Jalan Alor to Jalan Kejora

Posted on October 29, 2008 by Adrian

You would have noticed in the papers recently regarding the proposed name change of Jalan Alor to Jalan Kejora (What?). Yes, Jalan Alor’s popular name listed on the internet and widely known amongst locals and foreigners alike has been changed to Jalan Kejora (Translated to English to mean Venus) just so that Bukit Bintang Area has one of the stars/planet within its vacinity.

Most people are wondering why they’re changing something which ain’t broken. My sentiments exactly. But if you think about it deeper, perhaps these people behind the changes have a higher ulterior motive. Imagine how many road signs will need to be changed as a result of the name change. Imagine how many maps will need to be updated. Brochures, books & Other materials with the mention of Jalan Alor will also need to be changed. Someone’s definitely getting rich because of this. Frankly speaking, a pure waste of the tax payer’s money. I definitely hope they re-think this properly and not jump into it just coz some fella wanted to have a constellation under his belt.

Posted in General | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Cooking chez CV – Scrambled Eggs Breakfast

Posted on October 27, 2008 by Adrian

Our previous dish which was the Paella meant that we had leftover mushrooms, tomatoes, onions & etc… What better way of using them and finishing them off the next morning than to cook scrambled eggs? Here are some nice yummy pictures of our Scrambled Eggs dish solely prepared and cooked by May Lee….. ya I was still half blur after sleeping in… Tasted Wonderful… was awake after that with my Instant White Coffee

Meal dated: 26 October 2008

Posted in Food & Cooking, General | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Cooking chez CV – Seafood Paella

Posted on October 27, 2008 by Adrian

This weekend, we had a craving for Paella but we were unable to find any at the Curve… Not that we looked hard but we were told (by our food connoisseur Lim Fong) that they only had it at La Bodega. Feeling adventurous we decided to attempt to cook this dish in our little kitchen. We bought all the necessary ingredients at the Cold Storage. I think the main ingredients cost us about RM30.00 in total (Not too bad eh) but that was because we had to buy a whole pack of small rice, garlics, etc which can be used another day. We got home and downloaded a little recipe from the internet as guidance so that we know what order to put the ingredients in. Anyway why did we cook this dish? We decided we wanted to see how long it took us to cook the dish since we saw them cooking this dish in Kan Cheong Kitchen on NTV8. hahah… needless to say, it took us approximately 1 hour to prepare and cook and there were two of us. I think we would have lost badly if we took part.. but having said that… the end product was superb. We enjoyed the taste and the lovely dish though we got the water level a little on the soggy side. I’m sure we’ll do better during our next attempt… that’s after we buy a nice big pan to cook it in. If you refer to the pictures… you would have noticed we cooked the rice in two separate dishes… one corning ware and the other in a pot. A little hard to judge the water level when using such deep “cooking” dishes.

If anyone wants to try cooking this dish… I would recommend you to try it out. Its really not that difficult to cook and it’s really yummy!

Meal dated: 25 October 2008

Posted in Food & Cooking, General | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

Cooking chez CV – Smoked Oysters on French Loaf

Posted on October 27, 2008 by Adrian

A little bit of tib-bits don’t hurt anyone…. Here we have our breakfast and tea time snack. We opened up a can of smoked oysters and sliced up our French  loaf bought from Atria’s supermarket. We toasted the French loaf slices and buttered them and shoved them into our little toaster over (compliments of Richard & Sharmaine.. thanks guys). Once nicely yellowed, we took it out and spreaded the smoked oysters onto the slices… added salt, pepper, a little lemon and some tobasco sauce….. yummy!

Meal dated: 19 October 2008

Posted in Food & Cooking, General | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Cooking chez CV – Spaghetti Bolognaise

Posted on October 27, 2008 by Adrian

First main course dish to come out of our Changkat View kitchen would be our special Spaghetti Bolognaise (with Lamb meet). Oh yes, we bought the wrong kind of meat from Cold Storage but the taste was still just as good as beef. We also prepared some Fresh Salads and Sautee Mushrooms to accompany our Spaghetti. Needless to say, we were stuffed to the brim. That’s quite a bit of food for just the two of us. The home made vinegarette dressing prepared by May Lee ensured we finished all the salad.

Meal dated: 11 October 2008

Posted in Food & Cooking, General | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Using Wordbook to update blog post in Facebook

Posted on October 22, 2008 by Adrian

If all is working properly, this post should show up on my Facebook Wall. Somehow the new layout and format of Facebook seems to be breaking apps left right and center. Wordbook has not been spared. Hopefully this new setting of moving the Wordbook Box to my Wall will solve the problem of posts not appearing on my Page’s Feed.

Fingers… crossed….

Posted in General | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Addicted to Online Life?

Posted on October 22, 2008 by Adrian

Are you an internet junkie? Since you’re reading this post of mine, I would think you’re 99% confirmed junkie. Fear not though of this accusation as majority of the people online these days are addicted to the internet. Most people can’t live without logging in daily. Others need to check their emails constantly. Then there are others who feel right only when they have their crackberry by their sides. Even if you do not belong to any of the groups mentioned above, I’m sure you have a facebook account which you can’t stay away from. Apart from checking out what your friends are doing via facebook instead of talking to them directly, most people feel a need to update their profiles and upload new pictures everyday as though its some kind of competition of sorts. Afterall.. who likes a boring profile…. or boring blog (like this one?). So yeah… I can be considered an internet junkie and addict myself. Even if I tried avoiding such activities, I am unable to avoid it fully as being on the internet, understanding how it works are all part and parcel of my full time job!

Anyway I gotta stop for dinner now… Am trying to tear myself away from the PC before it chews my life away. Call me out for a coffee if you’ve got the time… then again.. you can always send me a coffee through facebook if you’re the lazy type like me :)

Posted in General | Tagged | 1 Comment

Samsung Omnia i900

Posted on October 13, 2008 by Adrian

It’s been a while since I’ve updated this blog… but then again it has also been a while since I bought myself a new phone. Well actually, it has only been 1 year since my last phone purchase, a Nokia 6300 but what was more important in shaping my decision to get a new phone was the fact that my PDA (HP iPAX rx3715) was due for a change after having served me for many years.

After having had 3 weeks to play with my new Samsung Omnia i900, I’m glad to report back that its money worth spending even though I paid a hefty RM2800 for my unit. This does not include the new bluetooth headset I just purchased since my Ericsson one gives up on me after receiving/making 1 call after each charge. I also just purchased myself a cool car handsfree kit that helps me hold my Omnia when I’m driving and navigating with the cool GPS.

I’m sure a few of you would be wondering why I said the purchase was worth it? Well… since I consider myself as one of those “power” users instead of a “basic” user, I think the purchase was worth it. If you’re a basic user then I don’t think this phone is for you. Why? Coz apart from the Chic Factor, you’ll be under utilising a lot of the phone’s powerful features. For starters, I currently use the phone for the following tasks:

  • As a Phone (Duh)
  • As a Modem (Connected to Maxis 3G – HSDPA) for true internet mobility
  • As a PDA – Organiser (Calendar, Tasks, Notes & etc)
  • As a truly mobile platform for retrieval of Emails, SMS, & Immediate Notifications
  • As a tool to avoid boredom (yeah games & puzzles)
  • As a tool to stay connected? Oh yeah I mentioned that… to surf facebook & avantgo & various news sites
  • As a GPS Navigator to help me get to where I want to be quickly without wasting petrol
  • As a camera to take nice pictures and videos as and when needed
  • As a Pen Drive (Storage)
  • As a Media Player (Songs & PodCasts)
  • A 3G Video Calling Phone… (No I haven’t used this yet… need to try it out with someone who has a 3G capable phone)

As can be seen, I am fully utilising and enjoying this phone. Basically, for RM2800, I got myself a Phone, a PDA, a Camera and a GPS device. If you add all of them up… I’m sure the cost will be around there if not more. Plus having all these features in one cool looking devide is just the way to go.

Why Samsung Onmia ? Well, first of all I didn’t hessitate to try out Samsung although I’ve never tried Samsungs before. But since I did have my HP PDA which utilises Windows Mobile, I was more or less already comfortable with the operating system. Learning how to use the unit took only a fraction of the time. What took the most time was the configuration and messing around with the system. yeah 3 weeks in total… and still messing…

Here’s a list of programs which I have installed onto my device which I strongly recommend to owners of the Omnia (listed not in any particular order of preference) :

  1. S2U2 (Slide2Unlock2) – http://slide-2-unlock.en.softonic.com/pocketpc
  2. Microsoft Voice Command – http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/en-us/downloads/microsoft/about-voice-command.mspx
  3. SPB Mobile Shell – http://www.spbsoftwarehouse.com/products/mobileshell/?en
  4. SPB Time – http://www.spbsoftwarehouse.com/products/time/?en
  5. fring – http://www.fring.com/
  6. Garmin Mobile TX (GPS Software) with Malsingmaps – http://www.garmin.com & http://www.malsingmaps.com / http://www.malfreemaps.com
  7. Resco Keyboard PRO v5.11  – http://resco.net/pocketpc/keyboard/default.asp (Helps speed up data entry… making it easier to type in stuff without using the stylus)
  8. WMWifiRouter – http://www.wmwifirouter.com

Other Programs which I have installed onto my unit:

  1. SPB Pocket Plus – http://www.spbsoftwarehouse.com/products/pocketplus/?en
  2. SPB Traveler – http://www.spbsoftwarehouse.com/products/traveler/?en
  3. SPB Pocket PC Tips & Tricks – http://www.spbsoftwarehouse.com/products/tipsandtricks/?en
  4. Games – SPB Games – Air Islands, Arkaball, Balltracker, Brain Evolution, Bubbles, Matches, Sudoku, Xonix & etc

I’m not writing a review on the unit here but basically just skimming on the surface as to what the Omnia can do. Do you think this phone suites you? For an indepth review on the Omnia, check it out at http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_i900_omnia-review-267.php

 

 

Omnia connected via USB Notebook Online via Omnia Internet Sharing

Posted in Gadgets, General, Mobile Entries | Tagged , , | 18 Comments

ISA – a political tool prone to abuse

Posted on September 14, 2008 by Adrian

The happenings during this past weekend shows how the ISA can be used as a political tool to control and put fear into people to stop them from “reporting” or “creating havoc” in Malaysia. I totally agree with Datuk Zaid Ibrahim when he mentioned that the ISA should be reserved strictly for terrorists rather than normal civilians. Surely people should be allowed to have free speech but when is too much really too much? Up to 3 arrests were made within the last few days and it is reported in the newspapers that many more might be in line to come as believed by Datuk Anwar Ibrahim.

While RPK and Therasa Kok is still held under ISA, Ms. Tan was released yesterday. The apparant reason provided by our Home Minister was that she was arrested in best interest of her security. Where in the world do people get arrested for their own safety? It just sounds bloody rediculous that someone should be arrested under ISA just because his/her life is under threat. Imagine this… if I threaten someone’s life, I won’t be put behind bars but the person who’s threatened would get locked up under ISA. Oh what a wonderful world!

If anything is clear is that the power of ISA has been and is used as a political tool to control people rather than to instill safely for the nation. Surely this mentality must change. What’s really insulting is that they are taking us as idiots with all these silly excuses and reasoning. E’nuf said, as I’ve mentioned before, politics suck and so do those who play the dirty game.

Posted in General | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Keeping Fit with Wii Fit

Posted on September 11, 2008 by Adrian

Wii Fit BoxAdded to my Nintendo Wii collection is my latest Wii Fit. I must say that although the board costs a whopping RM500+ for the US version and RM300+ for the Japanese version (it ain’t cheap!), I did have quite a lot of fun with it so far. If you actually calculate the costs of paying for the Wii Fit and paying for GYM fees, I’d say this is a lot more worth it. Of course for those of you who are serious in your workouts, nothing beats a proper gym setup.

Anyway, having said that, the Wii Fit has been keeping me, my parents as well as my nephews busy “working” out. My favourite part of the program must be the YOGA exercises. It does help with your posture and if you’re serious about the exercise routines, I’m sure this is a good health product to own. It’s fun too!

Basically this Wii Fit is a board that hooks up wirelessly to your Nintendo Wii. It will detect your balance points (I believe there are 4 zones/quadrants) and it also tells you your weight. Take it as a high tech weighing scale. It can calculate your BMI and center of balance and with that it allows you the ability to basically control movements by leaning side to side and front to back like a human joystick and the “character” on screen will do the same. So with that, you can play balance games (heading soccer balls, skiing down slopes, snowboarding, moving balls into holes, & etc) as well as do exercises like Balance (Yoga), Strength (Pushups), Hoola hooping, Boxing, Step Aerobics & etc.

Wii Fit

 If you own a Wii and you haven’t tried it out yet, I highly recommend it to you! Go for a demo somewhere and I’m sure you’ll be hooked. It definitely brings interaction to the next level. The only problem with the board is that… like all games… it tends to collect dust after a while. Then again, if you’re motivated enough and keep a strict routine, I’m sure it’ll help you keep fit and have better posture in the long run. It definitely gets you off your A** for sure! Overall a very good product and idea from the inventors.

For more official information, please proceed to http://www.nintendo.com/wiifit/

Posted in Gadgets, General, Nintendo Wii | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment