sixthseal.com: July 2002 Archives

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July 31, 2002

Every action has an equal and opposite reaction

I picked up my Mt Buller V/Line [vline.vic.gov.au] coach transfer ticket today. It's A$103.60 return. That's pretty steep but it's the cheapest coach transfer to Mt Buller that I could find.

Anyway, one Good Thing^TM happened today. I bumped into my IE Project coordinator today and got enrolled in the subject. =D It turns out that you can't start IE in summer starting from this year, so I can either do it now, or wait till March '03 to do it and graduate November '03. IE takes two consecutive semesters to finish, and it requires ITPM as a prerequisite. Unfortunately, I only took ITPM this semester due to failing SDI the semester before, and SDI is a prerequisite for ITPM. I hate these "chain prerequisite" subjects. Fail one and it could fuck you up. But I did pass SDI last semester, so I took ITPM this semester. Back to the situation, since I only took ITPM this semester, it seems that I'm doomed to graduate in November '03. However, the IE Project coordinator was kind enough to enroll me into IE even though I haven't done ITPM because I would have graduated in July '03 if I wasn't held back by IE. Woo hoo. =D Apparently, you can get special consideration for IE if you're going to graduate otherwise. Cheers to my mate Vivek for informing me about the "no starting IE in summer" rule.

Well, I can't overload while doing both IE and ITPM at the same time, so I've dropped one of my subjects. The IE weekly meeting clashes with my ITPM tutorial too, so I was hoping to go to one of the earlier tutes to see if I can get myself into one of them. But even better than that, I just happened to log into Allocate+ (our tutorial allocation system) and found a space for tomorrow's 12 pm ITPM tutorial! There wasn't space in those tutes a couple of hours before. Heh. It seems to be a day of Good Things^TM today. I shudder to think of tomorrow when Newton's Third Law will be invoked. =D

Posted in by Huai Bin at 10:54 PM Permalink | Comments (0)

July 30, 2002

Zzzzzz...

I only had about four hours of sleep last night, so it was a record 30 minutes after waking up before I started nodding off again, in the shuttle no less. I dragged myself to the first lecture of the day and had several micro sleeps, which prompted the guy beside me to look at me smugly while taking conspicuous sips from his Coffee HQ mug. Hmph...I got myself a large latte (which I downed in three long swallows - my poor, scalded tongue) and a Chunky Kit Kat during the break. It's either that or fall asleep on the nice carpeted lecture theatre floor. Perked up a bit after that and even managed to catch a bit of the really interesting lecture about the different grades of twisted pair cables. Long day today...I had two tutorials after the lecture with a one hour break in between. I grabbed a turkey ham/pineapple/raw onions sandwich on sour dough from Merlin's Cafe and camped outside my course coordinator's office during my one hour break to discuss some course issues with her.

Merlin's Cafe

No sign of her though. Oh well, at least I got 10/10 for my graded exercise during my last tute. I'm going to catch an early night and pick up my Melbourne -> Mansfield -> Mt Buller V/Line coach ticket tomorrow after my single lecture. I can't wait...I'm chomping at the bit for some winter sports action already. Heh.

Posted in by Huai Bin at 10:46 PM Permalink | Comments (0)

July 29, 2002

YHA Travel

I'm feeling rather nauseous now for some reason. The remedy for nausea for me is to eat Poh Chi Kit pills. Now, you can't bring this stuff into Australia because one of it's ingredients (Radix Angelicae) is a protected herb or something. I had to smuggle some in by putting it into my pockets. Pretty sad to have to do this with legitimate drugs, eh? Anyway, I went down to the city today to pay for my Mt Buller YHA [yha.com.au] accomodation.

YHA Travel in Hardware Lane, Melbourne.

Prepaid Hostel Booking slip. Mt Buller [mtbuller.com.au]...here I come!

I also applied for a Hostelling International [iyhf.org] card while I was there. Thus, I paid the members fee (for the accommodation) of A$50 per night instead of the normal A$55. Actually, I'm only eligible to apply for a YHA card, which can only be used in Australia, but at the kind agent's discretion, I got a Hostelling International card instead, which is A$32 instead of A$52. A Hostelling International card can be used all over the world too, and it has all the same benefits as a YHA card in Australia.

Hostelling International membership card.

Anyway, after all that, I went in search of a backpack. I went to 5 or 6 shops before deciding to settle for the one I saw at Kathmandu [kathmandu.com.au]. It's a large backpack with a detachable daypack. Pretty nifty. The daypack is rather small though, but I have the option of getting a larger Gluon daypack and attaching it to one of the straps. The original price of this backpack is A$459.50 but I got it for A$229.75 (50% discount). That's a very good price for backpacks of this size.

Well, I had dinner at Hungry Jack's after that and took the train to Caulfield. I managed to miss my lecture and ended up in the labs reading today's lecture notes instead while waiting for my 7pm tutorial. I was waiting outside the (locked) tutorial room for 10 minutes before decided to recheck my allocated time. Sure enough, I'm in T317 and I saw another tutorial in the same timeslot at B457 so I decided to pop over and check. Nope, there was no one there too. I think it's because the labs and tutorials are on alternate weeks for this subject. No wonder, I had thought 6 hours for one subject seems kinda stiff. My laboratory is tomorrow, so I'll have to read up on the tute notes and get ready for the graded exercise tomorrow.

Posted in by Huai Bin at 10:28 PM Permalink | Comments (0)

Bend It Like Beckham

I just finished watching this, um...brilliant movie. It's about an Indian girl who is living in Hounslow and her desire to play football. Being in a conservative family, her parents do not approve and just wants her to be able to cook and get married to a nice Indian man. She meets up with another girl who is playing in a local women's team and the story goes from there. I won't spoil it for you, but if you like soccer, British humor or watching women soccer players changing into their kits, then don't miss out on this one. Oh, and if you have a foot fetish, you'll enjoy this one as well. Plenty of feet shots, and there's even a scene where the coach massages the feet of one of his players, if you like stuff like that. =D Interesting fact, IMDB [imdb.com] says that Keira Knightley (the girl who plays Jules) was also in Star Wars Episode I as a handmaiden of Queen Amidala.

Posted in by Huai Bin at 01:22 AM Permalink | Comments (0)

July 28, 2002

Slops

Tomorrow is Monday again. It seems that the weekend has slipped by without me realizing. Cliché, but true. Since I didn't manage to go to the city yesterday, I'll have to wake up early at 12 pm tomorrow to head down to the city to pay for my Mt Buller accommodation. My class only starts at 5 pm, which I take is a pretty good start time for Mondays. =D I'll be in classes till 9 pm though. Not as bad as my 8 pm - 10 pm lecture last semester, but 9 pm is pretty late coz I need an hour to get back from my campus. Anyway, I haven't been up to much today...just read my lecture notes for a bit. Pretty hardworking huh? I had dinner at the halls dining room. Saw a tempting cheesecake but decided to eat (relatively) healthy and settled for fried noodles with fish and a fruit salad. Heh.

Halls dining room aka slops

Oh, and my newest Mirror Project submission [mirrorproject.com] is up. This one is pretty uninspired, but hey, I'm feeling pretty uninspired today.

Posted in by Huai Bin at 08:38 PM Permalink | Comments (0)

July 27, 2002

Wah Kee

Oops...I overslept this morning and didn't bother to go down to the city coz the YHA office closes at 1 pm. By the time I woke up, it was already 11:30 am and going down to the city takes around an hour, so it'll be cutting it pretty close considering I still need to walk to Hardware Lane. Thus, I've decided to go down on Monday after my classes. Speaking of ski trips, frostee at 2boredblog [2boredblog.tk] is going snowboarding sometime this season too. He's a fellow Melbournian (living in Clayton as well), and from what I gather, is a Malaysian too, though he has been working in Singapore.

Anyway, I haven't been doing much work today. Lazed around a bit, and managed to read one measly set of lecture notes. I went out to Wah Kee for dinner with Adrian and I had a plate of Yang Chow fried rice and another plate of boneless spare ribs. The fried rice is pretty good, though my girlfriend's helper fries up a mean plate of Yang Chow fried rice as well. Headed down to the Asian grocery to get some Pocky (I like Mango Cream) and also some dishwashing liquid. Hmm...this blog is starting to get food-centric again. =D

Scans from the Pocky box with my CanoScan N670U. The Z-Lid feature is pretty nifty. Please don't ask me why the scan of the back is shorter than the scan of the front. I just cropped it wrongly, that's all.

Posted in by Huai Bin at 08:40 PM Permalink | Comments (0)

Outback Passion

My workload this semester is depressing. I'll even go so far as to say that there's a shitload of work this semester. I don't know the empirical value of a shitload versus a normal load, but I'll postulate that a shitload is significantly more than a normal load. One of my subjects even has a graded exercise starting from Week 2! After my dismal grades last semester, I have decided that I need to bunker down and study hard this semester if I'm going to do well. Tell you what, I'm even going to read through one set of lecture notes after this and I'll sleep early and wake up early and sync another set of lecture notes to read on the train tomorrow. In fact, I'm even going to START MY ASSIGNMENT TOMORROW NIGHT! *gasp* There you go. Seriously though, I'll have to work harder this semester. It is my final year of university after all. Anyway, I'll be heading down to the city tomorrow to pay for my accommodation booking at Mt Buller [mtbuller.com.au]. Yeah, I'm heading for the slopes next weekend. =D I'll be there for 3 days and 2 nights, which should be heaps of fun, considering that my trip coincides with the Victorian Uni Championships and the 3rd Quiksilver Interschools GP. It's not the Mountain Dew Shredfest, but it'll be entertaining nevertheless. I'll be staying at the YHA Lodge [yha.com.au], which is probably the cheapest on-mountain accommodation at A$55 per night. It's the peak season and I can't afford anything better. It will be a fun three days up at Mt Buller and I'm already looking forward to it. Heh.

Images taken from McDonald's Australia [mcdonalds.com.au]

Anyway, my friend Adrian came by today to download MP3s and burn some CDs. We headed to McDonald's after that and I tried the new Outback burger on their New Tastes Menu [mcdonalds.com.au]. The McDonald's here has this New Tastes menu, which changes every month to give a bit of variety. I've had the Pavlova Passion before but I couldn't fit an Outback burger into my stomach that time, so I'm glad I had that today. Pretty nice, there is an egg in there too. I love burgers with eggs.

The real thing doesn't look so vibrant. Outback burger meal with Pavlova Passion dessert.

Posted in by Huai Bin at 12:23 AM Permalink | Comments (0)

July 26, 2002

The Friday Five [fridayfive.org]

1. How long have you had a weblog? I registered sixthseal.com sometime in April and my first post was on the 19th of April 2002. That's just slightly more than three months. =D

2. What was your first post about? It was a message saying sixthseal.com is officially live and the story behind my domain name. It's based on a Revelation passage. Read the entry here [sixthseal.com].

3. How many changes (name, location, etc.) of your weblog have there been, if more than one? The major change that I made ever since I started was to put all the images in an images directory about a week ago to better organize things. I also started the weblog with the intention of it being a webcam page too, but unfortunately my university proxy does not allow off-campus FTP connections, so that idea was nixed after a while. I still have my Logitech QuickCam Pro 3000 [logitech.com] though. The webcam image has been replaced by a Picture of the Day (look above) and a POTD archive [sixthseal.com] which has the previous 7 days worth of Picture of the Days.

An old capture from my non-streaming webcam dated 05/09/2002.

4. What CMS (content management system) do you use? Do you like it or do you want to try something else? Plain old Microsoft Frontpage. I update my blog manually and FTP the files to a Unix server on campus where I have an account. Then I have to SSH to the Unix server and FTP my domain from there. This is because I don't have direct off-campus FTP access. Everything needs to be done through the on-campus Unix server. I'm not too happy about this arrangement since it makes updating a bit tedious, but I'm stuck with it because I live on campus. I might look into some CMS packages like Greymatter though.

5. Do you read people who have both a journal and a weblog? Or do you prefer to read people who have all of their writing in one central place? I didn't know that there is a difference between a weblog and a journal. I read a couple of weblogs, around six, and I usually prefer all the writing to be in one central place so I don't have to browse around the menus.

Posted in by Huai Bin at 03:02 PM Permalink | Comments (0)

Mars Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa's

I got a Mars bar and saw that they have this promotion where 1 in 6 Mars bars ("It's Mars baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa's, not Mars bars") has a chance to win another Mars bar for free. Well, guess what, I got one of the lucky ones. Heh. How nice.

1 in 6 Wins Free Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa's.

BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA.

Posted in by Huai Bin at 01:31 AM Permalink | Comments (3)

July 25, 2002

That is some damned brisk walking indeed

There I was, walking to the bus loop to catch the shuttle to Caulfield, when I caught sight of the line. It was really long and I started counting before I reached the loop. There was 24 people already waiting in line and the shuttle fits 25, so I picked up my pace a bit and walked briskly to the bus loop. When I was about halfway to the waiting bay I saw this guy walking from the other end. He caught sight of the line too and started to trot a bit as well. Not to be outdone, I started to walk faster as well. Unfortunately, the waiting bay is closer to the other end of the bus loop so naturally he reached there first. Grrr...I had to take the bus and the train to Caulfield. Oh well.

Posted in by Huai Bin at 08:18 PM Permalink | Comments (0)

July 24, 2002

First day of class

I slept for a nice, solid 12 hours last night. I cast a resurrect spell on myself at around 7:30 am and went to the halls dining room to grab some breakfast. It's good to know that I can barely finish two bacon and egg muffins and two hash browns. I used to be able to eat three of each. Perhaps that is a sign of better things to come. I'm planning to go on a diet, coz my weight is becoming atrocious. I dunno how much I weigh now, but I feel heavy. =D Well, I met Vivek in my IT Project Management lecture, and he told me about this gym promotion where you can get a membership for the price of a renewal if you register on the 5th of August. I'm planning to get a membership coz the Clayton branch of the gym [monash.edu.au] is just a 2 minute walk from my halls and I can also use the Caulfield branch if I want. The gym is owned by Monash University's Sports and Recreation [monash.edu.au] department, but it's pretty well equipped. Anyway, I went for my first lecture today - the aforementioned IT Project Management. It seems to have a pretty aggressive deliverables schedule. Starting from Week 5, there will be a part due every week. Nasty.

Outside the Cummings (I kid you not) lecture theater.

Margot Schuhmacher is the lecturer for this course.

Anyway, I only had one lecture today so I went to the bank after that to bank in my bank draft (try saying that three times, fast). I also managed to pay my Optus bill at the post office. Good thing I thought to bring it with me this morning. Went to the Asian grocery in the campus center after that to get some much needed laundry detergent and also a box of Cola chicken wings with rice to eat later. Pretty good stuff, it's nice to see that the rice boxes in Frank and Lily Lee's Asian Grocery has been beefed up with new products.

Posted in by Huai Bin at 09:41 PM Permalink | Comments (0)

July 23, 2002

Melbourne

Melbourne again. GMT +10 again. I arrived at around 6:45 am but got delayed by a HORRENDOUS line to the red exit. The red exit is for people who have stuff to declare. The line snaked all through the baggage collection area. I was waiting there for half an hour and I had barely moved 10 meters and the line in front of me was 50 meters at least. There was this one customs guy going through the line to try to reduce the people going for the red exit. After a bit of questioning, some people were directed to the green exit. Now, come my turn, I told the customs officer I was carrying stuff for a friend and I'm not too sure what's in there so I have to go through the red exit. This revelation alarmed the customs occifer, I mean, officer, and he directed me RIGHT THROUGH THE CROWD to the alternate red exit! Apparently, there are two red exits, the normal one with a mini x ray machine and manual checks and the alternate one with an industrial sized x ray machine and more stringent checking. There were only 4 or 5 people in the alternate red exit. The only way to get to the alternate red exit is to bypass the cordon, and for that you must be escorted by a customs officer. How nice indeed. I jumped the bulk of the queue just by saying that I was carrying "unknown stuffs" (make a conspirational face while you say it) for someone else. Oh what a tangled web we weave. Heh. Granted, the checking is more thorough, but hey, it saves you from queuing up. So if anyone experiences a long red exit queue at Tullamarine airport, it won't hurt to try telling the customs officer that you're "taking something for a friend". Heh. I was slightly worried coz I had a warez version of Photoshop 7 conveniently concealed behind my legit Nikon View driver CD, but fortunately the customs guy did not care to look through it. I'm starting to think that the intellectual property issue is becoming less enforced nowadays. What of those horror stories about warez CD being fined A$1000 each?

Oh, something funny happened on the KL -> Melbourne flight. There I was, reading a newspaper while an orange juice laid in the cup holder of my seat, conveniently within arms reach. Alas, I accidentally tipped the nearly full cup with my newspaper and it poured unto the pants of the guy sitting beside me! How embarrassing...I apologized and got the cabin attendant to bring us some napkins. The guy was pretty cool about it, but I still felt bad coz it wet the whole left side of his pants and I could see he was uncomfortable for he put napkins on his pants to try and absorb the orange juice. Oh well, these things happen in sardine class. Speaking about fluids, the Sibu -> Kuching and Kuching -> KL flight left me all st and uncomfortable due to the heat.

I finally caved in and paid RM 20 (!) for a private shower at the KLIA Airside Transit Hotel [klia.com.my]. They give you a towel and you use the private toilet/sink/shower room. Bar soap or liquid soap is provided in the shower. I still can't believe I paid RM 20 (!!) for a shower, but it sure felt good, coz I was st and uncomfortable by the time I reached KLIA. You know, if you're so inclined, you can actually bum a free shower if you want to. The hotel staff only provides you with a towel and you leave the used towel in the shower, so if you bring your own towel, I presume they won't know either.

Well, I noticed that the in-flight entertainment system of Malaysia Airlines has improved. They now have a larger library of games - even multiplayer games (chess, reversi, trivia) where you can compete with other passengers. The trivia one is quite fun coz when the scores are tallied, it displays all the current players and their seat number. But the best thing is that they have Bejeweled! Apparently they have gotten a license from PopCap Games [popcap.com]. It's not exactly easy to play though, coz you have to manually move the square down the grid instead of using the mouse in the PC version [popcap.com] and the Web version [zone.msn.com] or the stylus in the Palm version [astraware.com]. Nevertheless, it was very interesting to see it available in-flight.

PC Games on the in-flight entertainment system.

Bejeweled!

Ooh...

Posted in by Huai Bin at 06:09 PM Permalink | Comments (1)

July 21, 2002

Dynasty Restaurant

I spent the afternoon making buttermilk pancakes with my girlfriend. It was those instant pancakes in a container that you just add water to. They are pretty fun to make and tasted good too. Anyway, I'm suffering from a bout of INDIGESTION today due to eating my KFC lunch too quickly. I have already expelled the watery feces in the late afternoon and I've needed to vacate my bowels two times since then. I had an...uh, accident too. You know how it's hard to distinguish between the need to fart and liquid feces pressure on your sphincter when you're having a stomachache? Yeah, that's what happened. Luckily, I didn't get any on my briefs, I managed to wipe myself down in the toilet in time. =D

From left: Lawrence, Auntie, Louisa, me.

I went out for dinner with my girlfriend and her mom tonight at the Dynasty Restaurant in town. Lawrence (my girlfriend's brother) joined us halfway through. I'm heading back to Melbourne tomorrow afternoon. Sigh...it's always depressing to go back. I'm gonna miss my girlfriend.

Posted in by Huai Bin at 11:28 PM Permalink | Comments (1)

July 20, 2002

The Friday Five on Saturday

I forgot to do the Friday Five [fridayfive.org] yesterday, so here it is - a day late and none the worse for wear.

1. Where were you born? Sibu, Sarawak. Sarawak is in Malaysia.

2. If you still live there, where would you rather move to? If you don't live there, do you want to move back? Why or why not? Well, technically I live in Melbourne coz I spend most of my time over there. That is because I'm enrolled in a university in Melbourne. I come back to Sibu every time my semester break starts, so I spend a healthy chuck of my time in Sibu as well. After graduating, I'm planning to do my post grad studies in the United States before coming back and working either in KL or Singapore. Tentative plans of course, anything could change.

3. Where in the world do you feel the safest? I feel safe everywhere.

4. Do you feel you are well-traveled? I've been to Malaysia (obviously), Singapore, New Zealand, Australia and Indonesia. That doesn't qualify me as being well-traveled but I do love traveling.

5. Where is the most interesting place you've been? Rotorua [naturalnz.co.nz] in the Bay of Plenty, New Zealand. It's like a hot springs resort town and the air permanently smells of sulfur. I went there for my first landing in '93. I had PR status in New Zealand. Me and my dad went to this hot pool and there were pools going up to 50 degrees! Unfortunately, there was a sign there saying that it's not advisable for people under 13 to use the higher temperature hot pools. This puzzled me slightly, until it was explained that high temperatures might arrest the growth of the testes and probably kill a bucket load of sperm as well. The horror.

This picture was taken in '93. I'm in the spa equipped in every room of the motel we stayed in Rotorua. I was around 13 at that time.

Posted in by Huai Bin at 11:55 PM Permalink | Comments (0)

Supper

I was showing my girlfriend pictures of Melbourne that I took using a video out cable. Pretty nifty, allows you to see the pictures on a large TV screen instead of the small inbuilt LCD screen. Terrible refresh rates though. Anyway, I met up with Daniel, Johnny, May Ling and Susie at UCA foodcourt at around 9:30 pm for supper.

From left: Daniel, Me, Johnny

From left: Me, May Ling, Susie

I had a steaming bowl of hot noodles. There was a lot of people there coz it is a Friday night. Which reminds me, I only have two more days in Sibu before I have to head back again. I better turn in now coz I've not been getting enough sleep these few days. I can't even form concise sentences because my brain is trying to quit on me even after helping myself to coffee just now. Heh.

Posted in by Huai Bin at 12:59 AM Permalink | Comments (0)

July 19, 2002

Taman Selera Muhibah

I had supper with Daniel and Yi Ching just now at Taman Selera Muhibah (aka Ching San) in Pedada.

Yi Ching is going back tomorrow, the holidays have finally ended for all of us. Daniel is leaving for Singapore on Sunday and I'm heading back to Melbourne next Monday. Anyway, we headed to Wong Nai Siong Memorial Park after that. Interesting place, the courtyard and steps contains tufts of real grass built into the stone.

Well, I have to choose my subjects for the next semester today. I'm still thinking about whether I should repeat one of the programming subjects that I failed. Those are electives, so I don't really need to, but it will be good to have a programming specialization. I hear Allocate +, the Monash University tutorial allocation system, goes online tomorrow morning as well. I better wake up early before all the good time slots are taken.

Posted in by Huai Bin at 12:49 AM Permalink | Comments (0)

July 18, 2002

Semester One Results 2002

I had thought that the results will come out tomorrow instead of today. It seems that I have gotten my internal clock jumbled up, because I only realized today was the 18th when I was woken up by a call from my dad. Without any particular vigor, I pulled myself out of bed and logged online to check my results.

Subject	Grade	Mark
CSE2200	C	68
CSE3208	P	50
CSE3400	N	9
CSE3420	N	7
CSE3510	P	50

C = Credit P = Pass N = Fail
I don't know if I'm supposed to be happy or disappointed. At least I only failed two, which is good. I was expecting to fail CSE3208 as well. But I'm puzzled at my dismal marks for CSE3510. I was expecting more than just a bare pass. I'm sure I did well for my written exam and I couldn't have done that badly for my second assignment. Oh well. At least I got credit for my core subject. The rest are electives. I took three cores last semester, so I only have one this semester. The astoundingly mediocre marks for both CSE3420 and CSE3400 is a source of entertainment too. If you're gonna fail, you might as well do it right, neh? =D

Posted in by Huai Bin at 11:45 AM Permalink | Comments (0)

3 AM supper run

I was feeling particularly hungry just now, so I decided to head out to see if there are any more food stalls open. It was already 2:45 am by that time so I wasn't expecting the Pedada food stalls to be still open. Pedada is the nearest place that I can get food, and sure enough, all the shops were already closed when I got there.

I decided to head out to town since there are several kopitiams that are 24 hour operations in town. I found one near the Pintu Gerbang roundabout.

It's called Orient Canteen and in all these years, I've never eaten there before. I ordered some fried noodles to go. Interestingly, there was a boy there washing the plates and glasses. He couldn't be more than 8 years old and he's still wearing his school uniform. I wonder why he's still up at 3 am in the morning on a school day. At that time, there were only three other customers, all sitting alone. One of them sat there eating his fried noodles without once ever looking up. The other person is clearly demented, for he held an animated conversation (complete with waving chopsticks) with thin air. In fact, he barely touched his food, and seemed to be more content talking to nobody in particular. The third guy, which looks like an old gangster, was just sitting there with a beverage, looking at the road. The 3 o' clock crowd is not what one would call pleasant dinner companions. Heh.

Posted in by Huai Bin at 03:32 AM Permalink | Comments (0)

July 17, 2002

Counter-Strike

I went out for some Counter-Strike [counter-strike.net] action with Chung Hang and Johnny tonight. It seems that the game has lost much of it's luster for me. I have logged countless hours over this game and perhaps it's time for me to move on. I'll still play every once in a while, but the game has lost much of it's appeal to me. Oh well. Anyway, we headed to the coffee shop beside the network gaming center for some food after our session and I had some kampua mee. I love this stuff, and it can't be found authentically outside of Sibu, so I guess I'll better eat up before I head back to Melbourne.

Which reminds me, the exam results for Monash University [monash.edu.au] is coming out on the 18th of July. That's just one and a half days away from today. I'm not looking forward to the results at all, because I know I'm gonna fail at least two subjects. Booyah.

Posted in by Huai Bin at 11:56 PM Permalink | Comments (2)

July 16, 2002

Pasar Malam and Sugarbun Gateway

I went to the pasar malam [jfriends.com] again tonight with Daniel, to get one last photo opportunity before it gets torn down to make way for more parking space.

The food area of the pasar malam.

All sorts of stuff on display at a stall.

I saw this old woman who has been selling a type of appetizer there for at least several decades. I remember buying food at her stall when I was in primary school. It seems kinda sad, but interesting nevertheless. It was relatively cool tonight, and it rained just as we finished covering the area. We then headed to the newly renovated and redesigned Sugarbun Gateway [sugarbun.com] at the town center. The renovation must have just finished a couple of days ago, because they were still going at it when I went on Saturday to attend the SUKMA athletes meet and greet [sixthseal.com]. It's one of the fastest renovation jobs ever, according to Daniel, who tends to notice facts like this, being an architecture major. I think they just took a few days to completely revamp the old Sugarbun layout.

The counter area of Sugarbun Gateway.

The al fresco dining area.

The air conditioned indoor dining area.

To my delight, their menu has been beefed up (no pun intended) significantly. In addition to the usual fast food fare, there is now an assortment of pies and quiche (!) and also some Chinese food. I had the claypot sweet and sour chicken "with long beans and carrots and served with a spicy sauce" and an ice blended mocha.

For the life of me, I couldn't find the long beans in the stew.

I like to eat spicy food, and my tolerance is reasonably high, but I still found the sauce plenty hot. The chicken has a high proportion of breast meat though, which I rather dislike. I much prefer bits of thigh and drumsticks. The ice blended mocha was pretty good though, very thick. Very nice decor and it even has a balcony at the second floor for al fresco dining. The service has been improved as well, heaps of Sugarbun people around and there is even someone to hold the door open for you. =D

The view from the second floor al fresco area.

Posted in by Huai Bin at 11:13 PM Permalink | Comments (1)

July 15, 2002

Toy box

I saw those toy boxes that I used to play with as a kid when I went grocery shopping today. Decided to pick up three different kinds and do a review coz I haven't bought any in about 10 years. The three kinds are Ding Dang, Tora and Jo Jo. My dad used to get a box of Ding Dang for me every Friday when I was in kindergarten. It's something of a ritual for us, he'll pick me up from kindy and we'll get a Ding Dang from the vendor right outside my school. If I'm not mistaken, the toys in those toy boxes changes every week and the new stock comes in on Friday. I graduated to Tora when it debuted, it has better toys, and there was a huge ad campaign on TV too during the 5:30 pm cartoon intervals. I haven't bought this Jo Jo toy box before, but I know it came out shortly after I outgrew these things. Interestingly, all three of these toy boxes are made by Kinos. Their budget toy box is Ding Dang at RM0.60. Their flagship toy box is Tora at RM1.20. Their premium toy box is Jo Jo at RM2.20.

Ding Dang (RM0.60)

The smallest the three boxes, it contains a toy and a packet of chocolate balls. My girlfriend shook the box when she saw it, which reminded me of the technique we used to find out if a vendor is carrying the new stock or not. The advertisements during the week shows the new toy that is coming out that week. Knowing approximately the size and weight of the new toy, we would shake the boxes to deduce whether it contains the new toy or not. Anyway, it seems that the quality of toys has deteriorated somewhat. This Ding Dang box comes with a detachable multicolored pen. There are four mini pens of differing color and length, and it all fits together into one short pen, which I reckon would be just right for kindergarten age hands. The packet of chocolate balls contains only 3 balls, which puzzled me, coz I remembered that it used to contain more in the old days. Oh well, maybe my memory is failing me after all.

The Ding Dang toy in action.

Tora (RM1.20)

Tora also has a packet of toys and a packet of chocolate coated biscuit balls. The toy is of a higher quality than Ding Dang's. This box comes with a soft board and a round cardboard. The round cardboard has stickers on it and several grooves on the sides. I think it can be flicked with a coin, causing it to travel significant distances. I didn't try that though, coz I didn't think of it until now. The main toy is the soft board. It has perforated shapes and you're supposed to poke them out of the soft board and combine the shapes into a kangaroo. It comes with a piece of paper illustrating how the finished model should look like, but no instructions. The head of the kangaroo has button eyes that actually move when you shake it. There are two spongy lumbars at the bottom of the board to attach the legs and the arms to the kangaroo's body. Interesting toy, but not as good as the old boxes which contains toys of a more kinetic nature.

The Tora toy before assembly.

The finished Tora kangaroo toy.

Jo Jo (RM2.20)

I was kinda disappointed by the contents of this box. As usual with toy boxes, it has a toy and a confection. Being their premium toy box, I was expecting a more complicated toy, instead of just two pens. The first pen is a fat one which has five revolving compartments in it's main body. One side of the pen has one less slider, making it possible to move the remaining sliders around to give rotational capabilities to the compartment in question. It's sorta like a Rubik's cube, I think it's supposed to be a puzzle as well when the colors are jumbled. I cannot vouch for the writing capabilities of the pen because I did not try it. My girlfriend tried to write on my face though, but there wasn't any marks on it when I looked. Either she didn't really press down or the pen does not write well on skin. The other pen is a multicolored one with lots of inner nubs. You can switch the nubs by taking out the frontward one and pushing it into the opening at the back of the pen. This forces the other nubs to propel forward until the second nub is the first. The build quality of the pen is dismal, for the cap promptly cracked when I capped it on the top of the pen. The confectionary is different from the other two boxes though. Instead of chocolate covered biscuit balls, this one has four jelly cups.

Jo Jo pens akimbo.

For some reason, doing this review has made me somewhat sad. Nostalgia?

Posted in Interesting by Huai Bin at 10:25 PM Permalink | Comments (2)

July 14, 2002

3 on 3 Basketball Competition @ Catholic High School

I dropped by Catholic High School on my way back just now to catch the basketball competition that has been going on the whole day. Managed to watch SMB Methodist (my alma mater) lose on penalties to another team. There was also a girl's competition going on, and I watched a bit of that too before heading home. Interestingly, there was a cheesy techno soundtrack pumping from the speakers the whole match. Heh.

SMB Methodist

Blackstreet Girls vs WLD. 299

Crowd shot at the stadium

Posted in Events by Huai Bin at 05:52 PM Permalink | Comments (1)

Who likes me, dammit?

SomeoneLikesYou.com [someonelikesyou.com] aka the Fucking Email Farm (FEF) tells me I have a secret admirer. Just out of curiosity, I clicked through (it was an email) and...Lo! It asks you to "guess" the secret admirer's identity. Of course, you'll need to provide it with the email address of the person you think your secret admirer is. It is, after all, a FEF. It gives you a "clue" along the lines of "Your secret admirer has brown hair" every time you feed it 5 email addresses. And don't think you can get by with entering asd@asd.com. Nah, it seems to check the emails veracity. Even entering asd@yahoo.com returns an "Invalid Email Recipient" error. You need to enter a valid domain and user name. Please, don't enter asd@sixthseal.com, coz every email sent to my mail server that has an invalid recipient all gets routed to me@sixthseal.com. For the love of God! Anyway, after you have exhausted it's list of "hints" it asks you to enter 10 email addresses of people you WANT to be your secret admirer. This is the most blatant FEF I've ever seen in my life! Anyway, I have no doubt that my email address was entered to meet the hints quota, instead of me really having a secret admirer. The moral of this story is...RESIST the temptation to use these "services"! Wouldn't it be easier to mail the person you're interested in? In the off chance that I really do have a secret admirer, don't hesitate to mail me. Heh. Of course, that will nullify the secret part of secret admirer. Disclaimer: I already have a girlfriend, and I love her. Not everything I write should be taken literally.

Posted in by Huai Bin at 02:02 AM Permalink | Comments (0)

Bowling Part III

Went bowling again with Daniel, Johnny, and Frank. Played three games, however there was not much improvement this time. Didn't get a strike, got a couple of spares though. Anyway, I saw this group beside us, it's a family of 5. Only the father was playing, while the wife was sitting there dutifully, cheering when he bowled a good game, and making comforting comments when he didn't. For some reason, I felt kinda sad when I watched them. Granted, I don't know whether the wife wanted to play or is just content watching him play. The man is what one would call the dominant husband type, the wife is pretty submissive. Interesting. It's not that I feel sorry for the wife, coz I don't know if she likes it that way, but that scene just seem melancholic to me. Anyway, we went to North Star Cafe after that to get some supper. Had some of their renowned deep fried yew char kueh (oil fried pastries?) with mayonnaise.

Posted in by Huai Bin at 12:41 AM Permalink | Comments (2)

July 13, 2002

Sarawak SUKMA athletes meet and greet

There was a meet the athletes thing going on to promote sports among students at Pintu Gerbang this afternoon. These are the local athletes who are going to compete in SUKMA 2002 [sukma2002.com.my] in 55 days. SUKMA is a contraction of SUKan MAlaysia, the national amateur sports competition. I was under the impression that the event will be from 4:30 pm till 8:30 pm. I went there at around 6:15 pm and the event has just ended. Heh. They were already packing up their stuff, but the athletes were still there to sign posters and T-shirts.

The autograph signing booth.

55 days till SUKMA IX 2002.

The athletes. The first one is Amira (Swimming).

The athletes from another end. The first one is Irene (Wushu).

Posted in by Huai Bin at 07:17 PM Permalink | Comments (0)

Fart biscuits

I have been wrecked with The Shits^TM whole day long. I ate 7 eggs last night, coz I felt like eating soft boiled eggs with lots of pepper and soy sauce. Unfortunately, my body is not used to the prodigious influx of protein and thus, I felt like I needed to go to the toilet all day long. I've been subjecting my girlfriend to my odiferous farts too. Speaking of flatulence, I had a tutor when I was in primary school who told me the process of manufacturing "fart biscuits". It is done by putting a biscuit (I hear the Marie variety works particularly well) into a Milo tin and farting into it, taking care to "clap the lid on as soon as you fart". According to him, there is a waiting period of 2 weeks for the fart to be "absorbed" into the biscuit. After the appropriate time has elapsed, the biscuit is to be gingerly removed from the Milo tin and offered to an unsuspecting person. It is said that the original fart's odors will be released as soon as the biscuit is bitten into. A delayed release fart-in-a-biscuit if you will. He also mentioned that if it's done right, the biscuit should expand to several times it's original size, courtesy of the fart. Even now, I wonder if he's pulling my leg or if it recipe really works (minus some embellishments). I've never tried it, I don't have the patience to wait though the 2 week fermentation period, so if anyone can verify the authenticity of this recipe, do not hesitate to mail me about the details.

Posted in by Huai Bin at 12:26 AM Permalink | Comments (1)

July 12, 2002

Last week's Friday Five

Since I seem to have forgotten to do last week's Friday Five [fridayfive.org], I might as well do it now before the new one comes online in a couple of hours. Better late than never. A saying that rates up there with "a gramme is better than a damn".

1. Where are you right now? In my room at my house in Sibu. Sadly, I'm flying back to Melbourne on the 22nd of July, which is slightly more than one week away. I always feel bummed when I'm about to go off, but at least I only have one more year to go before I graduate.

2. What have you lost recently? My temper.

3. What was the first CD you ever purchased? Does that embarrass you now? "To the Faithful Departed" by The Cranberries [amazon.com]. Nah, I'm not embarrassed of it, coz I still like them. My favorite song off that album is Electric Blue. Funny fact: I bought the CD before I even had a CD player. Heh. Unfortunately, this led to many jokes which goes along the lines of:

Friend: Look at that Gameboy game! Don't you like (insert game title)?

Me: But I don't even have a Gameboy?

Friend: Nevermind, get it first and you'll be motivated to get a Gameboy then. *cackle*

4. What is your favorite kind of writing pen? The Pilot Pentopia Chameleon [pentopia.com] for the Palm m505. I carry my Palm everywhere so that means I have access to a pen at all times. Even though the shape is hardly conducive to serious writing, its very handy to have a pen whenever you need one.

5. What is your favorite ice cream flavor? Cadbury's Caramello [pbfoods.com.au] tubs. Sinfully delicious and deliciously rich. I have been known to finish 2L tubs in a single sitting. Little wonder I weigh so much ever since I left for Melbourne.

Posted in by Huai Bin at 12:04 AM Permalink | Comments (0)

July 11, 2002

Or maybe I'm just tired

I'm feeling pretty irritable now...the smallest things seem to set me off and I find myself struggling to keep my temper the better part of the day. This is known in the medical community as "Foul Mood-itis" and is considered to be highly contagious. It must be because Venus is overshadowed by Mars today, or something like that.

Posted in by Huai Bin at 11:28 PM Permalink | Comments (0)

Sarikei

I went out at 8 am this morning to get some breakfast with Diana. Picked up Daniel too and headed off to Sugarbun to get something to eat, partly because it's air-conditioned and partly because we haven't eaten there in a while.

Me and Diana

Hung around there for an hour before Ah Chan joined us. We had to leave at 10 am though, to meet up with Yi Ching and Justina to go to Sarikei. We went to the city bus terminal to catch the bus, but the buses leaves in 2 hour intervals and we just missed the 10 am bus. We decided to take the express boat to Paradom and catch a bus from there. The bus fare from Paradom to Sarikei is RM 5.40, the most I've paid for a bus ticket in Sibu. Heh.

Me and Daniel

An hour later, we were in Sarikei and got some lunch while waiting for Jonas to pick us up.

Lunch at Sarikei

Obligatory picture with Sarikei signboard to show I was there

The pineapple replica in Sarikei town

After lunch, we walked to the tallest building in Sarikei (some government building) because it was air-conditioned. It was really hot today. We walked to Courts Mammoth after that to pretend to try the couches there. Another thinly veiled attempt to enjoy their air-conditioned premises, of course. I saw this interestingly named coffee shop besides Courts Mammoth. It's named Ma Li Cafe which cracked me up.

Ma Li

If you speak Foochow, the words "ma li" will no doubt elicit chuckles. For those of you who don't, it sounds like a mild profanity in Foochow. After that, we walked to SMB St Anthony (a high school), who seems to produce several individuals of high caliber.

St Anthony High School

Jonas picked us up from St Anthony's and we headed to get some ABC special to cool down and headed off to Ngiu Kee to get a large bottle of cold mineral water.

Eating ABC special (an iced dessert)

We went to this new park in Sarikei after that, it's called the Water Tower Park, if I'm not mistaken. The main feature is an old water tower.

Water Tower Park

The Water Tower

Jonas dropped us off at the government building again after that and we got visitor's passes to go to the top floor. The top floor is the 10th floor (what did you expect?) and there is nothing much there, except a good view of the river and some exceptionally cool air conditioning.

View of the river with ferry in dock

A friend of Justina's picked us up after that and took us to Sebangkoi, a nature reserve about 30 minutes away from Sarikei town. Took heaps of pics there and Yi Ching had cramps and was trailing us all through the reserve. =D

Bridge over a waterfall

Rapids

Arrrggghhhhh...the croc got me!!!!!!!!!!!

We headed to Daniel's uncle's orchard after that, where I was promptly bitten 1000 times by 1000 mosquitoes.

The orchard

Managed to walk though most of the orchard, which contains 'landmines' in the form of holes (some going down as far as 1 feet) which are covered by shrubbery.

Landmine

Tr navigation. I also managed to drive this mini tractor thing, which has no gas pedal, but only a lever to move faster. The gear shift is in between the legs too, and the tractor jittered all the time, which makes an interesting experience.

Mini tractor

We drove Daniel's uncle's car to Jakar (har har...sounds like penis in Malay) to get something to eat. Headed back to the orchard after that and his uncle drove us back to Sibu at around 8:15 pm. Interesting day, but I managed to get mild heat stroke from the obscene heat. Poor Yi Ching was struck by heat stroke too, we're both sensitive that way. Now where did I put my Poh Chi Kit pills?

From left: Huai Bin (me), Yi Ching, Justina, Daniel

Posted in Travel by Huai Bin at 12:24 AM Permalink | Comments (27)

July 09, 2002

Day trip

I'm heading down to Sarikei [sarawaktourism.com] tomorrow with Daniel, Yi Ching and Justina for Part III of my Rural Adventures^TM. Heh. We'll be taking either the express boat or bus there, depending on which one leaves first. I was also surprised to receive a call from Diana today, who is in Sibu for only two days. She'll be leaving tomorrow evening, so I'm going to grab some breakfast with her tomorrow morning and catch up on things.

Posted in by Huai Bin at 10:42 PM Permalink | Comments (0)

Sibu Superbowl Part II

I was planning to update sooner, but I was caught up in a game of scramble (a word game) in #kuching. Pretty fun and addictive stuff. Anyway, I went out with Yi Ching, Daniel and Johnny today for some bowling action. Me and Daniel had a game of pool while waiting for Yi Ching to arrive and I can safely say that my pool skillz have not atrophied. It feels good to be able sink shots using a dodgy cue. =D

My bowling skillz have improved somewhat too. I managed to get a strike in this game.

Overall, I did better than last time. I used a heavy bowling ball and rolled it down the lane with brute force, which seems to work much better than that spinning nonsense I was trying last time. Heh. Managed to down plenty of pins for a change. I think the velocity of the ball when it hits the pins is very important, so I used a heavy ball and just hurled it down the lane for maximum pin trippage.

After a couple of games, we headed down to the UCA (United Chinese Association) food court in Bukit Lima. Had a bowl of those "longevity noodles" that people eat during Chinese New Year and birthdays. It's that thin, clumpy rice vermicelli that is eaten with chicken soup. I don't know what possessed me to order that, since I don't like that stuff at all.

Posted in by Huai Bin at 02:53 AM Permalink | Comments (0)

July 07, 2002

Bintangor Day Trip

I headed down to Bintangor today with Daniel for some rojak. Daniel says that the Bintangor rojak is really good, and sure enough, there were six other groups of non-Bintangor residents eating rojak there. Anyway, we took the 2:30 pm express boat out of Sibu wharf. The boat ride took 30 minutes and arrived at Paradom, where we had to catch a bus to Bintangor, which took 30 minutes as well. There is a large fruit replica right in Bintangor town, and Daniel says it's a pau (a kind of large citrus fruit, don't know what it's called in English) while I thought it looked like an orange. The rojak store had a drink called Bintangor orange juice, which somewhat supports my theory. I hear Bintangor is famous for it's oranges too. Anyway, I found the rojak so good that I bought two bottles of the rojak sauce to bring back. We had an hour to spare coz the last express boat leaves at 6 pm from the Paradom wharf, and we'll be taking the 5:15 pm bus out of Bintangor to catch that boat. Bintangor is not a really big town, and we managed to cover the whole town on foot in that one hour. Took heaps of photos too.

The express boat to Paradom.

Paradom Jetty.

96500 Bintangor.

The Bintangor Orange replica.

The old part of Bintangor town.

The new part of Bintangor town.

The non working clock tower in the new part of town.

Old skool barber in front of the football field in Bintangor. Floyd the barber is cutting the hair of the old man while two people wait for his services.

I see people like to hang clothes out to dry from their window over here.

The famous rojak stall in Bintangor.

The rojak. Mmm...

Bintangor orange juice.

Got a couple of bottles of rojak sauce to go before we went back.

Posted in Travel by Huai Bin at 11:05 PM Permalink | Comments (17)

July 06, 2002

Sibu Band Competition

There was a band competition going on at Town Square today, so I headed down at 6:15 pm, just before it was due to start. There were six bands competing - The Boys Brigade, Girls Brigade, 3rd Division Girls and Boys Brigade, Tiong Hin Band, Tung Hua Band, and Sacred Heart Bagpipe Band. Tiong Hin's performance was there best, and the loudest too, because they had heaps of bass drums instead of the one or two that the other bands have. Not surprisingly, Tiong Hin won the best drum solo and the first place. Sacred Heart Bagpipe Band took the second place, to the consternation of the crowd, because their performance wasn't as good as the other bands. Boys Brigade took the 3rd place. Now that I think of it, I'm not so sure about the placings, so if it's wrong, please mail me to enlighten me. It seems that the Tiong Hin band always gets first place in Sibu competitions, but they are the best so there is nothing wrong with that. My aggressive photography techniques managed to get me into the heat of the action. I was walking very close to their lineup during their encore and for some reason, I got stuck inside their formation. Heh. Interesting that. Here are some pictures from the competition.

All pictures are clickable to bring up a larger picture.