Project: Experiment 1

This is my first experiment.

These are not photo manipulated pictures

This is known as augmented reality where the user will need to flash a printed pattern in front of their web cam and the 3d image will appear as if its on top of the paper and that's going to be my proposal for my final project if everything goes well......wish me luck!

Stay tune!

You Are Smiling

I know you are up there smiling down on me on this very special day.

Happy Birthday Bro! I Miss you and I love you more each year!

Hello Penang!

Today, I obediently decide to wear this mask since i am traveling. 

and i look just a ninja! 

one last picture of me cam whoring just as the bus is leaving 

:D

19th August

19th August is indeed a special day - for me.

And now it is even made more special because Yasmin Ahmad's last film, "Chocolate" is release today - just as the clock struck 12am at 0000hour - on my special day.

Some of you might have think this is so lame why-lah this video so special? It is just a Malaysian video nia mah. Last film only what! 

NO! No! No!

Yasmin Ahmad had inspired me in so many ways. Her films, her work and her personality. She is truly someone that I respect and admire a lot, a lot, a lot for her talent and creativity in telling heart touching movies/films and TV ads during the festive season. In fact her contributions to the country's film industry is just beyond recognition. She's someone that I wish I will have the opportunity to meet with one day - but now there isn't anymore since she had just pass away on the 25th of July 2009 at the age of 51.  :( 

I think Chocolate is just BRILLIANT! The message in the video is just so powerful. What I get was - "Parents have a very important role to play to make this country a better place. Parents are the ones that will influence and teach their children to be just like them - racist or not racist"

Anyway, for those of you who have no idea what this film and 15Malaysia project is all about, do check out www.15Malaysia.com. It is a project initiated by Pete Teo (a local artist/singer whose songs i listen to) in collaboration with 15 local filmmakers and many local artist to produce 15 short films for the people of Malaysia in conjunction with the Merdeka (Independence Day) Month. One short movie will be release in every 2 days til 16th of September 2009 and all contents are available legally for download and share. Please show your support to the local industry and I can assure you that the films made are worth your time spend watching them. You will never regret. 

 

Do watch the making of Chocolate too. It is after all Yasmin - the story teller, and Yasmin - the filmmaker's last movie. I am gonna so miss her, her blog, her commercials and her films. 

 

ps: do feel free to express any of your thoughts about the video "Chocolate" or about the legendary Yasmin Ahmad here on my comment page. 

A Dark Chocolate Affair

Do you know dark chocolate turns women on more than a passionate kissing session?

Really?

YEAH! According to research, dark chocolates stimulates endorphin production which gives the feeling of pleasure. So now, we know why guys buy chocolates for girls on Valentine's Day and why girls love to receive them :P

Apart from just that, dark chocolates have many other health benefits compare to milk or white chocolate which taste better and sweeter. Dark chocolates are bitter but they are beneficial to health because:

1. it helps to protect the body from aging caused by free radicals as dark chocolates contains antioxidants ( nearly 8 times the number found in strawberries)
2. it is good for the skin
3. it helps to lower the blood pressure for individuals with high blood pressure
4. it helps to lower cholesterol - reducing the bad cholesterol by up to 10%
5. it contains serotonin which acts as an anti depresent

My favourite of all dark chocolates is of course the Lindt's 85% cocoa Extra Fine Dark Chocolate.

Price: around RM12

And today I found a cheap replacement for my cravings for Lindt's ...

Price: RM4

YES! Seriously they only cost RM4 per bar and they are imported all the way from FRANCE. Seriously this is a good bargain especially with all those health benefits and not to mention they taste good too. Not bad for the price. Normally, you can't even get a bar of dark chocolate at just RM4! Even the local brands are not that cheap. I am very choosy when it comes to chocolates especially those locally produced chocolate (eg: Beryls, Vochelle, Nestle and etc). Even M&M available in Malaysia market (which are made in Thailand) is a crap compare to the ones imported from the states. Yes! I am just that choosy - they just do taste different to me - as according to my taste bud.

Anyway, I bought 2 bars of Carrefour branded dark chocolate today (before trying it) and I regretted that I did not get more :( But this 2 bars are good enough to keep me satisfied and pleasured for a week. :D

Danger of Portable Gas Stove

Few months ago I receive a forwarded email from my cousin about the danger of portable gas stove. If you have no idea, this is how a portable gas stove looks like

In the email, it says that a lady name Kaori, her mother and daughter, like all typical Japanese and Korean family was using the portable gas cooker to cook their meals during a family gathering party when suddenly the gas stove exploded and all three of them got caught on fire and suffered severe burns. Below is the picture of Kaori taken shortly after the incident (according to the email).

 

and below is the image of the malfunction gas stove 

So upon reading the email, my aunt was urging me to discard the portable cooker I was using and buy an induction cooker instead. But that time, my friend, Lollipop loan me her induction cooker (which i mention in my previous post) which i failed to operate it and due to lag of time to buy a new induction cooker, I did not care much, ignore the forwarded email warning and continue to use the portable gas stove for a month. 

Then this month when I came back to KL (after a month of holiday back in my hometown), my housemate happily told me that she just bought one of those portable gas stove when we went out together for groceries shopping. Then the next day, after our grocery shopping trip, she told me that while she was cooking breakfast, her stove suddenly exploded and the stove was on fire. Luckily she was able to remove the butane gas can fast enough to avoid further explosions and praise the Lord that she's safe and there were no injuries. 

So today, we went out to get an induction cooker each. 

my new induction cooker that comes together with a stainless steel pot which i bought at RM169. 

I have no idea how safe this thingy going to be, but hopefully it is safer than the portable gas stove. This fellow has a few presets and the temperature and the time can be set accordingly to my own preference and there is even a PAUSE button! YES, i can pause while cooking halfway! how cool is that? hahhaha

one disadvantage of using this induction cooker is that I can only use with specific cookware - those that are made of stainless steel or those that have a magnetic field base. This is because " An induction cooker works like an electrical transformer: it transfers electrical energy onto the pot using a time-varying magnetic field" (wikipedia). That means, the teflon non-sticky pot that I love so much to fry eggs and pancakes that does not have magnetic response base basically is now useless with this induction cooker. DAMN IT!! That means, I will need to spend time scrubbing the stainless steel pot each time after I cook! *cries*

ps: that's the reason why I couldn't get the two eggs to boil (previous post). The pot I was using does not have any magnetic field and hence the cooker won't even heat up.

A Green Dinner

One of my resolution for this semester is to stay healthy and eat more health benefit food. So for today's dinner, these are my ingredients. 

1 green capsicum

Benefits of capsicum 

1. good for the eyesight and smooth skin
2. helps the body ward off infections
3. has antioxidant properties 
4. reduce cholesterol - prevent strokes and heart attacks
5. improves stomach digestion
6. help to speed up metabolism and help burn more calories - good for losing weight (i don't need this. I need to gain weight and add more body fats because i think curves are sexeyyyy)

18-20 lady fingers

Benefits of lady fingers (aka Okra)

1. superior fiber found in Okra helps to stabilize blood sugar
2. helps prevent and improve constipation
3. help to feed the good bacteria (probiotics) - similar to yoghurt
4. good for summer heat treatment - for those feeling weak, exhausted and suffering from depression
5. help to heal ulcer and keep joints limber
6. ideal vegetable for weight loss (again, i don't need this benefit :P)

I add in some garlic, an egg and oyster sauce. Stir friend it and below is the end results. This is my dish for tonight that i ate together with white rice (which is also home cook!)

I just feel so healthy!

coming soon

'nuf said.

Love Breakfast

Cooking an ideal healthy breakfast meal for myself

I just love pancakes!

Early Birthday Presents

They say as we grow older, we began to hate birthdays because birthday means we are growing a year older. When I was in my teen years, I can't wait to get out of school, grow up and be young adults. And now that I am one, I am starting to feel the dreadful fear of aging. IF only I could turn back time, I would love to go back to those childhood days - the most carefree, worry-less and fun-ness stage in my life. 

Unfortunately, I couldn't turn back the hands of the clock of life so this year, in a few more days, I am officially turning 2 dozen old (ok.. i just reveal my age). I am beginning to feel the fun of birthday celebration fading away BUT i still LURVEEEEE birthdays! Especially when I get to receive presents :D

And this year, I receive early birthdays presents from a few friends of mine and I would love to take this opportunity to thank them on my blog :D

- click on the images to see the tags -

Thank you Calyn and Henrick for the beautiful scarf. 

Thank you WeeKeat and HuiChin for the Liverpool DVD. 

Thank you Bonnie and ShinYi for the lovely butterfly necklace. 

Thank you Dann for the CB card.

And that's not all yet. This year I have special presents delivered all the way from UK!! 

I was so surprise when I saw the card that came all the way from Sheffield. 

(Stella, u send this card from Sheffield right?) *hoping I am not wrong* hehe

Thank you Stella.

and lastly, the FCUK t-shirt from Pau which was delivered personally by her all the way from UK to me at Cyberjaya last night. :D

Thank you Pau.

and Pau, thank you also for the delicious Belgium chocolate truffles!

And there's 2 more presents I know I will be getting. One from mummy & daddy which I will not get until September (which I will definitely update here), and another one from myself which I am still unsure of what to get. Yes, i get myself own birthday presents every year for the past 3 years. It is one way of me rewarding myself and it is also an excuse to lavish the money I earn from my part time job I had over the July holidays. hehe How great is that?

Stay tune :D

Do I have a twin sister?

Earlier, I was having dinner with my friends, happily chatting away when suddenly the waitress approach me and below is the short and rough conversation i had with her.

Waitress: Mana kawan laki? (Where is your boyfriend?)

Me: huh? *looking at her cluelessly*

Waitress: Laki yang selalu datang sama-sama (the guy that's always come here with you)

Me: ... *still looking at her cluelessly and trying to figure out if my understanding of the indonesian language is wrong anot. I look over to my friend to seek for help*

Then my friend told her that she might have gotten the wrong person but she insist that she's right and that I always go to that restaurant with a thin, tall guy who has almost shoulder length hair. 

Maybe I have an identical twin sister out there whom I do not know off, or maybe there's this imaginary boy beside me all the time and only the waitress sees it.... (ok, i should stop talking nonsense. I am scaring myself and i think I should go off to bed now)

Good night!