Monday, September 28, 2009

The Lost Symbol

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Finally, I have conquered the 509 pages Lost Symbol.

The general whole idea of this book is telling that your mind is the most powerful and potent 'tool' you can ever imagine of, and the all mighty essence or the Creator, is always existed within us all the time, waiting for us to discover -- our mind itself.

The plot of the story is quite similar with other Dan Brown's book such as the Angels and Demon and Da Vinci's Code with a lots of surprises and twists. Dan Brown's favourite plot splitting such as two parts of the story is actually going on simultaneously by splitting the flow the story into a bi-chapters flow. Some parts of the book I don't clearly understand what is trying to imply.

Nevertheless it is a good book to read, and ponder on. But, be ware of its addiction.

=)

-N.

Side Stop

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"After spending up to 15 hours a week in various Starbucks over the past few years, Simon said he witnessed very few spontaneous discussions or interactions."
Hmm, certainly Mr Simon has not visited the Starbucks in 32 Square in Malaysia, it was packed with noisy chatters and grouping by merging several small tables especially on weekends.

"Customers line up for lattes for any number of reasons: to treat themselves; to carry a status symbol; to support coffee growers in underdeveloped nations; to relax in a safe haven; or to taste a bit of comfort far away from home, he writes."
I do agree with about treating myself with a Starbucks, but never thought it as symbol of status, has some doubts on the supporting growers. As one of my friend mentioned, "You will never know whether the company has exploited the poor growers in the 3rd world country." Safe haven? Probably just to escape the tropical heat and the heat pollution in the city, as well as escaping the smoke puffers.


"It takes more to help third-world coffee bean growers than buying a fair-trade espresso, he said."
Yup, at least they are putting on the effort, this statement is only valid if you've done substantial contribution towards the 3rd world coffee growers.

Full article, here.

-N.

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Oriental Chinese Cuisine

2 kachings
Last Sunday, I had a mini-reunion dinner with my relatives and family @



The restaurant that usually packed with newly weds --> Oriental Pavilion.


The Appetizer: Prawn Salad & Deep-Fried House Beancurd (the beancurd which taste like fish ball)






Deluxe Monk Jump Over The Wall (yummy soup! but the waiter took the bowl away before I could savior till the last drop)



BBQ Whole Suckling Pig with Butterfly Buns (crunchy skin, I think its taste better than the duck's skin from Duck King)




Braised ‘Soon Hock’ with Yam
& Beancurd Skin in Clay Pot (too much bones on the fish)





Stir Fried Assorted Vegetable with Cuttle Fish



Secret Recipe Cake
There are another 4 more dishes are not captured (due to over mouth watering filtering), hence it is left to the imagination of the readers.

  • Deep-Fried Piglet Meat with Salt & Pepper
  • Braised Egg Noodle Village Style
  •  Chilled Aloe-Vera
  •  Glutinous Rice Dumpling with Black Sesame Paste


Many thanks to my cousin who treated us there, I do enjoy the dishes very much especially the veggies (which both my uncle and aunt happily pass them to me =P) and Happy Birthday!

Stay healthy and happy always! =P

-N.

Monday, September 21, 2009

PSP Update

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In this technological era, you've always encounter the word of 'update', friends will often asked you:

"have you updated to Windows Vista/7?"
"have you update your phone's firmware?"
"are you using the new CS4 now?"
"are playing the latest  ?"
"do know X and Y are breaking up?"


Anyways, let's focus on PSP Update, that I had done last month, its a big jump on the firmware version that is from 3.XX to 5.50, though I didn't managed to update till 6.00 which is the current release.

Full roll of the pix:















PSP's Version of BSOD



Language Selector



Traditional Theme



New Theme

Overall, I like the new theme very much just too bad the additional color options are for PSP-2000 and above (the newer generations of PSP) which can't be supported under my very original (PSP-1000). *sighs* But definitely, will find way to improve.

Another add-on which I hardly use is the PlayStation Store, I don't think I might going to purchase anything from there.. (tsk. Tsk.)

till then. until i've update to firmware 6.

=)

-N.

Sunday, September 20, 2009

Senjyu Sushi

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It has been a hectic week, either I will spending much time in front munching a bunch of e-commerce facts or researching tax policy in the complicated business environment.

All thanks to the booster which my sister treated me last week, or else I'm unsure of my endurance of keeping the consistency of studying till today.

This is my first time to visit this restaurant to have sushi, initially, that was the only menu me and my sister is going to order.



Salmon Palate









Salmon Palate in a top view







Hungry Me







Lots of photo shots are missed as I was too hungry to absorb the nutrients as well as the carbohydrate from the sushi to recharge my body's energy. Yum Yum.

Thank goodness the Raya Holidays are on before my final piece of exam to be conducted.

Hurray!

-N.

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Strawberry Swing

3 kachings
This song, by Coldplay really stuck in my head. I do love the soothing way/feel-good tone when they play the opening of the song.

You can watch it under the featured video. Here's the lyrics of the song:



They were sitting
They were sitting
In the strawberry swing
Every moment was so precious

They were sitting
They were talking
In the strawberry swing
Everybody was for fighting
Wouldn't wanna waste a thing

Cold, cold water
Bring me round
Now my feet
Won't touch the ground
Cold, cold water
What ya say?
It's such
It's such a perfect day
It's such a perfect day

I remember
We were walking up
To strawberry swing
I can't wait 'til the morning
Wouldn't wanna change a thing

People leaving all the time
Inside
A perfectly straight line
Don't you wanna curve away
It's such
It's such a perfect day
It's such a perfect day

Now the sky could be blue
I don't mind
Without you
It's a waste of time

Could be blue
I don't mind
Without you
It's a waste of time

Could be blue
Could be grey
Without you
I'm just miles away

Could be blue
I don't mind
Without you
It's a waste of time
---END---

I feel calm and tranquil after listening to this song. Indeed an essential piece to motivate me to move forward.

Ganbatte to me (as well to you)!

*****

-N.

Sunday, September 13, 2009

Mess in the Thoughts

2 kachings
I'm not sure why.
But, there are many things spiralling in my brain's nucleus that made me couldn't sleep properly.
*****

Wednesday, September 09, 2009

09.09.09

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09.09.09




Or literally in chinese terms, forever.

Hence, with all the hype marriages are going on here and there.

Somewhere in the Europe, the famous furniture company is facing a weird dilemma.

And its big news for them, especially the designer who work over there.

The catastrophe of changing a font type.

-N.

Sunday, September 06, 2009

Feature: Zinmag Primus 2.0

2 kachings

ヒツゼンケイヤク - UPDATED



Many thanks to Jinsona Design who created such a wonderful theme and Alvaris Falcon who converted this theme into a wonderful blogger theme.

I've been searching for a modern theme for my blog for the past few weeks, however, most stylish or cool themes are made for wordpress. They do provide alternative for blogger, but there's always the price to pay for the technical handlings, such as the fiddling with HTML codes and perform many trial and error to do it. As I strongly believe, nothing come in a free package, if you want to learn something, a necessary effort must be place.

To do this in a safe environment as good practice of modifying code, it is always the best you do it a test site where the actual site is not affected by the new theme until it is completely safe to do so. I've created a site, DesigninDevelopment-ßeta (experimental lab) to do the job.

Here are the highlights of the new theme:

i)Slide Feature: Allows you to give your readers a highlight on what's happening or what's new in your blog.

ii) Featured Video: Share any interesting web-video such as YouTube
iii) Tag Cloud: An interesting way to show readers about the labels of your blog as well as the frequency of post associated to your label in an image presentation.
iv) Square-Box: Allows you to place gadgets in that area. Very handle and neat

v) Info Footer: Another good place to add gadgets.

vi) Read more function: I found it handy as some of my blog post are long and I don't wish my readers to spending time scrolling down (I do aware the existence of the mouse view).
BEFORE READ MORE
AFTER READ MORE

Happy reading!

Edit:

-done updating the blog list, if I miss out any please do tell me.
-footer done
-the only not done yet will be top banner (I still need some inspiration to create one, any ideas?)
-N.