his attention off me for a second."

"You're going to get detention at best if you're thinking about going out without permission!" she said in a mixture of apprehension and admiration.

"I'll worry about that tomorrow," I told her cheerily.

I looked up and made eye contact with the teacher on duty and grinned. He didn't smile back. Oh well. It's always the wolf that gets to grin. Sheep don't really have much to do with the grinning department.

I watched Amy and Jia Jia go up to him and he seems intent on keeping me in his sights...but he's got to look down to check the lunch passes. He maintained eye contact till the last moment, when Amy showed her Student ID, before he glanced down.

I looked out. Desmond was watching me from the side windows. I love this; the adrenaline rush makes me feel alive!

I made a run for it. The teacher on duty glanced up sharply at the sounds of the commotion.

Except I wasn't where he thought I'll be...I looked back to see the teacher turning to gawk at the sheer audacity of what I was doing.

"Go, go!" I shouted gleefully as I reached Desmond's open rear door. He stepped on the accelerator as I got in the car and slammed the door. I had the presence of mind to look back and wave at the (still gawking) teacher as we sped away laughing. I'll always remember the look on his face, as he stood impotently, one hand still holding Amy's Student ID, his torso in perpetual mid-turn, like a freeze-frame, with his mouth forming a perfect O of disbelief...

Priceless...

I swear we laughed for a full 15 minutes.

"You're definitely going to the principal's office again for this," Desmond said when we finally managed to get the hilarious image of the shocked teacher out of our heads.

"Mate, I hate to break this to you the hard way, but we're all going, for this stunt," I said with a crackle.

"Hey, as far as I'm concerned, some crazy guy jumped into my car as I was about to leave for lunch," Desmond joked as we headed towards town.

It was good while it lasted...the juvenile behavior and harmless fooling around while I was still attending (some) classes. Little did I know that everyday life was about to get less innocent, more complicated and a shade darker that very Friday.

End of Black Kingdom: Chapter 6 - The Lunch Gauntlet Run

[ List of Characters ]

Coming up next: Black Kingdom: Chapter 7 - Neon Pink (short)

Posted in by Huai Bin at 09:33 AM Permalink | Comments (15)

Zyprexa (olanzapine) experience report

Zyprexa is an atypical anti-psychotic in the thienobenzodiazepine class. Notice the -benzodiazepine part? I know olanzapine (the generic name of Zyprexa) does not belong to the benzodiazepine class per se, but it does have some characteristics (weak binding to the BZD and GABA A receptor) of classic benzodiazepines. Besides, it's chemical name ends with 1,5(benzodiazepine). ;)

I have had experience with olanzapine before, but I wanted a second time before I get around to writing a report. Zyprexa (olanzepine) is hard to come by, coz the only people who prescribes it are psychiatrists. I managed to get some off a friend who's on it as part of a prescription regiment for bipolar disorder (manic-depressive was the old name for this condition).

I have to say that I was on about 400 mg of tramadol and probably have a steady state of tramadol coz I use that on a daily basis to boost my serotonin levels, with increasing doses towards the end of the week. There are some records of possible serotonin syndrome due to the unusual SSRI nature of tramadol when combined with olanzapine and mirtazapine so be careful if you're taking this particular combination.

Back to olanzapine, I got two 5 mg tablets from the abovementioned friend, split into two for 4 doses of 2.5 mg. The blister packs are silver and unmarked on the top and have "Lilly Zyprexa 5 mg olanzapine" at the back. The tablets are white coated, with a yellow center. Olanzapine is used to treat schizophrenia and bipolar disorder and binds primarily to the serotonin, dopamine, muscarinic, histamine and adrenergic receptors.

The front of the tablets is imprinted with "Lilly 4115", some internal coding scheme. I took 10 mg (two full tablets of the split 5 mg tabs) on an empty stomach and somnolence (people in the medical profession prefers to call it "feelin' damn drowsy") was uncharacteristically noticed at around T+ 4:00. I used "uncharacteristically" coz I had not taken any benzodiazepines that day and I'm on a very high daily regiment. Thus, I took 1 mg of lorazepam (just so not to have any seizures and all that) and went to sleep.

I woke up about once every 6 hours with extremely vivid dreams. I mean, those dreams are weird ass nightmare-dreams and they're fucking lucid. I can't remember what exactly I dreamt, but it was all in a sequence and so surreal...I easily slipped back into the warm folds of sleep after waking up each time and finally decided to get up at noon the next day (T+ 19:00). I was still very sleepy and would have loved to get back to bed, but forced myself up anyway. This is one hell of a long acting psychotropic...reminds me of phenobarbital.

I immediately noticed something when I started to move - my motor coordination was way off the charts. I had to sober up and go for lunch and I couldn't even hold my eating implements without fumbling. I couldn't even squeeze a lime without twitching, for crying out loud!

The motor coordination problems (or rather the lack of it) started to go away at T+ 21:00 and good riddance...it's a little disconcerting that you can't do simple things like hold a pair of chopsticks without fumbling and making your friends go "What are you on mate???" and you'll be mumbling "Nothing, nothing.". Oh, and one more note about olanzapine...it seems to affect speech coordination as well. I found it very hard to express myself.

Olanzapine...is it recreational? Well, it's not on the top of my "to do" list, but I'm glad I tried it. I guess it depends on how you define "recreational" (again). It puts you out for a long time, so it might be useful for comedowns. It's one of those "trying for the sake of trying" drugs that veritas is so fond of... ;)

Posted in Pharmaceuticals by Huai Bin at 10:49 AM Permalink | Comments (44)

RM 20,000 - is that a lot of money?

RM 20,000...is that a lot of money? I'm wondering if I should be making a commitment on this scale at my age...input would be appreciated, everyone...

Posted in by Huai Bin at 09:25 AM Permalink | Comments (17)

Carvery restaurant review

Carvery restaurant is a charming little restaurant tucked away in the middle of nowhere (if I don't know how to drive there, it's in the middle of nowhere :p). Carvery gets its name from the way meat dishes are served - its brought out right from the kitchen by the chef and then carved onto your plate.

The interior of Carvery is very tastefully done up, with attentive staff and subdued lighting. I went with Penny and Sufian yesterday for the buffet lunch, an all-you-can-eat set meal which is priced at RM 29.90 - a very reasonable price, as you will see from the review.

Carvery has clean, pressed table linen waiting for the lunch crowd. There's also two slabs of butter waiting on a plate, clean cutlery and plates all laid out, and a wooden block in the middle.

I found out that the wooden block was meant for one of their generous home-made bread - freshly baked from the oven. It tastes great when slathered with butter and dipped into cream of mushroom soup.

Carvery has a hot dish area beside the large soup cauldron that has everything from baked potatoes to spaghetti.

The opposite side is flanked by cold cuts, deli meat, cold pasta...

...seafood salad, various dips and sauces, vegetable sticks and bread sticks.

I filled half of my plate with salami, cold cuts, pasta, potato salad and a bread stick.

The main meal is soon announced by the chef carrying out the first of several meat skewers. The chef wields this large carving knife and goes around to...well, carve servings of meat on the plates of the diners.

This is the leg of lamb, which I found delicious. The portions being served can be specified, if you want more, or less. Just tell that to the guy with the big knife. ;)

A quick succession of their offerings soon came into circulation. This is the chicken wings, which comes highly recommended. It's good.

Before I knew it, I had lamb chops, BBQ chicken wings and smoked beef on the other half of my plate. It's a battle of dominance between the diner and the parade of unholy skewers of various meats that comes out quicker than you can eat.

Carvery also served up home-made sauces to each table to complement the food.

Just as I thought the infernal parade of meat was ending...it started again! This time there were sausages...

...smoked chicken

...chicken wrapped with beef ham

I started to lose count before respite, in the form of fish with a wedge of lemon and a side of tartar sauce was served.

However, the Meat Parade (TM) must go on, and steaks of various denominations started to come out - rib-eye steak, rump steak, before I finally conceded and started eating smaller portions.

In the end, man triumphed over meat, as I managed to finish the last serving before the entire parade was started all over again for the second round for those with more robust appetites. The meat dishes cycles twice through the course of lunch. All of us were extremely full when the meal at Carvery was finally over.

Carvery has a delicious meat based portfolio that would appeal to all the carnivores out there. The ambience is great, with meat being served on large skewers and personally carved on your table and served on your plate. Highly recommended!

Posted in Food reviews by Huai Bin at 09:39 AM Permalink | Comments (54)

Bintulu trip report

I went over to Bintulu, which is about a 50 minute flight from Kuching, for a business trip. This time, the presentation was only due late afternoon, so we had the whole morning to while away. We had the option of eating at the Bintulu airport (which uses the same template as KLIA) or going into town to find some place to eat.

We chose the latter. Sea View Restaurant (BTU) is supposed to be the liveliest place for breakfast around town, due to its locality. It's situated right in front of the river, and the incoming cool breeze made in clear why it's said to be the most popular place for breakfast around Bintulu. I had some fried kueh tiaw, which was mass produced (it came out within a minute) but tasted good nevertheless.

I took a walk down the riverfront (or wharf), which was quite polluted due to Bintulu's industries. It was a cloudy day in Bintulu, but at least it wasn't raining like Kuching. Bintulu is well known for being an LPG gas processing town, but they do some sawmill work as well.

The old part of Bintulu town flanks the waterfront. Bintulu isn't as big or well developed like some other Sarawak districts but it does offer some measure of old town charm that's lacking in the other more developed parts.

Walking further along the river shows the quaint wooden planks that serve as a bridge for some passenger boats. Bintulu town seems to be divided into two parts - one on each side of the river. The other side of Kemena River lies Kampung Jepak, the fisherman's village, which we also passed by on the winding trip from the airport.

The riverfront centers on the Bintulu Esplanade, which is a commons for the people and lies adjacent to the Bintulu Tamu and main market.

Here's the obligatory "I was here" shot...and before you ask, yes, I only have one suit. :p

Bintulu town seems to center around the Main Bazaar and Pasar Tamu.

There is also a Chinese temple along that road which was thronging with people...

Pasar Utama Bintulu (Main Bintulu Market) is the central market which sells various fresh produce like vegetables, meat, fish and so forth. The "unique cone-shaped roof" is supposed to reflect Bintulu Terendak (Bintulu headgear).

I know that there are a lot of bananas in there...

Hell, it seems like Bintulu is Banana Town. ;)

I supposed the BDA HQ conical shape is also supposed to represent the headgear, I had been wondering about the seemingly high-maintenance architecture.

The high vantage point of the Bintulu Development Authority (BDA) headquarters (its up on a hill) also allows scenic views of the sea. The coast at Bintulu is not as renowned as the ones in Miri, but it's a beach nevertheless.

The inside is no less impressive, with several floors of ever narrowing spheres tapering off to a point.

Bintulu's largest shopping mall is City Point, with a staggering three (!!!) stories of retail space.

The Christmas decorations still hasn't been taken down - there is a paper mache angel hanging from the ceiling...

...which disturbingly shows a blatant up-skirt shot of the angel when descending down the elevators...

Our flight back took about an hour to fly to Kuching from Bintulu due to bad weather conditions, but before going to the airport, I just had to stop and take a picture of this:

Behold! The smallest barber shop in the world!

Posted in Travel by Huai Bin at 12:02 PM Permalink | Comments (16)

Tiny mandarin oranges

These are mini mandarin oranges in a netting bag that Penny brought to the office. These tiny mandarin oranges usually comes into season about these time of the year and is smaller than the usual mandarin oranges that are traditionally available for Chinese New Year.

These mandarin oranges are really small and some comes with the stalk and leaf still attached to it.

Here's a RM 0.10 coin to show the size of these tiny oranges. I've seen oranges the size of limes, but these comes pretty close.

The skin peels off easily and the orange segments are seedless and wonderfully sweet. I'm not a big fan of oranges (or citrus fruits, or any fruits, come to think of it), but these are nice and sweet.

Anyway, I'll be going to Bintulu tomorrow on a business trip. I'll be leaving in the morning and coming back in the evening. It's another presentation. Wish me luck!

Posted in Snacks by Huai Bin at 05:50 PM Permalink | Comments (33)

Exploring the dynamics of indoor firecrackers

You might be aware of the existence of this variety of firecrackers from China. It's available in singles in a box slightly larger than a cigarette pack. The firecrackers inside are short versions of the long ones they traditionally let of at the stroke of midnight and these ones are also used during weddings - the car entourage rolls down their windows and let the firecrackers off right as the procession goes to the restaurant (that is, until firecrackers were banned).

Well, one of my friends got some of these and we were playing around with them on Saturday night (or Sunday morning, rather) after a night of drinking and some Other Stuff (TM). I had one of them and was about to get off when one of my friends called me and threw one at the cars in front of my place, setting off the alarm, making me have to haul ass upstairs so the neighbors won't call the police. Asshole. ;)

Anyway, I realized that I still had one of them, and decided to explore the dynamics of indoor firecrackers when lit in a confined space (scientists prefer to refer to it as "a room").

Download: Indoor firecrackers [sixthseal.com]

Okay, okay, so it's not research, I was not very sober from three different things and I just wanted to have a lark. ;)

The Chinese firecrackers left bits of colored paper all over my place...

Ahh...*contented sigh*...nothing beats the smell of firecrackers in the morning. ;)

Posted in Hmm... by Huai Bin at 08:24 AM Permalink | Comments (13)

Old Shop review

Old Shop is the strangely named cafe along Jalan Padungan than embraces the old days in the decor while maintaining a modern menu repertoire. It blends well into the existing old and moldy looking architecture of the old part of Jalan Padungan.

Old Shop or lau tien as it is simple called in Chinese is usually packed at nights and yesterday night was no different. It offers a menu which lists anything from NZ Tenderloin Steaks to local fare. They also serve alcohol. Old Shop is indeed a place of contrasts between the new and the old.

The walls of the interior are decorated with the occasional black and white picture which shows Kuching back in the old days. Yet, the back of the cafe is filled with a full bar serving alcohol. The place is contradictory, and it pulls it off well. It embraces both the past and the present.

Well, despite all the customers ordering mostly Western fare, it has been my policy to try out the eating establishment's flagship dishes first, and I tend to lean in favor of the dishes that are named after the cafe or restaurant. The above shows Old Town Fried Noodles. Please ignore the baked cockles in the frame, there were eight of us who went there last night and we ordered baked cockles to eat.

Going back to the Old Town Fried Noodles, with a flash shot this time, it tastes really good. I squeezed the lime onto my spoon (to separate the lime juice from the pips - this is the old skool way to do it) and splashed it liberally on the fried noodles before eating it. It tasted wonderful, it's salty and there's enough seafood and meat to give it a good texture.

Since I was pretty hungry, I also ordered the Old Town Fried Rice. That's the only two dishes that are named after the place, so I figured I might as well eat the both of them.

Here's a clearer shot of the Old Town Fried Rice. It is fried in the same sauce that gives the fried noodles such a great and different taste. There are treasures like bits of prawn, cuttlefish, sotong and meat hidden inside to surprise you. It tastes good and it's good value for money at RM 4.50.

I finished the meal off with Durian Shaved Ice. It's a mountain of shaved ice with the usual suspects inside, topped off with a liberal dousing of fresh durian paste.

My friends asked me whether the fresh durian paste is really fresh. It's not. I didn't have time to go to the toilet this morning and I can feel the Durian Shaved Ice screaming "Let me out!" right now. Excuse me...

Posted in Food reviews by Huai Bin at 11:39 AM Permalink | Comments (19)

Miri trip report - Miri City Fan, Canada Hill, The Grand Old Lady

This is the write-up of my trip to Miri, which is an hour's flight from Kuching. This is a business trip so I didn't have time to go look around the city much, but considering the limited time, I'm glad I managed to visit as many places as I did. We went straight for the presentation upon touch down on Miri airport (which looks remarkably like a small scale version of KLIA).

Miri has changed a lot since the last time I was here...there's a lot of new structures coming up. This is all in line with her aim of becoming a Resort City by 2005. I only managed to see a bit of the old part of town (Miri is built like a satellite town, with multiple satellites) after the presentation.

There is this sign on a hotel that says The Oil Town which is what Miri is famous for - the petroleum industry. There has been a change to concentrate more on tourism in the past decade or so though.

I had lunch at Miri Taiwan Restaurant after the presentation. This was where I met Joanne, and she asked me what I ordered, and I said Mah Jong Noodles and she told me it doesn't taste good and told me what the specialty dish was, but I promptly forgot to change my order as soon as we got off the phone. Must have been the Xanax. :p

I ordered Drunken Lady for the drink, which is a concoction of fruit juices. No alcohol though, blatant false advertising. ;) I appreciate the thirst quenching nature of the drink though, that day in Miri was hot and I was in a suit!

This is the Mah Jong Noodles that I ordered. It's not as bad as I thought, but I wouldn't call it good either. It was alright, that's all I can say. It's a noodle based dish with gravy underneath and neat piles of very thinly grated cucumber, carrots, and water chestnut together with shredded fried eggs.

It was straight to a site survey after that, which took most of the afternoon, and I managed to visit the Miri City Fan in the evening. Miri City Fan Park is dubbed as an "award winning fan shaped (aerial view makes it look like a fan) sculpted park". It looks remarkably similar to the Suria KLCC park...

This is the Formal Garden, which has a fountain in the middle of it. It's carefully planned and developed with pathways lined with well maintained brushes. It marks the beginning of Miri City Fan park (the top most part of the fan).

Pustaka Miri, which is an IT library of sorts, stands beside it with its imposing architectural design. It is also known as the Miri Resource Center.

The Chinese Garden flanks the other side of the Formal Garden.

The Miri City Fan park has several themed parks and this is one of them. It has a lot of water and shrubbery native to China.

There are two small bridges to cross the pond in this garden, which leads to...

...a Chinese temple of sorts.

This is the Garden of Vision, which is supposedly the largest amphitheatre in Malaysia.

It has wooden seats molded into the grassy surface and the acoustics is supposed to be very good for an amphitheatre of this scale, if what the brochure says is true.

This is the Musical Fountain at the back of the Garden of Vision. It wasn't on when we were there; I think it only operates at night.

This is the "tip" of the Miri City "fan". Think of the fans you see at satay stalls and you get what I mean. It's called The Civic Promenade and marks the end of the Miri City Fan. You can see the Miri Civic Center building at the back, the Miri City Fan park is not as large as I thought.

The Civic Promenade is flanked with walls of sculptured art.

It features various scenes, the most relevant of all being this one showing the petroleum industry depicted in clay.

There's a plaque under each molded scene. This one says "The scene of early discovery of petroleum in Sarawak and the traditional way of petroleum processing".

The last part of Miri City Fan that we visited is the Islamic Garden.

The main feature of this garden is this mosque dome structure.

The stained glass panel has an interesting display of lights at the right angle.

Next up, we went to Canada Hill, which overlooks the whole of Miri (coastal and town areas) and has an important bit of history attached to it to boot. I've wanted to visit this place and wasn't sure there was time, but as luck would have it, we still had a couple of hours to burn before our flight. This was the last place in Miri we visited before getting a seafood dinner and flying back.

Meet The Grand Old Lady. This is the first oil well in Malaysia and it's located on Miri Canada Hill.

I'm glad I managed to take a photo of this one. The 1st oil well in Malaysia is depicted here in all of its glory. There's a lot of detail to this structure.

There are four clay dittos straight out of the kiln machine which pictures the way petroleum was obtained in the old days. There are two people on each side of a pole who manually turns it around for drilling into the earth for oil.

Well, actually, there were three on one side that day, thanks to yours truly. I'm just doing my part, sharing the workload, being a team player and all that. ;)

There are also moulded depictions on the walls of The Grand Old Lady, which depicts petroleum mining throughout the ages. Historical stuff, basically.

There is also a mechanism of some sort, which was used back in the old days of petroleum mining beside The Grand Old Lady, as the Miri Oil Well Number 1 is fondly dubbed.

There are also concrete seats on Canada Hill which allows people to sit and see the coastline of Miri as well as the entire town. You can actually see the entire city of Miri from up here; it's supposed to be the tallest point in Miri. Here's a video clip of the view from Canada Hill in Miri:

Download: Miri scenic view [sixthseal.com]

It took all of my willpower not to make a calm running commentary and then suddenly shout at the top of my lungs: "OH MY GOD, THERE'S AN INCOMING TSUNAMI!!!"

I badly wanted to do that, but I was with my CFO and his friend and I doubt they would find it as amusing as I would. ;)

Posted in Travel by Huai Bin at 02:39 PM Permalink | Comments (34)

Joanne from Miri

I've known Joanne and her bf Robin for quite a while, and since I was in Miri today (just got back home), I called and made plans to meet up...which proved to be quite a logistical challenge due to my extremely tight schedule. It was straight to the presentation after the plane touched down on Miri and I knew there were two other site surveys to squeeze in, thus we decided to meet at 12:30 pm.

The problem is, I didn't know where I would be at 12:30 pm and the CFO that went to the Miri presentation with me had a friend who took us out to lunch and I didn't think it would be polite to ask, so I was on the cell with Joanne while I was sitting in my CFO's friend's car at the same time Joanne is driving down from Curtin, trying to coordinate things, basically doing a running commentary on where to meet up:

Okay, I'm passing by Mega Hotel now.
I'm looking at this shopping center right now, its red...
Hang on, we're turning...
Right, the car I'm on is back in Mega Hotel...
Turning into this...side road
I see a coffeeshop called Phua Chu Kang
Okay, we've stopped...we're entering the one beside it
Miri Taiwan Restaurant...that's where I'm now.

It was crazy...heh! Anyway, she said she'll be there in 5 minutes and I doing this "eating my noodles real slow" thing to stall for time, and then Joanne sent me a message to tell me she was outside. Perfect timing. It was so funny. :)

Anyway, I excused myself from the table and went out to talk to her. She's really nice, and my friend (whom I was surprised to find in Miri) took this photo for us. Thanks for taking the time to come all this way for a 5 minute meet up, Joanne! It was great to meet up with you. I wish I could have met with Robin too, I would have loved to talk to him too. Nice people, they're a nice couple.

Anyway, I just came back from Miri, so I'm hitting the sack coz today has been a really long day...I'll reply all the comments and write the full report about my trip to Miri tomorrow. The Sandman awaits me...

Posted in People by Huai Bin at 11:17 PM Permalink | Comments (32)

Me, myself and Irene

Meet Irene. I went to her place after work just now so I could get my presentation handouts bound (our office's binding machine decided to take a leave of absence). I know, the whole scenario sounds so ludicrous, it's almost like a cover up story or something, but I swear to God, the office's binding machine really wasn't there. :p

This is the first time I've met her, she's really nice and has this really good looking tattoo on her shoulder. I should have taken a photo of it, it looks great, but I forgot coz I was in a rush. She gave me a pack of Sobranie Mints before I left; I'm looking forward to reviewing it when I come back.

I have to get up early tomorrow for my flight to Miri for the presentation. I'm going to hit the sack now; tomorrow's a really important day. See ya.

Posted in XX chromosomes by Huai Bin at 07:58 PM Permalink | Comments (33)

NYE '04 @ Harbor

Here's a late report of my New Year's Eve 2004 celebration. We went to a lot of places, which were full and finally settled for Harbor.

Download: NYE '04 [sixthseal.com]

The place was packed as well, but the atmosphere was great. Whole bunch of party animals there and someone brought along some industrial grade fireworks and set it off right in front of the club...in the middle of the road. Heh!

It was crazy, and I got so wasted I took two days to recover. :p

Anyway, I'm leaving for Miri on a business trip tomorrow. I'll be doing a presentation, wish me luck!

Posted in by Huai Bin at 02:25 PM Permalink | Comments (7)